IRAQ: WORLD HEALTH TEAM ARRIVE TO INVESTIGATE EFFECTS OF DEPLETED URANIUM USED BY ALLIED FORCES DURING GULF WAR.

Record ID: 648328

  • Title: IRAQ: WORLD HEALTH TEAM ARRIVE TO INVESTIGATE EFFECTS OF DEPLETED URANIUM USED BY ALLIED FORCES DURING GULF WAR.
  • Date: 28th August 2001
  • Summary: BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AUGUST 27, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/MV: VARIOUS THE TEAM MEMBERS ARRIVING AND CHECKING IN AT THE AL-HAMRA HOTEL, BAGHDAD (7 SHOTS) 0.51 2. CU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) DEPUTY HEAD OF THE ORGANISATION'S REGIONAL OFFICE IN CAIRO ABDELAZIZ SALEH SAYING: "You know this is the mission which is the step, or the follow-up of the meeting which was held in Geneva between the Iraqi experts and the WHO experts, where we have agreed on the framework for collaboration between WHO and Iraq on the issue of the possible impact of the depleted uranium on the health in Iraq. So this is mainly to elaborate the project document on the different items that have been identified in the meeting in Geneva." 1.25 3. GV/MV: VARIOUS OF WHO TEAM CHECKING IN AT HOTEL (7 SHOTS) 2.04 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 12th September 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAEXHYOTDU5323DTQMPGVITTX7U
  • Story Text: A team from the World Health Organisation has arrived
    in Baghdad to lay the groundwork for research on a possible
    link between cancer and depleted uranium used by U.S. -led
    forces in the 1991 Gulf War.



    "The visit is a follow-up of the meeting which was
    held in Geneva between Iraqi and WHO experts," Abdelaziz
    Saleh, the deputy head of WHO's regional office in Cairo, told
    reporters after arriving on Monday evening (August 28).

    "Where we have agreed on the framework for collaboration
    between WHO and Iraq on the issue of the possible impact of
    the depleted uranium on the health in Iraq. So this is mainly
    to elaborate the project document on the different items that
    have been identified in the meeting in Geneva."
    He said the eight-member team would meet officials from
    the health and foreign ministries as well as experts in other
    U.N. agencies based in Iraq.

    WHO and Iraqi officials met last April 2001 in Geneva,
    where they agreed to cooperate more in technical and
    scientific fields.

    The team will launch WHO's first comprehensive attempt to
    assess the state of public health 11 years after a U.S. -led
    coalition bombed Iraq over its invasion of Kuwait.

    Baghdad has repeatedly accused Western powers of
    inflicting a creeping environmental disaster on the country's
    southern provinces by firing shells made with depleted
    uranium, which is used to harden them so they can pierce
    tanker armour.

    Official Iraqi figures show an increase in cancer cases
    from 6,555 in 1989 to 10,931 in 1997, mostly in areas bombed
    by U.S. -led forces during the war.


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