NARRATOR: Casualties are a part of war...soldiers and civilians alike. But there's a hidden casualty you seldom hear about: the environment.

["America's Defense Monitor" program introduction.]

FUAT KOZLUKLU: Personally, I'm one of the forty or fifty Western journalists who entered the Kosovo with NATO troops. We saw that the water is not clean. And the air was also not clean.

NARRATOR: Fuat Kozluklu is the Washington correspondent for Turkish NTV. He describes the conditions he encountered as he entered Kosovo in June 1999, just days after the war ended.

MR. KOZLUKLU: We didn't walk easily on the street without using some mask to protect our oxygen, which was so dangerous to breathe that oxygen. And we were using masks for the first couple of days, first three days actually.

NARRATOR: The 78-day bombing caused enormous environmental damage. Smoke-filled skies, contaminated land, and polluted water.

MR. KOZLUKLU: Two dead bodies I saw were both swollen and two of the bodies, some part of the bodies inside the water, inside the river, the rest of the it was on the ground. So, how can you say, I mean that there was -- water will go somewhere else other than houses? And people still drinking that water.

NARRATOR: NATO bombing of oil refineries and chemical plants severely polluted nearby water sources. NATO soldiers began drinking only bottled water.

MR. KOZLUKLU: And they don't recommend also to journalists or other humanitarian aid workers to drink that water. So, I'm just speculating; probably they know the water is not safe anymore in Kosovo.

NARRATOR: As horrendous as these damages are, they reflect only the short-term consequences of battle. In a relatively short time, the air will become safe to breathe and the water will be safe to drink, fish will return to the rivers and forests, burned by the military, will eventually be restored. But for Yugoslavia and the surrounding region, the long-term environmental consequences are the greatest cause for concern.

Throughout history, there is little evidence that environmental concerns have ever been taken into account as a long-term problem resulting from war.

PAUL WALKER: The environmental implications of war to my knowledge are never seriously taken into account when you go to war.

NARRATOR: Paul Walker is the Legacy Program Director for Global Green USA, a group which researches environmental consequences of war.

MR. WALKER: The main goal of war is to win the war and we know that there's human and environmental damage that takes place, and that's a de facto result of the war.

NARRATOR: British forces set Romanian oilfields on fire during World I and in World War II, both Germany and the Soviet Union engaged in a "scorched earth" policy calculated to destroy everything in their path. In the Korean War, the United States bombed North Korean dams to trigger widespread flooding. And in Vietnam, the US sprayed Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant, over the jungles. In the Persian Gulf War, as Iraqi troops retreated, they set hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells on fire. These actions and many more would seem to demand that potential environmental damage be taken into consideration when a military operation is being planned.

In this episode of "The Lessons of Kosovo," we will examine the similarities in the environmental impacts of the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Yugoslavia.

MR. WALKER: There's still, indeed, 20, 30 years after the Vietnam War amazingly important and devastating environmental impacts and public health impacts from the war, much more so than people would really realize.

NARRATOR: Over the course of the Vietnam War, the United States used over six million bombs and missiles. Three-and-a- half million landmines were laid by both sides. Every year, men, women and children are still killed or crippled by landmines and unexploded bombs that literally carpet the jungles.

MR. WALKER: So, you wind up, to a large extent, having children and families, particularly farmers, tilling soil, locating, bumping into, stepping on landmines and cluster weapons and the like that, in fact, explode, oftentimes don't kill, but maim very badly, and people lose limbs.

NARRATOR: No matter how careful a person may be, many of these weapons are impossible to detect before it's too late.

MR. WALKER: These weapons can hang in trees. They may be visible in the ground, sticking half out of the ground. They may be buried as far as six or eight feet deep.

NARRATOR: But half-buried bombs and landmines are not the only deadly legacy of the Vietnam War. The jungle was a perfect haven for the enemy, so perfect that US forces felt compelled to conduct a major defoliation campaign designed to expose the hiding enemy.

Admiral Elmo Zumwalt was the commander of US naval forces in Vietnam. He explains the importance of the defoliation campaign.

ADM. ELMO ZUMWALT (USN, Ret.): We began to take casualties at the rate of 6 percent a month. Which meant that the average young man would have about a 70 percent probability of being killed or wounded during his year's tour.

NARRATOR: After the defoliation campaign began, casualties were reduced to less than one percent a month. Ten percent of South Vietnam was sprayed with 11 million gallons of Agent Orange. Decades later, the jungle has still not recovered.

