20 års markering I München for ICBUW, International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons

Damacio organised a workshop on DU and DU weaponry. It was the first time that I heard about these radioactive and chemical toxic weapons. I was surprised, triggered and wanted to learn more about it.

Damacio proposed to come to Europe the next year 2003 and asked me to organise a speaking tour for him to inform people and politicians about the danger of these weapons, which I did. I made appointments with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with members of the European Parliament, journalists and also with friends activists who proposed to organise meetings to inform the people. We were successful with our plan. Damacio spoke about his own experience with DU weapon tests close to his home in New Mexico. It appealed to people.

The time was ripe to take action because the Balkan syndrome was well known in Europe amongst the military and politicians, there were several well-known cases of military personnel who suffered from the Balkan syndrome. The press and media were ready to report on it.

One of the journalists that we met wrote a book on the issue ‘Met Stille Trom’.

One of my friends introduced us to Fons Vandeputte from Berlaar Belgium, a remarkable man. We explained our mission and Damacio had a plan to invite international human rights and peace activists, academics and others to Belgium. The plan was to start an international network to campaign against DU weapons. But how to start without any financial or logistic means.

Without any hesitation Fons Vandeputte offered us accommodation and logistics to start a first meeting. He hosted the participants in B&B and in his own house, gave us food for free etc. I’m still very grateful for his generosity. Damacio invited people from US – Japan – UK – Holland – Germany – Belgium – Great Britain… The positive energy and the willingness of the group to work together was present. We discussed about our goal to campaign for:

A moratorium or a ban. We choose to go for the ban.

We mirrored the campaign on the cluster munition campaign which was successful. So focussing on one type of weapon and campaigning on it could be achievable.

An office and coordination were set up first in the Netherlands, then in Manchester UK and now the international coordination works from Berlin thanks to Manfred Mohr and Ilia Kukin.

Why we still have no ban treaty?

For many years we were able to lobby national governments to adopt a DU weapons ban on national level. We organised meetings in Finland, Germany, Sweden, UK, France, Costa Rica, Belgium, Ireland, United States… We lobbied UN delegations in NY and Geneva. Several resolutions were adopted throughout the years. They strengthen our campaign. Thanks to Els de Groen the EP adopted in 2008 a far-reaching resolution on a moratorium with the view on a total ban. Many conferences were organised in Japan, US, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Costa Rica and many more. It is admirable to notice that most of all this work was done by motivated volunteers.

We were close to several national legislations in the Nordic countries, New Zealand and Ireland. Until now only Belgium and Costa Rica adopted a nation ban law.

During that lobby time we were funded by Norway so we could afford a coordinator, Doug Weir, and a team to support him.

Unfortunately, the funding stopped, and we had to reduce our lobby activities.

Until more countries join Belgium and Costa Rica in passing national legislation banning DU weapons, the international community will not receive the signal that the world is ready for a global ban treaty. This was also said last month by the Belgian Minister of FA as part of her answer to a parliamentary question on DU deliveries by UK and US to Ukraine.

And now, dear people, 20 years later, we come together again here in Munich to celebrate our 20th anniversary.  I can’t really say that it is a celebration because of all the terrible war crimes that happen right now.

We were shocked by the news that the UK and US are supplying depleted uranium weapons to Ukraine, where they will be used on the battlefield.

No lessons have been learned from the Balkan War and the Iraq War nor from the many studies and reports that demonstrate the harmfulness of these weapons.

The human cost of DU weapons is too high. From a human perspective we cannot tolerate the immense suffering caused by DU weapons even long after war ended.

The starting point of our work is the fundamental rejection of war as a means of conflict resolution. War always means destruction of the environment and all living creatures.

In this mindset we come together today… 20 years later. Do we remain determined to achieve our goal? Will we continue to join forces worldwide? Will we be able to avoid more human suffering from DU weapon use? I really hope so.