THE VOICE
FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 2, Issue 17 & 18, 17th September, 2003
EDITORIAL COLUMN:
MMPOO AND THE PEOPLE
So far Meghalaya has become a State ruled by Dictators and political mongers
under the name of Politicians and Bureaucrats. In the last few months, the
government under the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) led by the Congress-I
government had extended the Meghalaya Preventive Detention Act (MPDA) from a
period of one year to three years and not satisfied with that the MDA government
is now trying its level best to introduce and implement another draconian law
called the Meghalaya Maintenance Public Order Ordinance (MMPOO), a law in the
name of protecting the poorer section of the community from strikes and
anti-government movement organized by NGOs. The main target in this new
draconian law is the NGOs who are like the thorns in the back of the Government
against the illegal activities of the government. The NGOs in Meghalaya are the
people’s representatives and are the main pressure groups against the
government and without them the people of the State will be in jeopardy.
It is also rightly said that "The greater the power, the more dangerous
the abuse" and implementing such law will empower the Politicians and
Bureaucrats to commit criminal activities at their own will with no one to dare
pose any question. It can be predicted that human rights violations, secret
killings, corruptions and other illegal activities will be stooges’ main
agendas.
It is also surprising that the law is also applicable to the Press in which the
Press and various media sources will be barred to publish any statements of the
Revolutionary Organisations or the NGOs as well. Such laws are never seen
around the world to target the Press and only in Meghalaya the Government is
trying to gag the freedom of the Press.
After a hue and cry from various NGOs and the public, the MDA government is now
seen to have kept the law in abeyance. But no doubts the MDA government will
try to find its step in bringing in the new law. The delay is also probably due
to the by-election of the Laban constituency to be held shortly where the
government feared that it will loose its support from the people and might
loose its precious seat in the coming election. The common people should also
realize that the government is using them as a shield to protect itself from
the wrath of positive thinking people.
THE NEWS:
CONSPIRACY OVER A PUBLIC HOSPITAL:
It is very shocking to the people of Shillong over the latest news that the
Ganesh Das Hospital, a Government Hospital for women and children is to be
registered to a private firm called North East India Trust for Education
Development (NEITED). Surprisingly, according to the Media report, the Chairman
of the Trust being the Chief Minister of Meghalaya himself wrote a letter to
the Chief Minister of Meghalaya i.e. to himself to grant permission to the
Trust in running the Hospital as a Medical College. It is also understood that
the government is planning to lease the Hospital to the Trust, in a hush-hush
manner, without proper publicity and without the knowledge of the public, as it
had done in the past i.e. with the Meghalaya House, in Kolkata. The abrupt
withdrawal of NEITED from the proposal deepens the mystery further. The NEITED
which runs an Engineering College in Shillong has been in a controversy with
its students over the mismanagement of the College few months back. Even the
Meghalaya House scam in Kolkatta has not been cleared and now Meghalaya is
advancing towards yet another scam.
EXTORTING IN THE NAME OF THE HNLC:
In the past few days, Shillong has witnessed a series of extortion in the name
of the HNLC of which the Council never committed, but the act of criminals were
done by some criminals in the Society. Therefore, the HNLC strongly warn any
vested interests in using the HNLC’s name in extortion and other criminal
activities and such crime should not be repeated again in the future.
UCIL’s THIRST OVER THE URANIUM IN RI HYNNIEWTREP:
Lately, the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) is desperately finding
its way to lay its hand on Uranium in Domiasiat, Wahkaji and other places in
the West Khasi Hills. Not caring even the health hazards that will be emitted
from the uranium mines, UCIL is misleading the people of the area with empty
promises. UCIL even denied the negative effects of uranium in Jadugada and the
adjacent areas in Jharkhand, India where handicapped infants are born, people
are suffering from cancer and death is slowly wiping out the Indigenous people
in Jadugada.
The presence of vested interests in our state where they are giving way for the
mining is a total betrayal to the simple people in the rural areas. It can be
mentioned too, that the politicians are the main dealers in this issue not caring
for anyone’s future but for their personal interest only.
CORRUPTION OVER THE NEW ASSEMBLY BUILDING CONSTRUCTION:
The new Assembly building which was supposed to be built since last year was
delayed due to corruption within the Government ranging from the Chief
Minister, Ex-Chief Minister, Politicians and Bureaucrats. The corruption came
to light when the work order was given to a certain Contractor without calling
any tender. It is also pathetic that the politicians are even searching for a
new site to build the assembly building to a far located area from the city
which will only be a big misuse to the fund in terms of transportation which
otherwise can be diverted to the public for a better use.
CM TO CONTRUCT AN IMAGINARY ROAD:
In the recent North Eastern Council (NEC) meeting held in Sikkim, the Chief
Minister of Meghalaya, Mr. D. D. Lapang stated that he is going to construct a
six lane super highway from Shillong to Nongstoin, a Head Quarter of West Khasi
Hills. Such promises was heard and seen through the media in the past as
promised by some politicians that a Super Highway would be constructed in the
Shillong - Guwahati Road. The people of the State are puzzled over the
statement whether it is a junk news just to fill up the newspapers or are they
being taken for a ride. Anyone travelling in the Shillong – Nongstoin Road
knows the worse condition of road and if the CM wishes to bring development and
faster transportation to the rural areas he should re-construct the worn-out
roads instead of promising a super-highway leading nowhere.
