UN
Investigates Israel's
'Uranium Weapons'
By Eric Silver
31 October, 2006
The Independent
The
United Nations Environment Programme is investigating allegations, first
published in The Independent, that Israel may have used
uranium-based weapons during this summer's war in Lebanon. Twenty UN
experts, working with Lebanese environmentalists, have spent two weeks
assessing various samples. They are planning to report their findings
in December.
Butros al-Harb, Unep's Middle
East director, told a Lebanese radio interviewer at the weekend: "If
uranium was used, we will find out and we will announce it. We cannot
confirm anything now, but we will wait for results."
Yesterday Israel issued its
most explicit denial yet. Major Avital Leibovitz, a spokeswoman for
the Israel Defence Forces, said: "We deny using any weapons containing
uranium." One official suggested that if the environmentalists
had indeed found traces of uranium, they would have to look for a different
explanation.
Chris Busby, the scientific
secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, based in Brussels,
reported last week that two soil samples thrown up by Israeli bombs
in the south Lebanese villages of Khiam and At Tiri, centres of fierce
fighting between Israel and Hizbollah, showed "elevated radiation
signatures". Dr Busby warned that particles from the explosions
were long-lived in the environment and could be inhaled into the lungs,
causing "significant" health effects on civilians.
The Harwell laboratory for
mass spectrometry in Oxfordshire confirmed the concentration of uranium
isotopes in the samples, but the European experts were puzzled about
what weapons Israel might have been using and why. Chris Bellamy, a
professor of military science and doctrine at Cranfield University,
said the initial tests "present an enigma". But he dismissed
speculation that Israel was using a "dirty bomb" or micro-yield
nuclear weapon.
Government officials said
Israel had received no approaches from either the Unep or the European
committee. Mark Regev, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: "If
someone comes with a complaint, comes with a charge, we will review
it." But he protested that Israel was being singled out when nobody
had accused it of deploying weapons banned under international law or
practice. "The sort of munitions we used in the Lebanon campaign,"
he said, "were almost identical to the sort of weaponry used in
conflicts over the past decade by Nato countries, by Western countries.
Sometimes there's a feeling that the Jewish state is being singled out
for special treatment. One really has to ask why it is that the finger
is being pointed at Israel."
Palestinian officials have
frequently accused the IDF of firing shells tipped with depleted uranium,
a hard metal byproduct of uranium enrichment, in the Gaza Strip. But
Israel has denied it and no conclusive evidence has been produced.
* Israel's Attorney General,
Menachem Mazuz, called for President Moshe Katzav to stand down for
the duration of any judicial proceedings after police recommended indicting
him for alleged sexual offences against women employees.
© 2006 Independent News
and Media Limited
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