15 November 2003 (Ahmedabad) – Greenpeace activists on Saturday expressed surprise over reports that the Gujarat Maritime Board has sought help from Navy and Customs to arrest the international crew of Rainbow Warrior’, following their expose of a “criminal act” by a British company that is dumping hazardous and toxic waste at the Alang shipbreaking yard, in clear contravention of Indian and International laws.

Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior is anchored off Alang and Bhavnagar for last two days, to bear witness and document toxic materials aboard ships-forscrap, which leads to adverse impacts on the fragile aquatic environment.

The environment watchdog said it is well known that huge amounts of hazardous substances are being illegally dumped on the sea and the beaches near the shipbreaking yard.

“Instead of taking action against criminal companies and governments that are using our shores as dumping grounds for toxic waste in a clear contempt of the Supreme Court directives, I am surprised that the Gujarat authorities have chosen to target Greenpeace,” said Ananthapadmanabhan, executive director, Grenpeace India.

“We are an environmental watch-dog group, we have exposed the shocking behaviour of the UK government and the ship-owner. Clearly there are vested interests at work, when authorities choose to ignore the criminal and go after the witnesses” said Ananthapadmanabhan, Executive Director, Grenpeace India,” he added.

On November 12, Rainbow Warrior arrived at Alang on the first leg of its “Corporate Accountability tour of India” to find that a UK ship ‘Genova Bridge’ had beached at Alang, laden with toxic substances like PCBs, Asbestos, waste oil sludge, TBT etc.

Greenpeace said ‘Genova Bridge’, owned by V Ships Commercial, London, was beached on November 9 even as the British authorities refused to give permission to US naval ships (the controversial ghost fleet) for scrapping on their shores following environmental concerns raised by public, environmental organisations and the authorities themselves.

A total of eleven ships has been sold by UK ship owners for scrapping in Asia during 2003. “Indian authorities should realise that the ship-breaking business cannot be practised without ensuring the implementation of Supreme Court directives, while toxic-ship exporting nations will have to keep in mind that they cannot make a mockery of the Basel convention, all this at the cost of our environment and the health of thousands of impacted communities,” said Ramapati Kumar, Greenpeace ship-breaking campaigner from aboard Rainbow Warrior.

“While doing research here we will continue to report specific instances of violations to the to the concerned authorities”, he added. Meanwhile, Greenpeace has informed the Ministry of Environment and Forests regarding the ongoing criminal offence by ship-owners on Indian shores.

Greenpeace is demanding that the International Maritime Organisation make the regime on clean-ship recycling mandatory, globally binding and in compliance with the Basel Convention.