Indonesia attacks Dutch for stalling on toxic waste
Indonesia attacks Dutch for stalling on toxic waste
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia yesterday criticized the Netherlands
for stalling on the issue of taking back dozens of unwanted
containers of toxic waste now piling up at Indonesian ports.
The Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) said the
Netherlands had not taken the matter seriously and a Dutch team
sent recently in response to Indonesia's request simply inspected
the documents and had no authority to discuss plans for their re-
export.
"We're disappointed because the Netherlands only sent a team
to conduct a legal investigation and not to discuss procedures on
how to re-export the waste," Bapedal's deputy for pollution
control section Nabiel Makarim told reporters.
"We want the Netherlands to take back the waste immediately,"
Nabiel said after a meeting with the team yesterday.
"It's your waste and you should take it back," Nabiel repeated
to the team.
Nabiel said from his discussions, it became apparent that if
Indonesia had to wait for the Dutch to complete the entire legal
proceedings against the exporters, it could be some five years
before the containers would be re-exported.
Indonesia maintains that the 70 containers of toxic and
hazardous waste now piled up at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port
originated in the Dutch port of Rotterdam.
The Dutch team had earlier pointed out that many did not
originate in the Netherlands and had simply used Rotterdam as a
transit point. They also said that several of the containers that
did originate in the Netherlands had been mixed with waste from
other countries before they reached Indonesia.
"We don't care whether Rotterdam is merely a transit place for
the waste or the point of origin," Nabiel said.
From Rotterdam
The four-person team, which has been conducting field
investigations here over the past 12 days, said that it
identified 58 containers containing hazardous and toxic waste
which came from Rotterdam.
This represented major progress given that when the team
arrived here it stressed that its main concern was the four
containers that truly belonged to Dutch firms.
Nabiel, however, insisted that the team should complete its
investigation of all 70 containers that originated from
Rotterdam.
He regretted that the team will leave Indonesia tomorrow,
leaving the problem unresolved.
Chris Dijkens, a member of the Dutch team who is a staff
member of the Netherlands' ministry of environment, said his
mission was to collect data of offenses committed by Dutch firms
in sending the waste to Indonesia and to report these findings to
the environment ministry.
With sufficient data, the ministry then would be able to sue
the waste exporters and force them to import the containers,
Dijkens said.
Nabiel, however, said that this would be a long and drawn out
process and was unacceptable to Indonesia. "Imagine, how long the
containers would remain at our ports if we had to wait for the
court verdicts before sending them back."
The Netherlands is a signatory to the Basel Convention which
bans transboundary shipments of waste, and therefore Indonesia
urged it to solve the problem as quickly as possible, he said.
The Dutch team complained that their mission here had been
frustrated by the inability of the Indonesian authorities to
arrange for a meeting with the waste importers.
A source at the Attorney General's office said many of the
importers, due to the illegal nature of the containers, had
falsified company names and addresses to avoid detection. (prs)