21 June 2005 - Scientists and Euro-MPs gathering in Brussels this week have called for a global ban on the use of Depleted Uranium (DU) weapons, which they warn are responsible for thousands of civilian deaths, and breach international humanitarian law.

British and US troops in Iraq and elsewhere routinely use DU weapons causing a significant rise in birth malformations, leukaemia and other cancers and fertility problems in post-conflict zones.

Caroline Lucas, who is Co-President of the European Parliament’s cross-party group on Peace Initiatives which organised this week’s talks, said: “The pollution from DU weaponry causes widespread death and suffering amongst civilian populations for years after their initial use.

“Independent research into DU weapons has confirmed that radioactive particles are carried by the wind and find their way into the human food chain. The use of such an indiscriminate weapon – which is killing civilian bystanders in their thousands – is contrary to international law.

“Their use must be banned immediately – especially in those countries such as the UK and USA which use DU weapons regularly on so-called ‘humanitarian’ missions.”

Dr Lucas, who is a Green Party MEP for South-East England and a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s national council, made her comments ahead of a two-day conference on banning uranium weapons taking place at the European Parliament in Brussels this week (June 23-24).

MEPs and scientists from as far afield as Iraq, Japan and the US will discuss the funding, manufacture, legal status – and devastating human costs – of DU weapons, at the International Conference to Ban Uranium Weapons.

The talks hope to make the case for more research into the medical and environmental impact of DU - and to persuade EU countries to adopt immediate moratoria on its use.

Dr Lucas added: “During a visit to Iraq in the weeks before the latest war I saw for myself the terrible human price being paid for allied use of DU weapons in the last Gulf war more than a decade earlier.

“Nothing could have prepared me for the extent of birth malformations and the seven-fold increase in childhood cancers I encountered during a routine visit to a hospital in Basra.”

The European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for an EU-wide moratorium on their use in 2003, based partly on evidence gathered during Dr Lucas’s fact-finding mission to Iraq, but the ban has not been implemented by member states.

ENDS