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On October 31, a fifth United Nations General Assembly First Committee resolution on depleted uranium weapons passed overwhelmingly. There were 143 states in favor, four against, and 26 abstentions. The measure calls for UN member states to provide assistance to countries contaminated by the weapons. Introduced by Indonesia, the resolution also notes the need for health and environmental research on depleted uranium weapons in conflict situations.
This fifth UN resolution on the subject was fiercely opposed by four uranium-shooting countries -- Britain, the United States, France and Israel -- who cast the only votes in opposition. A group of 26 states abstained, reportedly to avoid offending or souring lucrative trade relationships with the four major shooters.
A waste left in enormous quantities by the nuclear weapons complex, uranium-238 -- so-called “depleted” uranium -- is used in large caliber armor-piercing munitions (and armor plating on tanks). The toxic, radioactive dust and debris that is dispersed when the shells are used poisons water, soil and the food chain, and has been linked to deadly health effects like Gulf War Syndrome among U.S. and allied troops, and birth abnormalities among populations in bombed areas. The waste has caused permanent radioactive contamination of large parts of Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and perhaps Afghanistan.
The main thrust of this most recent UN resolution, “Encourages Member States in a position to do so to provide assistance to States affected by the use of arms and ammunition containing depleted uranium, in particular in identifying and managing contaminated sites and material.” The statement is a veiled reference to the unfortunate fact that investigators have been stymied in their study of  uranium contamination in Iraq, because the United States has consistently refused to disclose targeting maps of all the places it attacked with depleted uranium.
The measure explains that uranium weapons are made of a “chemically and radiologically toxic heavy metal” [uranium-238], that after use “penetrator fragments, and jackets or casings can be found lying on the surface or buried at varying depth, leading to the potential contamination of air, soil, water and vegetation from depleted uranium residue.”
In the diplomatic confines of UN resolutions, individual countries are not named. Yet the world knows that up to 700 tons of uranium munitions were blasted into Iraq and Kuwait by U.S. forces in 1991, and that U.S. warplanes fired another three tons into Bosnia in 1994 and 1995; ten tons into Kosovo in 1999, and approximately 170 tons into Iraq again in 2003.
The new resolution relies heavily on the UN Environment Program (UNEP) which conducted radiation surveys of NATO bombing targets in the Balkans and Kosovo. It was a UNEP study in 2001 that first forced the Pentagon to admit that U.S. depleted uranium shells are spiked with plutonium. (Associated Press, Capital Times, Feb. 3, 2001: “But now the Pentagon says shells used in the 1999 Kosovo conflict were tainted with traces of plutonium, neptunium and americium -- byproducts of nuclear reactors that are much more radioactive than depleted uranium.”)
The scientifically significant fourth paragraph notes in part:  “… major scientific uncertainties persisted regarding the long-term environmental impacts of depleted uranium, particularly with respect to long-term groundwater contamination. Because of these scientific uncertainties, UNEP called for a precautionary approach to the use of depleted uranium, and recommended that action be taken to clean up and decontaminate the polluted sites. It also called for awareness-raising among local populations and future monitoring.”
The “precautionary principle” holds that risky activities or substances should be avoided and discouraged until they can be proved safe.
Finally the resolution notes that the UNEP hopes its work will “help countries to address potential risks related to the contamination of air, soil, water and vegetation from the use of depleted uranium in times of conflict, and stands ready to provide further assistance upon request.”
The International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW.org), based in Manchester, England and representing over 160 civil society organizations worldwide, played a major part in seeing all five resolutions through the UN process and is working for a convention that would see the munitions outlawed.

-- John LaForge works for Nukewatch, a peace and environmental group in Wisconsin, and serves on ICBUW’s board.