Anti-nuclear activists who rallied on Sunday for Charlie Hebdo understood the connection

As many of our anti-nuclear colleagues rallied on Sunday to pay tribute to their fallen comdrades at Charlie Hebdo, their protest against the silencing of dissenting voices was brought close to home once again. The group Coordination Anti-nucléaire Sud-Est learned one day before the Hebdo assassinations that Areva was suing them for defamation. Areva objects to the group reporting on the infiltration of elected officials by the nuclear lobby. This comes on the heels of a similar law suit brought against the French anti-nuclear activist Stéphane Lhomme of l’Observatoire du Nucléaire, who revealed that Areva made a multi-million dollar payment to Niger (where the company mines uranium), part of which was used to buy the Niger president a jet. The verdict in the Lhomme case will be announced on January 21st. Both groups and the French anti-nuclear movement broadly, contend that the state will continue to protect Areva in the on-going colonial war to plunder uranium resources from Niger, Mali and elsewhere in Africa. The Coordination Anti-nucléaire Sud-Est also released a statement condemning the assassinations at Charlie Hebdo and making the connection between colonialism and the suppression of freedom of expression. Read a translation of their statement here. (Caption on the cartoon, by Tignous, one of those killed at the Charlie Hebdo offices, reads: "Everything is fine at the Arlit uranium mine. If Areva says so."