Two areas in Yugoslavia hit by NATO air strikes this spring are environmental “hot spots” in need of immediate decontamination, Pekka Haavisto, head of the U.N. environment team’s Balkan task force, said yesterday. Pancevo, a petrochemical industry area north of Belgrade, should be cleaned up before pollution contaminates the Danube River, and Kragujevac, an industrial town in central Serbia, has a toxic waste problem that needs to be dealt with. The U.N. team is still exploring the possible consequences of depleted uranium used in munitions during the conflict, and a report will be completed in early October. The World Wildlife Fund, which sent its own team of investigators, says that drinking water supplies in parts of Yugoslavia and neighboring countries are at risk in the aftermath of the war.
