Italian Court recognizes the link between Cancer and Depleted Uranium

January 15, 2009 at 11:27 am | Posted in Turkmens | Leave a comment
Tags: Anavafaf, Depleted Uranium, Hodgkin Lymphoma

Historic sentence in Florence

Italian Court recognizes the link between cancer and depleted uranium

13 January 2009 – Stefania Divertito

http://www.peacelink.it/disarmo/a/28323.html

A sentence that could represent a milestone has been pronounced by a Court in Florence, Italy: the Ministry of Defence will have to compensate 545,061
euros to Gianbattista Marica, parachutist who was deployed in Somalia, during the Ibis mission, for eight months between December 1993 and July 1993.

Marica is an ex-soldier who got ill with cancer. The sentence is significant not only for the extent of the compensation, but because it states an important principle: the causal link between the presence of depleted uranium and the illness of the soldier.

The judicial measure is dated 17 December 2008 but it has been announced yesterday by Falco Accame, president of Anavafaf, an association which assists italian veterans; among them Marica, who asked for their support in
2001.

The Court’s statement includes the report of a technical consultan who maintains that there’s a causal link between the Hodgkin Lymphoma developed by the soldier (which is currently in definitive remission) and the exposure to depleted uranium.

The expert, appointed by the Court, says that the findings of the scientific investigation by the Mandelli Commission, who claimed that it was not possible to prove the causal link, “are groundless because of the mistakes in
the research process”.

The responsibilites of the Ministry of Defence are then denounced by the judges in the sentence details, published yesterday and available on the internet

[1]: the Ministry did not take the necessary precautions to protect the members of the mission in Somalia, in spite “it was in the eyes of the international community the specific danger of this war zone, and in spite of the adoption of particular prevention measures by other military forces”.

According to the judges, “besides the recommendations which were or should have been known by the Ministry, the fact that american soldiers were ordered to use particular protections should have warned the italian authorities, even if they were lacking information.”In any case, “the attitude of the Ministry of Defence has not been inspired by the principles of caution and responsibility, as the Ministry ignored the information, which was in his hands since long time, about the presence of depleted uranium in the areas of the mission and its danger for the soldiers’ health; and the Ministry didn’t take all the necessary measures to protect the soldiers’ health and ignored the use of measures by other countries
involved in the same mission, in spite of the many times this fact had been noted by the italian soldiers”.

“Marica immediately denounced that U.S. soldiers in Somalia, even with 40 degrees in the shadow, were using overalls, masks, gloves and glasses, while the italian ones were dressed with shorts and t-shirts” Accame says,
underlining the importance of the sentence and reminding that “Italian corps were made aware of the danger only on 22nd November 1999, when information about precautionary measures was finally given to soldiers in the Balkans”.

Accame raises another question too: “The sentence is dated 17 December 2008,exactly the day before Mr. La Russa, Ministry of Defence, during a press release, announced the funding of 30 million euros for the victims of depleted uranium and nanoparticles”.

[2] Is it a coincidence? Or the Ministry decided to show a collaborative attitude towards what had just been decided by the Court?
In any case – concludes Accame – “we are extremely happy of this achievement”.

[1] http://www.altalex.com/index.php?idnot=44275

[2] http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/a/222.html