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- Paper Pulp Mills - Uruguay
- Corporate Accountability and Human Rights
- Climate Change and Human Rights
Uruguay Fears Attacks on Botnia Port
Increased Security for Inauguration
Nueva Palmira – Uruguay . August 28, 2007
Just 24 hours from the inauguration of a port facility constructed in Nueva Palmira Uruguay exclusively for the export of 1 million tons of cellulose by the Finnish pulp mill company, Oy Metsa Botnia, Uruguayan security forces fear that local communities opposed to the billion dollar investment on the Argentine-Uruguayan border, may take matters into their own hands and attempt to derail the inauguration ceremony, at which the Uruguayan President, along with Finnish government authorities, will bless the finnish export platform. Members of the Citizen's Environmental Assembly, which have drawn hundreds of thousands of supporters to a social movement opposed to what will be Oy Metsa Botnia's largest pulp mill anywhere in the world, have announced that they will carry out sting operations during the inauguration by land and water.
The National Intelligence Agency (DNII), Presidential Security Forces, Naval Authorities, the Uruguayan Army, and local police forces meeting under the Uruguayan Security Council, have been preparing for the inaugural event for weeks, making sure that security measures are air-tight, and will be in full force for tomorrow's event.
The Argentine government has already complained to Uruguay through the binational commission which oversees Uruguay River activity (the CARU) as established by the Uruguay River Treaty which governs the border river, and will submit Uruguay's unilateral decision to build the Nueva Palmira port facility for Botnia, as further evidence in its outstanding case against Uruguay at the International Court of Justice for violations to international law.
Uruguayan authorities fear not only possible incursions of boats coming from Argentina into Uruguayan waters, but also possible on the ground activity against the port facilities, from community leaders coming overland into Uruguay and joining forces with environmental groups in Uruguay that oppose the mill and Uruguay's promotion of eucalyptus plantation for pulp and paper cellulose exports.
Botnia's new port terminal at Nueva Palmira is the newest of three terminals at the port, owned by Ontur, of which Botnia owns 40%. The terminal is 180 meters long by 40 wide, and has the country's largest storage facilities, some 20,000 cubic meters in size which will store 100,000 tons of cellulose, receiving 3,500 tons per day from the Botnia pulp mill facility upstream.
El País , the largest Uruguayan daily newspaper reported today that Auli Leskinen, a Finnish journalist for YLE, who has covered the Botnia pulp mill conflict for some time, met up with aggressive mill opponents in Gualeguaychú, last Sunday at an international road block in protest against the mills. She claimed, according to El País, she had never felt unsafe in Gualeguaychu until now.
More Information
For more information contact:
Jorge Daniel Taillant
jdtaillant@cedha.org.ar
