| ICE Case Studies
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I.
Case Background |
In March of this year, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began an extensive bombing campaiagn against the Yugoslav republic of Serbia as a result of Serbia's systematic slaughter and forced evacuation of ethnic Albanians living in the province of Kosovo. The purpose of this paper examines the possibility that NATO forces in Macedonia have been importing hazardous radioative and military waste and distributing it throughout the country, which has no adequate means to dispose of the waste. The issue is examined by looking at the relationship the United States and other NATO countries have had with Macedonia within the recent past and also looks at the plethora of environmental problems that have plagued Macedonia and the future effects on the population. Lastly, approaches to this problem are listed, including international agreements concerning the environment and waste. Unfortunately, due to the recent nature of these events and the fact that the Macedonian government as well as NATO are denying that there has been no illegal importing of hazardous waste into the country, statistics on this issue do not exist. Potential health risks, as well as the impact that improper disposal of radioactive waste has on the environment, are included in this piece, but are not characteristic of Macedonia.
In an effort to stabilize the mounting ethnic turmoil in the Balkans, a United Nations peacekeeping force was deployed to the small republic of Macedonia in 1992. As the turmoil escalated throughout the 1990's, reaching the breaking point of Serbia's systematic slaughter of ethnic Albanians in its Kosovar province, NATO troops intervened in an effort to halt this massacre. Macedonia, close neighbor to the Kosovo province, was viewed as a key strategic geographic location for NATO troops with a dual goals of maintaining peace in the region while launching military strikes against Serbia. In exchange for a substantial amount of military foreign aid, the Macedonian government allowed NATO troops to use its Krivolak training grounds to house its military operations. However, the western military presence and the concomitant military aid provided more than just security to the Macedonian people. NATO troops are being accused of bringing in military waste that is said to be radioactive in nature, leading to potentially harmful effects to the environment and health of the Macedonian people.
Recognizing that Macedonia as the key to stability in the Balkans, many western-based organizations, such as the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, have been directly involved in peacekeeping fforts in the former Yugoslav republic since the eruption of ethnic turmoil in the Balkans in 1992. Led by the United States, these groups have provided military and economic aid to the once former communist country in an effort to promote democratic and free market reforms. Around $80 million dollars in U.S. foreign aid has been granted to Macedonia since 1995 in order to assist in building a modern, pro-Western defense force that maintained close ties with NATO. Macedonia has been a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace since it was created in 1994. Mainly influenced by the United States, the Partnership for Peace, comprising of 27 nations, is an interim entity to expand NATO in which Macedonia has been a participant in joint training exercises. (5) In 1998, the U.S. planned to provide $7.9 million in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and $400,000 through the International Military Education Training Program (IMET). The reason for this substantial amount of funding being allocated to this landlocked country was the fear of the spread of ethnic turmoil from the Kosovo province and the fact that the Macedonian military is unprepared and ill-equipped. There is also a border dispute between Macedonia and Yugoslavia over a parcel of land to the north of Macedonia called "rump Macedonia", which is composed of Serbia and Montenegro. All of these factors have led the West to take a more active role to diffuse a potential powderkeg explosion of human slaughter. Macedonia does not have the best of relations with its neighbors making it a likely target of invasion in the highly volatile region that has seen more than its share of chaos and anarchy in the past. In June of 1998 NATO military maneuvers called Operation Determined Falcon were orchestrated over Macedonia and Albania in order to send a threatening message to the Serbian leadership due to the calculated slaughter and forced removal of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.(1)
However, no country, especially the United States, has purely altruistic intentions.
This is also the case in this instance mainly because such large sums of foreign aid are
involved.
In exchange for this assistance, the Macedonian government agreed to allow U.S. and NATO forces
the use of a quite sizable Krivolak training grounds that are located near the town of Negotino.
With the increase in the slaughter and flight of ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of
Kosovo increasing at the hand of Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, NATO troops were
deployed to the Balkan region in mid-1998.
