Jon Lamb, Darwin
On November 18 it was revealed by defence minister Robert Hill that one of the outcomes of the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN), held on November 17-18, was that the Australian government had given the thumbs up for US B-52 B-1 and B-2 bombers to conduct exercises, starting in 2006, on the Delamere bombing range in the Northern Territory.
The announcement has deeply concerned environmentalists, peace activists and people living in and around the town of Katherine, 150 kilometres from the bombing range. The long-range bombers, which have been used extensively in the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will fly from the US military base in Guam in the Pacific.
An immediate concern is the possible use of depleted uranium weapons in bombing missions and the creation of more toxic waste in and around Delamere. The devastating environmental and public health issues associated with the use of depleted uranium featured in a November 22 interview on ABC local radio with Dr Doug Rokke, the former head of the US Army's depleted uranium project.
"When you look at the extensive list of weapons systems used by the B-52, the B-1 and the B-2, it's a list of all types of conventional and nuclear weapons and weapons containing known uranium components", Rokke said.
Rokke believes the bombing exercises will be an environmental disaster: "Basically it's just there and continuous explosions happen. The stuff and the contamination is spread all over a very wide area, [contaminating] air, water and soil for hundreds if not thousands of miles around."
In response to the AUSMIN announcement, the Environment Centre of the NT coordinator Peter Robertson said Delamere is "only a matter of 100 kilometres or so from one of the proposed nuclear waste dump sites near Katherine, and it would be extraordinarily alarming and ironic if an American B-52 bomber dropped a live bomb on top of the Commonwealth's nuclear waste dump".
Another major concern about the bombing exercises is that it locks Australia — and the NT in particular — further into a leading role in the US's increasing military presence in the Asia Pacific. The NT is becoming a key component of the Pentagon's war machine in this region, with plans for increased US warship visits, larger and more extensive joint military exercises, and the creation of a new US base at either Delamere or Bradshaw.
From Green Left Weekly, November 30, 2005.
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