From: tgray@igc.apc.org (Tom Gray)
Newsgroups: talk.environment
Subject: ENVIRONMENT: PLANS TO DUMP WASTE IN
Date: 11 Sep 92 12:36:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1483100118:000:3119
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!tgray    Sep 11 05:36:00 1992


From: Tom Gray <tgray>
Subject: ENVIRONMENT: PLANS TO DUMP WASTE IN

/* Written 12:13 am  Aug 16, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "ENVIRONMENT: PLANS TO DUMP WASTE IN" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Latin America
Title: ENVIRONMENT: PLANS TO DUMP WASTE IN THIRD WORLD LINKED TO RACISM


la paz, aug 13 (ips) -- plans by industrialized countries to turn
developing nations into dumping grounds for their radioactive
waste are related to their conception of non-white peoples,
according to bolivian bishop rolando villena.

villena, who is the secretary of the latin american council of
churches (clai) for the andean region, linked such plans to an
inhuman philosophy and policy which ''consider the men and women
of our peoples inferior beings, solely because their skins are
not white.''

speaking thursday at a latin american meeting on ''500 years
of martyrdom and hope'' held here by the clai, he charged that
proposals presented at the world bank and other international
bodies would convert bolivia and other third world countries into
atomic refuse dumps.

villena's denunciation echoed warnings that other parts of
latin america, in particular central america, are in danger of
become dumping grounds for harmful waste.

edwin garzona of the international environmental group
greenpeace, said this week in guatemala that ''central america
had become a favourite destination for toxic wastes.''

garzona said greenpeace had discovered eight separate
proposals to import toxic wastes into the region in 1987, while
this year nine similar proposals had been recorded.

fears that the sub-region could become a dumping ground have
led the central american environment commission (ccad) to urge
central american governments to hasten the approval of an
agreement banning all toxic waste imports into the region.

villena stressed that the reported plans by industrialized
countries to dump waste in latin america are related to their
view of developing nations and their peoples.

''here the damage would be less, since it would not affect
professionals, technicians and scientists, but only poor peasants
and workers and industrial complexes and big cities would not be
destroyed,'' he said ironically.

''i consider it humiliating that the industrialized nations
''want to treat us like their colonies and possessions, repeating
the 500 years of conquest and oppression against our peoples,''
he said.

within this framework, he referred to the presence of u.s.
military forces in bolivia. (more)
----



no foreign military force should harm national dignity and
sovereignty, using bolivia as if it were its territory for
unavowable purposes, as u.s. troops are doing in eastern bolivia,
he said.

''we are therefore demanding solidarity from the churches of
the first world, so that these unjust and inhumane imperialist
projects ... which run counter to the principles of god, do not
prosper,'' he said. (end/ips/trd/so/rg-oh/kb/92)
----
Xref: sparky talk.environment:3645 sci.environment:11236 alt.activism:16120 talk.politics.misc:44547