Maria de Lourdes Heimer reprinted with permission from
Poison Fire, Sacred Earth,
TESTIMONIES, LECTURES, CONCLUSIONS,
THE WORLD URANIUM HEARING, SALZBURG 1992
pages 108-110

So uranium is a part of everyday life, and they do all sorts of different things with uranium, foundations for houses. . . . It's also being used as decoration and so on. That is, the people are not informed at all as to what that means. This uranium in Caétité is highly radioactive, that is, it's natural. I'm talking about natural radioactivity, it's very highly radioactive. And the people have no idea, and they're being told, it isn't bad at all if we do something here, that is, that no harm will come to us. . . .
The greatest problem is that this is happening in a country which is dependent on the rest of the world. That is, Brazil is politically independent, but economically dependent. This began in 1500 when this great invasion occurred and the Europeans came to America. Brazil -- the most important economic decisions are not made in Brazil, but in foreign countries. And the people are purposefully kept ignorant and illiterate. They're also manipulated by the media. There is an official, practically official television, that's the Globu which can also elect a president. That's what they did with Collo, this crazy president there. And the people are manipulated this way, and they don't know anything about uranium and nuclear energy. A minority knows, but the majority doesn't know that radioactivity is dangerous, that radioactivity has such an effect. And that's the worst of it. Brazil spends a huge amount of money -- I'll just list a few horror statistics here . . . That Brazil, for example, owes money to Gradell(?) in Luxemburg for equipment, nuclear equipment. And Brazil pays 10 million U.S. dollars, and Brazil pays for interest alone 1.2 million dollars. And that's another thing you should know. Brazil pays every day -- that's daily! -- one million dollars to the Deutsche Bank because equipment for another two or three nuclear power plants is still in the harbour in Hamburg in northern Germany. And Brazil has to pay for it. So it's a punishment because it hasn't been made yet. It's there and it has to be paid for because the contract hasn't yet been closed. Think about that, a million a day, that's 360 million a year because it hasn't been built yet! On the other hand, Germany has promised to lend Brazil 800 million dollars so that they can finish building Angra II and III. These are such absurd things that one should know about in Europe.
And all this is happening in a country where, according to the government itself, almost 60 percent of the people live in abject poverty. The other 40 percent is not rich, they're also poor, and a small portion of them rules. This is happening in a country which is also full of atomic waste. A few other small numbers in conclusion. We've got 3,400 tons of atomic waste from the accident at Goiânia alone, and then added to that is the waste from Angra which is also there, very precariously located . . .



Maria de Lourdes Heimer

Maria de Lourdes Heimer, Brazil. Activist, member of Grupo Ambientalista da Bahia (GAMBA).
(This speech was held originally in German)

I am Maria de Lourdes Heimer, also known here as Luigia Heimer. I was many years in Germany, lived here and worked here, and I was active in the work against nuclear energy, and in 1984 I returned to Brazil. I live in Bahia, I'm at the university and work there; I'm an activist in the anti-KKW movement there. I want to thank all the people working here that have made this possible, and I also want to thank the anonymous people that serve us here daily and do things for us we sometimes don't even realize. I say that, of course, also in the name of my people here from Brazil, and also in the name of the environmentalists of Brazil. Through us, they are all present here.

Naturally, I've made a few notes, but if I know myself, I won't be sticking to them, that is, I won't be reading from them. And I also have a few difficulties here with the technology.

"Child, take that stone from your mouth." The speaker is a mother. "Take the stone from your mouth and speak to the people who have come to visit." The speaker is a mother; she says this to a young boy in the city of Caétité, Lagoa Real, where we have the misfortune of having a uranium mine, maybe one of the richest anywhere. There, we have Lagoa Real. Yes, Caétité. We were there on a visit, and that is what we heard. So what surprised was, what kind of stone did the child have in its mouth? It was a uranium stone. So uranium is a part of everyday life, and they do all sorts of different things with uranium, foundations for houses. I've got pictures here, and you can come by our Brazilian table later and look at them since they're all so small. Houses with foundations made of uranium, uranium stone. It's also being used as decoration and so on. That is, the people are not informed at all as to what that means. This uranium in Caétité is highly radioactive, that is, it's natural. I'm talking about natural radioactivity, it's very highly radioactive. And the people have no idea, and they're being told, it isn't bad at all if we do something here, that is, that no harm will come to us.