Twenty-six countries participated in NATO exercises
at the Krivolak military
base in Macedonia in September of 1998 to prepare for a possible attack from the Serb army.
As the conflict in Kosovo escalated in the beginning of 1999, thousands of NATO and U.N.
peacekeeping forces were deployed to the Balkan region to end the Serbian aggression against
the Kosovar Albanians.
Most of these forces were based at the Krivolak training grounds, which proved to be very
useful, not only as a strategic location from which to deploy troops, but possibly to dispose of hazardous military waste.
In March of 1999, the Macedonian government announced its intentions to build a radioactive waste dump near the Krivolak NATO troop base. The head of the Macedonian Ministry of Environment, Sokol Klincarov, has stated that he believes that this location is the most convenient for building a hazardous waste facility. (2) The region, according to Klincarov, is the dryest region in the country and has no underground water supply. He also supported the planned facility in this region because the area is supposedly sparsely populated, has little vegetation and registered rare or endangered species.
Currently, there are no sufficient depositories for industrial, military or chemical waste that has polluted Macedonia;s environment for decades. None of the existing waste sites has the capacity for safely disposing of such waste. The Urban Plan of Macedonia, to be voted on at the end of 1999, has included a specific design to store the hazardous waste at a new facility near the Krivolak troop base. According to the government, there is a great need to build the facility as Macedonia produces enormous amounts of dangerous waste stemming mostly from industry. Macedonian industries reportedly generate over 3,800,000 tons of medical, industrial, and radioactive waste each year with a classified "unknown origin". A State of the Environment report generated by the Macedonian government in 1998 lists solid waste, including radioactive waste, as one of the most perfidious problems currently plaguing the environment. The report explains that tehnologial wastes are mostly buried in the region where they originated. The government admits that there are no appropriate stoage facility for radioactive waste as well. Most of this waste, according to this report, are disposed of together with non-radioactive waste. (6) The impact of the of these wastes has had a devastating affect on the environment. Ground water, surface water and soil in most of the country have been contaminated, with the possibility that there is permanent damage. There have been widespread reports of air, land and water pollution from the bombing and use of depleted uranium munitions. Major General Wald admitted at a Defense Department briefing May 3 that depleted uranium shells were fired from U.S. A-10 aircraft involved in the conflict. "DU is 1.7 times as dense as lead and munitions made from it can punch holes in armored-tanks. The DU shells are radioactive and toxic, but according to NATO they are no more harmful than other heavy metals." (10)
The planned waste facility may be seen in the eyes of the Macedonian government as justified, but the citizens of the region and many environmental nongovernmental organizations view the facility as a threat to their health and the environment. The long term health threats to the Balkan population will potentially be felt long after the NATO troops have left Macedonia. Cancers, immune system damage, leukemias, miscarriages, stillbirths, deformities, and fertility problems are just some of the health problems associated with exposure to radiation. Many symptoms of radiation exposure are disabling, but are not as severe as childhood leukemia, or stillbirths, or cancer, or birth defects. (9) The outrage that this announcment has spurned turned even more hostile as rumors mounted that NATO troops have been importing hazardous waste into the country, even before the Kosovo conflict erupted. Atanas Delov, president of the Negotino based NGO Svetlina, said, "Krivolak is the place for military practices, and that's the reason for fear that nobody could control the waste that which is placed there." She also believes that the environment is not as resistant to the hazardous waste like the government claims. The Macedonian government does point out that its Urban Plan includes new regulations that protect the environment. Under the plan, 359,818 square kilometers or 14 percent of the entire territory of Macedonia will be protected.
During the NATO bombing, many people feared that the bombs would hit certain industries close to the Macedonia-Yugoslav border,
creating an environmental disaster that would affect people living, not only in Macedonia, but in neighboring Albania and Serbia.
Civilians, consisting of people living on the border as well as environmnmetalists and representatives from nongovernmental
organizations threatened mass protests if the NATO bombs hit too close to Macedonia.
Several environmentalists already claim that the toll
the Kosovo conflict has had on the environment is quite high and will continue to have lethal
effects well into the future.
