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CAMBODIA TO RETURN TAIWAN WASTE IF PROVED TOXIC

By Reuters

Tuesday, December 15, 1998 -- Thousands of tons of imported waste bearing skull-and-crossbones danger signs is to be sent back to Taiwan if it is proved toxic, a Cambodian minister said today.

Some 3,000 tons of the material was found packed in triple-layer plastic sacks bearing the signs near southern Sihanoukville port, Minister of Environment Mok Mareth said.

Cambodian authorities believe the waste is toxic and will order its return if tests prove this, he said.

"If it's not dangerous why do they need to put it in three layers of sack with the skull-and-cross-bones sign and dump it in Cambodia?" Mok Mareth asked.

"I myself am scared to go too close to the site," he told Reuters.

Officials were seeking the help of United Nations agencies to analyze the waste, Mok Mareth said.

"No one knows for sure whether it's radioactive or toxic but the U.N. will help us analyze it. If we find it is toxic we'll send it back to Taiwan," Mok Mareth said.

The material was labelled "construction waste" and imported from Taiwan last week by a Cambodian firm. It was dumped on land about 10 km (six miles) from Sihanoukville, which is 200 km (125 miles) southwest of Phnom Penh.

Local people had been going to the site, emptying rubble out of the sacks and taking them away to store rice, the minister said.

It is in a watershed area and Mok Mareth said he was worried that the waste could seep into the ground and contaminate water supplies.

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