space Press Releases, News Stories

CAMBODIANS RIOT IN PROTEST OVER TAIWANESE WASTE

Reuters

PHNOM PENH, 19 December 1998 (Reuters) - Thousands of people attacked customs offices in Cambodia's main seaport on Saturday in a protest against a dump of Taiwanese waste that may have caused two deaths and sickened other people, state officials said.

Prime Minister Hun Sen demanded that the 3,000 tonnes of industrial waste be sent back home immediately. He appealed for help from the United Nations, World Health Organisation and relevant environmental agencies in resolving the matter.

State officials said several thousand protesters -- dock workers and local residents -- had stormed local customs offices in Sihanoukville which had cleared the waste shipment for import on December 4.

``...Angry demonstrators walked to the customs compound and the offices of the economic police and attacked them. I'm not sure how much damage they caused, but they smashed the offices,'' Cambodian co-defence minister Tea Banh told Reuters.

Disturbances continued into the late afternoon on Saturday. Cambodian Health Minister Mam Bunheng said at least two recent deaths and five cases of dizziness appeared connected to the waste haul, which was dumped about 10 km (six miles) from Sihanoukville.

``Those people who are sick are all workers at Sihanoukville port. They carried the sacks of Taiwanese waste from the ship,'' he told Reuters.

Taiwanese petrochemical giant Formosa Plastics (1301.TW) said on Friday it had sent the waste to Cambodia but it had been previously certified safe for landfill disposal.

Cambodian Environment Minister Mok Mareth said he believed the material was still dangerous.

Cambodian environmental inspectors suspected the waste included compressed ash from an industrial waste incinerator and also hazardous materials such as lead, zinc or mercury.

``Even though the material was 20 years old, I believe the toxicity still remains,'' Mok Mareth said. ``There is panic among people living in areas surrounding the dump site.

``I'm also worried that the waste is in a watershed area. Last week, it rained, so we are still very concerned about the degradation of the waste and that mercury could seep into the ground and contaminate water supplies.''

Cambodian officials said some small samples of the waste had been taken to Hong Kong for testing but no results had yet been released. Cambodia lacks the facilities and expertise itself to carry out any testing, they said.

Cambodian lawyers were drafting steps to ensure the waste was returned to Taiwan and U.N. technical experts were expected to arrive on Monday to help analyse the dump.

Hun Sen said he was extremely concerned. ``The waste must be shipped out immediately. I appeal to the United Nations and the World Health

Organisation and all the relevant environmental organisations to provide facilities to solve this problem.''

The prime minister said any officials involved in importing the waste into Cambodia would be suspended from their posts.

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