Zeiss-Großplanetarium

Environmental destruction through uranium and nuclear weapons – the victims accuse

Time/place: 21.3.24, 6 pm, Zeiss Großplanetarium, Prenzlauer Allee 80, 10405 Berlin

Organizers:

• ICBUW (Int. Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons)
• IUFF (International Uranium Film Festival) Berlin
• IALANA (International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms)
• IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War)
• German Environmental Foundation

Background: Wars and military actions go hand in hand with environmental destruction. This is particularly true of the use of nuclear and uranium weapons. Belonging to different categories of weapons, these weapons act and kill indiscriminately and lead to severe, long-lasting environmental and health damage, although the direct destructive potential of nuclear weapons and uranium ammunition is hardly comparable.

On 22 January 2021, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came into force, which comprehensively outlaws nuclear weapons under international law and contains victim protection and environmental remediation as central concerns (Arts . 6 and 7), while the war in Ukraine once again demonstrates the disturbing explosiveness of the environmental, nuclear and uranium weapons issues.

Films:

Copyright: LABRATS

„How Far From Ground Zero“

USA, 2022, Director: Brian Cowden, Production: LABRATS, 30 min.

With great urgency, the film shows the effects of nuclear test programs worldwide on the indigenous population, veterans and civilians. Victims give harrowing accounts of their fates and the damage they have suffered. The inhumane and environmentally damaging nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific region, especially the Marshall Islands, are particularly emphasized. Interviews give the victims a face and a voice.

„Toxic NATO – Srđan Aleksić’s Long Way to Justice“

Germany, 2023, Director and producer: Moritz Enders, 26 min., Serbian/German, with German subtitles

The film shows the consequences and victims of the use of uranium ammunition by NATO in the Yugoslavian war of 1999, focusing on southern Serbia, where the lawyer Srdan Aleksic lives and works, having lost family members himself. With great and admirable commitment, Aleksic is fighting with legal means for the compensation of victims of DU ammunition, the legal assessment of which will be discussed by Prof Mohr.

At and with a subsequent panel, the effects of these two interlinked areas of weaponry will be discussed, in particular the question of how to provide justice to the victims and how we can deal with the radiating legacy.