CONSEQUENCES OF NATO BOMBING IN SOUTH SERBIA

14. December 2018.

Bujanovac, Presevo – Locations in Vranje, Bujanovac and Presevo, which are situated in the Pcinj district, were targeted with depleated uranium ammunition during the NATO bombing campaign. Those sites were decontaminated, while an increase in the number of patients with malignant disease was not, in the previous years, associated with radiation in the reports on the health status of the population of Vranje.

The Association of Uranium Victims “Pljackovica 99”, together with its collaborators from Nis, organized a panel discussion on the consequences of NATO bombing. On that occasion, a documentary "Uranium 238 - My Story" of Nis lawyer Srdjan Aleksic, who had already been seen at scientific conferences in Switzerland, Sweden and Germany, was shown.

He comes from the vicinity of Presevo. That area was bombed with ammunition with depleted uranium, so that Srdjan’s mother got cancer and died.

“My goal is to warn all those people on the harmful effects of depleated uranium. There are people in the world of science who deal with that and they claim that depleted uranium is harmful, "Mr. Aleksic said.

"We realized that a lot of people died from cancer in Vranje, as well as in the four villages that were bombed."

In Pcinj district, Pljackovica near Vranje, Bratoselce and Borovac near Bujanovac and Reljan, near Presevo, were targeted with the depleted uranium ammunition.

Those areas were decontaminated, while according to the Agency for Protection from Radiation, no presence of depleted uranium in the environment was established. The Commission for Determining the Consequences of NATO Bombing was set up this summer, which visited Vranje.

Dragan Mihajlovic, from the Association "Pljackovica 99", says that members of that association went to the field with members of the Commission, which had contacted them, but the report on the issue remained closed for them. “We are now fighting against the falling of the whole case into oblivion, Mr, Mihajlovic says.

Aleksandar Stanojevic, a journalist, believes that he and his colleagues could influence the creation of a climate in which the truth, that lies somewhere with scientists and lawyers, could be reached. He stresses that there should not be any fabricated and “overstrained” stories.

The Association of Uranium Victims and lawyers from Nis will follow Italy's example, whose soldiers, upon staying in Kosovo and Metohija, got cancer, sued the state and got compensated.

Srdjan Aleksic, a lawyer, says that he will follow that example and the case-law. He will get engaged into making it possible for the citizens to obtain adequate compensation from those who bombed them.

Source: Serbian Broadcasting Corporation and Coordination Body