US forces’ use of depleted uranium weapons is ‘illegal’

According to a August 2002 report by the UN subcommission, laws which are breached by the use of DU shells include: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Charter of the United Nations; the Genocide Convention; the Convention Against Torture; the four Geneva Conventions of 1949; the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980; and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which expressly forbid employing ‘poison or poisoned weapons’ and ‘arms, projectiles or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering’. All of these laws are designed to spare civilians from unwarranted suffering in armed conflicts.

That’s 11 conventions, including the Geneva Conventions that the media was all hyped up about last week. Of course, the army says they’re safe, but with street fighting inevitable, we’ll see what happens with all this exposure.

Iraqi cancers, birth defects blamed on U.S. depleted uranium

[Karen Parker, UN consultant,] said there are four rules derived from all of humanitarian law regarding weapons:

• Weapons may only be used in the legal field of battle, defined as legal military targets of the enemy in war. Weapons may not have an adverse effect off the legal field of battle.
• Weapons can only be used for the duration of an armed conflict. A weapon that is used or continues to act after the war is over violates this criterion.
• Weapons may not be unduly inhumane.
• Weapons may not have an unduly negative effect on the natural environment.

Depleted uranium fails all four of these rules,” Parker said last week.

More about: Depleted Uranium w/ BBC infographic, Depleted Uranium Information Page, CSMonitor: Trail of a Bullet, The National Online: Depleted Uranium