Kuwaiti claims US military caused disaster in the region equivalent to damage from Iranian radiation leak
A Kuwaiti environment watchdog that has accused the US military of causing a disaster in the region almost equivalent to the damage that may occur by a radiation leak from Iran’s nuclear reactors, has deplored the lack of official reactions in both Kuwait and the US.
Khaled Al Hajri, chairman of Green Line Environmental Group (GLEG), on Saturday warned against the impact of the US Army’s radioactive waste on the region, accused the American administration of having ‘double standards’ in dealing with environmental issues and urged the Gulf countries to take appropriate action on the issue.
He issued the charges and warnings amid reports that the US planned to take a radioactive shipment from Iraq, across Kuwait, and bury it in Adeed military base in Qatar.
However, Al Hajri said that the group’s recent revelations about the radioactive waste left by the US Army in Iraq, which it reportedly plans to ship through Kuwait for storage at a site in Qatar, have so far received no response from the Kuwaiti government, although other parties have already expressed interest in the news.
“Many international environmental organizations have contacted us and asked about the information we have published,” Al Hajri told Kuwait Times in an interview published on Wednesday. “We also received inquiries from people in Qatar who were looking into this issue, but the weirdest thing is that we have not seen any interest on behalf of the Kuwaiti government in this regard so far.”
The activist said that the press release issued by GLEG on Saturday included actual steps that can be taken by the Kuwaiti government to prevent any potential risks to the health of Kuwait’s population by these shipments.
“We hope we could be of help in this regard because that is what we aim to do,” he said, according to the Kuwaiti daily.
GLEG said that the White House was guilty of double standards and that it acted very selfishly while dealing with after effects of environmental disasters.
“The US Administration made a very big noise about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. However, it has made the American army the biggest violator of environmental human rights, not only in the whole world, but also in the whole of history, and this is especially apparent in the damage done to the environment in the Arabian Gulf,” the watchdog said. “The US military in Iraq decided to transfer and store radioactive waste, consisting of iron scrap and remnants of destroyed military vehicles contaminated with radioactive particles, to Qatar, making it the biggest store of radioactive waste in the Gulf region.”
GLEG said that “thanks to the help of environmental activists in the region, we received official information that the waste will be transferred from there during the month of Ramadan.”
In his statement, Al Hajri warned about the consequences of not exercising tight environmental control on the US military after it has caused massive damage to environment and public health in Iraq.
He said that the Gulf region could be exposed to nuclear disasters if the region’s governments do not take necessary precautions and measures, “especially in the face of deepening radioactive waste crisis in Kuwait and Iraq, and the presence of warships, carriers and nuclear-powered aircrafts, besides the prospects of getting atomic reactors in the region.”
Gulf governments need to take a strict environmental position to ensure an end to the US military’s environmental destruction in its military operations.
“Qatar today has become the largest store of munitions outside the US and it is storing items with depleted uranium besides the radioactive waste, which makes the issue extremely dangerous,” Al Hajri said. “Green Line has notified environmental authorities in Qatar to take measures to prevent the US military from storing radioactive waste in Qatar and called on Gulf states to review security and military agreements with the US military and include clauses prohibiting it from causing environmental pollution and obliging it to bear the expenses of waste treatment.”
Environmental authorities in the Gulf States should conduct a comprehensive environmental survey of all US military bases, especially after the scandal caused by hazardous waste in Iraq came to light, the activist said.
The activist warned that waste from the US military in Kuwait was being leaked to scrap markets such as Amghara “where Green Line activists found a variety of military waste more than once.”
The Green Line also did a survey of the desert north of Kuwait and found remnants of many US military equipment that were left behind after entering Iraq.
“The US administration need not deny or confirm the information obtained by Green Line, but it should collect the radiation contaminated waste and ship it from Iraq to the United States and deal with it there under the control and supervision of international environmental organizations, especially because it used internationally banned weapons,” he said.
The GLEG chairman said that his organization, in cooperation with other parties interested in environmental protection, will follow up on this issue.
“We are very interested in pursuing this serious matter. At the same time, we understand the sensitivity of this issue, and that is why we understand how important it is to deal with it with patience and wisdom because we need the government to understand that we are talking about an actual threat, and that we are not simply playing cat and mouse with them,” said Al Hajri.
