Protests over 'toxic slops' dumping in Ivory Coast turn violent

[WhiteTara]

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1368552006

PROTESTERS in Ivory Coast attacked a minister and burned down the home of the director of the port at Abidjan yesterday as public anger erupted over the dumping of deadly toxic waste in the lagoon-side city.

The enraged mob carried out the attacks in Abidjan's Riviera II residential district, as the number of deaths caused by the poisonous black sludge deposited around the city rose to seven, four of them children.


About 30,000 people have sought treatment at hospitals for vomiting, stomach pains, nausea, breathing difficulties, nosebleeds and migraines, health officials said.
snip
Public outcry over the waste scandal, which has rocked the economic capital of the world's top cocoa grower, forced the resignation of the government of the war-divided West African state last week. Residents have accused the authorities of being slow to act and of not providing enough information.

The scandal has triggered an international investigation into the origin of the toxic slops, which were unloaded at Abidjan last month by a Panamanian ship chartered by a leading world commodity trader, the Holland-based Trafigura Beheer BV.

[mom cat]

1. This sounds like very dangerous stuff. K&R and Thanks

[MrPrax]

2. Surely charges

should be brought against the ship and company and possibly the producer of the sludge. The fiction of nation state borders shouldn't decide the legality of whether one KNOWINGLY produces a poison and then knowingly tells someone to get rid of it -- the responsibility should follow the whole chain.

The officials in the Ivory Coast on the other hand -- well they can explain themselves directly to the victims or flee the country...people in those countries aren't as civilized (or brainwashed) as we are.

[NorthernSpy]

3. I am for making an example of the dumpers, every last one of them

If that means that a few soft-handed Western businessmen end up getting dragged out of their corner offices and extradited to Cote d'Ivoire to suffer death by hanging, then that's just the way it is. It's not exactly human rights, but neither is pumping toxic sludge over other people's land and fishing waters, killing their children.

The Ivorians had better do whatever it takes to make sure that this never happens again. That's the main thing.



"I've always though that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly UNDER-polluted..."

-- Lawrence 'Victim of Rising Anti-Semitism' Summers

[acmavm]

4. So, by that same token would you agree to extradite some wealthy

American fat cat executives for Coca Cola to India?

I think you just might have one hell of a good idea there NorthernSpy. The rich CEOs don't think they can be touched for their crimes. I think its about time they learn differently.

[Truthiness Inspector]

5. Horrible

Thanks for posting this, because I know I haven't seen this reported elsewhere.