|
Depleted
consciousness
By Dr. Radmila
Nakarada,
Senior scholar, Institute for European Studies, IES,
Belgrade, Yugoslavia
and TFF associate
&
Professor Miroslav Petulic, Faculty
of Law, Belgrade University
The death of KFOR soldiers suspected to be caused
by the radiation from depleted uranium used by NATO in
bombing Kosovo and Serbia, phenomenon wrongly designated
as the "Balkan syndrome", provoked alarm across Europe.
Although important, this first wave of public concern
remains superficial. It evades fundamental issues. It is
the syndrome of global elite's folly.
1. HUMANITARIAN
URANIUM
One of the greatest absurdities marking the end of the
millennium, a paradigm of irrational surplus of
destruction, is the use of depleted uranium as an
instrument of humanitarian intervention (i.e. prevention
of humanitarian catastrophe). On the one side of that
morbid formula we find the sublime rhetoric: NATO
intervention was celebrated as an ethical war, an action
stemming out of the deepest respect for human rights and
justice. (Vaclav Havel) Sovereignty was rightly
subordinated to this higher principle that places the
protection of life and freedom of the citizens,
minorities above the authority of a nation-state.
(Goldhagen). On the other side, and in the name of these
superior principles of civilisation, ten deadly tons of
depleted uranium has been thrown on the territory of
Yugoslavia. The largest amount was thrown on the
territory of Kosovo inhabited primarily by the Albanians,
the very group whose human rights, freedom and protection
of life were the reason the intervention was supposedly
undertaken. This deadly operation was performed although
the Hiroshima experience paradigmatically demonstrated
the link between uranium and malign illnesses. The
gruesome link between humanitarian concerns and depleted
uranium was established in spite of the well known fact
that the 300 tons of depleted uranium thrown in Iraq
resulted in the "strange" illness of a number of US
soldiers, while in Iraq itself 250,000 civilians have
been contaminated and malign illnesses have increased by
30%. After the Gulf war, the repetition of the same drama
occurred in Bosnia leading to the registered increase of
leukaemia and cancer. The combination of humanitarian
rhetoric and pretended ignorance, amnesia well serves the
need to get rid of the nuclear waste, to perform an
experiment in vivo.
2. LACK OF
TRANSPARENCY
Although the dangerous weapon may well be the cause of
irreversible contamination of the soil, water and food,
the cause of delayed deaths of innocent civilians, not
even an elementary degree of transparency is secured,
allowing possible actions to lessen the ill effects.
Instead of answering the fateful question why was a
weapon with such destructive irreversible potential used
by the mightiest army of world against a feeble enemy,
and what are its real effects - a labyrinth of lies is
created. The issue is presented as a complicated
controversy, the ill effects are denied, it is asserted
with authority that supposedly no correlation can be
established between the uranium bombs and malign
illnesses. Instead of answers, cynical comments are
offered - all heavy metals are damaging, others even more
than depleted uranium and NATO is not a scientific
institution.
If no correlation exists, then it is unclear, why was
a flyer passed out to NATO soldiers prior to the bombing
warning that depleted uranium was toxic, why the precise
data on the locations of the bombing was not readily
disclosed by NATO? Why did President Clinton prevent a
thorough investigation by the UN of the effects of
bombing? And there is yet another why. Why are the
European allies, participants in the NATO decision-making
and the bombing, now simulating to have been
"uninformed", "misinformed"? Why are they in their
belated concern for the wellbeing of KFOR soldiers now
demanding the "truth", evading their previous moral and
legal responsibility?
Preserving the false controversy, the uncertainty of
correlation, secures the future use of depleted uranium.
However, from the standpoint of proclaimed humanitarian
concerns and high ethical standards even the slightest
doubt concerning such weapons would be sufficient to
suspend, outlaw its use. This should become a universal
principle in a "world risk society" where the destructive
side of technological development is increasing.
3. INEQUALITY IN
SUFFERING
The alarm in European countries due to the death of
KFOR soldiers seems like a first sign of concern for the
destructive consequences of the post-modern war. However,
these concerns are by and large limited to the fate of
their own soldiers and not to the local population which
was the primary target and victim. The fate of local
victims, as in the case of Iraq, was not powerful or
meaningful enough to provoke serious questions and
concerns, storms of protest. Local victims have been time
and time again, explicitly or implicitly dismissed as
irrelevant collateral damage; human beings are simply
turned into living atomic waste. The character of the
present uproar, is a testimony of different value placed
on human life, of racist blemishes.
4. SYNDROME OF
FOLLY
The intervention as a whole demonstrates two dramatic
facts:
a. That the global, "enlightened" elites are prepared
to cause under the banner of highest moral principles
irreversible damage, definitely degrade the living
conditions of citizens and those not yet born in
countries which are the object of their intervention, and
even expose segments of own population (soldiers) to
deadly dangers.
b. There is no law, no court, social forces, media,
public, and no consciousness that can prevent such
irrational destruction and hold accountable the
perpetrators. These two facts testify that under the
present conditions "humanitarian interventionism"
produces globalisation with an inhuman face.
In short, the death of KFOR soldiers, and countless
anonymous citizens in Iraq, Bosnia, and in the future of
Kosovo and Serbia is not the consequences of Balkan or
Gulf syndrome, but the syndrome of the global elite's
folly.
©
TFF 2001
Tell a friend about this article
Send to:
From:
Message and your name
|