UN Tests Shows Kosovo Sites Radioactive-Report

BERLIN (Reuters) - Tests conducted by the United Nations Environmental Program on sites in Kosovo struck by NATO ammunition with depleted uranium have found evidence of significant radioactivity, a German newspaper said on Friday.

Germany's TAZ daily said the UNEP tests had found that eight of 11 sites a U.N. team had tested in November were in part "considerably contaminated.''

Uranium dust as well as unexploded munitions had been discovered, the paper said in an advance release of a story due for publication on Saturday. The paper said it had obtained a copy of an interim UNEP report dated December 29, 2000.

NATO has come under increasing pressure from several European governments over claims that depleted uranium used in NATO weapons had caused death or illness among Balkan peacekeepers, dubbed "Balkans Syndrome.''

The condition came under the spotlight after reports that six Italian soldiers who served in the former Yugoslavia had developed leukemia and died after exposure to spent ammunition. A U.N. report in May warned that much of Kosovo's water could be so contaminated as to be unfit to drink, and that a clean-up of the province could cost billions of dollars. It warned U.N. staff not to approach any target which might have been hit by a depleted uranium weapon.

U.S. attack jets fired some 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition against Serbian targets during NATO's 1999 campaign to drive the Yugoslav army out of Kosovo. Some 10,000 rounds were also fired in neighboring Bosnia in 1994-5.

The 11 sites the UNEP tested were among 112 in Kosovo hit by weapons containing depleted uranium according to a NATO map. The UNEP considers that the 11 sites tested are representative of all 112 and wants them all cordoned off, the paper said.

The UNEP report also recommended that health checks should be carried out at least on residents of the immediate area, the paper said.

Depleted uranium is used in the tips of missiles, shells and bullets to increase their ability to penetrate armor and can be pulverized on impact into a toxic radioactive dust, defense experts say.

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