New Evidence Against Blue Lady/SS Norway

New Evidence Confirm Star Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Lines Deceived German Authorities
to Dispose of the Toxic Laden SS Norway to India

Brussels; New Delhi; 30 June 2006: The NGO Platform on Shipbreaking, a global coalition of human rights and environmental groups working to uphold environmental justice, released a report today revealing new evidence that the third largest cruise operator in the world, Star Cruises Ltd and its subsidiary, Norwegian Cruise Lines, withheld vital information from German authorities, when they sought permission to allow their toxic waste laden vessel, the SS Norway, to depart from the Port of Bremerhaven on 25 May 2005 to Asia. The Report reveals that as early as December 2004, SCL and NCL formed the intent to dispose of the vessel, which they did not disclose to German authorities, and instead claimed that the SS Norway was going to Asia for repairs.

The Report entitled, “Star Cruises Ltd and Norwegian Cruise Lines: Deceiving Germany and Violating International Law in the Export of the SS Norway to India”, uncovered information disclosed in NCL’s 2005 Annual Report submitted to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on 28 March 2006, explaining how NCL reduced the value of the SS Norway by as much as US$14.5 million in a span of months in 2004, diminishing the SS Norway to a scrap value of US$12.3 million. The public disclosure further reveals that by December 2004, NCL’s management concluded that the sale of the SS Norway to a third party for re-use was not likely.

Citing confidential information from Pierre & Vacances, a French company, who in 2004 was able to requisition a study of the asbestos content of the vessel using the SS Norway’s ship plans and documents furnished by NCL, the Report confirms the presence of at least 1,200 tonnes of asbestos in the SS Norway. The confidential information also affirmed that at least EUR 17 million would be needed to partially decontaminate the asbestos in the vessel, more than the SS Norway’s scrap value. These facts, the Report asserts, puts into context the deception perpetrated by NCL and SCL in 2005.

“Lying to the German authorities in order to pass on tonnes of toxic wastes to unsuspecting workers in India or Bangladesh, and laying waste to the environment of South Asia is an indication of how morally bankrupt the people running Star Cruises are”, says Ingvild Jenssen, coordinator of the NGO Platform. “The management and the Board of Directors of these companies should be held criminally and civilly accountable by the German government for their actions.”

This is not the first time that NCL lied to government authorities to cover up an environmental crime. On July 31, 2002 the US Department of Justice issued a press release, entitled “Norwegian Cruise Line Admits to Environmental Crime”. In the release, the US DOJ stated that NCL “admitted that it engaged in a practice of systematically lying to the United States Coast Guard over a period of years regarding the discharge of oil-contaminated bilge waste from the SS Norway and at least one other ship.” NCL signed a plea agreement acknowledging the felony violation, paid US$1 million in criminal fines and cooperated with federal official to resolve the case.[i]

The release of the findings of the NGO Platform was timed with their submission of a formal request to the Senator of Building, Environment and Transportation of Bremen, Mr. Neumeyer, demanding that Germany comply with its international obligations under the Basel Convention and its Basel Ban Amendment, which prohibits the export of hazardous wastes from developed nations to poorer countries, and immediately recall the SS Norway back to Germany to be decontaminated.

The European Commission also recently sent a letter to Germany asking for clarifications on whether the Basel Convention and Council Regulation no. 259/93 have been applied in the SS Norway case.

The SS Norway, the third largest cruise ship in the world after the Queen Elizabeth II and the ill-fated Titanic, was the jewel in the fleet of NCL until August of 2003, when an explosion in her boiler room killed 8 of her crew, injured 20 others, and left the vessel heavily damaged and without any propulsion. In March of 2004, NCL President, Mr. Colin Veitch publicly announced that the SS Norway would no longer ply the North American cruise market, precipitating the cat and mouse game that NCL and SCL played with various government authorities.

The NGO Platform raised concerns that the asbestos load of the SS Norway is only a portion of the problem it presents. Older vessels are known to contain the persistent organic pollutant, polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, which are known to bioaccumulate in the food chain and poison top predators such as humans. PCBs are also known probable human carcinogens and are slated for globally phase out under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

“The dangers posed by the SS Norway and similar vessels are real. The level of asbestos in the SS Norway is more than double of the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau, and we still have no idea how much PCBs, lead, cadmium, mercury and the other toxins are in the SS Norway,” says Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI). “There is a great injustice before us, and the global community must act quickly and in unison to stop it.”

-End-

For a copy of the Report go to: http://www.ban.org/Library/Star_Cruises_Deception_Report_Final.pdf


[i] For more information on NCL’s 2002 criminal offense, visit: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2002/July/02_enrd_441.htm.

Indian media fails in Blue Lady Case

SC marks Environment Day; Allows import of asbestos-laden ship

In an ironical commemoration of the World Environment Day, the Indian Supreme Court on 5th June went against its own 1997 order and subsequent order of 14^th October 2003 prohibiting import of hazardous wastes by permitting SS Blue Lady, a ship containing 1240 MT of toxic asbestos, to enter Indian waters.

Indian media failed to take note of the fact that the the court allowed anchoring of the ship on humanitarian grounds and not on legal grounds. The fact is that there is no legal ground for it to be allowed because its a case of illegal traffic of a toxic ship.

The ship under tow left Malaysia on May 5, 2005, after having fraudulently declared to port authorities there that it was destined for repairs in Dubai. The ship has made several attempts to reach scrap yards, including an aborted attempt late last year when the Bangladesh Government prohibited the toxic ship from entering the country on health and environmental grounds.