HYNNIEWTREP PEOPLE TURN REFUGEES:
The Hynniewtrep people residing in border areas especially in Block I & II
and in West Khasi Hills left their own land to seek refuge and shelter in a
safer place. The Hynniewtrep people residing in these areas frequently came
across various threat, harassment, and torture; illegal collection of taxes by
the cadres belonging to the KNV and ANVC respectively. The villagers are forced
to pay the taxes against their will and when refusing to do so are physically
and mentally tortured by the assailants with the help from their mentors.
Uranium Mining and Hynniewtrep People
Benjamin Thabah
I follow the culture of my people. We belong to the land. We are the caretakers
for the land. We first take what God has provided to us over the soil. Our
lifetime on this earth is only a blink in time(Shi khyllip mat), so our
lifetime is spent protecting and caring for this land for future generations.
A leader of an American Indian tribe has this to say about uranium: "Whatever
befalls the earth, befalls the child of the earth. People did not weave the web
of life; they are merely strands in it. Whatever they do to the web, they do to
themselves".
I want to tell you how I feel about uranium and how the whole nuclear cycle
affects our land, our lives, and our traditions.
In preparation for this article I have read widely and consulted widely, but
rarely have I seen or heard a word from the people who I believe to be among
the worst affected by the nuclear cycle : my people, the people of Domiasiat
areas of West Khasi Hills
It is our land where the Government of India through its Agencies extracts the
poisonous yellowcake, and it is on our land where they dump the polluted
tailings.
It is on Hynniewtrep land that the British, with support from the Indian
Government of the that time, mined and depleted our Sillimanite and Corundum
deposits of Riangdo (Sonapahar), with no regard for our people, their land or
their future.
And it is on Hynniewtrep land that the government is examining the possibility
of dumping deadly radioactive waste in untried synthetic rock.
I say to you, when you consider your attitudes to Indian Government’s
involvement in the uranium industry that you think first about what you are
doing to our people.
Our Environmental Concerns
I turn now to some of our grave concerns about the controls on environmental
damage resulting from uranium mining. For example:
· seepage from the tailings dam;
· concentration of radioactive
contaminants in the water systems;
· erosion;
· radon gases escaping from the
tailings;
· cyclones could disperse
contaminated dust from strip mining operations;
But what do the Hynniewtrep people of Khasi Land know of these dangers. Our
people in Khasi Land and throughout U Bri U Khun U Hynniewtrep are not
sufficiently informed about the extent of damages occurring from uranium
mining. Nor do we know the extent to which they are being exposed to radiation
in the atmosphere. Nor do we know the extent of contamination already present
in the food chain.
There is simply no proper information given to Hynniewtrep people living in the
area about the effects of uranium mining on the land. There is no monitoring
scientists of the Government of India Agencies who have made an attempt
to interpret their findings to the effected people.
No Inquiry said that a certain amount of environmental impact into the area was
to be expected. The impact is now being realised. There are scores of
scientists in the Atomic Mineral Division, but none have made it public the
likely implications that would be dredged upon the people of the State in the
long run.
This is also true in the coal mining and Limestone belts of the State. The
local Tribal community have total involvement in this and the Government must
depend on royalties from Coal and Lime stone mining to run its ever depleting
Exchequer.
This dependency, I believe, is a form of ransom. Under dogs Tribals i.e. Youth
says to the Government and other fledgling outstation movement, "You
can have money for esteems and mobiles cell phones, and if mining stops,
the money stops too.
We must break this dependency on mining activity for money for essential
services. It is morally bankrupt. No Tribal community should be put in the
position of deciding on development that is tied to the Coal & Limestone
industry.
Until all Tribal service needs are met by direct grants from Central
Government, our people have little choice in this matter.
Coming back to Uranium mining, no real substantial study has been done on the
radiation levels in West Khasi Hills people's diets in the uranium regions. We
can only guess what amount of radiation they have in their bodies or in the
food chain.
Without this information, how are we to make a proper decision. It is not
correct to say that any Tribal community has made a real decision on uranium
mining until all the facts are presented to all of our people, and they must be
presented in Tribal languages in a manner that has meaning to our people.
Tailings Can Bring Ecological Disaster
For each tonne of ore mined only three kilograms of yellowcake [uranium oxide -
U3O8] are recovered. So the Domiasiat mine with an annual
production of say1,000 tonnes of yellowcake can only mean that millions of
tonnes of radioactive tailings will be produced each year.
Uranium tailings retain 80 per cent of the radioactivity of the excavated ore
and this radioactivity will be emitted for thousands of years.
Tailings are considered to be a major source of pollution because they are
readily dispersed by wind and rain.
