Protesters say the rare earth plant being
built in eastern Malaysia poses a hazard from radioactive waste.
Photograph: Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters
About 3,000
Malaysians have staged a protest against a refinery for
rare earth elements being built by the Australian
mining company
Lynas over fears of radioactive contamination.
It was the largest rally so far against the £146m plant in eastern
Malaysia, and could pose a headache for the government with national elections widely expected this year.
Authorities
recently granted Lynas a licence to operate the rare earth plant in
Pahang state, the first outside
China in years, and it has been the
subject of heated protests over health and environmental risks posed by
potential leaks of radioactive waste.
Lynas says its plant, which will refine radioactive ore from
Australia, has state-of-the-art pollution controls and plans to start operations by June.
Protesters,
including opposition
MPs, pledged on Sunday to put pressure on the
government to scrap the project. Many wore green T-shirts with the words
"Stop Lynas" and some shouted "Destroy Lynas" during the two-hour rally
in the Pahang state capital, Kuantan.
The opposition leader,
Anwar Ibrahim, said his alliance would seek an emergency motion in
parliament to urge the government to cancel the project. He also pledged
that the opposition would scrap the plant if it won national polls
expected by June.
"We don't want [this project] to sacrifice our culture and the safety of the children," he told the crowd.
Lynas
says its refinery could meet nearly a third of world demand for rare
earths, excluding China. It also may curtail China's stranglehold on the
global supply of 17 rare earths essential for making hi-tech goods,
including flat-screen TVs, mobile phones, hybrid cars and weapons.
Malaysian activists and Pahang residents have sought a court order to halt the Lynas plant.
An
International Atomic Energy Agency team, which assessed the Lynas
project last year, found it lacked a comprehensive long-term waste
management programme and a plan to dismantle the plant once it is no
longer operating.
Malaysia's last rare earth refinery, operated by
Mitsubishi of Japan, in northern Perak state, was closed in 1992 after
protests and claims that it caused birth defects and leukaemia among
residents. It is one of Asia's largest radioactive waste cleanup sites.