Talking about the report at a press conference on April 21,General Slobodan Petkovic of the Yugoslav defence ministry told that farm lands in the vicinity of human settlements in several locations in Sothern Serbia (outside Kosovo) and in one peninsula in the tiny Yugoslav Republic Montenegro were highly contaminated by depleted Uranium -238 (U 238).

According to the Report NATO used depleted Uranium in seven locations in Serbia and in one location in Montenegro. According to the General analysis of the samples of soil from the
farm lands in these sites showed very high level of contamination with specific activity of U-238 upto 236.000 Bq per kilogram of soil while according to the Nuclear Science Institute "Vinci" in Belgrade the maximum acceptable is 200 Bq/kg. Some of the areas have been sealed off ,the General said.He said decontamination of these sites would be very difficult and need lot of money.

He appealed for International assistance.

The Yugoslav authorities have expressed concern about the possible catastrophic
consequences of the Uranium on the health of the population, particularly of the
vulnerable group -elederly, sick and the children.

There has been no report of evacuation of the population from the settlements
which are in the vicinity of the contaminated farm lands.

Yugoslav authorities said they could not carry out any analysis of contamination in Kosovo where NATO used U-238 in about 100 locations where the level of contamination in Kosovo was likely to be much higher than in
other areas.

NATO has confirmed to the United Nations use of depleted Uranium(DU) during the Kosovo conflict.

Information on use of DU sent to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan from NATO Secretary -General Lord Robertson reportedly stated that approximately 31.000 rounds of DU ammunition were used in operation Allied Force during approximately 100 missions of the A-10 aircraft’s throughout Kosovo.

The Report also gave an analysis of the other effects of NATO bombing on environment.

According to Mrs Nada Sljapic the effects on the environment could be considered catastrophic in certain regions, especially in industrial zones and chemical facilities with very toxic substances such as vinyl chloride monomer, although in general the effects could not be marked as catastrophic for the country as a whole.
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