ARGENTINA: Argentine demonstrators gather outside Finnish embassy in Buenos Aires to protest environemtnal impact of paper mill in Uruguay

Record ID: 447960

  • Title: ARGENTINA: Argentine demonstrators gather outside Finnish embassy in Buenos Aires to protest environemtnal impact of paper mill in Uruguay
  • Date: 26th April 2006
  • Summary: POLICE GUARDING THE EMBASSY
  • Embargoed: 11th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAD9MIOQ0FTN5HZZJPNMI33O176
  • Story Text: Dozens of Argentines marched to the Finnish Embassy in Buenos Aires on Tuesday (April 25), to protest over a paper mill being built by a Finnish firm in neighbouring Uruguay.
    Wearing surgical masks to symbolize the environmental damage they believe the Botnia paper mill will cause to the river shared by the two South American countries, the demonstrators caused roadblocks along a busy Buenos Aires thoroughfare, carrying signs saying "Botnia go home".
    Finland's Metsa-Botnia and Spain's Ence are building two mills along the Uruguay River. Argentina opposes construction of the plants, charging that the $1.7 billion project would damage the environment. Relations between the neighbouring South American countries have been strained by the project, which represents the biggest private investment ever in Uruguay.
    Protesters also carried signs saying "Lehtomaki, we are waiting for you", in reference to a proposed visit by Finland's Foreign Trade Minister Paula Lehtomaki which was scrapped because of the dispute. The Finnish Foreign Ministry said it took no side in the dispute, but that it had recently got the impression that Lehtomaki was not welcome in Argentina.
    Argentina argues that the plants violate bilateral accords while Uruguay says months of protests on the Argentine side of the border by demonstrators blocking roads have caused about $400 million in economic losses.
    Argentine resident Lilia Moyano called for the Finnish government to intercede in the dispute, claiming that it was morally obliged to take a stance on the controversial mills.
    "The state of Finland knows that it is violating an international treaty. It has the moral obligation to intercede, because it is Finnish capital and also the Finnish state is going to construct, through the Botnia company, a plant producing chlorine derivatives in which the Finnish state has a large percentage of shares," she said.
    Her words were echoed by Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, who on Tuesday (April 25) reiterated his call for an environmental impact study to be carried out on the plants in question.
    "If the investment is so honest, which I hope it is, and hope that what they are doing in these plants in Uruguay generates work, why don't they do an environmental impact study. An environmental impact study - look how simple it is. A study. Why don't they do it? Why don't they want to do it? Let them answer this question. And I would also like, of course, for the Uruguayan government to help so that this environmental impact study is carried out," he said.
    The World Bank's private sector arm has said it will withhold approval of about $400 million in funding for the two mills, saying it wants to further examine the social and environmental impact before deciding whether to proceed.
    Talks between Uruguay and Argentina have repeatedly crumbled as Botnia refuses to stop construction of its mill for the 90-day period being requested by the Argentine government.
    The mills are expected to produce 1.5 million metric tonnes of wood pulp for export after they begin production in 2007. The companies insist any pollutants from the plants would come within internationally tolerated levels.
    But for months, residents in Argentina's Entre Rios Province, across the river from the proposed mill site, have blockaded roads and shut down travel between the two countries. Uruguayan officials have said the action is badly hurting Uruguay's economy.
    Kirchner and Argentine officials have threatened to take their concerns to the International Court of Justice in The Hague if the two countries fail to resolve their differences over the plants.
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