DELHI, India — 10 Greenpeace activists. 10 barrels marked toxic. 3500 Indian citizens, from eight cities across the country. All urging the minister to do the right thing and send the Clemenceau back to France until it has been decontaminated. Speak now, Minister, or forever bear the guilt of having failed to perform your responsibility towards the environment and people of India.
Greenpeace activists on vigil outside the Minister of Environment and Forests, bringing postcards signed by 3500 citizens, demanding that the Minister reject the Clemenceau unless fully decontaminated.
At 10 am on 19 January 2006, Greenpeace activists line up
outside the Ministry of Environment and Forests. On their banner, a simple
demand – 'Don't make
India
a waste dump.' In front of them, ten barrels spell out the latest and largest
threat to the environment and people of
India
– C L E M E N C E A U.
The minister's office informs us that he is 'unavailable' at
present, but will probably agree to a brief meeting at 4 pm. Although it means
several hours of standing vigil in the cold shadow of the ministry, all ten
activists are willing to wait until the Minister personally accepts the
thousands of postcards we bring.
Meanwhile, ministry officials, central government employees
and curious bystanders all join the fight – coming up to sign the postcard
demanding that Mr. Raja does the right thing.
Will he? Won't he?
Latest Update:
The Minister, Mr. A. Raja, met
a delegation
from Greenpeace and the Ban Asbestos Network at 4 pm today, 19th January 2006, six hours after the Greenpeace demonstration outside
his office
began.
After listening to our
submissions on
exactly how the import of the ship without prior decontamination
constitutes a
violation of the Basel Convention, and hearing an account of
asbestos-related
diseases in France from Annie Thebaud-Mony of the Ban Asbestos Network, the
Minister
accepted our Memorandum, and three thousand five hundred postcards,
including
yours.
He ended the meeting by saying
that the
matter was being left to the Supreme Court to decide, though he did
assure us
that there would be no dilution of international or national laws.
Meanwhile, our signature
campaign will
continue, so if you haven’t signed a postcard yet, do so now! If you
are hugely
popular, and can muster over 500 signatures for us, contact us
now and we will get a set across to you.
Also continuing is our pressure
on the
French government – so if you haven’t joined our cyberaction to stop
the
Clemenceau, click here now!
Curious about the Clemenceau? Read its brief but murky history
here.
Click here for a chronology of
protests against the Clemenceau.
Click here for the press release we
issued at our demonstration this morning.
Help us stop the Clemenceau!
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