MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd March, 2019) NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia's dangerous facilities, including petrochemical enterprises, carried out 20 years ago created a threat of the difficult environmental situation in this country, Yury Brazhnikov, who at that time was a member of the group of the international coalition named Focus, which provided humanitarian assistance to the population of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), told Sputnik.
The NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began on March 24, 1999. The alliance's military operation was carried out without the UN Security Council's approval and was based on allegations of Western countries that FRY authorities carried out ethnic cleansing of thousands of Albanians in Kosovo and provoked a humanitarian catastrophe there.
NATO forces actively used munitions with depleted uranium in strikes against military targets, as well as cluster and high-explosive aerial bombs, many of which did not explode and still lie in the ground.
Basically, civilians became the victims of the aggression. According to various accounts, 2,500-3,500 people, including 89 children and 1,031 military and police officers, died during the 78 days of airstrikes. Some 12,500 people were injured, 5,000 of them were military and police officers.
During the first days of hostilities, it became clear that NATO intends to destroy, first of all, oil refineries and petrochemical facilities, relevant storage facilities, bridges, highways and railways, as well as energy and telecommunication facilities in Yugoslavia.
"During the bombing of certain facilities, NATO for the first time used cluster bomb units with carbon fiber composite in order to destroy energy systems. For that reason, there were signs of mass radiation phobia among the population," Brazhnikov recalled.
The international group of experts first examined such cities as Belgrade, Pancevo, Novi Sad, Cuprija, Kragujevac, Aleksinac, Nis, Vranje, Vladicin Han, Surdulica, Prishtina, Decani, Peja, Kursumlija, Krusevac and Kraljevo. At the first stage, more than 60 different facilities were examined, including the main industrial centers, which occupied about 30 percent of the FRY territory
In total, experts examined more than 160 energy and industrial facilities, as well as communication systems, transport and infrastructure facilities. As a result of the airstrikes, automobile and railway bridges were destroyed. That led to the disruption of the FRY transport communication systems.
"It allowed us to fundamentally strengthen the capacity of the international assessment mission, which put a new spin in studying and analyzing the consequences of missile and bomb strikes on the FRY territory," Brazhnikov said.
The most severe environmental consequences were associated with the bombing of petrochemical and chemical complexes in Pancevo, oil refinery plant in Novi Sad, and a large fuel storage facility in the village of Bogutovac in the municipality of Kraljevo.
In particular, the ammonia unit and the finished product unit were completely destroyed at the HIP Azotara fertilizer plant in Pancevo. The maximum permissible amount of ammonia was two to three times exceeded. Almost 200 tonnes of toxic tetraethyl lead were released into the environment at the oil refinery. Almost 8 tonnes of mercury and its combinations got into the soil and groundwater at the Petrohemija petrochemical plant, because the manufacturing line of chlorine production unit had been destroyed.
The refinery in Novi sad was completely destroyed. More than 5,300 cubic meters (187,167 cubic feet) of oil got into the channel and then in the Danube river. In addition, fluorine from a foam solution got into the river during the fire-fighting operation. In some areas, the depth of hydrocarbons penetration into the soil reached 70 centimeters (27.5 inches).
After the airstrike in Bogutovac, about 17,000 tonnes of petroleum products were released into the environment, some of which got into Ibar river. The amount of hydrocarbons exceeded the maximum permissible amount by 25 times, and the amount of sulfur - by 2-3 times. Only as a result of these raids the basins of Ibar and West Morava rivers are under catastrophic environmental threat.
"Taking into account the location of hazardous facilities subjected to missile and bomb strikes, the adverse environmental situation spread mainly along the Danube River and its tributaries, by air and affected the neighboring to Yugoslavia territories of Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania," Brazhnikov said, adding that these chemical compounds and petroleum products were extremely dangerous to one's health.
Subsequently, the experts recorded the facts of oil and oil products spreads along almost the entire length of the Lower Danube and even in some water areas of the Black Sea.
An unusually heavy rainfall and unstable atmospheric disturbances during the bombings worsened the situation. Therefore, many hazardous chemicals spread to other countries. For example, exceedances of dioxins were recorded in the air in the region of Athens.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS OF THE BALKANS
Comprehensive surveys of destroyed dangerous facilities allowed the international experts of the Focus coalition to come to the conclusion about the threat of the severe environmental situation on the FRY territory.
Mercury pollution, crude oil and petroleum products in open waters, as well as releases of toxic transformer oil into the environment were particularly dangerous to people.
"The pollution posed a threat to the health of the population living in the central regions of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and in the Danube River basin," Brazhnikov stressed.
It was stated at a press conference in Belgrade on August 14, that the analysis on the basis of laboratory studies of the environmental impact had been completed in cooperation with the competent Yugoslav authorities.
"A group of Russian experts for the first time showed on the working map areas of chemical pollution, including oil spills, areas, where ammunition with depleted uranium shells had been used, as well as routes of assessment teams that visited almost all areas of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," Brazhnikov added.
The experts noted that if emergency measures were not taken, the environmental problems would become durable and long-lasting and might spread to neighboring countries of the Danube basin.
Later, all materials of the working group were summarized and published in the FRY as scientific and practical research.
On behalf of the Focus leadership, they were then transferred to the United Nations for further evaluation and for proposals within the United Nations Environment Programme.
According to Brazhnikov, the assessment of the environmental situation on the FRY territory after NATO bombings was carried out by the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations within the framework of the Focus international expert group. This research� is necessary for making practical, far-reaching conclusions� and consequences of modern wars, Brazhnikov concluded.