Two environmentalists, Ivan Saltirov and Svetlana Svetlova, are up in arms because there have
been reports that military forces are dumping petrol and unknown substances in Macedonian parks.
Svetlova is one of the outspoken voices claiming that foreign military forces in Macedonia bring
drums of hazardous waste that is often radioactive. (2)
So far, NATO authorities have declined to comment, but the Macedonian government has add ressed the charges with with seemingly perfunctory remarks about waste products polluting the environment. Sokol Klincarov is on record claiming that, "NATO doesn't bring waste into Macedonia, they leave substances which aren't dangerous. I believe that it's ordinary waste and military-technical waste." He did follow his statement by claiming that only ordinary waste, such as motor oil, was found by the Ministry of Environment. Klincarov did say that, " I can't believe that foreign military would abuse Macedonian territory for put the hazardous waste here. It's possible to have some waste from military incidents, but it's not hazardous waste."(3) Mr. Klincarov reitertaed that if it was discovered that NATO, or any other foreign military was bringing in hazardous waste into Macedonia, they would be responsible for the cleanup and proper disposal of the waste and respect the Basel Convention.
The Basel Action Network Website lists the following for a description of the Basel Convention. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal was adopted in Basel, Switzerland on 22 March 1989. The Convention was initiated in response to numerous international scandals regarding hazardous waste trafficking that began to occur in the late 1980s. The Convention entered into force on 5 May 1992 and today has its Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland.The Convention was at first condemned by environmentalists and developing countries as it failed to ban hazardous waste exports to any location other than Antarctica. Since that time however, developing countries and environmentalists have succeeded within the Convention in achieving a decision to ban hazardous waste exports from the wealthiest to less wealthy countries.(4)
On May 12, 1999, it was announced that the United Nations Environment Programme intends to establish a task force to study the environmental effects of the bombing campaign on the human population and the natural ecology in the entire Balkan region. The purpose of the task force is to collect, collate and review available information on impacts on human settlements and actual and potential environmental impacts in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and neighboring countries. Areas in need of assistance and response measures and recommendations on specific actions for the short, medium and long term will be identified by task force members. (10) Unfortunately, due to the denial of Macedonian government that there even is any problem with radiaoctive waste being disposed of illegally or at all, an investigation into this matter is unlikely. Macedonia is at the mercy of western nations as it greatly depends on the financial aid and the military support as ethnic tensions are still high in the Balkan region. If indeed hard evidence does support claims that the western alliance is responsible for disposing of radioactive waste in the region, hopefully the Basel Agreement will mete out the proper punishment.
Continent: Europe
Region: East Europe
Country: Yugoslavia
IV. Environment and Conflict Overlap
V. Related Information and Sources
(2) Dokovska, Natasha. Macedonia Plans Radioactive Waste Dump at NATO Troop Base. ENS; March 18, 1999 http://www.ens.lycos.om/ens/mar99/1999L-03-18-01.html (Accessed September 14, 1999)
(3) Dokovska, Natasha. Macedonia Fears Bombs Could Trigger Eco-Disaster. ENS; March 31, 1999
(4) Basel Ation Network. http://www.ban.org/what_is_basel_c/about_basel_c.html
(5) NATO Web Page. NATO Home Page
(6) Macedonian Ministry of Urban Planning, Construction and Environment. 1998 http://www.soer.moe.gov.mk/vodi_a.htm (7) Kemp, Ray, The Politics of Radioactive Waste Disposal, Manchester University Press, 1992 (8) Blowers, Andrew et al, The International Politics of Nuclear Waste, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 1991
(9) Wendy Oser and Milly Young Brown, The Guardianship Ethic In Response to Radioactive Pollution:A Meta Model for a Sustainable World,Current World Leaders International Issues v. 38, No. 6, December, 1996 The Nuclear Guardianship Library
(10) Schowengerdt, Stephen, "U.N. Panel to Monitor Balkans Environment", National Geographic News, May 12, 1999