Costa Rica bans Uranium Weapons
This week Costa Rica got a lot of world-wide attention with three hot news stories.
A Costa Rican court sentenced former president Miguel Angel Rodriguez to five years in prison Wednesday after finding him guilty of taking bribes from French telecoms giant Alcatel. Alcatel is no stranger to kickbacks, in Dec, 2010, US Securities and Exchange Commission nailed them with 137 million U.S. dollars in fines and penalties for bribes.
And Costa Rica continues to be the hub for drug traffickers when another drug sub was nailed off Costa Rica by a US Coast Guard cutter with 6.4 tons of Cocaine.
However, the one we consider the most important; on April 27ths, the government of Costa Rica passed a law prohibiting Uranium Weapons in its borders, which makes Costa Rica the second country to pass a national ban. Belgium was the first.
Uranium weapons, often called ‘depleted’ uranium (DU) weapons, are manufactured from radioactive waste materials produced during the nuclear fuel chain and the production of nuclear weapons. They cause widespread and long lasting contamination of the environment. These weapon systems are radiologically and chemically toxic.
DU weapons contaminates land, causes ill-health and cancers among the soldiers using the weapons, the armies they target and civilians, leading to birth defects in children.
On the other hand, military uses include defensive armor plating and armor-piercing projectiles. Its density can penetrate just about any armor. During a three week period of conflict in 2003 in Iraq, 1,000 to 2,000 tons of DU munitions were used. Between 300 and 800 tons of DU particles and dust have been scattered over the ground and the water in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
There are around 20 countries that are thought to have DU weapon systems in their arsenals.
Activists cry, “Crime Against Humanity” and “War Crimes.”
Costa Rica’s banning of Uranium Weapons concurs with the anniversary of the First Latin American Conference on Uranium Weapons organized by the San Jose Quaker Peace Center (CAP), the International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST) and the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW). Efforts to ban Uranium Weapons began in Costa Rica at the beginning of 2009.
Costa Rica also restricts the manufacturing of infrared military ranging equipment
At the same time they also passed amendments to Costa Rica’s Free Trade Treaty to prevent companies from producing or selling uranium weapons in Costa Rica’s Free Trade Zone. Free-Trade Zones (FTZ) are secured areas outside of Costa Rica’s Customs territory – for tariff and customs duty purposes only and the last time we check, there is around 12 locations.
However, this is not the first time Costa Rica has banned some sort of controversial war and military product. Three years ago they took steps were to restrict the manufacturing of infrared military ranging equipment.
It is pretty clear that Costa Rica continues with their World-peace diplomacy’s, and believes these policies should be extended to commerce and manufacturing.
OMG! How dangerous it is. It is good new that depleted are banned now in costa rica. Thanks for good information.
Interesting. Procuring depleted uranium would probably be a nightmare, and the countries that produce nuclear products(I’m sure) are very picky about whom they’d sell it to. Even without the ban, I’m not so sure Costa Rica would want in on that game.