I am writing to you about another nuclear cemetary proposed by a US corporation for the desert of Australia. The people of that region, the Kokotha and Arabunna people, seek the solidarity of those sisters and brothers from other nations. I hope you will reach out to them and begin a dialogue.

It was on the land of the Kokotha and Arabunna people, in South Australia, that British nuclear testing took place. For a pepper corn rent, the US Spy base Nurrungar also sits on Kokotha and Arabunna land. The Woomerra Rocket Range annexes a huge expanse of their land, and the Roxby uranium mine, soon to be the biggest in the world, degrades and pollutes the land, air and water of the Kokotha and Arabunna people. While the horror stories are multiple in Australia, it could be said that the Kokotha and Arabunna are the most disaffected, abused and colonised indigenous people in Australia.

Their land is a beautiful land, red earth, moody skies, delicate and unusual plants. Underneath their earth lies the Great Artesian Water Basin, the underground water source that is sucked up by over 30,000 bores - 5 million litres a day by the Roxby Uranium mine alone. The Great Artesian Water Basin is connected to Lake Eyre, which is often dry, but when the big rains come, (and when they come they come down in buckets), a huge amount of birds are attracted the area which is lit up with the unusual desert flowers as well as incredible frog and other wildlife.

The stories Rebecca Bear Wingfield, Aboriginal spokesperson for the land can tell about the people, the land and the affects of the mine, the rocket range, the base and in particular the nuclear testing are harrowing.

As if this isn't enough, after a 2 year process, the Australian government has decided to put a low level radioactive waste dump for radioactive waste created domestically in Australia at a place called Bila Kallina in the same area. On the coat tails of this A US BASED COMPANY CALLED PANGEA HAS DECIDED TO PUSH THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT TO AGREE TO USE THE SITE FOR THE DUMPING OF PLUTONIUM FROM DISMANTLED NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

Together we can stop this! International solidarity decreases the isolation felt by activists in Australia, spreads the facts around and boosts the spirit.

Please could you busy active Ward Valley activists send messages of solidarity, information, posters, newsclips of your actions etc to:

Rebecca Bear-Wingfield
c/o Friends of the Earth
P O Box 222
Fitzroy, Victoria,
Australia, 3065
Ph: 011 61 39 419 8700
Fax: 011 61 39 416 2081
email: foefitzroy@peg.apc.org