Dust particles from the tailings very soon get into the ground water which in
turn becomes contaminated. Once this happens it is very hard to clean
a river system of its radioactivity.
Radioactive gases from the submerged or wetted-down tailings can travel great
distances. People can breathe in this gas up the 80 kilometres downwind from
the tailings. It has already been proven that miners working in uranium mines
are threatened with lung cancer.
All this affects our people living near uranium mines. It causes the greatest
biological damage if it gets into the human food chain.
Anyone living near tailings from uranium mines will be breathing in radioactive
dust which emits alpha radiation. This type of radiation poses the greatest
threat to human life.
The lifespan of radioactive waste materials from tailings may be 250,000 years.
How will this affect the environment and our culture over all those years?
Radioactive Wastes
Synroc is a method for the storing of nuclear waste. It is being developed by a
Professor Ringwood [of the Australian National University]. I am concerned
whether Synroc is a safe method for waste storage.
I have recently read an article in Australia Habitat entitled "Certainty
and Uncertainty in the Disposal of Nuclear Waste", by Dr E.H. Hirsch,
who is a physicist experienced in the problem of nuclear waste. He questions
the use of Synroc at this stage.
Whatever the result of the Synroc storage method, or any other method of
storage, I don't want nuclear waste stored in my people's land. If anything
should happen I believe it will bring about disastrous consequences to our
underground water supply.
This is my land. We need the information and all Tribal people should have the
right to decide what befalls us and our future generations.
The Navajo's Experience
There is a very real water problem to the Indian people of North America in
areas where large tailings dams have resulted from uranium mining.
Navajo Indians living in uranium districts now find that amongst their people
there are many birth defects. They find there are many Indian miscarriages. A
lot of children are born underweight. Many children have learning difficulties.
A number of children are deformed.
The Indian people don't know if these things are happening because of the men
who worked in the mines, or from the explosions of nuclear bomb tests, or from
eating contaminated food, or drinking contaminated water.
But they do know that these things are happening to people living near tailing
piles. It has already been established in America that :
· there is a high incidence of lung
cancer in miners working in uranium mines;
· there is a high incidence of
chromosome damage in miners working in uranium mines;
· damage to the genes passes from
generation to generation.
Exposure to radiation in a uranium environment can cause a number of early
ageing problems. It can be the cause of liver problems, respiratory diseases
and heart diseases. It can cause a person to be very susceptible to infectious
diseases and override the body's natural immune system.
“The survivors of a bomb test in Japan are often shunned by those wishing to
marry because of fears that their children could inherit mutations”. Will
this also become the fear of my people when exercising Tribal customary
laws relating to marriage ?
What will happen to people affected by the nuclear bomb testing at Pokhran ?Or,
for that matter, to many thousands of Indian citizens of inland and North West
India who became targets of the scientists who ordered bombs to be exploded
when the winds could only take the nuclear fallout on an inland journey of
radiation contamination?
Royal Commission into British Nuclear Weapons Testing
The Pitjantjatjara Council called for a Royal Commission into the circumstances
surrounding the nuclear tests in South Australia in the 1950s and '60s. Council
representatives went to London to lobby over the issue. Leading the delegation
was Yami Lester who lost his sight after the fallout cloud from the first Emu
test descended on him and his people. A Royal Commission was set up in July
1984 under the presidency of Justice Jim McLelland. The Commission reported in
November 1985.
The Pitjantjatjara and Yaknunytyara people believe that many of the deaths
around this time were related to the fallout from the bombs. Clouds of fallout
passed over and around them. (The Royal Commission found that an Aboriginal
community at Wallatinna had been exposed to a black mist of radioactivity and
that this could have caused harm to the people's health. The Commission also
found that Aboriginal people had been denied access to their traditional lands
and that the plutonium-contaminated areas at Maralinga must be cleaned up. In
1994 the British Government agreed to a limited clean-up whereby the plutonium-
contaminated soil would be gathered into existing pits of radioactive rubbish
where it would be 'fused' into a solid.)
No one told the people about the tests at the time and only now, after a
barrage of leaks and statements, is the Australian government considering
holding a full inquiry into the matter. But the full extent of cancers and
other illnesses being suffered by my people may never be known.
The land in the immediate test area may not be useable for 50,000 years. This
is the same timespan widely believed by non-Aboriginal people to represent the
existence of our culture in this country.
All this was caused by well-meaning scientists at the time who were unable to
forecast the consequences of their actions. We have well-meaning scientists
today who still cannot accurately predict the consequences of their actions
when it comes to uranium.
The health of the people throughout Aboriginal Australia is already so poor
that it cannot take any more damage. The continuing 200 years of exploitation
of their lands and r existence must stop.
We wish to remind the Atomic Mineral Division of its public relation policy
commitment to Hynniewtrep people on uranium mining. This policy states that :
"...it would turn Domiasiat area into a model village, but the
pertinent question here is after 19 years what will happen to the inhabitants
of the proposed village".
We demand that our rights and well-being are recognised. All of our people need
to be fully and equally informed of the problems of mining uranium on our
Hynniewtrep lands.
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