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HONG KONG ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS PROTEST TO DUTCH MINISTER OVER WASTE

Reuters

HONG KONG, 16 April 1999 -- Hong Kong environmental activists on Friday disrupted a news conference by the Dutch deputy prime minister to protest against an Anglo-Dutch firm accused of scrapping toxic waste ships in China. Local Greenpeace activists said shipping company P&O Nedlloyd, a joint venture between the Netherlands' Nedlloyd and Britain's P&O, was sending toxic waste ships to China to be broken up. Protesters asked Annemarie Jorritsma, who is also minister of economic affairs, if she was aware of the firm's action.

They also unfurled a banner that read, "P&O Nedlloyd: Stop Toxic Trade." Jorritsma replied she did not believe the company "would do such a thing."

Greenpeace China campaigner Howard Liu said in a statement: "This Dutch company, P&O Nedlloyd, is so blatantly carrying out this immoral trade by dumping toxic waste ships in China and other Asian countries. "It is all because of the ignorance of the Dutch government that this waste trade is allowed to carry on by P&O Nedlloyd."

"This shameful waste trade in the form of a ship should be condemned and stopped immediately for the sake of shipbreaking workers and the environment," Liu said.

Greenpeace protested in January in Singapore against the intended scrapping of the P&O Nedlloyd container ship Encounter Bay, which was apparently on its way to a scrapyard in China.

The environmental group claimed the ship had been contaminated by toxic materials and said it had been sold to Chinese shipbreakers. Greenpeace officials object to what they say is the limited care with which shipowners dispose of vessels in Asia.

Ships sent to shipbreakers in India, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan often contain hazardous materials such as lead and asbestos, but very little protection is provided for the environment or for workers at those scrapyards, Greenpeace has said.

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