Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

                     Letter dated 11 April 2002 from the Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

           On instructions from my Government, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a letter dated 11 April 2002 from Mr. Naji Sabri, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq, concerning the consequences of the use of depleted-uranium munitions by United States and British forces in their 1991 aggression against Iraq and calling attention to the fact that the representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States in the Security Council Committee established by resolution 661 (1990) have placed holds on contracts for drugs and medical equipment for the treatment of the various cancers caused by this depleted uranium.

           I should be grateful if you would have this letter and its annex circulated as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Mohammed A. Aldouri
Permanent Representative

                     Annex to the letter dated 11 April 2002 from the Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

           I refer to our various letters to you (circulated in documents S/1994/1131, S/1998/430, S/1998/601 and S/2001/44) concerning the suffering caused to the Iraqi people by the use by United States and British forces of some 800 tons of depleted-uranium munitions during their aggression against Iraq in January 1991 and calling attention to the serious environmental and health-related consequences of exposure to this radioactive metal, which has caused thousands of casualties, especially among children and women, and to the fact that these catastrophic consequences will persist for generations to come.

           When it was demonstrated that the United States and the United Kingdom had used depleted uranium in their 1991 aggression against Iraq, international medical and scientific circles warned of the immediate and future consequences of this fact. It is a scientifically established fact that when a high-density uranium projectile made from radioactive nuclear waste that is a byproduct of the manufacture of nuclear fuel and nuclear bombs strikes a target such as a tank, an armoured vehicle or a building, it produces a chemical and radiological dust that disperses over wide areas and contaminates the air, the soil, plants and people for hundreds of generations into the future given that the half-life of depleted uranium is 4.5 million years. This indicates the dimensions of the horrifying catastrophe that has overcome man and the environment in Iraq owing to the use of this weapon of mass destruction. Exposure to depleted-uranium radiation affects the kidneys, the liver, the immune system and the reproductive system and causes birth defects and various kinds of cancer.

           The widespread and indiscriminate use of this devastating weapon has had the result of increasing the incidence of various cancers, including leukaemia, especially in those of Iraq's southern governorates that were the theatre in which this frightful weapon was used.

           The British Royal Society has produced a report, entitled "The health hazards of depleted uranium munitions", Part I appearing in May 2001 and Part II in March 2002. It reveals that depleted uranium can contaminate drinking-water supplies and the soil, and that the civilian inhabitants of an area in which it has been used are thus at risk. It can cause renal dysfunction if large quantities are inhaled or ingested from contaminated soil or water, and it increases the likelihood of contracting lung cancer.

           The German professor Siegwart-Horst Günther has said that no less than half a million people in the area are suffering from diseases caused by the depleted-uranium projectiles used by the United States at the time of the second Gulf war. He has stated that the area that came under bombardment was a desert region, that airborne particles were carried by the wind to other areas and that the depleted uranium that remains in the ground is carried by the rains into the groundwater and also to plants and trees. He has indicated that the Americans are aware of the research that has been done on such projectiles and they know that they cause the complete breakdown of the immune system, especially in children, as well as such diseases as cutaneous aphthae, a fever that resembles the foot-and-mouth disease in livestock, and various cancers in addition to blood cancer. Depleted uranium can also cause liver and kidney failure and leukaemia and other cancers, including medullary carcinoma and bone cancer, and genetic malformation.

           Mr. Pekka Haavisto, leader of the United Nations Environment Programme team established to assess the effects of the use by United States forces of depleted-uranium projectiles in Kosovo in 1999, said in a statement issued in Geneva on 27 March 2002 that his team had found widespread but low-level depleted-uranium contamination in Serbia and Montenegro. He added:

           "The team was surprised to find depleted-uranium particles still in the air two years after the conflict's end ... . Any soil disturbance ... could risk releasing depleted-uranium particles into the air".

He also said that the most important concern was the potential for future groundwater contamination by corroding depleted-uranium penetrators.

           The team leader called for studies to be carried out in areas where depleted uranium had been used.

           This testimony from the United Nations concerning an area in which much smaller quantities of depleted uranium were used than were used against Iraq confirms that the scale of the catastrophe in Iraq is several times greater than that in Yugoslavia.

           The catastrophic dimensions of the use of depleted uranium against Iraqi civilians are increasing with the passage of time. Their manifestations include a major increase in cancer cases and in exotic diseases and congenital deformities that were previously unknown in Iraq and that will persist for generations to come given that this weapon has seriously contaminated the environment of central and southern Iraq. The Americans and the British bear responsibility for this human and environmental catastrophe. In another respect, the United States and the United Kingdom are persisting in a policy of mass extermination directed against the people of Iraq, for, as well as seeking to ignore the facts concerning their crime of contaminating the environment in Iraq and neighbouring countries, their representatives in the Security Council Committee established by resolution 661 (1990) are also placing holds on contracts for drugs and medical equipment for the treatment of cancer patients and alleging that these are dual-use items. I transmit to you herewith a list of the contracts for drugs and medical equipment for the treatment of cancer that have been placed on hold by the representatives of the United States and the United Kingdom (see enclosure).

           The United States and the United Kingdom are incurring a double responsibility when they prevent the delivery of drugs and medical equipment to treat the victims of the aggression they launched against Iraq in 1991.

           I request your urgent intervention, in accordance with the dictates of your legal, moral and humanitarian responsibilities, for the release of the holds placed on these contracts so that the relevant medical authorities can treat the victims of the crime committed by the United States and the United Kingdom when they used depleted uranium against Iraq.

(Signed) Naji Sabri
Minister for Foreign Affairs
[n.d.] April 2002