ADM. ZUMWALT: Agent Orange rather quickly kills the leaves and leaves just dead-looking trees and also kills the weeds and grasses in which the enemy was hiding.

NARRATOR: It has become clear that Agent Orange had devastating effects on more than leaves. With the jungle canopy gone, the soil can't sustain life in any form. Not only had the canopy provided essential nutrients, it also prevented soil erosion. But with its protective overhead cover gone, the soil has become a thick, hard crust on which little can grow.

Agricultural lands were also adversely affected by Agent Orange. Immediately after being sprayed, fields would no longer grow crops and 25 years later, these areas are still contaminated.

ADM. ZUMWALT: When I returned to Vietnam in September of 1994, at my request I was taken by the Vietnamese officials to see two areas that had been sprayed that were agricultural. And they were barren of trees and agricultural products, but were filled with a weed-like grass which the Vietnamese had dubbed "American grass."

NARRATOR: Most devastating of all were the long-term adverse health effects on people. Agent Orange has been linked to cancer, birth defects and premature death. An estimated three million acres were sprayed and 28 diseases have been linked to Agent Orange exposure. But at the time it was used, this chemical compound was believed to be totally safe.

The United States has never taken the initiative in helping to reconstitute the land or jungle, nor did Vietnam seek US aid.

ADM. ZUMWALT: In the case of Vietnam, there was initially no obligation to participate in clean-up, nor any possibility of doing so because the communist forces won and wanted nothing at that time to do with US help.

NARRATOR: Once the long-term environmental damage of the Vietnam War became known, it inspired two international treaties: The Environmental Modification Convention, called ENMOD, and Protocol 1 to the Geneva Convention.

Jay Austin, senior attorney for the Environmental Law Institute, explains:

JAY AUSTIN: The concerns were US defoliation practices during the ar, dropping of Agent Orange to clear jungle along river banks and elsewhere in the country.

NARRATOR: The Environmental Modification Convention was drafted to prevent the deliberate manipulation of natural forces, to cause floods and earthquakes, during times of war.

MR. AUSTIN: At the time, there were reports that the US had attempted to seed clouds over North Vietnam to induce floods on the ground. And that's exactly the kind of behavior that the drafters had in mind.

NARRATOR: Protocol 1, an amendment to the Geneva Convention, focuses on actions which cause long-term damage to natural resources.

MR. AUSTIN: It was created in 1977 in the aftermath of the Vietnam War as a specific response to concerns about how that war was conducted. Among many other things, it contains a provision that prohibits widespread, long-term or severe environmental damage during wartime.

NARRATOR: For these two treaties to be effective, the warring adversaries must have ratified them. The United States is not among those who have done so. Although Protocol 1 states that nations who are a party to the treaty are held liable for violations of the treaty, this has never been enforced. This raises the question: Who is responsible for the clean-up once a war is over?

The Iraqi war left the desert contaminated with bombs, bullets, landmines, missiles and oil pools. The allies dropped 88,500 bombs during the course of the war and between five and seven million landmines were laid in Kuwait alone. The estimation of landmines laid in Iraq runs into the millions.

One of the most unforgettable sights in the Iraqi war was the graphic films of 600 blazing oil wells in Kuwait, darkening the skies of the entire nation and spewing oil over hundreds of miles of desert. An estimated 90 million barrels of oil were either burned or spilled out forming oil lakes in the desert. Oil ran into the Gulf, polluted coral reefs, and contaminated birds and fish by the thousands.

Global Green, along with a team of specialists, went to Kuwait in 1998, six years after the war, to examine the long-term environmental impact of the Gulf War. The team found that on the surface the area looked as though nature had somehow reconstituted itself.

MR. WALKER: But, in fact, when you look closer, you find about six inches under the desert, there's still tremendous amounts of oil. The oil sunk down into the sand and sand has blown over the oil slicks, but the oil is still there.

NARRATOR: In fact, two-thirds of Kuwait's underground aquifers, a major source of drinking water, are still polluted by oil. While the allies cannot undo all the pollution caused by the Gulf War, they have attempted to clear the desert of all unexploded munitions.

MR. WALKER: But what they did, interestingly, is they piled all these unexploded ordinance, weapons and landmines that they found in giant piles in the middle of the desert. Recreational use and family outings on the Kuwaiti desert were common before the war, but are now limited for fear of exploded munitions.

