4/29/99
Los Angeles Times

By PAUL WATSON
PRISTINA,

Even in the age of smart bombs guided to targets by laser beams, dumb weapons that fail to explode, or lie in wait to kill later, are turning parts of Yugoslavia into no man's land.

Unexploded bombs litter more of Yugoslavia with each day that its war with NATO drags on.

There is also concern that armor-piercing shells, a controversial weapon that some critics argue can release dangerous levels of radioactive waste, will be widely used by the alliance in Kosovo.

Yugoslav troops and guerrillas in the Kosovo Liberation Army have been laying land mines since at least early March.

During five weeks of air strikes, witnesses say, NATO planes have dropped cluster bombs that scatter smaller munitions over wide areas.

In military jargon, the smaller munitions are bomblets.

Dr Rade Grbic, a surgeon and director of Pristina's main hospital, said he had never done so many amputations as he has since victims of cluster bombs started coming in.

Since cluster bombs lay down a carpet of explosions, they are often the weapon of choice against moving tanks and other military vehicles, which NATO says are at the top of its target list in Kosovo.

But in a civil war like Yugoslavia's, where civilians are never far from military targets, the risks of hurting noncombatants with cluster bombs are high.

Pristina's hospital alone has treated between 300 and 400 people wounded by cluster bombs since NATO's air war began on 24 March, Dr Grbic said. About half of those victims were civilians.

Since that number doesn't include those killed by cluster bombs, and doesn't account for those wounded in other regions, the casualty toll probably is much higher, he said.

"Most people are victims of the time-activated cluster bombs that explode some time after they fall," Dr Grbic said.

NATO and Pentagon spokesmen routinely refuse to say what types of weapons are dropped on Yugoslavia by their planes.

But some experts worry about NATO's potential use of depleted uranium shells that can pierce armor more than 50-millimetres thick. The shells are suspected by some scientists of causing cancer and birth defects.

Depleted uranium shells are standard-issue ammunition on A-10 ``Warthog'' ground attack fighters, which already are flying over Kosovo, and Apache helicopters, which soon are expected to be operating in the province.

LOS ANGELES TIMES