NATO Bombing in Garda Lake Sparks Depleted Uranium and Safety Concerns
It is April 16, 1999, during the days of the war in Kosovo. A F15 of NATO, in difficulty due to lack of fuel after a sudden closure of the Aviano military base, jettisons two tanks over the mountains of Vicentino. Then, passing over Garda, it drops six bombs into the lake: three laser-guided and three cluster bombs. Eventually, it lands at the Ghedi airbase. The controversies of that time resurface today, related to the depleted uranium issue and the suspicious deaths of military personnel who operated in Kosovo and, even earlier, in Bosnia. Alberto Giorgetti, a deputy of Alleanza Nazionale, has submitted a parliamentary question.
Requests and concerns regarding the bombing incident
“NATO – recalls Giorgetti – refused to provide any information regarding the location and characteristics of the bombs. Searches have yielded no results, despite being conducted with sophisticated technology. No one excludes that the bombs contain depleted uranium.” The deputy requests to know if “the Government has received communication from the United States and, if not, whether it intends to verify the existence of a real danger.” Final question: “What immediate and urgent actions are planned to locate the bombs and proceed with their recovery?”
In Riva del Garda, city councilor Salvador Valandro presented a motion. “Dozens of Italian military personnel – he writes – engaged in the former Yugoslavia are falling ill or, worse, dying. Killed by weapons that seem absurd and macabre to call friendly.” I ask the mayor to activate the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, and the President of the Republic, to ensure the health and safety of those involved in these areas, including civilian volunteers.” Valandro then urges “a detailed report on the status of the bombs dropped in the lake.” He also offers a proposal: “The contributions allocated to associations of former fighters should be directed as follows: a portion to the families of young military personnel who died in the Balkans from still-unknown causes, and the rest to the Garda Community, to commission a technical assessment” regarding the dangers of the material lying on the lakebed.
Technical analysis and statements
It is very likely that the devices dropped by the American F15 are not made of uranium. Radioactive material was used on U.S. A10 aircraft and on the British Harrier AV 8B. However, the truth is sought. “We will provide the map of the projectiles used in Kosovo,” declared Mark Leaty, NATO spokesperson. Who knows if that statement also applies to Garda.
“There is the possibility, more or less concrete, of container rupture, called a canister, upon impact with water, and the simultaneous presence of numerous bomblets, which could have armed themselves with a simple rotation,” stated in June ’99 the prosecutor of Brescia, Giancarlo Tarquini. He was referring to cluster bombs, or fragmentation bombs, three of the six dropped, which can open to release (each) 200 small bomblets. If they do not explode upon impact, they are as dangerous as land mines.
He mentions the three chioggia fishermen injured by the explosion of one of these yellow devices, slightly larger than a Fanta can. Caught in their nets, it exploded on the bridge of their boat. Yesterday, in an interview with the newspaper “L’Adige” of Trento, two of the four technicians appointed by Prosecutor Tarquini to follow and coordinate the investigations carried out by the Italian Naval Military have ruled out the presence of depleted uranium bombs. Luigi Biscardi, provincial commander of the Brescia Firefighters, stated: “No, there are no bombs of this type. And even if there were, they would have the danger level of ordinary iron pieces. After a long time, nothing has been found yet because the area is deep. The seabed, covered with mud, is not clear at all. Moreover, the exact release point is unknown. A team of four or five divers equipped with sonar and other technology operated. The plane entered over the lake from Punta San Vigilio, exiting at Sirmione.”
The Lieutenant Colonel Paolo Giaretta, head of the airspace control service at Villafranca airport, another expert appointed by the Brescia prosecutor: “We have already sifted through two-thirds of the lower lake, a large section. The divers from the Italian Navy have done a great job, starting near the coasts and gradually moving toward deeper waters. Results? The discovery of hundreds of military residues, not NATO bombs. I do not believe the team intends to continue much longer, as most of the work is in the Adriatic Sea.”