Combatting uranium pollution of indigenous peoples

The World Uranium Hearing held in Salzburg in September '92 is presenting a Declaration of Salzburg to the United Nations. The doument recommends the immediate cessation of all nuclear production and testing; demands rehabilitation of contaminated lands and compensation for survivors; asserts indigenous peoples' right to control nuclear activities on their territories; and proposes the protection and preservation of sacred places as 'World Heritage Sites'. The hearing initiated the World Uranium Hearing Trust Fund to raise money to aid indigenous survivors of nucelar development, provide further forums for global organising and to continue to publicise the issue.

Over 70% of the world's uranimum deposits lie on lands inhabited, and deemed sacred, by indigenous peoples. For every ton of uranium oxide used by the nuclear industry, up to 40,000 tons, still emanating 85% of the ore's original radioactivity, remain behind - often left in mounds, seeping into the water table and scattering in the wind across indigenous lands. And today, industrialised nations are increasingly luring impoverished tribal governments with promises of money in exchange for storing nuclear waste on their ancestral lands.