From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Environmental News: EEC COUNTRIES BAN SEA DUMPING ...
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 08:15:09 GMT

/** gn.peacemedia: 174.0 **/
** Topic: Environmental News **
** Written 11:11 pm  Sep 29, 1992 by gn:peacemedia in cdp:gn.peacemedia **
EEC COUNTRIES ACCEPT
BAN ON SEA DUMPING

[Peace Media Service] In Paris September 22, the thirteen EEC
countries agreed on a new convention to protect the North Atlantic
from organochlorine and other dangerous discharges. But no
commitment was made to firm phase-out timetables. At the same
meeting Britain and France accepted a 15-year ban on the dumping
of radioactive waste at sea.

``While France and the UK have made the right decision in agreeing
to at least a 15 year ban on radioactive waste dumping,'' said
Remi Parmentier of Greenpeace, ``they still trail far behind their
co-signatories who have all agreed to a permanent ban. At some
stage France and the UK will have to agree with them.'' He said
the UK was forced to agree to the convention after it became
public last weekend that Britain was planning to block the entire
convention unless it was allowed to resume radioactive waste
dumping at sea.

The day before the meeting, Greenpeace activists hung a banner on
the Eiffel Tower. The banner, read `Non a la Pollution Legale des
Mers' (no legal pollution of the seas).


UK: GREENPEACE CAMPAIGN
AGAINST TOXIC DUMPING

[Peace Media Service] Greenpeace activists blocked the discharge
pipe of Elf Atochem into the Mersey September 2. Four activists
wearing chemical suits and breathing apparatus to protect them
from poisonous fumes climbed into a gully to fit a blocking device
to the discharge pipe. Elf Atochem was given a 20 minute warning
to switch off the discharge before the pipe was blocked.

Eight days later Greenpeace activists blocked the discharge pipe
of multinational chemical company Eni-chem. Six activists from the
Greenpeace ship _Solo_ arrived at the outfall pipe in inflatables.
They took a sample of the company's effluent which may form the
basis for a Greenpeace prosecution. The Eni-chem plant is
permitted to discharge 23.5-billion liters of polluting effluent
every year into Stilling Bay. A local fisherman, Tony Boyd, told
Greenpeace of his horror at the level of pollution in the river
around the chemical complex in the Fawley area. He said that
marine life in the area has been wiped out.

On September 16, after blocking outfall pipes of ICI plants
Billingham on Teeside and Hillhouse in Fleetwood, Greenpeace
activists barricaded the front entrance of the UK's Department of
the Environment in London with six barrels filled with toxic
industrial effluent Greenpeace had collected from discharge pipes.
At a press conference, Greenpeace released a report on ``The
Filthy Fifty,'' listing 50 industrial plants licensed to discharge
to up to 1,723 billion tons of pollution into UK rivers and
estuaries every year.


ASTRA WITHDRAWS FROM
INDONESIA PAPER PROJECT

[Peace Media Service] Indonesia's second largest business group,
Astra International, has pulled out of a multi-million dollar pulp
and paper venture in Merauke, south-east Irian Jaya (West Papua).
It was the second withdrawal of a company from the project
following a sustained campaign by Survival International and local
organizations. The multinational Scott Paper withdrew from the
project in 1989.

The pulp and paper plant would have involved the felling of about
800,000 hectares of forests in the territory of the 15,000 Auyu,
Marind and other tribal peoples. A complex tropical forest
ecosystem would be replaced by a monoculture of eucalyptus
plantations. The project meant destruction for the tribal way of
life, dependent on the forests as hunter-gatherers and rubber
tappers, and for the environment. The tribal people were not
consulted about the project and remain opposed to it. But
Indonesian law does not recognize tribal people's rights. The
Merauke project was in line with the Indonesian government's
policies towards its tribal peoples which aim to assimilate them
into the mainstream culture.

After Scott's withdrawal, the Indonesian government found it
difficult to attract investors to the project. Two Indonesian
companies, PT Astra and PT Inhutani II, were to go ahead with the
project. One of Astra's shareholders is the International Finance
Corporation, a subsidiary of the World Bank.

Thousands of Survival International supporters worldwide have
repeatedly appealed to the Indonesian government to halt the
project. ``It shows that public campaigns really do work,'' said
Stephen Corry, SI's Director General.


** End of text from cdp:gn.peacemedia **

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