When representatives of the Adivasi in India and the Tuareg in the Sahel reported on the situation of many indigenous peoples in uranium-mining areas, the roughly 150 delegates to the 42nd Annual General Meeting of the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) on Sunday in Göttingen were appalled. A resolution was passed unanimously calling on the German government to press for unified international safety standards for uranium mining, and extraction and storage of radioactive waste. This weekend, the human rights organization started a new campaign for the protection of the people affected: "Contaminated water, irradiated land: Campaign for threatened indigenous peoples."

Adivasi representatives reported high rates of cancer in the eastern Indian uranium mining area in Jadugora, in the state of Jharkhand. Birth defects are on the rise in that region as well. The Tuareg representative complained of radioactive contamination in the groundwater in Niger. Furthermore, uranium is mined and nuclear waste stored without any measures taken to protect residents or miners in areas that are home to Lakota Indians in the US, aborigines in Australia, Tibetans and Uighurs in China and indigenous Papuans in Indonesia. Slag heaps and settling basins are routinely left without safeguards as well. Indigenous peoples must choose between working in the mines or moving away. The President of GfbV International, Tilman Zülch, said: "This is causing tens of thousands to forfeit their culture and their independence."

The chairman of the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group, Jürgen Trittin, addressed these issues as well in his talk on Sunday. He called radioactive waste and uranium mining the "dirty side of nuclear power." Seventy percent of uranium mining takes place in areas that are home to indigenous people, threatening their livelihood. "We need a worldwide moratorium on uranium mining," Trittin asserted.

In connection with the planned referendum on independence for South Sudan, the human rights activists from 22 countries appealed to the German government to take part in the international election monitoring. Activists also criticized Germany for continuing to deport Roma from Kosovo "on the quiet," even though the European Union and the European Council have roundly condemned France's deportations of Roma.

In a panel discussion between Hamada Fara'ina, member of the Palestinian National Council, and Dr. Schimon Staszewski, member of an executive committee of the international Jewish organization B'nai B'rith, both speakers reaffirmed the desire for peace and discussed the two-state solution, arbitrary settlements, and security requirements. They agreed that 90 percent of the populations in both Palestine and Israel are "war-weary."

Founder Tilman Zülch did not run for re-election to the board of the German section of the STP. The delegates elected Harald Klein, attorney from Freiburg, as the national chairman. Zülch will continue as President of GfbV International, which has offices in 7 countries.

For further information, please contact Tilman Zülch.

Translated by Elizabeth Crawford