DU in Sardinia

Activists in Sardinia, Italy, have called for an immediate halt to all DU testing at the Salto di Quirra test range and the U.S. military base of La Maddalena following what they describe as “a series of anomalies”. They claim there are higher than average rates of cancer and birth deformities in the area and that the military activity is causing “irreversible damage to the image of our island and a risk to the already fragile economy”.

Protests have also followed the death of Sardinian Corporal Major Valery Melis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Melis served as a Peacekeeper in Bosnia and Macedonia. The army consistently denied him care and medical costs up to his death. More than 20 men are thought to have died from illnesses linked to their service in the Balkans, where DU was used in the 1990s.

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