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Four Greenpeace activists detained in blockade of toxic waste ship
By Anneli Reigas
AFP
TALLINN
Petroleumworld.com 09 27 06
Four activists from environmental pressure group Greenpeace were detained in an Estonian port Tuesday when the group mounted a spectacular operation to prevent a ship involved in a toxic waste scandal in west Africa from setting out to sea.
"Altogether we have now detained four Greenpeace activists," Tarmo Ots, head of foreign and media relations at the Estonian Maritime Administration, told AFP.
"This afternoon, two Greenpeace activists -- both women -- who had been misinformed about the plan of the Panamanian-registered ship, the Probo Koala, to leave Estonia late Tuesday, jumped into the sea in Paldiski port from the Greenpeace vessel, the Arctic Sunrise," he said.
"Both were picked up by border guard officials and taken to the port facilities."
Earlier, two Greenpeace activists on a motorboat heading for the Probo Koala were detained for violating port rules, Ots said.
Last month Trafigura, the Netherlands-based shipping company that leased the Probo Koala, offloaded more than 500 tonnes of toxic sludge from the vessel in Ivory Coast. The local company charged with handling the waste is blamed for dumping it on open-air rubbish dumps in the commercial capital Abidjan, a city of four million people.
The Ivory Coast authorities announced Tuesday that eight people had now died as a result of the poisoning scandal, 69 had been hospitalised and doctors had received 80,000 calls for medical help.
When Greenpeace started its blockade of the Probo Koala Monday, it urged the Estonian authorities to bar the vessel from leaving Paldiski to allow a full probe of the ship and its logs.
"We will not up anchor because we believe that only through investigation of the ship and its logs can the chain of culpability be established for what happened in Ivory Coast and the failure of the regulatory system be fixed to guarantee that this never happens again," said Greenpeace spokesman Mike Townsley.
The Estonians initially rejected Greenpeace's demand for an investigation of the ship's logs, saying an inspection of the Probo Koala two weeks ago showed it was "clean of any toxic waste".
But Ots said Tuesday that the vessel was being kept in port until checks had been carried out.
"The ship is waiting in the Estonian port for the results of analyses," Ots told AFP. "I can assure everyone that the ship will not leave Estonia. There is no need to worry about it."
The Ivory Coast authorities also sent a request to the Estonian environment minister for the Probo Koala be immobilised in Paldiski port.
"It's a case of ringing an alarm bell so that the Estonian authorities take precautionary measures," Fatoumata Diakite, head of the Ivorian commission of inquiry into the pollution scandal, told AFP Tuesday.
She added that the request was "not binding for Estonia" but said it was important to react to the urgent situation.
Greenpeace described the Ivorian request as "excellent news". "Up to now, Estonia has lacked a formal reason to detain the ship but now it has a very strong request from Ivory Coast to keep it here," activist Jan Isakson told AFP by telephone from the Arctic Sunrise.
Greenpeace has vowed to maintain its blockade of the Probo Koala "for as long as needed".
The group has also launched a lawsuit in the Netherlands against shipping company Trafigura, which leased the vessel, in a bid to ensure the Probo Koala is immobilised.
Trafigura said Monday that tests conducted on the waste that was offloaded from the ship in Abidjan in mid-August showed it contained "little or no toxicity".
But French chemical experts sent to Ivory Coast to help end the pollution crisis said in a report to the government earlier this month that the waste was a noxious mix of oil refining residues, sulphur, phenols and mercaptans.
AFP 26 2136 GMT 09 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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