[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: Tirana: the Balkans Syndrome - a Political Syndrome (AIM Tirana, February 1, 2001 published 12 FEB 2001)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://www.aimpress.org/dyn/trae/archive/data/200102/10212-003-trae-tir.htm

Copyright: All those wishing to use or publish the following text are
welcome to do so, provided that they indicate the source and inform the
AIM office in Paris which is interested to receive comments and
reactions on the information it provides. AIM, 17 rue Rebeval, F-75019
Paris, France 

MON, 12 FEB 2001 22:21:34 GMT

Tirana: the Balkans Syndrome - a Political Syndrome

Albania and the Problem of Depleted Uranium

AIM Tirana, February 1, 2001 

The Balkans Syndrome, which in January unleashed debates and replies in
governmental, military, diplomatic and media circles in Western capitals
and states, which had sent peacekeepers to Bosnia and Kosovo, was
received with total indifference in Albania. This is so true that
throughout January, despite the wide publicity the Balkans Syndrome was
receiving in the international media, this topic did not appear one
single time in the Albanian printed and electronic media. 
    At first sight, it seemed that the fact that Kosovo was the
geographic centre of the Balkans Syndrome, would provoke a great concern
of the Albanian public. The more so as after the signing of Dayton
Accords, Albania also sent its unit of peace-keepers to Bosnia within
the international SFOR forces. Also, the scientific community and the
public opinion are in full agreement over the indifferent stand on the
Balkans Syndrome. 
    Naturally, like all other European Governments, irrespective of its
silence, the Albanian Government put together and sent expert groups to
the zones in the north of Albania adjacent to the western Kosovo border,
along the belt which is claimed to have the highest radiation
concentrations as a result of the use of ammunition with depleted
uranium. The Italian soldiers are also stationed there, as part of KFOR
forces. A team of the Public Health Institute and another from the
Institute of Nuclear Physics have conducted a detailed inspection of the
border zones with Kosovo, its population, flora and fauna and presented
their findings on January 23. The team of Albanian scientists recorded
values of alpha, beta and gama radiation below the treshold level which
are not dangerous for the local population there. 
    They also stated that the situation regarding blood and skin
diseases, newborns with congenital deformities and neoplasm, show the
same parameters as during the three years before the Kosovo war.
According to the experts of the Albanian Defence Ministry, medical
examinations on the Albanian soldiers who served in the peace forces in
Bosnia showed that their stay there had no negative effects on their
health. 
    One of the most renowned Albanian experts in the field of nuclear
physics and the former Director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics,
Professor Skender Koja, who reviewed the issue of the Balkans Syndrome
for an Albanian magazine on January 10, came to the conclusion that from
the scientific point of view this was a false alarm because comparisons
with medical statistics showed that the incidence of leukaemia of 3-4
persons per 100,000 inhabitants was the approximate number of leukaemia
cases that appeared with the international military personnel in Bosnia
and Kosovo, because in the previous five years, thanks to the rotation
system, around 300 thousand persons had served there. 
    On the problem of the Balkans Syndrome, the Albanian political
parties in Tirana and Pristina have also taken a unified stand. The
statement by the President of the Kosovo Democratic Union, Ibrahim
Rugova, made on January 5, who said that the dust raised by the Balkans
Syndrome was actually aimed at forcing the peace forces to leave Kosovo,
was received with much publicity. 
    Actually, from the very beginning the problem of depleted uranium
was for a number of reasons received with mistrust by the political
parties in Albania, both those in the government majority as well as
those in the opposition, right and left, small and large alike. The fact
that the problem of the Balkans Syndrome has been raised mostly by those
circles and political forces such as communists, anti-Atlantic,
pacifists, etc. in some Western-European countries which were against
the NATO military intervention in Kosovo, was received in Tirana with
much suspicion. 
    The enthusiasm of the official Belgrade, which used the Balkans
Syndrome to condemn the danger posed by NATO and to repeat the charges
for the so called NATO aggression against Serbia, has increased even
more the conviction of Tirana that this is another act of political
abuse. According to Albanian assessments, the objective is to show that
NATO intervention in Kosovo in spring 1999 was totally pointless, to
rehabilitate Milosevic's criminal policy in Kosovo and to exert
international pressure on the KFOR to leave Kosovo. The Albanian
political circles are especially mistrustful about the resurfacing of
the problem of the Balkans Syndrome at the beginning of the term of the
new US President, George Bush, which coincides with certain efforts on
the part of the new Yugoslav leadership and President Kostunica, as well
as some FRY allies, to prevail upon the US military corps to pull out
from Kosovo. 
    Tirana acknowledges that there is reason for various Governments to
be concerned over the health of their soldiers who served in Bosnia and
Kosovo, but with some anger also emphasises that the same high degree of
concern was not expressed, if at all, over the possible effects of
depleted uranium on the health of two million Kosovars who are still
living there. 
    In this context, it is generally, almost unanimously, believed in
the political, state and public circles in Tirana that the question of
the Balkans Syndrome is just a political abuse of a phenomenon that is
the matter to be studied by scientists, physicists and doctors. In a
release of its Foreign Ministry of January 11, the Albanian Government
stated that the Balkans Syndrome is a cover-up rather than a reality,
and that the whole problem has been blown out of all proportion by
political innuendoes the aim of which is to put the blame on NATO. 
    In this respect, the Albanian Government reiterated its stand for
the continued presence and activity of NATO in Kosovo and other parts of
the Balkans. Naturally, there can be a degree of biased politicisation
in the Albanian labelling of the Balkans Syndrome as a political
syndrome. The fact that this is all linked with Kosovo cannot rule out
such a possibility. But, Tirana feels reassured by the fact that the
official reports of NATO, World Health Organisation and US Defence
Ministry reject every possibility of a real threat of depleted uranium.
Finally, the vital importance of Kosovo for Albanians on both sides of
the border urges them to minimise all kinds of risks, the more so when
it concerns a still unconfirmed risk such as the Balkans Syndrome. 

AIM Tirana 
Arian LEKA


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-~>
eGroups is now Yahoo! Groups
Click here for more details
http://click.egroups.com/1/11231/1/_/920292/_/982153651/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

Na dërgoni vërejtjet dhe sugjerimet tuaja, që QIKSH Albeuropa të jetë më e pëlqyeshme, më efikase dhe më e dobishme - në shërbim të Mërgatës, të mbarë kombit dhe të atdheut tonë - Shqipërisë Etnike.

Nëse e sheh të arsyeshme dhe të dobishme, dërgo shkrimet e ALBEUROPËS në E-mail-et e miqve tuaj dhe i regjistro ata në:

albeuropa-subscribe at egroups.com

Nëse don të çregjistrohesh nga ALBEUROPA, dërgo një Email në:

albeuropa-unsubscribe at egroups.com