Greenpeace activists demonstrated outside the French embassy in India.
10.30 a.m. on the 3rd of January 2006: After much stamping of
feet in the cold, we arrived at the French embassy in New Delhi and
unfurled a large banner that told them, "Clemenceau - Your Waste.
Your Responsibility." We also held up six-feet high images of the
ship-breaking yard at Alang, to make sure the French government
knew exactly where their toxic behemoth will arrive and the hellish
circumstances under which Indian workers will dismantle it.
Not surprisingly, they didn't appreciate the reminder. Within
seconds, our banners and posters were snatched away, though we
continued to stand at their doorstep, telling the accompanying
journalists how outrageously the French government was behaving on
the issue. Click here to read the
press release we issued.
On December 12th, when we'd boarded the Clemenceau in Toulon,
France, we'd demanded that the 'Asbestos Carrier - Stay out of
India'. Our activists held firm for 23 hours in sub-zero
temperatures and whistling winds, but the French government
continued to hide behind a confidentiality clause, their only
response being to arrest all protesting activists. In Delhi too,
all the activists protesting outside the French embassy were
arrested, and detained for a few hours before being respectfully
released and escorted back to the embassy to meet Monsieur
Dominique Girard, Ambassador of France in India… not that much came
out of that meeting!
What's the fuss all about?
This 27,000 tonne military aircraft carrier - quite
significantly, owned by the French government, and not by the
private shipping companies who routinely violate international laws
on ship-breaking - contains large quantities of hazardous
materials; between 500 to 1000 tonnes of asbestos as well as other
organic pollutants like TBTs, PCBs etc. These hazardous materials
are found on all
end-of-life ships, and Greenpeace has been campaigning for
several years now, to make it mandatory for ship owners to remove
all toxics from their ships before sending them ahead to
ship-breaking yards.
The rules are clear, but who's following them?
The Basel
Convention - which both France and India are signatories to -
clearly prohibits the transboundary shipment of waste from an OECD
country to a non-OECD country. The French government is choosing to
twist the Basel Convention to its own convenience, claiming that a
warship cannot be considered a waste until it has been completely
dismantled. But they're not fooling anybody - in anticipation of
this kind of misinterpretation, the decision VII/26 taken at the
COP7 meeting of the Basel Convention, specifies clearly that
ships-for-scrap are considered waste. No arguments.
At the Indian end too, the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee
has discussed the Clemenceau as long ago as February 2005, and laid
down stringent conditions (see footnote 1) that must be met before the
Clemenceau is allowed to arrive in India.
Lies, lies and more lies.
In our meeting with the Ambassador, even more lies were told.
First, they'd said they would decontaminate 98% of the asbestos on
board, now they say they've removed as much as 30-40%.
They claimed it is a mere legend that Turkey rejected the ship,
though it has been established in the past that Turkey and Greece
both took a strong position against France and refused to allow the
Clemenceau onto their shores.
They insisted that Indian ship-breaking facilities are up to the
mark. We all know what the reality is!
They said they're operating with full transparency, and have
shared all relevant documentation with relevant authorities - ummm,
who might those be, we wonder, since authorities like the SCMC and
the Ministry of Environment and Forests have not yet received the
documentation.
But the one really bold lie - and a new one at that! - that the
Ambassador issued forth, was that they were completely unaware of
the SCMC's having laid down the condition that an independent third
party audit of the decontamination must be performed, and the
resulting certificate furnished to Indian authorities before the
ship may be imported.
Coming up next, the whistleblowers come to town!
Technopure, the company that was originally contracted to
perform the decontamination of the Clemenceau before it was sent to
India, told The Hindu that the French government had deliberately
chosen the cheapest possible option of removing only the visible
wastes from the decks of the ship. They have also confirmed that
our estimate of there being between 500-1000 tonnes of asbestos in
the ship, are closer to the truth than the 45 tonnes that the
French government claims.
On the 6th of January, the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee
will meet to talk about the Clemenceau. Technopure officials have
agreed to come to India to formally share the truth with them as
well.
Once that evidence has been tabled, the SCMC will advise the
Ministry of Environment and Forests - and we're holding our breath
in anticipation, quite certain that the advice will be to turn the
Clemenceau back.
Finally, we hope, the truth will be told. Watch this space for
further updates.
Footnote 1 :
The meeting of the SCMC sub-committee on shipbreaking on
February 2, 2005, laid down the following conditions for the import
of the Clemenceau:
"The Committee indicated that several documents would still have
to be submitted by Sree Ram:
- Report of the decontamination in Toulon, France which would
provide details of actual quantities of asbestos and other
hazardous materials removed from the ship;
- Independent third-party audit verifying the report;
- Certificate from the French authorities that the ship has been
decontaminated and does not violate the provisions of the Basel
Convention.
In addition, MoEF shall procure from the French Embassy all the
relevant documents relating to the ship including an official
statement from the French Government that in its view and that of
its own experts, the hazardous materials including asbestos have
been removed upto 98% and the balance would be recovered at Alang
under guidance and coordination of the company (M/s SDIC Ltd.) as
well.
Subject to the above, SCMC has no objection to the arrival and
demolition of ship in India."
Watch the Clemenceau action video
Click here to read the report that motivated Greenpeace and
FIDH activists from five countries to take action against the
asbestos carrier.
Click here to read the
press release