by Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd
July 2007
from
PeaceInSpace Website
Alfred Lambremont Webre,
JD, MEd is the International Director of the 'Institute
for Cooperation in Space' (ICIS), and a Judge on the
'Kuala Lumpur International War Crimes Tribunal.'
.
Alfred can be reached at
peace@peaceinspace.org
.
Website at
www.peaceinspace.org
For nuclear info visit
www.ccnr.org
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The Government of Canada is in
non-compliance with the statutes and regulations of the Canadian
Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), prohibiting the use of
Canadian uranium in depleted uranium (DU) weapons.
Moreover, Canada has a bilateral nuclear co-operation agreement with
the US, under which uranium exports to the US may only be used for
peaceful purposes, and not in weapons.
This includes “control over the high
enrichment of Canadian uranium and subsequent storage and use of the
highly enriched uranium,” a Foreign Affairs document states. The
same rules that apply to uranium apply to depleted uranium,
according to the CNSC.
DU weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction under
international law. Thus Canada may be complicit in the US use of
weapons of mass destruction in the 1991 Iraq War I, the 1998 Balkans
War, the 2001 War in Afghanistan, and the 2003 Iraq War II, where
the British medical journal Lancet estimates that one million
civilians have died. In each of these wars, it is likely that
depleted uranium in the DU weapons used by the U.S. and the UK comes
from Canadian uranium exported to the US and processed in US
enrichment plants into depleted uranium and subsequently
manufactured into DU weapons.
Depleted uranium is the uranium by-product that remains after the
removal of the isotope U-235 during the enrichment process. For
every ton of enriched U-235 uranium for the nuclear weapons and
nuclear power industries, seven tons of depleted uranium containing
the U-238 isotope are made for the munitions, DU weapons, and
military armor industries.
“Depleted uranium” is a marketing term
of the nuclear industry. U-238 depleted uranium was originally
discovered as a poison gas weapon of mass destruction during World
War II by the Manhattan Project, at the same time as the atomic bomb
and Agent Orange. Because DU is pyrophoric, it bursts into
high-temperature decomposition upon impact with military armor,
releasing nano-particles of ionizing radiation that contaminate all
living things and the environment with deadly radiation with a
half-life of 4.5 billion years.
The public military excuse for the use
of DU munitions, bombs and kinetic penetrators is that DU is heavy
and easily penetrates military armor and other targets. The covert
strategic military use of DU munitions, smart bombs, and cruise
missiles is radiation contamination of terrain, and low level
nuclear war against enemy troops, civilian populations, and all
unprotected military troops, for purposes of depopulation.
DU weapons &
war crimes
After 3 years of investigation by 60 expert witnesses and jurists at
a cost of $1 million raised by Japanese citizens, the International
Criminal Tribunal For Afghanistan at Tokyo on March 10, 2004 found
President George W. Bush guilty of the war crimes of genocide,
crimes against humanity and war crimes for the use of depleted
uranium (DU) weapons by US forces in the 2001 war against
Afghanistan.
Experts agree that a substantial portion of the depleted uranium in
the DU weapons used by the US in Afghanistan came from Canadian
uranium. Had the Tokyo Tribunal been diligent, it could have found
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who resigned as Prime
Minister on December 12, 2003, guilty as an accessory to genocide,
crimes against humanity, and war crimes, for failing to enforce
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission regulations, and the Canada-US
Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, both of which prohibit Canadian
uranium from being used in DU weapons.
Dr. Gordon Edwards, president of the Montreal-based
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR)
says,
“Canada may have the policy, but
it’s not enforced. The Canadian government is taking directions
and orders from the nuclear industry…
“The uranium industry has a vested
interest in ensuring its depleted uranium waste makes a profit
and is not just left in storage. That’s why some of Canada’s
depleted uranium is ending up in weapons, Edwards says.
“The Canadian government can’t even
think for themselves.”
Depleted
uranium in Hawaii
The depleted uranium that has contaminated the Hawaiian Islands with
deadly radiation most probably has a Canadian uranium source.
