Indonesia's
Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo has accused the Netherlands and the United
Kingdom of violating the Basel Convention against the dumping of chemical
waste.
The
minister told reporters on Saturday that customs had impounded 113 containers
of hazardous and toxic waste at the port of Tanjung Priok in Jakarta, according
to a report in the Jakarta Post.
The Dutch
and British governments "should have reported the shipments to Indonesia
because they contained hazardous and toxic waste" under the terms of the
Basel agreement, which has been in force since 1992. The 89 British and 24
Dutch containers contained mainly scrap metal contaminated with poisonous
chemicals.
The Jakarta
government has said it will notify the British and Dutch embassies of the find,
demanding an explanation for the incompleteness of the shipload's documents.
The owner of the PT HHS company which attempted to import the scrap metal into
Indonesia could face a 15-year jail sentence if found guilty, Environment
Minister Balthasar Kombuaya said.
Related Articles:
No comments:
Post a Comment