Indians Send Protest Letter to Bush
by Fairplay Inernational Shipping Weekly
15 May 2003 –
Towards the end of last year, Greenpeace, BAN, Toxics Link, the National Alliance of Peoples Movement (NAPM), the All India Trade Union Congress (CITU AITUC, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and the Indian Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) wrote to the Consul of the US in New Delhi, making plain their views about the Bush administrations plan to break out of the moratorium on exporting ships for scrap.
In the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by Fairplay, the organizations said: "We would like to bring to your attention the implications of recent deliberations in the US to dispose of more than 300 ships without decontamination in& Asian shipbreaking yards."
"You may recall that the then US vice president Al Gore placed a moratorium on the sale of US government-owned ships for scrap& after Indian trade unions and environmental organisations protested outside the US embassy in New Delhi in January 1998."
"We have now learned that the Federal Maritime Administration is contemplating again the export of the obsolete US ships to India or other Asian beaches in order to avoid the environmental and safety liabilities involved if the ship were to be scrapped in the United States."
"While we are in no way opposed to the reclamation of steel for reuse& we have repeatedly indicated our opposition to the export to any country& of any form of hazardous waste. Ships for scrap, unless decontaminated, are hazardous waste by virtue of the fact that most, if not all, ships contain a range of hazardous material in their structure."
"The proposal to export ships from the United States to Asia exposes the& double-standards inherent in the US governments outlook on the rights of communities and workers in Asian countries. Various legal precedents exist to confirm that ships for scrap (unless decontaminated) should be treated as hazardous wastes," said the letter. "Furthermore," it claimed, "such an export is illegal under US and international law and would, if exported to India, violate the May 5, 1997, Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the import of hazardous wastes."
"The ships in question are too old& to travel on their own steam. They would need to be towed to the shipbreaking yard. There is no reason why the ships cannot be decontaminated prior to towing to the shipbreaking yard& We demand that the US government withdraw any proposal it may have to export toxic ships& and work towards a programme that will safely dismantle these ships in the US," concluded the authors of the letter.
FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Basel Action Network is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
More News
|
