Keeping on Keeping Uranium in the Ground

Just over 30 years ago — on April 10, 1988 — seven indigenous activists from different parts of the world set out on a three-week public awareness tour through Germany. They called their tour “Leave Uranium in the Ground.” Its purpose was to bring the detrimental impacts of uranium mining and nuclear weapons tests on health, environment and indigenous peoples, to the awareness of German people and decision-makers in provincial and federal parliaments.

The tour triggered inquiries in the German Federal Parliament in regard to the responsibility of German (indirectly government-owned and supported) uranium mining companies in other parts of the world. It also inspired other NGO activities for many years to come.

At the forefront of the struggle to halt the use of nuclear power we still find indigenous peoples as well as disadvantaged local communities in what is called the “Third World.” And it is often they who point out the many human rights violations on different levels, from taking away peoples’ land and livelihood, down to individual death threats, all in the name of so-called “development”.

Read Gunter Wippel's story on the Beyond Nuclear International blog.

(Photo of Pauline Esteves today by Kim Stringfellow.)