Press release - May 4, 2005
NEW DELHI/COPENHAGEN, India — Environmental and labour groups today condemned Indian Environment Minister, Mr. A. Raja’s refusal to return the toxic ship ’Kong Frederik IX’ alias ’Riky’ to Denmark in his response to his counterpart, Ms. Connie Hedegaards’ request for the recall of rogue ship illegaly beached at Alang for scrapping. Meanwhile Danish Foreign Minister, Mr. Per Stig Moller has contacted the Indian foreign ministry to intervene in the matter.
The fugitive toxic ship " Kong Frederik IX" alias "Frederik" alias "Riky", spotted in Alang.
"In his letter, the Indian Minister wrote 'We have determined
that the ship cannot be classified as "Wastes" within the scope of
Act 2.1 of the Basel Convention.' and 'I would like to assure you
that India has adequate capacity to ensure environmentally sound
disposal of the said ship.' These two quotes are in direct
contradiction to each other," clarified Jim Puckett of Basel Action
Network (BAN), a Basel watchdog group, "Article 2.1 of the Basel
Convention defines waste as 'substances or objects which are
disposed of or are intended to be disposed of or are required to be
disposed of by the provisions of national law;' Mr. Raja has
inadvertently stated the obvious, that the ship in question is to
be disposed. Thus, it is a waste as defined in the
Convention."
"Denmark considers Ricky to be a hazardous waste, which in
itself is sufficient legal basis for India to be obliged to
consider it such as well. Besides, the ship left Denmark without
proper notification. The Indian ministry does not have any legal
justification for ignoring another Basel party's law, Denmark's, in
this regard. Clearly Mr. Raja and his department appear to be
making this claim to protect the global shipping industry's
commercial interests by preventing the controls stipulated by
Indian and international law," said Shailendra Yashwant, Campaigns
Director, Greenpeace India.
It is a well-known fact that the beach ship-breaking yards of
South Asia cannot be considered to be practicing Environmentally
Sound Management (ESM) for ship-breaking under the Basel
Convention. The Basel Convention defines ESM broadly as: "taking
all practicable steps to ensure that hazardous wastes or other
wastes are managed in a manner which will protect human health and
the environment against the adverse effects which may result from
such wastes. It is widely recognised that the beaches at Alang do
NOT represent Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) of wastes as
defined in the Convention.
BAN has already published a Basel Non-Compliance Notification and
forwarded this report to the United Nations Human Rights
Commission's Special Rapporteur on toxic waste dumping, as well as
to the Secretariat of the Basel Convention, and United Nations
Environment Program's Executive Director.
For further information, contact:
Jim Puckett, Basel Action Network, 
001.206.652.5555. Shailendra Yashwant, Campaigns Director,
Greenpeace India: +919845535411 
Namrata Chowdhary, Media Officer, Greenpeace India:
+919810850092 