Green activists protest at Dutch embassy

Green activists protest at Dutch embassy

JAKARTA (JP): Some 70 environmental activists staged a
peaceful demonstration outside the Dutch embassy here yesterday
demanding that the Netherlands take responsibility for containers
filled with toxic waste that originated in Rotterdam.

The group complained that a four-person team sent by The Hague
to inspect the containers is restricted to only four containers
while there are now believed to be dozens piling up at Tanjung
Priok port.

The demonstrators, wielding banners and posters condemning the
imported waste, said they fear that the team had been as mere lip
service to quell Indonesia's criticism and that there was no
intention of taking any of the containers back to the
Netherlands.

"So far they said they were sent here to examine only four
containers owned by Dutch firms and that they have no authority
to examine the others," spokesman of the demonstrators Azas Tigor
said.

"We hope that the team is not here on a public relations
exercise for its government," Azas added.

The demonstrators are representatives from Indonesian
Environmental Forum (Walhi), the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) in
Jakarta, the Association of Waste Recyclers, the Zero Population
Growth Movement, the Analysis Foundation, the Jakarta Social
Institute and the Association of Jakarta Solidarity Students.

The group said they believed that at least 17 containers lying
unclaimed in Tanjung Priok came from Dutch companies.

The government has been stuck with 260 containers of illegal
hazardous waste at Tanjung Priok and the ports in Medan and
Surabaya, and is at a loss as to what to do because the countries
where the containers originated have shown little inclination to
take them back. An earlier proposal to burn the containers was
shelved after strong opposition from environmental groups.

Many of these containers arrived after Indonesia imposed an
import ban against virtually all forms of hazardous and toxic
waste.

The only nation

By sending the team here last week, the Netherlands became
thus far the only nation to respond to Indonesia's request to
consider taking the containers back.

But the team's members said last week that their mission was
simply to inspect four containers that clearly came from Dutch
companies and added that many of those that came from Rotterdam
were transshipments from other ports.

I.E.M.G. Roos, Counselor for Culture and Press at the Dutch
embassy, who received the demonstrators yesterday, said The Hague
was taking the issue seriously.

Roos said the Dutch team, which is still in the country, found
that more than four containers of hazardous and toxic waste came
from the Netherlands.

The embassy is sending someone to follow up on this and will
file its report with the Dutch government, he said.

The demonstrators said they also found that some 70 of the
unclaimed containers originated from the Netherlands, but the
papers did not specify whether they came from Dutch companies or
were simply transshipments through Rotterdam from other
countries.

Tigor, who chairs the Jakarta Social Institute, said the
protesters plan to hold similar demonstrations at other embassies
whose governments should take responsibility for the containers.

"We have established that at least five containers came from
Germany, 21 from Singapore and one from Japan." he said. (prs)