NOAH activist demonstrates 24/7 against uranium mining in front of Greenland’s Parliament
Falke Thue Mikailsen, who is a member of NOAH’s Uranium Group, has demonstrated 24/7 since May 13th at Hans Egede Square, in front of Greenland’s Parliament, Inatsisartut. His aim is to draw attention to the necessity of a referendum on reinstatement of the uranium ban. Proposals to this effect will be discussed in Inatsisartut on May 20th. One of them will make it possible to stop the enormous Kvanefjeld uranium mining project. Falke Thue Mikailsen was the main organiser of the demonstrations in Copenhagen in 2014 and 2015 against uranium mining in Greenland. He does not have a permit to put up a tent, but spends the day in the open air and at night, he sleeps on a bench.
“On several occasions, people in Greenland have been promised a referendum on reinstatement of the uranium ban, but now when there is an application underway to mine uranium at Kvanefjeld, the government has forgotten all about it”, says Falke Thue Mikailsen. “Opinion polls have demonstrated that a large majority of the population is dissatisfied with the lack of public participation in regard to uranium mining [1]. But we get the mining anyway, due to a small majority in Inatsisartut. I intend to demonstrate here at Hans Egede Square until we get the referendum, we deserve. And I hope that other people in Greenland are going to demonstrate as well”.
“NOAH supports Falke’s initiative and try to help him as well as we can”, says Erik Jensen from NOAH’s Uranium Group. “We share his views on uranium mining and peoples’ democratic rights. We hope that the members of Inatsisartut realise that a referendum on the uranium ban is the best solution and that it should be held as quickly as possible. But it should be preceded by neutral information on the real health and environmental impacts of uranium mining, not the pro-uranium publicity campaign that the government has subjected us to”.
For further information, please contact:
Falke Thue Mikailsen, Tel.: +45 27 12 11 65. He is also on Facebook where updates are posted regularly on his demonstration.
Erik Jensen, Tel.: +299 27 63 37, E-mail: erik67jensen(at)icloud.com
Notes:
[1] An opinion poll carried out by HS Analyse for ICC Greenland and WWF shows that only one out of ten thinks that public participation has been satisfactory, whereas approximately 60 percent estimates that it is not very good or even particularly bad, cf. http://www.wwf.dk/rss.cfm?uNewsID=10820