Frenchmen held for toxic dump

2006-09-18 23:37

Abidjan - Ivory Coast arrested two executives of a Dutch commodities company whose dumped toxic waste caused widespread sickness in the country's largest city, a government official said on Monday.

Ali Yeo, a justice ministry official, said the two French nationals were charged with poisoning and infractions of toxic waste laws and transferred to prison.

The employees of commodities trader Trafigura Beheer BV were prevented from leaving the country on Saturday as they were about to board a flight for Europe.

The toxic waste, which UN experts say contains a potentially dangerous chemical called hydrogen sulfide, was shipped to Abidjan last month by a vessel chartered by Trafigura Beheer BV and dumped - apparently illegally - across the city.

Local contractor

The Dutch company said it was dumped by a local contractor.

Trafigura Beheer has said the cargo unloaded by the Panama-registered tanker consisted of residue washings, or slops, from a gasoline-blend stock.

The company said it asked the Ivorian authorities to dispose of the cargo correctly.

The health ministry also updated the official death toll on Monday, saying seven died from exposure to the chemical refuse.

Tens of thousands have gone to hospitals seeking treatment since the scent of rotten eggs first started to permeate the port city of Abidjan a few weeks ago.

Yeo said the government confiscated the passports of the Trafigura executives at the weekend because they were leaving before they had been heard by a judge investigating the affair.

They spoke to the judge on Monday afternoon, and were subsequently charged.

44 00 people treated

Earlier on Monday, Trafigura Beheer BV said in a statement that its director, Claude Dauphin, and its West Africa manager, Jean-Pierre Valentini, were "working with the authorities in Ivory Coast as witnesses in the ongoing investigations".

Hospitals have provided free treatment to 44 000 people, many of them complaining of nausea, headaches, and breathing difficulties caused by the foul-smelling substance, according to the health ministry.

Clean-up operations

A French waste-removal company began a clean-up operation on Sunday at the main garbage dump, the most affected of 14 dumping sites in Abidjan.

Removing the waste was expected to take two weeks.

Mounting public anger about the fumes resulted in the resignation of the government earlier this month.

The ministers of transport and environment have been replaced in the new 36-member cabinet that was appointed at the weekend.

Most other ministers were reappointed to their same posts.

- AP