GIBRALTAR: 20 Arrested in Protest against Old Oil Tankers

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Jan 20 2003 (IPS) - Six environmental activists and 14 journalists were arrested Monday in Gibraltar during a protest organised by Greenpeace International, which accuses the government of the British colony of complicity in allowing oil spills to occur by accepting ageing tankers in its port.

Spain’s Foreign Ministry presented a strongly worded demand to the British embassy in Madrid Monday, winning the release of all involved, though some may have to make an appearance before a judge. The 20 were held for 10 hours.

The six Greenpeace activists based on their boat, MV Esperanza, boarded the Maltese-flagged tanker Vemamagna, a single-hulled ship built in 1978 with the capacity to hold 87,290 tons of oil.

Fourteen journalists – from the Spanish ‘El Mundo’ and ‘El País’ newspapers and the state-run TV Española, Canal Sur network and the private Antena3 and Tele5 – followed the MV Esperanza, travelling in launches in order to photograph and film the actions of the Greenpeace group.

The Vemamagna is permanently docked in the port of Gibraltar and used for storage, taking in petroleum products brought by other tankers and transferring the shipments to smaller vessels.

"The detention of journalists holding appropriate identification and carrying out their professional duties 100 percent is unacceptable," Benito Castro, spokesman for Canal Sur, the public TV station for the Andalusia autonomous region, told IPS.

Since mid-November, Spain has been dealing with the ecological and economic catastrophe caused by the sinking of the oil-tanker Prestige, a single-hulled vessel that was smaller than the Vemamagna, holding 77,000 tons of fuel.

The Prestige began to founder off the northwest coast of Spain in early November, spilling 20 tons of fuel. It was towed out to sea and sank on Nov 19. It now sits 3,000 m below the ocean surface but continues to leak its toxic load.

The resulting oil slicks have devastated the fishing and shellfish industries of the Spanish autonomous region of Galicia. Thousands of families have been left without a livelihood as clean- up continues.

Two decades ago, in an effort to minimise the danger of leaks and sinkings, oil tankers began to be constructed with double hulls, which provide greater protection from major spills and the accompanying ecological disasters.

The United States now bans the entry of single-hulled tankers into its territorial waters, unlike Europe, where the ageing vessels were allowed to continue circulating – until the tragedy created by the Prestige.

After the November oil spill caused by the Prestige, which resulted in millions of dollars in economic losses, Spain banned the entry of single-hulled ships into its waters, and prompted the European Union (EU) to enact a similar measure.

The EU Council of Transportation Ministers agreed Dec 6 that heavy crude could no longer be shipped in ageing vessels like the Prestige.

According to that decision, the governments of the 15 countries of the European bloc committed themselves to adopt "administrative accords" to prevent single-hulled ships from docking at their ports or sea terminals.

But the entry into force of an EU accord depends on approval of a binding regulation and, in the meantime, the decisions of the national governments.

Spain, France, Portugal and Italy have already taken steps to ban the older tankers from entering their territorial waters, but the rest of the EU nations have yet to take action.

Britain abstained from enacting new measures in this respect, and on Friday a government spokesman declared explicit support for Gibraltar, which not only receives single-hulled tankers in its port but also maintains a permanent anchorage for such ships.

Gibraltar, the disputed British territory on Spain’s southern coast, was taken over by Britain in 1704 and become a colony in 1830.

Spain has claimed sovereignty over the territory since 1940. The matter is currently under discussion by the two countries.

The Gibraltar government announced Friday that it would not halt entry of single-hulled tankers into its port until the EU imposes a legal ban.

In response, the EU Commission of Transportation and Energy, Loyola de Palacio, a Spanish diplomat, said that same day that she would not engage in controversy with the territorial administrations of Great Britain.

Federico Mayor Zaragoza, former director general of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) and current president of the Culture of Peace Foundation, said in comments to IPS that "today, in addition to tax havens and drug trafficking, there are other (havens) that make it possible to sail veritable environmental bombs."

Greenpeace targeted the head of the Gibraltar government, Peter Caruana, asking him to halt the colony’s complicity with the oil industry and to support a new legal standard of the industry’s unlimited responsibility when disasters occur.

A new legal regimen, the only way to prevent the repetition of environmental and economic catastrophes like that of the Prestige, should include a ban on single-hulled vessels, says the non- governmental environment watchdog.

"The connivance of the Gibraltar government with the petroleum industry poses a serious obstacle to preventing further disasters," Juan López de Uralde, head of Greenpeace-Spain and currently aboard the MV Esperanza, told IPS.

The Gibraltar stance, said López de Uralde, is a clear example of how the authorities protect the interests of the oil companies and their profitable business, even if it means endangering the marine environment.

According to EU data, Gibraltar has inspected only six oil tankers in the last three years, noted the Greenpeace leader.