— PHOTO: AP

"KEEP OFF INDIA": A Greenpeace activist aboard decommissioned French aircraft carrier Clemenceau holds aloft a protest banner, as another boards the ship off the coast of Egypt on Thursday. The Greenpeace has been protesting against the French decision to send the vessel, said to contain toxic material, to Gujarat for dismantling at a shipyard.

NEW DELHI: Egyptian authorities have halted the progress of the convoy tugging the French decommissioned aircraft carrier, the Clemenceau, to India, it was reliably learnt here.

In a letter faxed to the tugboat company the Egyptian Government has asked for certificates from the French and Indian Governments to the effect that the convoy is not in breach of the 1989 Basel Convention on the transport of hazardous waste. If the company failed to produce the requisite certificates, the convoy would be considered "illicit," the fax said.

On Thursday morning, at 7.30 GMT, two Greenpeace activists boarded the ship, which is about 14 hours' distance away from the mouth of the Suez Canal, the French Defence Ministry confirmed. It, however, refused to comment on Greenpeace claims that the ship had been refused entry by the Egyptians.

Egypt, like France and India, is a signatory to the 1989 Basel Convention that bans trans-boundary movement of hazardous waste.

The ship, allegedly carrying between 45 to 1,000 tonnes of asbestos, is headed for India to be dismantled at the Alang ship breaking yard in Gujarat, and has, in recent weeks, become the subject of intense media interest. Asbestos, a well-known cancer-causing agent is banned in France, which contends that the ship has been decontaminated to the maximum levels possible.

Danger to environment

Our Special Correspondent adds from New Delhi:

Two Greenpeace activists boarded the Clemenceau 50 nautical miles off the Egyptian coast in international waters on Wednesday at midnight, according to a statement by Greenpeace here. The group called upon Egypt to refuse permission for the ship to enter the Suez Canal.

"The Clemenceau presents an immediate danger to the Indian environment and to the workers at the Alang ship-breaking yard," said Jacob Hartmann, Greenpeace campaigner on board the vessel that halted the Clemenceau's progress on Thursday.

"We cannot simply allow the ship to get any closer to its destination because India has spoken and they do not want this ship," Greenpeace activists said here quoting Mr. Hartmann.

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