Speach At The United Nations
May 4th, 2005
Bilbo Taylor
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| Speach At The United Nations May 4th, 2005 Bilbo Taylor |
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Hi my name is Bilbo I am a grass roots activist from Australia. I'd particularly like to thank Johnella and pay my respect to the sovereign nations of Turtle Island. Thank you, it was really special having you and your son walk with us. Thank you.
I work as a grass roots activist, have for many years with indigenous communities in Australia and we mainly focus on the terrifying impact that uranium mining has on those communities. The area in which I lived is a place called Lake Eyre. It is in the northern part of South Australia, it is a desert region. There is not much water out there. All the water out there is underground water that supports all life. MAP WAS SHOWN: The place I lived is here.... Adelaide is down here. Can we insert the map? Lake Eyre is about 1000 kilometers north of Adelaide. The reason why we lived there with the Arabunna people and Kokatha people.... is the worlds, well soon will be the worlds largest uranium mine - Roxby Downs Olympic Dam Uranium Mine (RDODUM). It is about 100km south of Lake Eyre. (Bilbo points to area on Map) This point here. The largest one in the Southern Hemisphere and it's one of the largest known uranium deposit in the world. Its about to undergo a 3 times expansion and become the largest uranium mine in the world. It has been there since 1982-83. There was massive resistance from the Kokatha and Arabunna people when that mine was being built in the early 1980's. A group of women called the Kupa Pity Kungka Tjuta who are senior Aboriginal women, who are also survivors from British nuclear bomb tests in the 1950's, and other indigenous elders organized a protest there. They put their lives on the line, sat in front of bulldozers but yet the mine went in. A bit of history about the mine. A man called Richard Yeeles who was working for the SA Government, pens something called the Roxby Downs Indenture Act. It allowed Western Mining Corporation (WMC), the Corporation that owns that mine - managers it and runs it - to write their own ticket. They moved outside Australian Law. They didn't have any environmental concerns put on them. They had a 'free card' to do whatever they wanted. Richard Yeeles, then went onto become WMC's Divisional Manager of Environmental and Corporate Affairs. He's the man we deal with everyday. The mine out there is built on many sacred sites for the Kokatha people. Since 1982 they have been forbidden to practice their spiritual beliefs. They are forbidden from ceremony because the mine itself is built on their sacred sites. It uses over 47 million liters of water a day, which is sucked from Arabunna peoples' country at Lake Eyre. It's underground water that feeds the whole desert community. Australia is about 76% desert and most of Australia relies on the underground water for its drinking supplies, for agriculture, for farming, and all of the indigenous plants and animals in that region rely on this water which comes up out of the ground as mound springs. These are sacred sites for indigenous people... many of these mound springs have died since the mine came. It uses 47 million liters of water a day! If the mine expands, which it is looking like it will do, as soon as they come up with 6-7 billion dollars, they could use over 100 million liters of water a day. All of that water is radioactive and contaminated at the end of the day. 100 million liters of water becomes radioactive and contaminated in one day, every day of the year, it never ceases! It sits in tailings dams, which continually leak, and leach into other areas of ground water and the surrounding dessert, birds and animals drink that tailing and die. The tailings are also contaminated with arsenic, and other metals and chemicals that are used in the mine for processing of copper, gold and uranium. So it's an environmental disaster. It's a massive operation, a massive operation. It spews out radon gas 24 hours a day. People in the surrounding area cannot collect rainwater when it rains because there is so much radon gas in dust particles sitting on their roof. Workers at the mine get shuffled out of there who are dying of cancer, but they sign contracts. It is all contract work. They sign on a contract for 2 years and that contract means that they can never talk about what happens to them at the mine. We only know that workers get sent out in the middle of night because some of the nurses at the hospital actually came and told us about it. Roxby Downs only exists as a mining town. It has one of the biggest birth rates in South Australia, because it's always young families that go there and get employed at the mine. Those workers that are getting shuffled out are - men in their 20's, men in their 30's, sometimes men in their 40's and in their 50's. But they are dying of cancers as the effect of working in the uranium mine. As well in the surrounding Aboriginal communities, many people are ill and sick. You might say what has this got to do with proliferation of nuclear weapons. Uranium mining is the beginning of proliferation!! Uranium mining is the start of the process that allows nuclear weapons to be built!! It is culturally devastating for Indigenous people, it is devastating for their health, and it devastating for the workers that the mine. The mining companies and the government get away Scot