24 September 2005, near the site of BURE where the French government wants to bury the most dangerous nuclear wastes, there was a national demonstration against the burial of nuclear wastes. With the slogan : "Don’t Poison the Earth!" it attracted about 6000 people to Bar-le-Duc (Lorraine) and ended in front of the prefecture of the Meuse Departement with speeches by representatives of citizens’ groups and the «Nuclear Phasing-Out» network which organised the gathering, and by representatives of several political parties (the Greens, LCR, Cap 21). In conclusion, the President of ACDN (Action of Citizens for the total Disarmament of Nukes) read out the following open letter, which won the approval of the demonstrators. It will be circulated for people to sign before it is sent to the leaders of France and all the other nuclear powers. We invite you to sign on this letter:
« You who are called great and powerful,
« You began to poison the Earth on 16 July 1945 when you exploded the first plutonium bomb at Alamogordo. Then there were the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which you already knew were not needed to end the war, but which caused 200 000 deaths at the time and many more afterwards. In May 1986, about two weeks after the unpublicised passage of the Chernobyl cloud over France, Professor Pellerin, the high priest of nuclear safety, said on television that : « An increase in radioactivity has been recorded in Provence? No, that’s not Chernobyl, that’s fallout from Hiroshima ! » One cloud can indeed conceal another, but trust the prof, 40 years later the Hiroshima bomb could go on polluting!
« You who are called great and powerful,
« By exploding more than 2000 atomic bombs, including 200 in French bomb tests, you have continued to poison the Earth by dispersing enormous quantities of radioactive nanoparticles into her atmosphere, her oceans and her subsoil. In addition, since the Gulf War of 1991, there have been 2000 to 3000 tonnes of depleted uranium from weapons used in Iraq (two wars), in the Balkans and in Afghanistan. Inhaled or ingested, these particles destroy the DNA of human cells, and greatly contribute to the increase in cancers and other illnesses causing disability or death, and to the birth of hideously deformed babies.
« After a crowd of military accidents, the non-military catastrophe of Chernobyl showed, despite the shameless denials made by the WHO at the behest of the IAEA, what an extraordinary threat is posed to humanity by artificial radiation, even radiation presumed to be for peaceful purposes.
« And you, Messieurs the rulers of France,
« Right now, you would like to bury the wastes of the nuclear industry, and hand to the thousands of future generations the management of these wastes and their vile effects. Among them, those of military origin form a large proportion, since, for example, in 1999 the known quantities of military plutonium in the world were 250 tonnes, as against 180 for plutonium from « retreatment».
« And you, Monsieur Chirac, President of the French Republic,
« In 1975, when you were Prime Minister you sold to Saddam Hussein the Osirak reactor and thus nourished his nuclear ambitions which the « Gulf War » terminated.
« In 1995, you resumed France’s nuclear tests, defying the international community and inciting China, then India and Pakistan, to test also.
« With your Ministry of Defence, you nevertheless permit the French veterans who are victims of the testing and the Gulf War to die in silence, pain and misery.
« In May 2000, in New York, you agreed for France to make a so-called « unequivocal commitment» to eliminate her nuclear arsenal in accordance with article 6 of the NPT. Two months later, in Paris, you decided with your Prime Minister Lionel Jospin that France would build a fourth new-generation Nuclear Submarine, thus flouting international law and article 5 of the Constitution which makes you the guarantor of treaties signed by France.
« You say that respect for the NPT - at least by nations without nuclear weapons - is the pillar of international security, but you mock that by proclaiming « the permanence of nuclear deterrence ». From the NPT you respect only one element: the sale of technology which is called non-military but nevertheless increases proliferation, so that France can export its nuclear plants - such as the EPR. Meanwhile, at every moment, 30 000 nuclear weapons, most of them 10 times more powerful that the Hiroshima bomb, are threatening to annihilate humanity.
« Monsieur le Président,
« You great and powerful men,
« You iron ladies,
« What we are saying is:
« This is too much already ! We are fed up with all the hypocrisy, all the contempt for law and democracy and peace and plain commonsense, for the benefit of lobbies alone and to the peril of humanity! Consult the people, if you dare, to find out what they think of the policies you are carrying out in their name and with their taxes!
STOP POISONING THE EARTH!
DO NOT DESTROY THE EARTH !
NO WASTES, NO FALLOUT, NO BOMBS!
STOP BOTH CIVILIAN AND MILITARY NUCLEARISM!
Bar-le-Duc, 24.09.05
For ACDN France (Action of Citizens for the total Disarmament of Nukes)
Jean-Marie Matagne, President
If you wish to co-sign on this letter, please use the fill form online, or use the printable version.