Greenpeace demands apology from France

    New Delhi: Activists of Greenpeace India staged a demonstration in New Delhi on Thursday and demanded a public apology from the French Government saying that decommissioning of the warship Clemenceau is fraught with danger to environment. "Greenpeace is here to tell the Ministry (of Transport) that the Clemenceau is nothing but a waste. It is full of toxic materials. The barrels which we have put here symbolise that Clemenceau is a toxic waste. It cannot be dumped in our country," said Ramapati Kumar, toxic campaigner, Greenpeace India.

   Alleging that the Governments of India and France had colluded Over the issue, the Greenpeace activists also criticised the Central Government for giving wrong arguments in favour of Dismantling the France warship Clemenceau in Asia's largest shipbreaking yard in Alang in Gujarat. "Now, it looks like the French Government and the Indian Government has a deal. France Government is hiding behind the cause. The Indian Government is giving a wrong argument that it is toxic in cargos but not toxic in structure," Kumar said. "We would like to know from the minister that what is the difference between the toxic in bag and toxic in wall. Toxic in wall is much more dangerous than that of toxic in a bag. It would be harmful to environment and for workers who will dismantle the ship," he added. Greenpeace has also requested the Ministry of Forest and Environment to send Clemenceau back and asked the Government of France to issue a public apology to the people of India over the issue. "We request the Ministry of Forest and Environment to reject the Clemenceau and send it back. We also demand the France Government to make public apology to the people of India as it forged the facts to the Egyptian Government by submitting wrong documents," Kumar said. Earlier, French authorities had said that the most dangerous work -- the removal of 115 tones of brittle asbestos -- had been carried out in France and the remaining 45 tones of asbestos had to be kept in place to keep the ship seaworthy on its final journey. Supreme Court had on Monday barred the decommissioned warship Clemenceau from entering the country's waters until a report by a team of environmental experts.

   The aircraft carrier 'Clemenceau' left France in December for the Massive Alang ship-breaking yard amid protests from the environmental group Greenpeace. The group said the 27,000-tones Clemenceau contains hundreds of tones of hazardous material, including 500 tones of toxic asbestos, which could pose a risk to the health of scrap workers. Last week, Egypt had said that it faced no environmental threat from the warship's passage through the canal and gave it permission to proceed. The vessel is currently en route to India after being delayed for three days before it could enter the Suez Canal. The decommissioned Clemenceau ship, heading for the Alang scrap yard in Gujarat, is facing criticism from environmentalists, Particularly Greenpeace activists, for being hazardous as it contains large amount of cancer causing asbestos.

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