Insurgentjg

By-product of the process through which Uranium is converted to use as a nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons is Depleted Uranium. Though it is less radioactive then uranium, DU still has a half a life in the billions of years, as it carries 60 % of the radioactivity of ordinary uranium. DU became the first choice amongst all the weapons for Pentagon & US military, as it has the special ability to penetrate deep into several meters of rock or concrete in seconds. Furthermore, when a DU-tipped weapon (usually in the form of a bunker-buster bomb or an anti-tank shell) reaches its target, it is detonated, producing an explosive and incendiary effect.  Burnt DU forms a black radioactive dust which when inhaled causes diseases like cancer and genetic mutation among the victims and their offspring.

Depelted Uranium is a cheaper material to use as compared to metal, Tungsten. In effect, countries using DU are trading off lower costs for higher risks i.e. health hazards and US is on of the largest producer and user of weapons of mass destruction while hunting the targets set by Pentagon. In war on terror, US and British troops have deliberately used DU shells. They breeched UN resolution that classifies the munitions as illegal weapon of mass destruction. According to the report by UN sub commission report laws which were breeched by the use of DU shells include: Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the Charter of United Nations, the Genocide Convention, the Convention against Torture, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980. Apart from these, the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 also forbid use of poison or poisoned weapons.
During the Gulf war, the US – led allied forces fired more that 944, 000 DU rounds and nearly 2, 700 tons of DU- tipped bombs. According to UK Atomic energy Authority Report estimates that around 500,000 Iraqis would die before the end of the century due to radioactive debris left in the dessert. Birth deformities are found in the children of Allied veterans and among Iraqi children. It is believed that only one in fifty million children born may be anopthalmic but in one of the hospitals in Iraq has eight cases of children born without eyes in just two years. Pentagon admits that approximately 320 metric tons of DU debris is lying in the dessert but some Russian experts say that more accurate figures for the debris is 1,000 metric tons.
Since the US led war and later the UN lead sanction  in 1990, more than 1.2 million Iraqis have died. According to UNICEF report on Mortality rates amongs children during 1979 – 1999 increased 47 deaths per 1000 live births for the period 1984 – 1989, to 108 deaths per 1000 live births for the period 1994- 1999. Whereas mortality rate of children under five during the same time periods, has increased from 56 deaths per 1000 live births to 131 per 1000 live births. 
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1999, approximately 700 – 800 metric tons of DU weapons used in and around the city of Basra would kill half a million people. In the recent war , led by US and UK, forces has used much greater volume of DU. The DU ammunition was mainly used against Iraqi tanks in the desert near Basra.  Much larger quantity (approximately 2,000 tons) was used in the immediate vicinity of Baghdad, which is classified as the major residential area with five million people residing in the heart of the city. According to the estimations death toll will exceed one million over the next few years. Moreover the DU related deformities among the newly born and number cancer cases has increased since the first war, the numbers will rise even higher because of the recent War on terror. Cont…

_____________________________

  Christian Scherrer, “DU and the Liberation of Iraq,” Znet  April 13th, 2003 Also view, http://www.unicef.org/reseval/pdfs/irqscont.pdf, as quoted by Kareem M Kamel