NARRATOR: Also in Iraq, for the first time, the United States used depleted uranium shells designed to pierce armor and destroy bunkers. These weapons were made from a dense radioactive metal. British and American tanks fired thousands of these shells in Desert Storm and both American aircraft and snipers fired hundreds of thousands of depleted uranium bullets, which oxidize upon impact.

This created a fine dust which coated destroyed tanks, bunkers and the landscape where they were used. The extensive use of depleted uranium left behind 640,000 pounds of contaminated equipment and soil in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and southern Iraq. There is a strong suspicion among some that depleted uranium is related to what has popularly become known as "Desert Storm Syndrome," which manifested itself by neurological problems, rashes and lung damage. Depleted uranium was a fairly new technology and, like Agent Orange, considered perfectly safe.

Admiral Zumwalt is a member of the Special Oversight Board for the Gulf War. This panel is currently researching the different types of exposures that may have led to the health problems Desert Storm veterans are experiencing.

ADM. ZUMWALT: Exposures that are being examined range all the way from the oil fires to the use of depleted uranium in our shells and projectiles, and to the shots that our people were given.

NARRATOR: After the war, the United States assisted in restoration efforts in Kuwait, but not in Iraq.

ADM. ZUMWALT: With regard to Kuwait, our actions there to help the Kuwaitis clean up their mess, largely at their expense, was an appropriate thing to do. They were our ally and had been invaded and badly brutalized.

NARRATOR: Iraq was not a party to the international Environmental Modification Convention or Protocol 1 to the Geneva Convention and therefore, not legally bound by them. The United Nations ultimately decided Iraq should bear the responsibility for the environmental restoration because it was the aggressor against Kuwait.

MR. AUSTIN: And as a result, the Security Council passed a resolution which held that Iraq was liable for all actions resulting from the invasion and occupation of Kuwait, including the environmental damages.

NARRATOR: A United Nations commission in Geneva is continuing to hear claims, including environmental ones, resulting from the war in the Gulf. In the wake of the Kosovo conflict, the United Nations may begin hearing additional environmental claims from that war.

Several environmental groups raised concerns about the environmental damage that would result from the Balkans war. A Balkans Task Force has been formed by the United Nations to research the extent of the damage.

Klaus Toepfer is the executive director for the United Nations Environment Programme. He organized the Balkans Task Force.

KLAUS TOEPFER: We learned that there is an urgent need for detailed information. We decided to have a Balkan Task Force.

NARRATOR: Initial reports out of Serbia suggested that the environmental damage would be widespread. However, preliminary findings by the task force suggest the damage is not as extensive as was first feared.

MR. TOEPFER: We know until now that there are, of course, quite serious environmental consequences on the local level, but that it is not something like a regional or trans-boundary disaster for the environment.

NARRATOR: They have identified "hot spots" which need immediate decontamination and have urged the West to help. The possibility that the use of depleted uranium in the Gulf War could be responsible for Desert Storm Syndrome had no influence on the use of depleted uranium munitions in Yugoslavia. An estimated half-million depleted uranium bullets were used. Despite initial concerns of high residual radiation levels, recent reports show levels are not as great as originally feared.

MR. WALKER: If you inhale these lightly radioactive particles or if, in fact, they get into the soil and, in fact, they begin to get into plants and food that you eat and get in the food chain, they can be -- over the longer term, it's thought to be hazardous and carcinogenic.

NARRATOR: Depleted uranium weapons were only a fraction of all the weapons used against the Serbs. Much greater environmental damage was caused by much larger bombs and missiles. As part of the air campaign against Serbian forces, NATO targeted oil refineries and chemical factories. The environmental impact of these attacks may last for decades.

Global Green recently visited Kosovo to assess the environmental damage.

MR. WALKER: But it's well-known that we targeted chemical plants, fossil fuel facilities -- not nuclear reactors, but coal and oil facilities. And it's well known that, in fact, there was a lot of oil pollution in the Danube.

NARRATOR: As refineries and factories burned, toxic and carcinogenic chemicals were released into the ground, air and water.

MR. TOEPFER: So, if you burn those substances and chemicals or an oil refinery, they are air pollution, and these are, of course, of negative impact for human health, and a direct immediate impact. We are also to the utmost concerned with regard to the drinking water situation.

NARRATOR: The city of Pancevo was one of the areas hardest hit. The burning oil refineries and chemical plants created a black cloud which darkened the city. Black rain fell on the city, prompting citizens to wear protective masks. Just hours after the April 18, 1999 bombing, the amount of carcinogenic chemicals, such as Dioxin, was more than 10,000 times the recognized safety level. Since then, rains have washed the chemicals into nearby fields, polluting the soil and poisoning the grains, fruits and crops growing on it, as well as everyone who eats them.

