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GREEN ACTIVISTS STAGE SHIP PROTEST

Straits Times, Singapore

SINGAPORE, 12 January 1999 -- Two Greenpeace activists boarded a ship owned by P & O Nedlloyd here yesterday morning and unfurled a banner protesting what it called "toxic trade".

The activists, allowed to board the ship by its captain, unfurled a banner which read "P & O Nedlloyd, Stop Toxic Trade".

Greenpeace and the Basel Action Network (Ban), both environmental groups, said the ship, Encounter Bay, was contaminated with toxic materials such as heavy metals and asbestos.

They said the Basel Convention banning the export of hazardous waste from developed to developing countries had been violated and asked Singapore to detain it.

But when contacted, the Ministry of the Environment (ENV) said that Singapore does not consider the ship, said to be on its way to China to be scrapped, to be a piece of hazardous waste.

It said the Hazardous Waste (Control of Export, Import and Transit) Act here followed the Basel Convention closely. In the convention, "wastes" are defined as substances or objects which are disposed of or are intended to be disposed of or are required to be disposed of by the provisions of national law.

Ships that carry such substances are themselves not defined as wastes under the convention or Singapore's law. In a statement issued yesterday, Greenpeace said that similar protests in Rotterdam, Barcelona, Sydney and Auckland have been held against the ship since last November.

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