Serbia criticizes NATO for conducting 'inhumane experiments' in Yugoslavia

According to Ms. Grujicic, poisoning from these munitions has led to an increase in cancer, autoimmune diseases and infertility.

NATO used 10 tonnes of depleted uranium – used to make hard cores for armor-piercing shells – in its 1999 bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, the alliance acknowledged in a report the following year. While the report said depleted uranium posed “practically no danger” when ingested or absorbed through a wound, evidence from Serbia suggests otherwise.

The building was damaged in a NATO bombing in 1999. Photo: Getty Images

In an interview with Serbia's RTS TV channel on March 25, Minister Grujicic emphasized: "Radiation existed at the time of the explosion, and then the nanoparticles exerted their harmful effects."

These nanoparticles “go into your lungs, your digestive tract, your kidneys, and then at any moment an alpha particle, which is 50 times more carcinogenic than other particles, will split off a depleted uranium atom in your body and turn a normal cell into a malignant cell,” she explained.

Minister Grujicic added that Serbian doctors began noticing an increase in cases of leukemia and lymphoma seven years after the bombing campaign, and have since recorded increases in cancers, pregnancy complications, autoimmune diseases, mental disorders in children and infertility in men.

“It is an ugly and inhumane experiment for the entire region, not just Serbia and Montenegro. I hope the international scientific community will understand that this substance needs to be scientifically investigated and depleted uranium weapons will be banned,” she said.

Minister Grucijic has long called for an international investigation into NATO's use of depleted uranium. The former neurosurgeon told the media in 2016: "It is essential that Serbian citizens know the extent and type of damage they suffered," pointing out that 5,500 out of every 100,000 Serbs suffer from cancer, a rate nearly three times the global average./.