MR. TOEPFER: Of course, in the longer term, it is also necessary to learn what is the contamination of soil where you are producing foodstuff. Are there any risk with regard to this food chain? But it is too early to come to a final consequences in this field.

NARRATOR: The food chain is endangered from other sources besides Pancevo. Thirty oil tanks in Novi Sad on the banks of the Danube River burned for ten days, covering the city with a smoke cloud. Rain carried oily grime into both the city and the Danube. The Serbian media also reported several oil slicks on the river, some an inch thick and 21 miles long.

ADM. ZUMWALT: I would not believe any of the Serbian propaganda. They're under the control of a dictator whose concept of truth is his present desire projected backward.

NARRATOR: Paul Walker says Global Green has confirmed some of these reports.

MR. WALKER: There was oil in the Danube and my guess at this point is that there continues to be oil in the Danube.

NARRATOR: Symptoms indicating environmental pollution appeared as soon as the war began. Local citizens complained of severe nausea, headaches and stomachaches. Women in Pancevo were told to avoid pregnancy for at least two years. And those less than nine weeks pregnant were encouraged to have abortions.

Like Vietnam and Iraq, Yugoslavia will suffer the long-term consequences of unexploded munitions. NATO forces released 23,000 bombs and missiles during the 78-day operation. Many of them were cluster bombs which are made up of individual bomblets. It is estimated that 11,000 bomblets failed to explode. In addition, much of the landscape of both Serbia and Kosovo is covered with hundreds of thousands of landmines laid by both the Serbian troops and the Kosovo Liberation Army.

MR. WALKER: If you or I were a refugee heading back, the biggest concern I would have would be stepping on a landmine, or stepping on a cluster weapon that was unexploded, or having my child go out in the backyard and pick up what looked like a little helicopter toy, which is probably a mini-cluster bomb that could blow his arm off or blind him.

NARRATOR: It will take years to remove the estimated half-million landmines in Kosovo alone. Should the United States be required to provide financial help for clean-up efforts? The US has not signed either Protocol 1 or the Environmental Modification Convention and, therefore, has no legal obligation to do so.

MR. AUSTIN: However, it seems to me, given the reports that are coming out of Pancevo about serious exposure to the population and the health effects resulting from that, you could argue that the US has a strong moral obligation for clean-up.

MR. WALKER: If we go into a region and drop weapons or lay landmines, it should be our responsibility to either clean that up ourselves or, in fact, organize groups to help clean it up.

NARRATOR: Admiral Zumwalt suggests assisting only Kosovo in clean-up efforts.

ADM. ZUMWALT: With regard to Kosovo, I think that NATO has a clear responsibility to assist in straightening out the damage there.

NARRATOR: As US national policy stands now, the United States will not become involved in a Serbian clean-up until Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian president, is no longer in power.

MR. AUSTIN: And it seems to me that if environmental clean-up could be characterized as humanitarian aid -- and I think it probably should -- then it could proceed immediately, even given the current policy.

NARRATOR: During the war, the Serbian government filed an emergency action in the World Court, accusing the United States and NATO allies of environmental war crimes.

MR. AUSTIN: And the suits allege that these countries and the bombings were in violation of the Geneva Conventions and Protocol 1, that they were targeting the civilian population, they were destroying objects that were necessary for the support of the civilian population, which is a violation of Protocol 1.

NARRATOR: It is doubtful the environmental damage in Kosovo and Serbia will ever be completely cleaned up. The Serbs and Kosovars will never be sure every unexploded bomb and landmine has been found. And nobody can say with any degree of certainty how long the food chain will be contaminated.

Perhaps in the future, environmental concerns will weigh more heavily in military decisions. There are already proposals for such a policy.

MR. AUSTIN: There are some fairly modest ones, some that would call for the creation of a new convention that declares certain ecologically sensitive areas just to be off-limits and, thus, protected from military activities in the same way that hospitals and churches are supposed to be protected under international law.

NARRATOR: Vietnam and the Gulf War have shown us that littering the land with landmines and unexploded munitions has serious consequences. They have also revealed the dangers of using chemicals and depleted uranium. One of the lessons of Kosovo is that our advancing technology, which makes our weapons more and more lethal, can also result in more lethal environmental consequences.