Uranium Mining and Human Rights- Indigenous Voices Speak out

The Beyond Nuclear project based in Washington DC recently convened a series of speaking events for Indigenous people affected by nuclear industry projects.

Featured speakers included Mitch, an Arrernte/Luritja woman from Central Australia, Sidi-Amar Taoua, a Toureg nomad from Niger and Manuel Pinto, an Acoma Pueblo person from New Mexico who won the 2008 nuclear free futures award. Dr Bruno Chareyron, director of CRIIRAD (Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity) also participated in the tour to present his research of uranium contamination in Niger.

The tour was timed to coincide with the Powershift Youth Climate Action Conference, which was attended by around 12 000 people from across the USA. There was a strong focus on ‘carbon free, nuclear free’ campaigning, with the panel discussions on nuclear issues attracting over 500 people.

Over the three days of speaking tour events, which included a press conference, film screening of Poison Wind (directed by Jenny Pond), and lobbying on Capitol Hill, the Indigenous speakers shared many personal experiences and insights about the devastating effects of the nuclear industry on land, culture and communities.

Mitch, who has spent years fighting a radioactive dump proposed on her traditional land said; we have companies coming into Australia and we are told that uranium is clean and green and its renewable energy. We know that this is lies and this is a disgusting form of control over a population that is made to rely on the government for all their resources, their energy, their consumption.

It is policies of genocide so that other people can have power.

We are told that the next generation will have the education and the smarts to fix up our problems… but I don’t think we have the moral rights as your elders to leave the mess for you to fix up.

We do not want the next generation to try and get water out of rock, to get air out of sludge, to get food out of the bottom of the sea that is full of algae.

Sidi-Amar Taoua explained the impact of the uranium mining industry on Toureg people and their traditions;

The Toureg remain of one of the last people who live in the Saharan desert. Their way of life revolves around finding grazing for flocks of livestock in one of the planet’s hardest landscapes.

Uranium continues to be a critical French national interest since the country produces more than 80 per cent of energy from power plants that are fuelled by Niger uranium. One French lightbulb in three is lit by uranium from Toureg land.

People have many kind of diseases. Many are worried about the spread of radioactive dust from the mining companies bulldozers and machines. People are forced to pick through the company garbage for scrap metal to build and furnish their houses. Meanwhile French mining executives and other expatriates live nearby in luxurious villas with land and swimming pools.

Toureg believe uranium mining and its attendant operations pose a critical threat for the environment and especially for the Toureg existence. The Toureg have inhabited this part of northern Niger since the 19th century. They understand that the world is changing but they are asking that their rights as indigenous people, their land and their way of life to be respected.

With the nuclear industry still insisting a ‘nuclear renaissance’ is around the corner, Manuel Pino from the Acoma Pueblo tribe succinctly pointed out;

…how can we put the cart before the horse and say that nuclear power is the answer when we cant even dispose of the waste or clean up the existing legacy mines or mills that exist, in a majority of times, on indigenous peoples lands.

Written by Natalie Wasley
Beyond Nuclear Initiative-uranium project coordinator
www.beyondnuclearinitiative.wordpress.com

Beyond Nuclear News

Sounds like Nat and Mitch are making waves in the United States.
Stay tuned for more info...
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From the Age.

