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Ivory Coast victims give Trafigura settlement mixed welcome

Uruguay denies Argentina's pollution claims before UN court
Uruguay denied before the UN's highest court on Monday that a paper mill it had authorised to be constructed on the banks of a river shared with Argentina was causing pollution. The mill owned by Finnish company Botnia was operating within the confines of the law and "does not cause pollution," ambassador Carlos Gianelli argued for Uruguay before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. At the start of the case a week ago, Argentina accused its neighbour of reneging on a bilateral treaty when it authorised the mill that started operating in November 2007 near Fray Bentos on the Uruguayan bank of the shared River Uruguay. Argentina said the mill was causing "irreversible" environmental damage in a densely populated area whose inhabitants used the river for fishing, leisure and tourism, and now feared for their health. Alan Boyle, an international law expert called by Uruguay, said on Monday the mill was built in an environment more than capable of supporting it. "The water quality remains good and has not changed" since the mill entered into operation, he told the court. Gianelli, Uruguay's ambassador to the United States, added that Argentina was wrong to blame toxic algae in the river on the mill, as it was a common phenomenon during the summer months. Argentina filed an application with the court in May 2006 accusing Uruguay of having unilaterally authorised the construction of the one billion dollar (688 million euro) Botnia mill, as well as a second by Spanish company Ence which has yet to be constructed. This was denied by Gianelli on Monday, who said his country "did not and has not violated the convention in any respect". Argentinian environmentalists have been blockading a bridge across the river since 2006 in protest against the mill's presence. The two countries are to argue the case before the ICJ, which considers disputes between nations, for two more weeks.
by Staff Writers
 Abidjan (AFP) Sept 21, 2009
 Organisations representing tens of thousands of victims of toxic waste dumped in Ivory Coast on Monday gave a mixed welcome to a 33 million euro payment announced in London by oil trading firm Trafigura.

Claude Gohourou, president of the Ivorian national coordination of toxic waste victims, said that the payments provided "moral comfort" and added that in this case, "a bad arrangement is better than a good trial."

Gohourou told AFP that Trafigura's settlement, announced out of court on Sunday, had "come after two years after our complaints, which means that we avoid going into a judicial procedure with uncertain results for the future."

But another representative of the victims, Denis Yao Pipira, protested that in the settlement, Trafigura refused to accept responsibility for deaths and serious sickness and called for "new negotiations".

Ivory Coast has said the dumping in 2006 killed 17 people and caused more than 100,000 to seek medical help.

Trafigura late Saturday agreed to pay 30 million pounds (33 million euros, 49 million dollars) to victims of the waste dumped in Abidjan, a spokesman for the firm said Sunday.

Each victim, among 31,000 claimants, will get 750,000 francs CFA (1,150 euros, 1,700 dollars), the spokesman added.

In August 2006, the Probo Koala ship, chartered by Trafigura, dumped caustic soda and petroleum residues on city waste tips across Abidjan -- having first attempted to offload the cargo in Amsterdam.

A report by a UN expert last week found "strong" evidence linking the waste to 15 deaths and several hospitalisations.

Okechukwu Ibeanu, who is the UN special rapporteur on the issue, said there was "a strong basis to conclude that the deaths and illnesses were directly and indirectly linked to the dumping waste".

Trafigura has always disputed this, however, and its position was upheld in the out-of-court settlement, which ended legal proceedings against Trafigura in Britain. A High Court case was due to have begun on October 6.

The agreement with British lawyers Leigh Day and Company, who represent the 31,000 claimants in Abidjan, accepts that there is no link between exposure to the waste and any deaths or miscarriages, as was alleged.

Pipira, who heads a national federation of victims of toxic waste in Ivory Coast, told a press conference on Monday that the weekend settlement should be renegotiated.

"Trafigura wants victims to sign untruthful declarations stating that the waste didn't cause any (serious) casualties and that there were just a few superficial injuries," Pipira charged.

Last week, Pipira said that the forthcoming settlement was an "admission of guilt" which would bring "moral comfort to the victims".

Trafigura has already paid one hundred billion CFA francs (152 million euros) in damages to the victims in an out-of-court deal with the Ivory Coast government, which exempted it from legal proceedings in that country.

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