COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixtieth session
Item 15 of the provisional agenda

The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.

1. The Shimin Gaikou Centre strongly welcomes the increased international attention paid to the human rights abuses and environmental contamination resulting from the use of depleted uranium weaponry since the 1991 Gulf War. In particular, we note the important progress made by United Nations Agencies such as UNEP and non-governmental organizations in their efforts to document the environmental contamination caused by the use of depleted uranium bullets in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq; and by the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in its reference to human rights violations resulting from new weaponry, including depleted uranium bullets, in Resolution E/CN.4/SUB.2/RES/1996/16.

2. Furthermore, we acknowledge UNEP's investigation and study of military activities and environmental standards (as part of Programme for the Development and Periodic Review of Environmental Law for the First Decade of the Twenty-first Century: Montevideo programme III) as a significant step toward the resolution of these problems.

3. The problem of depleted uranium bullets is not limited to its use in battle, as evidenced by its use in bombing ranges during military training in Okinawa, Puerto Rico, South Korea and Germany. In particular, the long-term environmental contamination caused by the use of depleted uranium bullets in huge bombing ranges conducted in indigenous peoples' lands, such as in the case of Okinawa, is of great concern because it violates a wide range of indigenous peoples' rights, including their economic, social, cultural and environmental rights.

4. Regarding this point, we strongly recommend that UNEP and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights draw on available information on areas where depleted uranium bullets are used, and the quantity used, during peace time military activities in order to compile a report on associated human rights and indigenous rights abuses for submission to the UN General Assembly. We would like to ask that the Commission on Human Rights aggressively promote this effort and, in conjunction, request that the General Assembly immediately adopt a resolution establishing measures for long-term monitoring of those regions suffering from environmental contamination and human rights violations as a result of depleted uranium usage.

The use of depleted uranium munitions in Okinawa

5. According to declassified documents, on at least three different occasions from December 1995 to January 1996, the US military used 1,520 rounds (approximately 230 kilograms) of depleted uranium munitions in its training exercises on Torishima Island in the territory of the indigenous Okinawan people.

6. From 1998 to 2002, the US military authorities in Okinawa conducted multiple environmental impact studies, maintaining throughout that concerns about environmental contamination were unfounded. During these studies, however, the military itself sought to recover spent rounds mainly from its northern training area where depleted uranium munitions are known to have been used, recovering only 247 bullets. In February 1997, the Japanese government carried out its own study on the island. Although it confirmed a high concentration of toxicity in one spot of the northern area, the government reported that overall there was no fear of environmental contamination.

7. Like US military institutions throughout Okinawa (where 75% of all US military installations in Japan are located), land was appropriated to establish target ranges on Torishima Island, in violation of national and international laws such as the Hague Convention on Land Battles. The rights of the Okinawan people to access the island or to carry out their own environmental assessments remain unrecognized. For these reasons, results from studies carried out by the US military and Japanese government regarding the state of environmental contamination at this and other bases are generally not believable to the Okinawan people.

8. Furthermore, despite the Japanese government's own ban on the use of depleted uranium weaponry, it has not taken comprehensive steps to prevent its use in Okinawa. This indifference, plus the continued storage of depleted uranium rounds at the Kadena Ammunition Storage site located in the middle of Okinawa Island, highlights the government's discriminatory policies in relation to Okinawans. The Japanese government's continued lack of concern about depleted uranium and associated environmental contamination and human rights abuses came to light in an official document on depleted uranium weaponry in battle fields submitted by the administration to the Japanese national legislature in August 2003. The residents of Okinawa, therefore, are being forced to live with insecurity by a government they would in fact like to be able to trust, as the only country to have experienced the A-bomb.

9. Anticipating the eventual restoration of their land rights, the Okinawan people continue to demand their right to carry out environmental research themselves, in the whole of their territory, in order to ensure the protection of their environment.

10. The SGC would like to thank the Association of Indigenous Peoples in the Ryukyus(AIPR), the Okinawa Environmental Network and the Okinawa Citizens' Information Centre(OCIC) for their collaboration in the preparation of this statement.

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* This written statement is issued, unedited, in the language(s) received from the submitting non-governmental organization(s).