Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-17-Speech-3-146"
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"en.20010117.4.3-146"2
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"Mr President, on behalf of my group I would like to welcome the compromise resolution which we have just passed. A strong and united voice calling unequivocally for a moratorium on the use of depleted uranium weapons is a positive step forward, even if it does not go as far as we would have liked. The Greens and EFA were calling for a complete ban on the production, export and use of depleted uranium weapons and we believe that we have a legal as well as a moral basis for doing so. The UN Convention of October 1980 banned the use of certain indiscriminate weapons; the 1996 resolution of the Sub-Commission on Human Rights also explicitly condemned depleted uranium weapons because of their non-discriminatory character. The use of these weapons has already, therefore, been condemned in international law.
We would also have been more reassured if the resolution had included our concerns about the methodology which is being used to assess the risks of depleted uranium. A growing number of scientists are now challenging the conventional methodology, which is based on doses of external radioactive rays rather than internally ingested or inhaled particles.
Research shows that deaths from leukaemia resulting from the Chernobyl explosion have been one hundred times more than predicted by the relevant radiological protection boards, which have based their predictions on external rays. The enormity of this error conceals the fact that even very low doses of radiation, like that from depleted uranium, can in fact have devastating health impacts. It is therefore essential that we get this methodology right or else all the tests and screening in the world will be simply worthless.
Finally, I would like to refer to the report on the front page of last week's
which proclaims that the new EU rapid reaction force is apparently planning to use depleted uranium weapons. Now remember this is a humanitarian force, which is planning to use a weapon that will leave an enormous legacy of cancers among the very civilians it is supposed to be there to protect. This is nothing short of scandalous and must be overturned."@en1
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"Voice"1
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