Guest guest Posted September 11, 2006 Report Share Posted September 11, 2006 At 07:13 AM 9/11/06, you wrote: >Poisonous clouds of pollution spread after Israel air strike >Posted by: " Mark Graffis " mgraffis mgraffis >Sun Sep 10, 2006 7:07 am (PST) >http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1433338.ece > >Poisonous clouds of pollution spread after Israel air strike > >Lebanese minister says damage was deliberate, causing 'an even bigger >disaster than the war itself' > >By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor Published: 10 September 2006 > >More people will die as a result of pollution unleashed by Israel's >bombing of the Lebanon than perished in the month-long war itself, the >Lebanese government believes. > >Yacoub Sarraf, its Environment Minister, speaking exclusively to The >Independent on Sunday, said last week that a highly poisonous cloud spread >over a third of the country - an area that is home to half its people - >from a fire in a bombed fuel tank that burned for 12 days. > >The same bombing released about four million gallons of oil into the sea, >in the largest ever spill in the eastern Mediterranean. He insists that >the environmental damage was " deliberately " caused. Experts say that, if >this was so, it would constitute a war crime, in breach of both the Geneva >Convention and the statute of the International Criminal Court. Israel >retorts that any such suggestion is " very ridiculous " . > >The damage began on 13 July, when Israeli rockets hit a fuel storage tank >at the Jiyyeh power station 18 miles south of Beirut. The government >managed to repair the damage and prevent an oil spill. But two days later, >he continued, the rockets returned, not merely hitting the same tank again >- just 25 metres from the sea - but fatally damaging its protective burm, >a concrete and earth barrier designed to stop any oil spilling from the >tank from reaching the Mediterranean. > > " It was definitely deliberate., " he said. " They did not hit the power >station, just the fuel storage, and this was the tank that was closest to >the sea. " > >He expects the greatest " catastrophe " from the toxic cloud that was blown >by the prevailing wind over Beirut and one-third of the country. Tests >have shown, he says, that it contains high levels of poisonous lead and >mercury, and highly dangerous PCBs. > > " Not only have we been breathing this for a month, but all the >agricultural produce has been subjected to it. Even worse, all these >poisons will come down with the rain, and some will seep through the soil >and give us a polluted water table. > > " Then in a couple of years every single citizen in Lebanon will definitely >be subjected to poisonous matter in his drinking water. " He expected more >Lebanese to die from the pollution than the 1,300, overwhelmingly >civilians, killed in the war. He added that studies have shown there would >be decreased fertility and higher rates of cancer. " This is a bigger >disaster even than the war itself, " Mr Sarraf said. > >A spokesman for the Israeli government said: " We deny the minister's >accusations. They seem to be very ridiculous. > > " We never deliberately targeted any civilian capacity or place, we only >targeted places or facilities relevant to Hizbollah. " ****** Kraig and Shirley Carroll ... in the woods of SE Kentucky http://www.thehavens.com/ thehavens 606-376-3363 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.859 / Virus Database: 585 - Release 2/14/05 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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