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- Paper Pulp Mills - Uruguay
- Corporate Accountability and Human Rights
- Climate Change and Human Rights
Opposition to Pulp Mill Mounting in Uruguay
Cross Border Binational Assembly Against Botnia Mill Constituted in Uruguay
October 8, 2007. Nueva Palmira Uruguay - Nearly 400 community leaders and environmentalists created the international Uruguay River Regional Assembly to oppose the Finnish mega pulp mill in construction by Oy Metsa Botnia on the Argentine-Uruguayan border. The Botnia pulp mill, according to the government of Argentina , is illegally situated. The conflictive investment is the subject of a pending complaint at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which could order its dismantling, even though it is nearly complete and set to start operating in the near future.
The Uruguayan government, the company and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have insisted that Uruguayans favor the mill, however, more and more opponents are joining forces in Uruguay against the pulp mill and its related industries.
The first official meeting of the new assembly took place at Nueva Palmira, just yards away from Botnia's new port facilities inaugurated recently by Uruguayan President Vasquez. The inaugural ceremony, although public, barred entry to Argentine journalists, winning Uruguay a complaint at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, for violating the right of freedom of information and expression.
As occurred for the port inauguration, the federal police ordered strict controls of any Argentines crossing into Uruguay for the binational assembly launch. Several checkpoints carefully controlled traffic, noted license plate numbers, and registered names of persons attending the meetings, according to La Nación .
Uruguayan police barricaded the Botnia mill site, for fear of attacks against the Finnish investment, a recurrent fear of the Uruguayan government, who has stated publicly that they fear terrorist attacks on the mill installation from angry Argentine community stakeholders. This has led Uruguay to send troops to the border on at least on two occasions to protect Botnia . Botnia , concerned with its international image and fearing that the need for troops to protect its installations might scare off investors, requested that the government remove the soldiers.
As occurred in an earlier recent crossing of community stakeholders across the international bridge that has been blocked in opposition to the mill, by stakeholders for more than 300 consecutive days (since the IFC Board of Directors voted in favor of two loans to Botnia), Argentine vehicles were meticulously checked, and had any materials that could be used in protest against the mill, confiscated. Local stakeholders complain against such searches claiming this is a violation of their human rights, however, border police have strict orders to ensure no-one comes across the border to protest against Botnia.
At least 50 Argentine assembly members crossed the border, to join their Uruguayan counterparts and officially establish the Regional Assembly of the Uruguay River .
Opposition to Oy Metsa Botnia and to the Spanish ENCE began in Uruguay as early as 2003, before Argentine communities even knew about the installation of the mills. However, Uruguayan opponents received verbal and physical threats in Fray Bentos (where the Botnia mill is being built), and had property shot at by pro-mill interests. Uruguayan environmental groups have been largely silent on the mill conflict as they have received enormous pressure from government, media, the community and even family and friends, who have made the cross border conflict a nationalistic issue and do not tolerate opposition. With mounting difficulties to oppose the investment in Uruguay , community groups turned to their neighbors across the border for help. This gave birth to the largest environmental movement ever.
The constitution of the bilateral assembly is the first solid institutional linkage between environmental groups across the river, and is revealing to Botnia that their passage through Uruguay and Argentina , however long they end up staying (one possibility is until the ICJ orders them to leave), will not be smooth.
Several financial banks, signatories to the Equator Principles, including Calyon, Nordea, SEB, and two state banks (the Finnish Export Credit Agency Finnvera and the Nordic Investment Bank) have ignored Botnia's violations of the IFC's social and environmental safeguards (which were revealed by the control agent of the World Bank, the CAO) and have chosen to finance the investment as it promises to be a highly profitable. The financial officer of Calyon that met with CEDHA to discuss the controversy put it bluntly and crudely, the Equator Principles don't apply to the Botnia loan because it is not project finance.
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