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African civil society hits back at uranium mining

African civil society hits back at uranium mining
http://www.namibian,com BRIGITTE WEIDLICHAFRICAN October 28, 2008 communities are gathering to take up the fight against international companies which are mining uranium on their land and their own governments, as they are driven off their land, suffer exposure to radiation and toxic waste at mining sites, a seminar on uranium mining was informed.
“We have formed a civil society organisation and took the Australian mining company Paladin to court,” Reinford Mwangobe of Citizens for Justice (CFJ) told the seminar, organised by Earthlife Namibia and the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRi)……………………..

Mwangobe said 12 Australian companies would start mining uranium in Malawi soon, with Paladin starting in January 2009.

Malawi had no laws in place for handling and transporting radioactive materials, Mwangobe added.

“Rural people who had lived for decades on their ancestral land were kicked off and only paid US$70 as compensation.

The locals have no benefits from mining, only some government officials and Paladin,” he stated.

“The best way to act against such companies was to take the case to their own countries and alert shareholders who did not want bad publicity and their share prices drop.”

A representative from Tanzania, Anthony Lyamunda, said 20 international companies were lined up for uranium mining in his country.

His people recently started the civil society Foundation for Environmental Management and Campaign Against Poverty (Femapo) to help 450 000 rural people living in 786 villages in the areas were uranium mining was taking place or planned.

African civil society hits back at uranium mining

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

October 29, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics