Namibian workers’ cancer from United States nuclear weapons program

This video is called Uranium mining in Namibia.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain today:

NAMIBIA: Rio Tinto workers who mined uranium to supply the British and US militaries in the 1970s are suffering from cancer and other illnesses, a charity exposed yesterday.

A joint study by charity Earthlife Namibia and activists at the Labour Resources and Research Institute published this week showed that workers who had been employed at the firm’s Rossing mine in the Namib Desert were now battling cancer and respiratory ailments, after years of working in one of Africa’s largest mines.

Rio Tinto has denied knowledge of the former workers health problems, saying it would study the report.

Namibia was then ruled by the apartheid regime in South Africa.

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US: Federal judge Shira Scheindlin declined on Thursday to toss out decade-old lawsuits that accuse IBM and Ford of supporting apartheid by selling computers and cars to the South African government.

The three lawsuits seek to hold IBM and Ford responsible for race-based injustices including rape, torture and murder under apartheid.

The US Supreme Court recently ruled on the legal reach of the Alien Tort Statutee under which the plaintiffs are suing.

The 1789 statute was originally enacted to prosecute pirates and was revived recently to permit US lawsuits against those who violate human rights abroad.

http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-d248-World-in-Brief-19042014

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I hope Rio Tinto step up to the plate. I realise there probably isn’t much they can do for the workers except get them decent medical attention but they can afford to pay compensation to workers and to the families of workers who’ve died from this.

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Yet another shameful case of a rich country’s exploitation of African people’s resources that has direct impact on their health and welfare. Where is the FAIR TRADE here?

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