It was discovered -- but first, a few words about Caétité: The surface of this uranium mine covers about 1,200 square kilometers, and as I said, it's highly radioactive. It was discovered in 1970. That is southwest Bahia; Bahia is in northwest Brazil, and Brazil, as you know, is in South America, just so ... Caétité is about 800 kilometers away from the capital of Bahia, which is Salvador.

Since 1985, the Brazilian government has been prospecting through its company -- Uranio do Brasil -- and at the beginning of 1989, they began setting up an infrastructure and mining uranium. And they came in utter silence, but the people noticed that something was happening, you know: "What are you doing here?", and they also, the people's water, they were the workers of the land -- I have to say that there are not any Indians because they were already all wiped out. In this area, there are half-breeds, people like me, for example, who have Indian and African ancestors. And the workers of the land are such people who used this water and noticed, they've done something to our water. They contaminated the water, of course. And later, all the water was gone; that is, they used up all the water for their own employees.

Naturally, the people began to denounce this, and a group of indigenous people with the land workers union, in connection with us in the capital -- we're in the capital -- in connection with us and an environmental group in Salvador -- we made a campaign, and we were able to put a stop to it, tentatively, of course. That was a big scandal. They're doing this without any testing for what the environmental compatibility as ordered by our constitution. The basic constitutional laws of Brazil say one can't do that, one can't start up a mine without such testing. But they naturally began without it. And the tragedy is that in their prospecting, they contaminated the region, the area which was already highly radioactive, even more. They drilled, and naturally, there was uranium dust, small chunks of uranium everywhere. There were people who took little sacks full of uranium home with them, who found it interesting: "This is uranium!" -- People who brought it to school with them: "Folks, this is uranium." Uranium was surely in the water then, in the air, it's in the fields, it's in the food chain -- uranium.

This company operated, as I said, without a license, and now they've pulled out after we denounced it, and they're trying to get one. Now, at the moment, thank heavens, the Brazilian government doesn't have any money -- yes, the president stole all of it -- and they don't have any money to carry this matter any further. We made a campaign, and you can take a look at our table later, such a document here, and posters, "Uranium should remain in the ground!" We also sold these shirts to finance the campaign, to finance our work. We've got stickers, etc., you can see it all there.

Around this mine approximately 270,000 people live who are affected by it, and 5,000 people and about 1,000 families are directly affected. That number will increase should the area of the mining reach 30 kilometers, which the authorities say themselves.

Problems: Very briefly, I will really try to speak very briefly. Problems -- health -- we know what that means. I've told you that because of the prospecting alone, it's already happened with the uranium there. There are already mutations there, that is, among the animals. I've also got pictures here, you can look at them later. There have been animals born with three ears, with five paws, and such things.

The workers of the first generation of prospecting, some of these workers already have had their hair and nails fall out and are ill, and they've been brought to clinics in Sao Paulo and Rio so that no one in Bahia notices anything. So, nothing more needs to be said about health, you already know all about that.

The greatest problem is that this is happening in a country which is dependent on the rest of the world. That is, Brazil is politically independent, but economically dependent. This began in 1500 when this great invasion occurred and the Europeans came to America. Brazil -- the most important economic decisions are not made in Brazil, but in foreign countries. And the people are purposefully kept ignorant and illiterate. They're also manipulated by the media. There is an official, practically official television, that's the Globu which can also elect a president. That's what they did with Collo, this crazy president there. And the people are manipulated this way, and they don't know anything about uranium and nuclear energy. A minority knows, but the majority doesn't know that radioactivity is dangerous, that radioactivity has such an effect. And that's the worst of it. Brazil spends a huge amount of money -- I'll just list a few horror statistics here because it's bad, and maybe you outside of Brazil don't know that this is happening. That Brazil, for example, owes money to Gradell(?) in Luxemburg for equipment, nuclear equipment. And Brazil pays 10 million U.S. dollars, and Brazil pays for interest alone 1.2 million dollars. And that's another thing you should know. Brazil pays every day -- that's daily! -- one million dollars to the Deutsche Bank because equipment for another two or three nuclear power plants is still in the harbour in Hamburg in northern Germany. And Brazil has to pay for it. So it's a punishment because it hasn't been made yet. It's there and it has to be paid for because the contract hasn't yet been closed. Think about that, a million a day, that's 360 million a year because it hasn't been built yet! On the other hand, Germany has promised to lend Brazil 800 million dollars so that they can finish building Angra II and III. These are such absurd things that one should know about in Europe.

