When NATO bombed areas in Serbia during the Balkan War in 1994/5 and later in Kosovo in 1999, they also dropped more than 10,000 explosive devices with depleted uranium, so-called DU ammunition (depleted uranium). Similar to the one that Great Britain now wants to make available to the Ukrainian army in the fight against the Russian army. NATO thus destroyed important infrastructure: bridges, roads, but also airports, but also hit villages.
Lawyer Srdan Aleksic from Niš has been representing cancer patients from the then bombed areas for years. He wants them to be recognized as late victims of DU ammunition and is therefore suing NATO. It is also a personal mission for him: Aleksic was born in one of the villages in southern Serbia that was hit by these bombs.
When WELT reaches him by phone, he says he has little time. He is currently preparing for a meeting in Austria to discuss his cases there. For him, the prospect of DU munitions being used in Ukraine in the war against Russia is unimaginable.
WORLD: Mr. Aleksic, you are currently preparing class action lawsuits against NATO. On what scale?
Srdan Aleksic: In the case of depleted uranium ammunition alone, I currently have 3500 clients, and more are coming every week. We were able to file the first lawsuits with the Supreme Court in Serbia in 2021 – including for relatives of a colonel in the Serbian army who stayed in a tent in the security zone for more than 200 days during the war. He developed carcinomas on his internal organs, but the health insurance company did not pay for his medication. I represent not only soldiers, but also police officers or employees such as those from airports and civilians who continue to live in the areas that were bombed. Many of them are very poor. But they all have very specific types of cancer.
WORLD: Which ones?
Aleksic: There are those that do not develop naturally, at least according to research, because those affected do not just suffer from one specific type of cancer, but from two or three at the same time. For example skin cancer and cancer of the lymphatic system or the brain or blood cancer. This is very noticeable. In general, the cancer rate has risen sharply since the bombing with DU ammunition. We are now in second place worldwide for lung cancer: That accounts for around 8,000 patients. For me that means: The uranium from the ammunition must have had a major impact on this development. I’m sending you a report from one of my clients – a 23-fold exposure to toxic heavy metals was found for him in the laboratory. It clearly states: “Of particular concern is the presence and quantity of uranium238 in Mr. Tadic’s body.”
The editors have now received the report of an Italian specialist. Depleted uranium is a waste product that results from the enrichment of uranium for use in nuclear power plants or in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. It is only about 60 percent as radioactive as naturally occurring uranium, but its properties make it suitable for use in armor-piercing ammunition. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) describes depleted uranium as a “chemically and radiologically toxic heavy metal”.
WORLD: What are you hoping for from your lawsuits?
Aleksic: We demand damages for every cancer patient, at least 100,000 euros. The Serbian state must help its citizens, it is not their fault that they are ill. It’s not your fault, it’s the uranium. And we demand that NATO contribute to these costs. So far, however, NATO has refused and invokes immunity (the letter from NATO is also available to the editors), which helps us: I interpret this as an admission of guilt. In Italy, thousands of soldiers have already been compensated who served in Kosovo, for example, and later fell ill with Balkan syndrome, i.e. a special type of leukemia. They received damages of between 700,000 and one million euros. I work closely with the attorney who represented these victims. That’s why I’m confident.
WORLD: You have often referred to the use of DU ammunition as ecocide or ecological genocide. Can you explain that?
Aleksic: According to NATO itself, 15 tons of depleted uranium ammunition were dropped on areas in Serbia and Kosovo, other scientists speak of eleven to 13 tons (Editor’s note: e.g. the Royal Society in London). When the explosives detonated, radioactive dust was thrown into the air, which incidentally also spread to parts of neighboring countries: Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia. So all this is not just a Serbian problem. There are also numerous unexploded bombs that remain buried. So the stuff is still poisoning the water and the soil. And has consequences for biodiversity. Certain endemic plant species, for example, have declined sharply, as have some bird species. I once asked a scientist about it. He said it would take 4.5 million years for everything to be restored to how it used to be. For me this is ecocide because an entire ecosystem is being destroyed.
WORLD: Couldn’t the unexploded ammunition be recovered from the ground?
Aleksic: No, that’s not possible. Probably never. And if so, it would require a very complex technology. Of course, NATO could help, but they don’t want to cooperate. This damage will keep us busy for many, many years to come.
WORLD: What do you think of when you hear that such DU ammunition could be used in the war in Ukraine?
Aleksic: Nobody in this world should be allowed to use these weapons anymore. For me, DU ammunition should be banned on an international level. To me it’s a war crime. Because this ammunition contaminates everything that people need to live. And you take away the livelihood of future generations.
