Hi, folks,
This update is relatively brief. It may seem to you a bit thin on new
juicy information. It is. Everything is basically battened down for some
major decisions over the next weeks. The update has the following sections:
1) World Heritage update,
2) World Heritage-related activities
. Women's Week Of Action
. Caravanserai
3) North EGM update (v brief)
4) Senate Inquiry (v brief)
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1) WORLD HERITAGE UPDATE:
Work continues apace to encourage the World Heritage Committee to see that
it's in its own interests to place Kakadu National Park on the In-Danger
list - it's hard to see how anyone would take the Convention seriously if
it did not do so. All three of the regular advisory bodies (IUCN, ICOMOS,
ICCROM) have said that the Park should be placed on the I-Danger list.
Apparently the Committee has not been known to ignore the advice of the
advisory bodies before. Australia's argument that the Park can't be placed
on the In-Danger list unless the State Party is willing in inaccurate too -
in the last couple of years Australia insisted that a World Heritage
property in Ecuador was placed on the In-Danger listing despite the wishes
of the Ecuadorian government.
For those who missed it, 34 US Congress members presented a letter to
President Clinton asking him to support In-Danger listing. Below is the
text of Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation's media release:
*****
Key US Congress members back Kakadu listing
The Traditional Owners of the Jabiluka Mineral Lease have received support
from 34 members of the United States Congress in their efforts to have
Kakadu National Park declared "In Danger" by the UN World Heritage
Committee.
Executive Officer of the Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation, Jacqui Katona
said today:
"The United States is a key player in the World Heritage Committee and
influential members of Congress are ensuring that the United States upholds
the principles and standards of the World Heritage Convention in deciding
the international status of Kakadu."
"The Australian Government is desperately attempting to convince the United
States and other World Heritage Committee members to consider Australia's
financial contributions to UNESCO; the global uranium market; trade-offs in
elections for UN posts - anything but the heritage issues at stake."
"The Mirrar, and the Australian public, look to the World Heritage
Committee to independently decide whether the Jabiluka mine endangers
Kakadu, nothing more and nothing less. It is already widely accepted by
the international community, including many US heritage experts, that
Jabiluka will negatively impact on Kakadu's cultural values - a decision
for "In Danger" listing on July 12 will simply make this official."
"We are now quietly confident that the United States will vote on the basis
of expert opinion and ignore the Australian Government's attempts at
diplomatic blackmail."
ends.
*****
Meanwhile John Hallam, anti-nuclear campaigner at FoE Sydney, continues his
excellent work sending model faxes to as wide an audience as possible
asking people to fax the appropriate representatives. If you'd like to
help further, please email John Hallam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
Below is an example of such a letter. The aim is to make clear the depth
and breadth of concern in the community about the government's acts in this
matter. By all means change the wording to suit your style - it is, after
all, a heartfelt letter from you to someone who has a major influence on
the decision. Faxes should above all be polite and respectful.
HIS EXCELLENCY,
AMBASSADOR KOICHIRO MATSUURA,
CHAIRMAN,
WORLD HERITAGE COMMITTEE,
+33-1-42-27-50-81
FEDERICO MAJOR,
DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNESCO,
+33-1-45-68-55-54
Dear Ambassador Matsuura and Director-General Federico Major,
I am writing to express our concern over the fate of the World Heritage
Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia, and to convey
to you the extreme urgency of this matter.
Last year in December, the IUCN and ICOMOS strongly recommended that Kakadu
National Park be immediately listed as 'in danger' on account of the threat
to World Heritage values posed by the construction of a large uranium mine
at Jabiluka, in the heart of the National Park.
In a joint statement, both bodies said that failure to list Kakadu as 'In
Danger' immediately would compromise the integrity and standing of the
World Heritage Convention.
However, in deference to the extreme opposition to an 'In Danger' listing
expressed by the Australian delegation (but emphatically not by Australian
NGOs), Australia was allowed a further six months to prepare a case against
an 'in Danger' listing.
Australia was asked to cease construction operations at Jabiluka.
It did not do so.
This means that for the past six months, construction, and therefore damage
to the World Heritage values of Kakadu has been proceeding on a 24 hour a
day basis.
IUCN and ICOMOS (as well as the NGO community) have now dismissed the
Australian government case as not credible, and IUCN and ICOMOS have re-
emphasised the necessity of listing Kakadu as 'In Danger'.
The extreme urgency of taking action on this mater is underlined by the
fact that as I write, Energy Resources of Australia is resuming
construction activities on a tunnel which will desecrate the Boyweg-Almudj
sacred site, thereby severely compromising World Heritage values.
It is also emphasised by the refusal of the Australian government to listen
to any of the warnings on this matter that have been sounded by the
European Parliament, by our own Senate, and in December by the World Heritage
Committee.
Any further delay in placing Kakadu on the list of sites that are in
danger, and any ambiguity in its being placed in that list, will lead to
further damage to the site and the further destruction of World Heritage
values.
We call on you to act immediately to ensure positively that Kakadu will be
listed as 'in Danger' when the World Heritage Committee meets in Paris on
July 12, and to convey to the Australian government the extreme gravity of
its actions in failing to cease construction as demanded by the World
Heritage Committee last December in Kyoto.