It is highly probably that the depleted
uranium in DU munitions fired at bases on the Big Island and at
military bases on Oahu, and in the nuclear weapons stored at Pearl Harbour is derived from Canadian uranium, exported to the US and
processed into enriched uranium and DU.
Public health
effects of DU weapons
The public health and environmental effects of the use of depleted
uranium (DU) weapons can be considered per se violations of the war
crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes under the
Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The demonstrated public health effects
of depleted uranium (DU) weapons include:
-
diabetes
-
cancer
-
birth
defects
-
chronic diseases caused by neurological and neuromuscular
radiation damage
-
mitochondrial diseases (chronic fatigue syndrome,
Lou Gehrig’s, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, heart and brain
disorders)
-
global DNA damage in men’s sperm
-
infertility in women
-
learning disabilities (such as autism and dyslexia)
-
mental illness
-
infant mortality and low birth weights
-
increase in death rates and
decrease in birth rates
The Prime
Minister stonewalls
So far, the Conservative government and the Liberal opposition have
failed to take a public position on Canada’s failure to stop the
illegal use of its uranium in DU weapons. Stephen Harper refused to
allow any Conservative MPs to appear on a June 13, 2007 North
American radio special programme on the Canadian DU issue. Despite
repeated conversations with Stephane Dion’s personal press
attaché and attempts to reach Liberal MP and Foreign Affairs critic
Ujjal Dosanjh, the Liberal Party chose not to send a
representative to the Canadian DU radio programme.
Liberal MP Dr. Keith Martin, MD,
a physician and former Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of
Defense in the Paul Martin Government, appeared on a radio programme
on the Canadian DU issue and stated that in his opinion, there were
no adverse public health consequences to the use of DU weapons.
By contrast, at a May 12, 2007 Uranium-free BC Forum at the
Brilliant Centre in Castlegar, BC, NDP MP Alex Atamanenko
(Southern Interior) publicly stated he was opposed to the use of
Canadian uranium in DU weapons. Atamanenko seeks Canadian
legislation banning DU weapons, as Belgium has passed. On the June
13, 2007 Canadian DU radio programme, Atamanenko publicly committed
to question the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on why Canada
was not enforcing its regulations and treaty obligations against the
use of its uranium in DU weapons.
Connie Fogal, Leader of the
Canadian Action Party, which passed a resolution in support of
Canadian legislation outlawing DU weapons, committed to work against
the use of Canadian DU in American weapons. Adriane Carr, Deputy
Leader of the Green Party of Canada likewise committed to demand
enforcement of Canada’s prohibitions against use of its uranium in
DU weapons.
What path is
Canada taking?
Unbeknownst to the public, the Government of Canada seems to have
strayed into aiding and abetting the serious war crimes of
DU-induced genocide and crimes against humanity. By contrast,
British Columbia has maintained a moratorium on uranium mining since
the 1970s. There is substantial community support for a permanent
ban on uranium exploration and mining in BC, as the recent
Uranium-free BC Forum in Castlegar suggested. The detrimental
impacts of uranium exploration and mining on public health and the
environment is the driving force behind the ban.
Under the guise of combating climate change, the nuclear industry,
led by the Bush Administration, is now promoting nuclear power
plants to the tiger economies of India, China, Japan, and South
Korea. Because of ionizing radiation and the nuclear waste issue,
this amounts to a low level nuclear war against these populations.
NASA recently reported vast uranium deposits in Khazakhstan
and Afghanistan. Khazakhstan is expected to out-produce
Canada (now the world’s top producer) in uranium production within
12 years.
One might rationally ask: Why not ban uranium exploration and mining
in BC, and organize collectively to secure a uranium exploration and
mining ban in Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec? The public policy
reasons for the ban on uranium exploration and mining in the rest of
Canada – public heath and environment – are equally valid throughout
Canada, as they are in BC.
Let’s sunset our Canadian uranium industry.
That is a practical way
to save the health of Canadians, the environment, and
innocent
victims worldwide.
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