US lawmakers warned about uranium mining
February 28, 2009 - 1:04PM
Australian aborigines, a French physicist and a US actor joined representatives of indigenous peoples from Africa and the United States on Friday to send US lawmakers a stark warning about the dangers of uranium mining.
"We want US lawmakers to understand that uranium mining is highly pollutant and that there is currently no scientific answer to the question of radioactive waste containment," said Bruno Chareyron of France's CRIIRAD laboratory, which measures radioactivity in the environment.
"We want them to know that the information they are given by the mining companies is not wholly reliable," he said.
Representatives of the Tuareg nomads of Niger, Native Americans and Australian aborigines told of the ravages of uranium mining on their communities.
In Niger, French company Areva has been mining uranium for more than 40 years with "no regard for the environment, people's health, animals", said Sidi-Amar Taoua, a Tuareg who has lived for seven years in the United States.
"Uranium mining has impacted every area and sparked a war between the Tuareg who took up arms to defend their land, and the government, which is complicit with Areva," he said.
Areva announced last month that it has applied for US government approval to build a $US2 billion ($A3.08 billion) uranium enrichment plant in the northwestern state of Idaho.
The project would be the French state-controlled group's first uranium enrichment plant in the US.
Native American lands in the southwestern US have been the site of more than 1,300 uranium mines.
Although most have been closed, the mines' legacy includes contaminated drinking water and illnesses from cancer to kidney disease, said Native American environmental activist Manny Pino.
"In this process of nuclear renaissance, it's almost like the federal government is ignoring the historical legacy of uranium mining in the past and prioritising the economic benefits of nuclear power in the future at the expense of our land, our water and our people," he said.
Mitch, an aboriginal militant against radioactive waste dumps and uranium mining in Australia, the world's biggest producer of the mineral, said: "Short term monetary gain will leave us with long-term deadly waste for generations to come."
Uranium mining saw a long boom period in the US between the 1940s and 1980s, before coming to a near halt in the 1990s as prices paid for the mineral plummeted.
In 2005, as uranium prices were starting to climb upwards again, the Navajo passed a law banning the mining or processing of uranium on their lands.
But when the price of the mineral peaked at around $US140 ($A215.52) a pound in 2007, mining companies descended "like vultures" on uranium-rich areas, 70 per cent of which are situated on land inhabited by low-income indigenous communities, said James Cromwell, the actor who played George H.W. Bush in the film W, which has just opened in Australia.
As oil and gas prices spiked last year, nuclear power gained ground as an attractive energy option to ensure US energy independence.
Then secretary of the interior Dirk Kempthorne authorised uranium exploration near the Grand Canyon, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
"There's a lot of activity. When uranium prices went up we saw proposals for exploration all over the place," said Sandy Bahr of environmental group the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon chapter.
In January, Arizona lawmaker Raul Grijalva introduced a bill in Congress that would permanently withdraw from mineral extraction one million acres of public lands in watersheds surrounding the Grand Canyon.
© 2009 AFP

http://beyondnuclearinitiative.wordpress.com
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Beyond Nuclear Initiative Uranium Project
natwasley@alec.org.au08 8952 20110429 900 774

Beyond Nuclear Initative News - Make a submission

Make a submission to the Inquiry into Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament!
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In October 2008, the Prime Minister requested the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties to conduct an Inquiry into Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament – see: http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/jsct/nuclearnon_proliferation/index.htm

The Committee is to inquire into and report on:
The international treaties involving Australia which relate to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
How these treaties advance Australia's objectives in this field.
How the treaties might be made more comprehensive or effective.
How inter-parliamentary action can assist in strengthening treaty-based aspects of the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime.
How the Committee and the Parliament can contribute to the work of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.
This is a key opportunity for civil society to comment on Australia's performance, positions and potential future role in international disarmament and nuclear diplomacy, and in Australia’s uranium exports bi-lateral agreements and the need for strengthened nuclear safeguards in Australia being the world’s second largest uranium exporter and the present system being at best seriously inadequate.

Submissions are due by 30 January (extensions are being granted until 15 February by calling 026277 4642 or e-mailing: jsct@aph.gov.au). The Committee will report on 18 June 2009.

Beyond Nuclear News

There have been some interesting developments in the anti-dump campaign this week:

1. ANSTO’s application last week to build a new radioactive waste storage building on site at Lucas Heights highlights to the federal government that there are more options for radioactive waste management than a remote dump in the NT (see media release below). There is the opportunity for public comment on this application until September 30.

The referral document can be downloaded from
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/epbc/epbc_ap.pl?name=referral_detail&p
roposal_id=4459

Comments can be emailed to epbc.referrals@environment.gov.au

2. WA Greens Senator Scott Ludlam tabled a bill in the Senate today to repeal the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act, which has allowed a federal dump to be forced on the NT. Repealing this undemocratic Act was a clear election commitment from the ALP, but since forming government there has been no previous indication this will go ahead. It is a welcome move from the Greens that they have decided to introduce this Bill to push things along.

Yesterday Senator Kim Carr stated in Senate question time that Minister Martin Ferguson has indicated (for the first time) the government will repeal the Act.

While this is great news for communities living near the targeted areas, it has not happened yet, and our local ALP federal members would no doubt appreciate a flood of calls and emails urging them to help this Bill go through!

Contact:

Senator Trish Crossin
Senator.crossin@aph.gov.au
Phone: (02) 6277 3777
Fax: (02) 6277 3661

Minister Warren Snowdon
Warren.snowdon.mp@aph.gov.au
Tel: (02) 6277 7620
Fax: (02) 6273 7112