free with mass murder. What is actual happening out there is - genocide!! We work a lot, on this sort of stuff in Australia because we don't have nuclear weapons, but we are a major supporter of nuclear weapons around the world. We supply Japan with about 1/3rd of its nuclear fuel and as Atsuko will explain latter you will find out where that nuclear fuel is going to end up. It was Roxby Down's uranium that was probably involved in the Tokai Mura accident in Japan where many 100's of people were exposed to radiation poisoning. So if you think uranium mining doesn't have anything to do with proliferation - think again. Many people will die from the nuclear industry whether it is uranium mining, reprocessing, nuclear power, weapons, or waste dumping any part of that industry. As many people will die from that industry that have died from nuclear bombs. That industry relies on tactics of war, there is no peaceful use of nuclear substances. Whether it is uranium mine or any part of the industry - just go to Three Mile Island down the road and ask the community there what happen to them when they spoke out after the accident. This industry relies on fear and intimidation and violence to get what it wants. In that region there (points to map) WMC paid other aboriginal people to come into that community and actively assault the Arabunna people in order to get through a Native Title claim to secure more water rights. When this other group came in, they were handed thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars. In one weekend they drank the small township of Maree (where we lived a lot of the time), dry, and then rioted and tried to kill Arabunna people in order to frighten them out of their resistance towards the water rights and the mine. These are the tactics that mining company's use, these are the tactics that the nuclear industry uses wherever it goes. When people speak out, they get followed and harassed by government officials or by mining company officials. We have heard the stories at Three Mile Island about that. We have also heard the stories in Japan about that. I live it in Australia. We live under threat. When we are there campaigning at Roxby Downs, they employ Mercenary thugs. These guys are highly organized military personnel, and they employed them to keep us under control. There is no peaceful use of nuclear industries. There is no peaceful use of uranium. The whole industry is built on violence, deception and poison. We are really trying to link this whole thing through. If we want to see an end to nuclear weapons then the first step is to end uranium mining... The very first step. Even if we ended all uranium mining today and shut down the industry we will still be dealing with the stuff we have got for generations to come. If we don't do that today, we are going to be dealing with that for a lot longer, if we are alive to see the end of it. It's not good enough for us from Australia to sit back and think that we have no role in proliferation - because we do - a big role in it. Our government fails every time a proliferation treaty comes along at the United Nations to make a stand against proliferation. It just curtails to America. We have to think really hard about what we are going to do to change the future. It's simply not good enough just to ban nuclear weapons, because as long as there is an industry there will always be the potential for nuclear weapons. We need to think hard about what sort of life we want to leave for our children, and their children, and their children. We have to think hard about what we going to do. I don't have any faith in the United Nations, or our representatives here. I think what they will say, will amount to nothing. But the NPT is the only thing we've got to work with. We need to put pressure on those people. We need to make them honest. Coz, I am not interested in politics, I am interested in life. It's the reason why we walk, to do this. When you walk - you meet people, you hear their real life experiences, you see their pain and suffering, you see the disease, you see the destruction of their environment; you see all of these things everyday face to face. It's the best way to change some-ones mind if they are thinking that the nuclear industry is o.k. - "Go to Three Mile Island and talk to those people, that's your closest accident site from here". So we walk. We walk for all the people that cannot be here, the indigenous, the dispossessed and the poor people of the world - who are the ones who will be the first victims every time from this insidious industry. We walk and carry their stories. The untold stories that no one gets to hear. My father was an occupation forces soldier of Nagasaki. He was poisoned. The Australian government never recognized him. He died 21 years ago. There are so many hidden stories out there - please go out and find them out for yourself coz that's the thing that will change the system. Go out and connect with each other as human beings, don't' put our faith in these evil people here in this building, because they are doing the devils' bidding as far as I am concerned. Don't put your faith in the United Nations, or the Government of America, or the Government of Australia, or the Government Japan, don't put your faith in them - put your faith in yourself, and the ability of you to organize as communities, to connect up and do the job yourself, because you are the only people that are going to change it. |
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