From: antbh@strix.udac.uu.se (Bernhard Helander)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.italian
Subject: Somalia: Greenpeace reveals Italian companies
Date: 13 Sep 92 07:04:41 GMT
Organization: Uppsala University
NNTP-Posting-Host: strix.udac.uu.se



 GREENPEACE REVEALS NAME OF ITALIAN COMPANY ILLEGALLY EXPORTING
                     TOXIC WASTE TO SOMALIA 

Rome,  9  September  1992 ----  Greenpeace  today  revealed  that 
the Italian company PROGRESSO s.r.l.  is the waste trader  behind 
the illegal trafficking of  toxic  waste to Somalia.
Greenpeace said the agreement for the scandalous deal was  signed 
in  Rome, on 5 December 1991 , and authorizes the  Swiss  company 
ACHAIR  and  PARTNERS  to  annnually  export  500,000  tonnes  of 
hospital    and industrial  waste from Italy to Somalia over  the 
next   twenty   years.  The waste is to go to a  10  million  ton 
disposal site. 
UNEP director Dr Mustafa Tolba this week publicised the deal, but
was  told the media that he was afraid to reveal any  details  of 
the  company  involved,  describing  the  parties  involved    as 
"mafia". 
One   of  the founding members of ACHAIR,  Pierre  Andre  RANDIN, 
has  already  been prosecuted for illegal  trade  in  information  
technology  to Eastern Europe between 1981 and 1982. Last  spring 
he  co-founded, together with Marcello GIANNONI, a company called 
"MANAWASTE", for waste exports to  the Third World. GIANNONI  now 
is a director of PROGRESSO. 
"This Somalian toxic waste export scandal underlines the  failure 
 of   the 1989 Basel  Convention to control waste trade,  and the  
urgent  need  for  a  total ban on  hazardous  waste exports   to  
developing  and Eastern European countries" commented  Greenpeace  
Italy's Roberto Ferrigno. 
The  case  also  shows  how  Italian  companies  circumvent   the 
prohibition  of hazardous waste expor s from EC Member states  to  
Somalia,  as  provided  in the LOME  IV  Convention  between  the  
European  Community  and  a group  of  69  developping  countries  
amongst which Somalia. 
Dr  Tolba  publicised the agreement this week   after  the  Basel 
Convention  Secretariat was notified of it.  Under  the terms  of 
the  Basel Convention it is perfectly legal to export   hazardous 
waste    from   Switzerland  to  Somalia  as   long    as    both 
governments agree to do so.  
"We  absolutely  have to get to a total ban of all  waste exports  
from all industrialized countries to the Third World and  Eastern  
Europe"  Ferrigno concluded.  

                             ENDS

For more information: Roberto Ferrigno, Greenpeace Italy
                      tel (39) (6) 5782484 - 5750053
                      Stefan Weber, Greenpeace Switzerland     
                      tel (41) (1) 2413441 - 2413621


BH: The fax number for the Swiss Mission to the UN is 212-751-2104.

-- 
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* Bernhard Helander                * Telephone: +46-18-182289 (office)      *
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.italian