Toxic ship Blue Lady not to be broken: Indian court

17 August 2006 (New Delhi): Blue Lady cannot be broken until further orders from the Supreme Court. The matter came up for mention today
before the court through I.A. 32 of 657/1995 seeking compliance of national and international law. The 315-metre long and 46,000-tonne Blue Lady (earlier called SS Norway, S S France) is owned by Malaysia's Star Cruises Limited.

The above Interim Application with regard to the beaching/dismantling of SS Norway/ Blue Lady came up for mentioning in the court today before a bench comprising Hon'ble Mr. Justice Arijit Pasayat and Hon'ble Mr. Justice SH Kapadia.

The court observed that the only permission granted by it on 5th June 2006 was for anchoring at a safe place in the territorial waters of India off Alang. It made it clear that no permission whatsoever has been granted for breaking of the ship. The court further made it clear that any precipitate action to break the ship without the court's express permission will be dealt with severely.

In its June 2006 order, the court took note of anchorage, beaching and dismantling as separate measures and mentioned them distinctly. Permitting anchorage, the order said, "This shall, however, not confer any equity on the owners of the ship, which is sought to be put on anchorage, beaching and dismantling." This exposes the impropriety committed by the Technical Committee on Ship-breaking whose term expired on 31st July, 2006 but is still holding its meeting on 18th and 19th August, 2006 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

The saga of the Blue Lady seems to be yet another case of corporates profiting by endangering the lives and limbs of the poor workers of Alang. Star Cruises would rather poison workers in India than spend any money on asbestos and PCB abatement prior to export. They are aided and abetted by Indian environment ministry officials, who seem to have sold the health of their poorest constituents to the powerful scrap steel and ship owners lobby.

Earlier the company ensured the departure of the Blue Lady from the port of Bremerhaven, Germany on May 23, 2005 by misinforming the German authorities. This has triggered a continuing criminal offense that persists to this day. It has dragged Germany and India into becoming a participant in violating international laws. Newly discovered evidence confirm that as far back as 2004, the owners of the SS Norway, Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) and its mother company, Star Cruises Ltd (SCL), misled Germany by declaring that the vessel was going to Asia for re-use. It did the same in Malaysia.

Environmental, labour and human rights groups have strongly recommended that Norwegian Cruise Lines and Star Cruises Ltd must be held accountable by instituting criminal and civil actions against them for illegally exporting Blue Lady by misrepresentation to German authorities of their true intent of disposing of the vessel, and for any harm that will arise by their willful disposal of the toxic wastes they left on board the SS Norway.

Therefore, it is incumbent on Germany to take Blue Lady back at once (as was done in Europe in the case of Le Clemenceau) as its export is a clear violation of Article 16 of the European Union Waste Shipment Regulation, Article 6 of the Basel Convention, and the Basel Ban Amendment. Star Cruise's NCL has acted inappropriately in the past, when it purposely covered up an environmental crime it committed. Efforts are on in Germany to take Star Cruise to task for its act fraudulent misrepresentation to the German authorities.

It may be noted that a German inspection team had earlier confirmed the presence of airborne asbestos in several decks of the Blue Lady along with other toxins such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's), Cadmium, Azocolourants, Chromium compounds, Mercury compounds, Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE), Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBB's), Tributyls, Heavy Metals and other hazardous substances.

The applicant in the Blue Lady case prayed for direction that if the purchasers desire to bring it into India for the purpose of demolition, then it should first be de-contaminated in an OECD/EU country at a facility that is fully capable of managing all such wastes in the optimum manner described in the Basel Convention Guidelines and the previous orders of the court.

For More Information:

Global Platform on Ship-breaking:
Gopal KRISHNA, phone + 91 98180 89660
Ingvild JENSSEN, phone +32 485 190 920

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