BALKANS SYNDROME: HAGUE COURT CONSIDERS PROSECUTING NATO FOR WAR CRIMES

The Swiss Attorney-General for the International Penal Court of the Hague, Carla del Ponte, is considering a measure which would be humiliating for NATO – to try this organisation in the court to which it brings its enemies to be humiliated. This time, if Carla del Ponte decides there is a case against NATO, it will be very much a case of the prosecutor turning defendant. Carla del Ponte declared that she is beginning an investigation into the case against NATO over the so-called Balkans Syndrome. This syndrome refers to the illness suffered by NATO soldiers – and lately the first civilian cases – who operated or lived in areas where depleted uranium (DU) had been used. Carla del Ponte stated that article 55 of the Protocol of the Geneva Convention of 1949 would cover any illegal use of DU weapons, “if one can demonstrate the connection between bombing with weapons containing depleted uranium and the serious spate of illnesses which have been affecting war veterans”.

TIMOTHY BANCROFT-HINCHEY Pravda.Ru Lisbon