And all this is happening in a country where, according to the government itself, almost 60 percent of the people live in abject poverty. The other 40 percent is not rich, they're also poor, and a small portion of them rules. This is happening in a country which is also full of atomic waste. A few other small numbers in conclusion. We've got 3,400 tons of atomic waste from the accident at Goiânia alone, and then added to that is the waste from Angra which is also there, very precariously located, and -- now this will surprise you -- we have many instruments used in industry and medicine which are no longer active, and they're now situated in unknown locations, some buried, some not, which could cause a lot of accidents such as the one at Goiânia. It's incredible, and it must be known in Europe.

That means to carry this out, this atomic craziness, is criminal, wherever, but in the Third World, it's a thousand times more criminal.

I would have a lot more to say, but I won't. The time is limited. You can talk with us through the end of the week. I simply want to tell you what we're demanding, what we also ask of you. We ask you [to pass on] this appeal to the Brazilian authorities, to the President of Congress, the Senate, and the Governor of Bahia, the Mayor of Caétité -- these are all people who are interested, that's what is special about it. We must appeal to them not to do this.

We do not want this project which has been temporarily suspended be started up again. And we ask you that you get to these people, either by letter or fax or telephone, telegram -- whatever -- and ask that it not be started up again. And there's a text here you can pick up later. And all in all, what we want for all of Brazil, and this is the thing with Caétité now -- what we want for all of Brazil is that the Angra I Nuclear Power Plant be shut down, the dissolution of the contract between Brazil and Germany -- you know, this whole craziness came from the First World -- the definite halt to construction on Angra II and III, the end of all military nuclear projects, no more uranium mining, better controls, and investigating of other nuclear activities in the areas of medicine, industry, agriculture, as well as in research, support for all the victims of the accident in Goiânia who've been pretty much abandoned, the democratization of all decisions in the nuclear sector, and we ask all of you to support the worldwide campaign "Uranium should remain in the ground". Demand your government to suspend international uranium trade. Stimulate research into re-usable energies, sun, wind, big-masses within and outside of your country, and please, support the responsible use of these energies.

Folks, we have great hope right now in Brazil. The population which was very passive, very desperate -- you must know that when someone is hungry, when someone is poverty-stricken, that person cannot be political involved anymore, can no longer go out onto the streets. Now there is hope. The people running the government in Brazil, they've done so many bad things that it shook the people. The people are back out on the streets, it's not so wonderful, but still -- it's 5,000, 6,000, 10,000. At any rate, very many are out on the streets, and we've got this great hope that a new Brazil will awaken through this crisis. And in this new Brazil, there should no longer be any nuclear power. Our work is raising the consciousness of the people, we're trying to let the people know, and we're trying to mobilize them. We're trying to set up an organization, and we need your help in the First World, we need your help. It's clear to us, and I want to emphasize this once more in concluding, that without you, if you in your countries -- I'm talking now specifically of the people in the First World -- if you in your countries do not demand that they stop, that they don't send this to us, their diabolical technology to us in the Third World! Here, people can still put up resistance, there they can't so well.

We need, my friends from the First World and my friends from the whole world, we need your help, and with your help, we can do it. No uranium -- uranium must remain in the ground, and peace should rule the earth!

(Brazilian music)

This is a group, "Oludu", they're from Bahia, an Afro-group. As you know, our culture is both African and Indian, and this is the group Oludu which is known around the world.