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GREENPEACE STEPS UP SHIP SCRAP PROTEST

BY Alan Dickey, Lloyd's List

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, 10 November 1999 -- GREENPEACE yesterday stepped up its campaign to block toxic ship scrapping practices by boarding the Costamare Shipping-owned, Hapag-Lloyd-operated containership Tokio Express in the port of Rotterdam, writes Alan Dickey.

Activists boarded her yesterday morning to paint messages in three languagues, including Chinese and Hindi, designed to warn ship scrapping workers about what the environmental group believes are potentially lethal levels of asbestos The ship, which is still in active service, is said to be earmarked for scrapping in the next six months, so it is unlikely that the scrappers will read the messages.

An activist paints slogans on the ship's side yesterday.

Greenpeace has previously targeted ships from P&O Nedlloyd and Hamburg-Süd which it claimed contained toxic materials.

The action group also sought to board the ship with an independent expert from the Dutch firm Van der Linden en Veldhuis, which is experienced in detecting and solving asbestos problems on ships.

Claire Claire Tielens, toxics campaigner, Greenpeace Netherlands, said Greenpeace was "very surprised" to be denied permission by the master of the Tokio Express.

The Greenpeace vessel alongside the Tokio Express during her stay at Rotterdam, when activists tried to inspect her for potential asbestos problems.

"We were offering a service to Hapag-Lloyd free of charge for this expert to tour the ship to find potential asbestos problems on board.

"The master was very polite, and said he was aware of the problems and risks faced by ship scrappers in Asia and elsewhere, but he said he could not allow our expert on board for fear that he might get hurt while conducting his inspection."

She added that the inspector had been on board for a short time, and was convinced the Tokio Express "was the sort of ship which would have toxic materials on board".

In a statement, Greenpeace said: "Companies from the rich OECD nations must stop dumping their hazardous waste on poor countries and take the responsibility for this waste."

It said Costamare and Hapag-Lloyd had to guarantee that hazardous materials will be removed from the ship before it is sent to China.

It said Costamare has scrapped nine vessels in Alang, India in the past four years.

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