ITALY: An inquiry on depleted uranium
By Payday, December 2004  

The Defence Standing Committee of the Italian Senate proposed a Parliamentary Inquest "on the cases of deaths and serious illnesses affecting the Italian personnel deployed in international missions of peace, on the storage conditions, and the possible usage of depleted uranium during military exercises on national territory".

It should "answer the worrying denunciations coming from Cagliari (Sardinia), where the provincial government voted an agenda to promote an epidemiological inquest on the whole territory around the firing ground in Salto di Quirra, near Villaputzu, where in a small village of 200 people there where 12 cases of lymphatic leukaemia."

It should also "verify the state of the implementation of international regulations on the banning of conventional weapons which may be considered harmful for their capability of long-time contamination of men with whom they get in contact or of the environment in which they are deployed."

There were some cautious noises made about expanding the remit of the inquiry to the civilian population of the countries where Italy has deployed it troops since the '90s, but this does not appear in the final terms of the Inquiry.

When approved, the Inquiry will be made up of 21 senators, will last for year, will have legal powers and will report to the Chairperson of the Senate.

The Committee approved the proposal unanimously on 15 September 2004 and the full Senate approved it recently.

It is the first time the government is investigating DU as such; it also reflects for the first time a movement of civilians: the population in Sardinia, where NATO military exercises take place, is up in arms against the a big upsurge of cancer among civilians around the area.  We need to widen the Inquiry remit to hear from civilians wherever Italy and its allies may have used DU shells - in particular Balkans, Somalia and Iraq.