The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
[Main archive index/search] [List information] [Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Homepage]
First a short Guardian article from 2nd December 1998, followed by a piece about the D.U. conference going on in Iraq (both articles involve the same person...). Finally, at the end I've included an Independent article, 'Brother of leading Iraqi dissident found dead', with more about INDICT (mentioned in previous email by Robin Cook). Sorry to send so much!... -------------------------- 'MoD raid' on Gulf veterans Two Gulf War Veterans' homes were raided yesterday by Ministry of Defence police searching for leaked documents alleged to have shown they had tested the soldiers for depleted uranium, it was claimed. The National Gulf War Veterans and Families Association said Ray Bristow's home in Hull and Andy Honer's home in Essex were raided in an attempt to confiscate documents apparently showing the MoD is investigating depleted uranium in British Gulf War veter ans. Mr Bristow, 40, is currently in Baghdad attending a conference on depleted uranium with two American specialists on radiation. He is trying to find out why he and his colleages are ill. To date, 258 Gulf War veterans have died since the war and 3,000 are ill. --------------------------- Wednesday December 2, 2:56 PM Iraq says U.S., Britain left deadly battle legacy By Dominic Evans BAGHDAD, Dec 2 - Iraq accused Western powers on Wednesday of inflicting a creeping health and environmental disaster in its southern provinces by firing radioactive munitions in the 1991 Gulf War. Opening a conference to highlight the effects of depleted uranium ammunition used by the United States and Britain, officials said cancer cases had soared in parts of south Iraq and radiation levels were unusually high. "Irreparable damage has hit the Iraqi people and environment which gives Iraq the legitimate right to compensation," Ministry of Health Under Secretary Shawki Murcus said. Murcus listed a catalogue of ailments including congenital defects, muscle disorders, fatigue and cancer cases, and said the two-day meeting would show they were caused by the depleted uranium used in the 1991 fighting. "We have established a link between depleted uranium and these cases," Murcus said. The conference brought together Iraqi researchers, foreign scientists and doctors. American and British war veterans also returned to the country they fought seven years ago, seeking answers to what they said were their own unexplained ailments. Iraqi officials say allied forces estimated they had used 300 tonnes of depleted uranium munitions against Iraqi forces, but that other researchers put the figure at 700 to 800 tonnes. Sami al-Araji, who serves on a government committee studying the aftermath of the 1991 war, said air, soil and water samples taken near Iraq's border with Kuwait showed abnormally high levels of radiation. Jawad al-Ali, a cancer doctor in Iraq's southern city of Basra, told Reuters his hospital had registered 400 new cases this year, including a high proportion of lymphomas and leukemias he linked to radiation, compared to 116 in 1988. Cancer deaths jumped to 303 last year from 34 in 1988, he said. With its health services devastated by eight years of sanctions imposed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq says it cannot afford expensive cancer drugs to treat the afflicted let alone the huge cost of decontaminating affected areas -- already some of the poorest and worst-hit by the sanctions. It has tried for years to pin the blame for the health crisis in the south on the use of depleted uranium (DU), a dense metal used to make armour-piercing projectiles. DU emits less radiation than naturally occurring uranium but retains radioactive properties. Britain has said DU rounds can produce small amounts of radioactive and toxic particles on impact, but it is unlikely that anyone outside the target area would be affected. But Ray Bristow, who served in the Gulf War as a British medical operations technician well behind battle lines, said he was tested positive for depleted uranium last month. "I didn't think for one minute I'd be affected because I wasn't in the battlefield," Bristow told reporters. "I was exposed to DU at levels 100 times normal levels. It makes me wonder what happened to those on the front line." Colin Purcell-Lee, who served in the same medical unit as Bristow, said Britain was trying to suppress information about depleted uranium because of fears it would be held liable for illnesses suffered by soldiers on both sides. "It is a grotesque irony that we had to come here to get information that our own government is not prepared to give us," he said. Murcus said symptoms reported by some American and British veterans -- which include memory loss, muscle pain, leukemia, kidney and thyroid problems -- were similar to those afflicting Iraqi soldiers. The Western participants to the conference said they hoped that by comparing notes, they could shed light on their cases. "I came here today to hear what you found in your research, to compare...and hopefully we can get some answers," said Carol Picou, a 42-year-old former U.S. military nurse. ------------- from The Independent: Brother of leading Iraqi dissident found dead By Richard Norton-Taylor Wednesday December 2, 1998 The brother of the leader of an Iraqi opposition group backed by the CIA and MI6 has been found dead in the Jordanian capital Amman, having apparently committed suicide. But his death prompted speculation that he had been killed by agents of Saddam Hussein. Emad Alawi, aged 55, the brother of Ayad Alawi who heads the Iraqi National Accord (INA), was found dead on Saturday with a gunshot wound to the head outside his Amman flat. Jordanian security services were quoted yesterday as saying there was evidence of suicide. Emad Alawi, a businessman who left Iraq in 1995, was believed to have financial problems. Baghdad is understood to have confiscated his assets as a punishment for his brother's defection. "Early indications are that it was sucide but we cannot confirm or deny it," a spokesman for the INA in London said yesterday. He said although Alawi was not active in the resistance movement, being related to a leader could have made him a target. The London-based Al-Hayat newspaper yesterday quoted 'independent sources' in Jordan as saying he had died in a way suggesting he was killed by agents on behalf of the Iraqi government. In his first British newspaper interview, Ayad Alawi - who survived an assassination attempt in London in 1978 - told the Guardian last month: 'We understand the power structure in Iraq, and our policy is to break it down so that Saddam will crack.' While Western intelligence agencies - including MI6 - value the INA's networks, its critics say the group is penetrated by Iraqi agents. A coup attempt by the INA in 1996 was foiled. In London yesterday, promoters of Indict, a United States-funded campaign to place President Saddam and 12 of his associates on trial, said they believed the sudden decision by Barzan al-Tikriti, the Iraqi dictator's half-brother, to return to Iraq was prompted by fear of arrest. Mr Barzan recently left his post as Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. Ann Clywd, the Labour MP and chairperson on Indict, said: "We believe it is no coincidence that Barzan chose to return to Iraq for the first time in almost nine years, despite his very public feud with Saddam's murderous son, Uday, at just the time that Indict had commenced proceedings against him." Indict has recently been given $3 million (£1.8 million) by the US Congress. Its press conference yesterday was attended by Ahmed Chalabi, president of the Iraqi National Congress, the most prominent opposition group and rival to the INA. Dr Chalabi has just returned from Tehran. Ms Clwyd said: "As head of Iraqi intelligence, [Barzan] was directly responsible for widespread acts of murder, torture, disappearances, extra-judicial executions, arbitrary detention and rape." She said the campaign had been encouraged by the law lords' ruling last week that the former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet did not have immunity from extradition. Apart from President Saddam and his sons Uday and Qusay, Indict's list includes Vice-President Taha Yasin Ramadan and the deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz. The London-based Iraqi Communist Party said yesterday that a general named Sami, who it said was a senior officer of protocol in the presidential palace, had been executed on November 19. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html