The Pancevo oil refinery near Belgrade burning after NATO bombings in April 1999.
Targeted sites with potential negative environmental impacts. |
Air, soil and water were
severely polluted by NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia last spring, raising fears of long-term
effects on health
 The Atlantic
Alliance officially recognized on March 21, 2000 that it used depleted uranium ammunition
in shells in Yugoslavia during the previous year’s war. Kosovo and southern Serbia
bore the brunt of these radioactive weapons, used for the first time during the Gulf
War in 1991. They release clouds of uranium dust that contaminate water and the food
chain. Particles enter the human body through inhalation or ingestion, remaining
there from one to three years, increasing the risk of sterility, birth defects and
cancer tenfold.
From March 24 to June 10, 1999, NATO warplanes flying close to 31,000 sorties bombed
the entire Yugoslav Federation (Serbia, Montenegro, Voivodina, Kosovo). Thousands
of missiles were fired, some of which landed in neighbouring Bulgaria and Macedonia.
Furthermore, many pilots flying back to their bases dropped bombs into the Adriatic
Sea off the Croat, Slovene and Italian coasts. According to NATO sources, 1,600 cluster
bombs, which are banned by the Geneva Convention of 10 October 1980, were dropped,
releasing 200,000 bomblets. Thousands have not yet exploded, becoming as dangerous
as antipersonnel mines. They have already killed nearly 200 Kosovars.
A year after the strikes, the real scale of the environmental damage has not been
clearly established. According to the joint UN Balkans Task Force (BTF)1, pollution
has severely affected four areas: Pancevo (20 km from Belgrade), Novi Sad (the capital
of Voivodina), Kragujevac (southern Serbia) and Bor (near the border with Bulgaria).
The Pancevo petrochemical complex was bombed approximately ten times. A press release
by the mayor, Srdjan Mirkovic, published in autumn 1999 in the Yugoslav review Petroleum
Technology Quarterly, announced that the “direct strike on the depot containing 1,500
tonnes of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) caused a fire that burned eight hours and
destroyed approximately 800 tonnes” of that carcinogenic substance. “When it burns,”
says a Belgrade doctor, “it gives off, among other things, chlorhydric acid, which
causes chronic bronchitis, dermatitis and gastritis; as well as dioxin, regarded
as the world’s most toxic organic pollutant; and possibly phosgene, which was once
used in chemical warfare.”
Mercury
enters the food chain
Ammonia
depots used to make fertilizer were also bombed. Had they not been emptied beforehand
as a precaution, their explosion would have killed any person within a 10-kilometre
radius, as direct exposure to ammonia is lethal to humans. The worst was avoided,
but the ammonia was released into the Danube, where wildlife was killed 30 kilometres
downstream. In addition, “over 1,000 tons of ethylene dichloride and a few thousand
tonnes of natrium hydroxide” were leaked into the Danube, according to a report by
the Regional Environment Centre for Central and Eastern Europe (REC). Since then,
fishing has been abandoned and crop irrigation has become problematic. The river’s
sandy bed has trapped heavy metals, which are toxic even in small concentrations,
for dozens of years. In addition to Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria are affected.
“The soil has been contaminated by approximately 100 tonnes of mercury,” says Pancevo’s
mayor. Mercury is an extremely toxic metal that enters the food chain and builds
up in the human body, causing irreversible organ damage. The BTF however found that
eight tonnes of the substance had leaked from the petrochemical plant and reported
that “the air strikes on the oil refinery caused an estimated 80,000 tonnes of oil
and oil products to burn. This would have released noxious substances into the air.”
According to Belgrade’s Public Health Institute, VCM concentrations in the air were
10,600 times above the tolerated norm near the Pancevo petrochemical plant. At the
time, the wind was blowing from the west, sending the harmful fumes into Romania
and Hungary as well.
Black
spring and acid rain
The
other three “ecological hotspots” suffered a similar fate. The Novi Sad oil refinery
was bombed a dozen times between June 5 and 9. Approximately 73,000 tonnes of crude
oil and derivative products burned or leaked into pipes. Polluted underground water
seeped into wells near the refinery, depriving the local population of drinking water.
The strikes against the Zastava automobile factory in Kragujevac “reportedly caused
extensive environmental pollution, with damage to soil, water and air,” reports the
BTF, which detected high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Banned in the
mid-1980s because they are so toxic, these substances can still be found in old electrical
facilities. Very persistent, they bind with sediments in rivers and streams and degrade
only after many years.
PCB contamination and severe air pollution caused by emissions of sulphur dioxide
gas (which is especially hazardous for asthmatics) were reported in Bor. Bombings
of copper mines, the power plant and the hydrocarbon fuel depot near Bor also affected
nearby Bulgaria. The Sofia newspaper 24 Hours reported that birds fell dead out of
the sky and the cloud spread, causing acid rain. At the same time, farmers in Kosovo
witnessed trees losing their leaves in the middle of spring.
The entire food chain was affected, from livestock fodder–and, consequently, meat
and milk–to fruits and vegetables intended for consumers. Chronic bronchitis, asthma,
eczema, diarrhoea and thyroid disorders have already been detected, but Serbia’s
officials would rather cover up the facts. What seems clear is that the most serious
health problems are yet to come.
1. The
Kosovo Conflict. Consequences for the Environment and Human Settlements, UNEP-UNCHS,
1999.
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