TOULON/ NEW DELHI, India — Greenpeace , Corporate Accountability Desk and Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) called on the French Authorities not to scrap the decommissioned warship Clemenceau in India at the world wide release of a report "END OF LIFE SHIPS - the human cost of breaking ships", in New Delhi today. Earlier in the day Greenpeace activists from Europe and India boarded the heavily guarded Clemenceau, berthed at French naval base in Toulon and painted "Asbestos carrier- stay out of India" on the hull of the aircraft carrier.
Click here to read the chronology of complaints against Clemenceau.
The report produced by Greenpeace, FIDH (the International
Federation for Human Rights) and YPSA (Young Power in Social
Action) from Bangladesh follows the story of 110 workers who have
died during accidents in ship breaking yards of India and
Bangladesh. The report release coincides with the Joint Working
Group meeting that began today, at the Palais de Nations in Geneva,
where representatives of three United Nations bodies, International
Maritime Organisation (IMO), the Basel Convention and the
International Labour Organisation (ILO), will meet to discuss ways
to bring the ship breaking industry under control.
"Dumping Clemenceau on India or any other Asian ship breaking
yard not equipped to deal with this toxic behemoth would result in
yet another casualty of war, this time the victims would be
unprotected, vulnerable and poor workers." said Ramapati Kumar of
Greenpeace India from Toulon, France.
"End-of-life ships should be treated like any other toxic
material under the internationally recognised Basel Convention
which bans the dumping of such waste by OECD countries in non-OECD
countries. Clemenceau has been rejected earlier by Turkey, Greece
and India on the grounds that its export violates the Basel BAN
Amendment. We have reasons to believe that this latest effort to
export, allegedly after asbestos removal, is nothing but an attempt
to green-wash, as the ship still contains large quantities of
asbestos. The French government has moral responsibility to ensure
that it respects the Basel recommendations in letter and spirit."
said Shailendra Yashwant, Campaign Director, Greenpeace India.
"The Indian Authorities, especially the Ministry of Environment
and Forests, have shown utter disregard for the Basel Convention
and the Indian Supreme Court directives, even as ship-breakers
hoodwink them to illegally import toxic ships-for-scrap for
breaking at Alang." said Madhumita Dutta of Corporate
Accountability Desk. ."The murky import of the Danish Ship Riky
alias Kong Frederik IX clearly shows that the shipping industry is
willing to go to any length, including fabricating papers
fraudulently to rid itself of the responsibility of following
international and national laws." she added.
"The working conditions in Indian and Bangladesh yards are
pathetic to say the least, the report clearly shows that the
shipping industry has to ensure that International standards on
labour, safety, health and the environment be respected at
shipbreaking yards wherever they may be. A fund fed by the
shipowners and governments should be created to support the
improvement of working conditions at shipbreaking yards and to
compensate the victims of accidents on the yards and their family"
said P K Ganguly of CITU.
For Further Information contact :
Vinuta Gopal, Greenpeace India, +919845535418
Ramapati Kumar, Greenpeace India, +919845535414 
Madhumita Dutta, Corporate Accountability Desk - 011-
51652451/51652452 
Read the report “End of life ships-
the human cost of breaking ships”