Yours respectfully,
(personal signature)
One sober note may be in order here. Many of us have been working on the
World Heritage issue for a long time now; and many people around the
country have come to regard it as something that has major significance for
the campaign. It does have. An In-Danger listing would be a massive
prestige blow to the Australian government and to ERA.
But it is hardly likely to be more than that. Senator Robert Hill and ERA
talking-head Phil Shervington have both said that the proposed Jabiluka
mine will go ahead regardless.
The way to stop the mine remains above all in the fact that in 1997 the
Mirrar refused ERA permission to use the Ranger processing mill, forcing
ERA to plan to spend $200 million and more on a mill at Jabiluka. ERA will
find it hard to do this. They will try hard to avoid it. It is the Mirrar
decision that may stop them.
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2) ACTIVITIES AROUND THE DATE OF THE WORLD HERITAGE
Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation asks that groups leave a clear space of
two days - the 12th itself, then 13th and 14th - where there are no
actions. The purpose of this is maximum clarity for media about what
actually went on at the meeting.
This is particularly the case if the decision is something other than to
place Kakadu on the In-Danger list immediately. If the decision is to
leave the decision for another six months, or to not In-Danger list the
Park at all, it is imperative that we wait for accurate information about
what went on.
That said, there are two events that are planned:
* Caravanserai from Lismore to Canberra, to arrive in Canberra on or for 12
July. This Caravanserai started on 5 June, World Environment Day. The
person to contact is Benny Zable:
* Women's Week of Action: Women's Network for Mirrar Women, focussed on
melbourne, has organized a series of activities leading up to the World
Heritage Decision, including an "(it's not) trivia(l)" night (with
prizes!); putting a set of questions to North Ltd; and faxing women
delegates to the World Heritage Committee.
Here's the press release. Contact details follow:
WOMEN'S WEEK OF ACTION TO SAY NO TO JABILUKA
28TH JUNE - 4TH JULY
A Women's Week of Action will be held in the lead up to the UNESCO decision
on listing Kakadu World Heritage in Danger.
Organised by the Women's Network for Mirrar Women, the action intends to
draw attention to this important decision and to state loud and clear that
the fight to stop the Jabiluka uranium mine is far from over.
"75% of Australian women are opposed to Jabiluka and this week of action is
designed to encourage women to ask a lot of the unanswered questions as to
why this mining proposal continues against the wishes of the Traditional
Owners", said spokesperson Dimity Hawkins.
"ERA says there will be no impact by Jabiluka on cultural heritage sites,
but we've already seen the desecration of an important sacred site in recent
weeks", she added.
The Women's Network for Mirrar Women is encouraging women to demand answers
from the parent company of ERA, North Ltd, and ask WHY??
Women will be bombarding North with letters, emails, faxes, phone calls and
even personal visits to management.
"We are hoping that this "questionable" action will spread around the
country and even internationally with a kind of virtual blockade of North
Ltd throughout the Women's Week of Action", Ms Hawkins enthused.
For more information or interviews, contact
Dimity Hawkins or Cath Keaney on (03) 9489 0937 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Fiona Sewell on (03) 9537 2781
*******************************************************************************
3) NORTH EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING UPDATE.
Background: North Ltd is the parent company of ERA, and controls around 65%
of their voting stock. They pull the strings.
North Ltd itself is vulnerable. According to its rules, if 100+
shareholders with an average shareholding above a certain amount disagree
with a decision or policy, they can demand an Extraordinary General
Meeting. This, aside from being expensive, is embarrassing for the company.
Such a meeting was called by a group calling itself North Ethical
Shareholders earlier this month. North have taken the matter to court,
claiming such a Meeting would be vexatious and unnecessary since there is
an Annual General Meeting coming - last year it was in late October.
Organizers remain confident that the paperwork was done in such a way as to
force the EGM to occur.
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4) SENATE INQUIRY
The Senate Inquiry visited Jabiru and Darwin on 15 and 16 June. Jacqui
Katona and Matt Fagan gave evidence for Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation.
The report is due out late next week.
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Finally.... We recently looked at the stats for visits to our web-page.
Most frequent visitor overall, by a long way was "ea.gov.au", which is
everybody's friend Senator Robert Hill's Department: some 650 visits, as
opposed to the nearest, about 530 for the whole "ozemail.com.au" domain.
Karl-Erik Paasonen
for Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation
Contact details:
Phone: Within Australia: (08) 8979 2200; international: +61 - 8 - 8979
2200; Fax: Within Australia: (08) 8979 2299; international:
+61 - 8 - 8979 2299
Postal address: PO Box 245 Jabiru,
Northern Territory
AUSTRALIA 0886.
We have this amazing web-site, which you'd be CRAZY not to have a look at:
http://www.mirrar.net
...........................................................................
"We will fight to protect our country and that is a fact of life"
Yvonne Margarula.
Ba-ngurdmeninj Djabulukku! Yun Ngurri-Djalgarung Boiwek Gun-Ngukbim!
"Stop Jabiluka! Don't the dig the life out of the Knob-Tailed Gecko Dreaming!"
...........................................................................
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