The Hindu : Front Page : Chirac orders Clemenceau back home

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 16, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Chirac orders Clemenceau back home

Vaiju Naravane

France's highest court calls upon the Government to recall the asbestos-laden ship

ABOUT-TURN: The Clemenceau is towed from the military harbour of Toulon, southern France, in this December 31, 2005 picture. — Photo: AP

Paris: French President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday decided to recall the controversial decommissioned aircraft carrier Le Clemenceau, now moored off India's territorial waters pending entry permission from the Supreme Court. The announcement has saved both Paris and New Delhi a degree of embarrassment since Mr. Chirac is to begin a 24-hour state visit to India on Sunday.

Mr. Chirac's decision came on the heels of a verdict by the country's highest court, the Conseil d'etat, which called upon the Government to recall the asbestos-laden ship that was to be dismantled at a shipyard at Alang, Gujarat.

Destination

At a hastily convened news conference, Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie announced that the vessel "will make an about-turn in the next few hours or days." It would be brought back to the naval base in the port town of Brest in Brittany "at least for a period of time."

The French state will pay approximately $1 million to repatriate the ship that will not pass through the Suez Canal but will go around the Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost tip of South Africa, a trip that will take about three months.

Ms. Alliot Marie said the subject of the Clemenceau would not come up in the discussions with her Indian counterpart during her visit as part of Mr. Chirac's delegation.

The President's office, in a communiqué, said: "On the question of dismantling of ships, France should be exemplary, acting in total transparency. The President has therefore decided to ask for another expert's opinion to establish the amount of asbestos on board the ship, and to place the ship in French waters until a definite solution is found."

The communiqué said France would raise the issue of end of life ships with its European partners in order to examine decontamination capabilities within Europe and to accelerate discussions in order to establish international norms that would guarantee workers' safety and respect for the environment when a ship was exported for dismantling.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said new measures would be taken to streamline the export of war material abroad and new procedures put in place for dismantling ships.

Ecologists hail decision

Ecologists hailed the decision as "the victory of an international coalition," and it was also approved by the European Union. E.U. environment spokeswoman Barbara Hellferich said the decision was "wise since the waste was very dangerous."

"We had warned the Government from the start that it was violating European law and that a superficial asbestos decontamination was not good enough," Yannick Jadot, campaign director for Greenpeace, told The Hindu .

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