The ship does not have the mandatory Form 7 documents from country of export required for hazardous waste shipments. Neither does it have a complete inventory of toxic wastes, although the ship-breaker admits that the ship contains both asbestos and polychlorinated biphenyls, a neurotoxin.

The ship has been allowed to anchor in the India territorial waters on the basis of an interim report submitted by a Technical Committee chaired by Dr. Prodipto Ghosh, Ministry of Environment and Forests. Ironically, the technical committee consists of members from government agencies with known bias towards the ship-breaking industry and ex-naval officers. It has no representations from the public interest groups. The bias of the committee is evident from the fact that the interim report of the committee consults only the ship-breaker who has bought SS Blue Lady.

SS Blue Lady was lying in anchor in Malaysia since August 2005, but set sail declaredly for Dubai just as the monsoon was imminent. Rather than go to Dubai, they anchored out in the high seas to force the Indian authorities to allow the ship to come in on humanitarian grounds professedly to avoid the dangers of monsoon rough seas.

In 2005, Indian government with support from the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, in flagrant violation of both Basel Convention and Supreme Court's October 2003 order, allowed beaching and dismantling of a Danish ship Riky despite repeated diplomatic recall requests from Denmark . In 2005-06, French aircraft carrier le Clemenceau was being allowed to enter Indian waters laden with toxic substances, till the French government recalled the ship from the high seas under intense public pressure and legal actions in the French courts.

India being a signatory to the Basel Convention has repeatedly failed to fulfill its Basel obligations. Infact, it has refused to acknowledge a ship laden with toxic substances in its structure and destined for dismantling to be a hazardous waste, as enshrined in the Decision VII/26 in Conference Of Parties-7 of Basel Convention in October 2004.

Issued by:

NGO PLATFORM ON SHIPBREAKING

Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI); 9818089660 ( Delhi)

Greenpeace India; 09845535414 ( Bangalore)

Corporate Accountability Desk; 9968015475 (Delhi)

Deadliest Media War in History

June 15 2006: Global Day of Solidarity with Iraq Journalists in the Frontline of the Deadliest Media War in History

The International Federation of Journalists, joined by the Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists and the Kurdish Association of Journalists, today launched a global campaign to end the terrifying ordeal of journalists in Iraq where at least 128 media staff have been killed and hundreds more injured or disabled in what has become the deadliest media war in modern history.

The General Secretary of the IFJ, Aidan White, speaking to journalists in Dubai, said the campaign was backed by journalists’ groups across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as throughout the IFJ’s international network.

“Iraqi journalists are the real heroes of this war,” said White. “Every day they take risks and make sacrifices that must be recognised in the crucial fight for freedom and democracy in Iraq,” he said.

On June 15th – Iraq’s National Day of the Press – there will be demonstrations in Iraq and around the region to highlight what the IFJ says is the “unspeakable suffering” of media in a country where press freedom is close to extinction because of ruthless extremists and targeting of journalists by warring factions.

“On this day journalists around the world will honour the memory of those we have lost, we will focus attention on the urgent humanitarian needs of survivors and grieving families, and we will reinforce our demands for action from governments to reduce the risks journalists face,” he said.

The campaign was initiated by a meeting of the IFJ’s Middle East affiliates in Beirut last month and has the backing of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate in Iraq, the Federation of Arab Journalists and the Association of Journalists in the United Arab Emirates, which hosted the launch conference in Dubai’s Media City.

“No journalist and no journalists’ group in the world is untouched by the routine intimidation of media and the rising death toll in Iraq,” said White. “We mourn, but we also demand action to end this slaughter.”

The IFJ has counted 128 media victims since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, while the satellite channel Al-Arabiya puts the figure at 144. Other groups, who do not include killed media support staff in their numbers, have lower figures.

“But this is not a numbers game,” said White. “What is undeniable is that more media staff have been murdered and killed in this war than in any other modern conflict. And most of the victims, more than 100, are Iraqis.”

White said that while some media were able to pull their people out of the country to reduce the risks, leaving was not an option for Iraqis or for major media. Foreign media reporting in Iraq rely heavily upon Iraqi journalists to provide the vital information, film footage and editorial material that make up much of the world’s daily media coverage of the war, he said.

White said that the June 15th Day of Action had three aims:

• To provide humanitarian assistance through an international appeal in support of the Iraqi journalists who are the victims of violence and their families;

• To express solidarity through the creation of an International Committee for the Defence of Journalists in Iraq backed by national journalists’ unions and associations around the world;

• To put added pressure on the international community to do more to assist Iraqi journalists.

On that day an appeal backed by more than 100 leaders of unions, associations and syndicates of journalists will publicise the crisis and will send messages of support to the IFJ’s two Iraqi affiliates as well as calling on their own governments to intervene to press for more action over a media crisis which says the IFJ remains largely invisible to many politicians.

Yesterday, speaking in a televised debate in Abu Dhabi, White challenged Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshayar Zebari who denied Iraqi journalists were being targeted. “It is just not acceptable to deny the intolerable reality of journalists selectively picked out of crowds and shot or devastating car bombs deliberately placed outside media houses,” he said.

“What we need from governments, in Baghdad, Washington and London, and collectively gathered in New York, is less denial and more recognition that they can do more to highlight this crisis and to help Iraqi journalists.”


For more information please contact +32 2 235 22 11

The IFJ represents more than 500,000 journalists in over 100 countries