Canadian Mounties' Investigation:
Chemical Weapons Used Against Civilians in Croatia?
[Croatia; chemical weapons; Yugoslavia]

A recent enquiry by the Canadian Minister of Defense (launched in July 1999) points to the possibility of toxic poisoning of Canadian peacekeepers while on service in Croatia between 1993 and 1995. Canadian peacekeepers had allegedly been exposed to PCBs and bauxite "and may be suffering illness from toxins in dirt used to fill sandbags" ("Ailment baffles officer," Toronto Star, July 30, 1999). The official release of the Department of National Defense (DND) refers to the possibility of toxic "soil contamination" in Medak Pocket in 1993 coinciding chronologically with the massacre of Croatian Serbs under Operation Scorched Earth.

Was it "soil contamination" or something far more serious? The subsequent criminal investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) refers to the shredding of medical files of former Canadian peacekeepers by the Canadian Department of Defense: "The military letter attesting to chemical exposure ... had been removed from ... former peacekeepers' medical files" (National Post, Aug. 19, 1999).

There was a smell of blood in the air during the past week [late July 1999] as the media sensed they had a major scandal unfolding within the Department of National Defense over the medical files of those Canadians who served in Croatia in 1993. Allegations of destroyed documents, a coverup, and a defensive minister and senior officers.... (Lewis MacKenzie, "Giving our soldiers the benefit of the doubt," National Post, Aug. 2, 1999).

The Mounties' investigation has revealed that a much larger number of Canadian soldiers has been affected by unexplained symptoms. Did the DND have something to hide? The issue remains as to what types of shells and ammunition were used by the Croatian Armed Forces in the Canadian sector.

The use of prohibited toxic shells, grenades, and ammunition in the former Yugoslavia has been documented in several press reports. (See BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 11:13 GMT, June 20, 1994; see also "Bosnians Said To Be Using Chemical Grenades In War," Reuters, Oct. 21, 1993). Were chemical weapons used against Serb civilians and Canadian peacekeepers in Krajina and the Medak Pocket?

—Michel Chossudovsky