Re: Il trafico che uccide

["Bashir M. Hussein" <bashir@popcsi.unian.it>]

  CASE NUMBER:          64
           CASE MNEMONIC:      SOMALIA
           CASE NAME:          Somalia Waste Imports from Italy

A.   IDENTIFICATION

1.   The Issue

      During the Somali civil war hazardous waste was dumped in this
African nation by industrialized countries.  The alleged
perpetrators were Italian and Swiss firms who supposedly entered
into a contract with the Somali government to dump waste in the war
ravaged African nation.  The issue of dumping in Somalia is two
fold in that it is both a legal question and a moral question.
First,  is there a violation of international treaties in the
export of hazardous waste to Somalia.  Second, is it ethically
questionable to negotiate a hazardous waste disposal contract with
a country in the midst of a protracted civil war and with a
government that can best be described as tenuous and factionalized?

2.        Description

      With the abdication of President Siad Barre in 1989, the
country of Somalia was thrown in a state of anarchy.  The country
is currently ruled by a series of warlords each holding a small
section of the country.  The rival factions have been at war with
each other since the mid-eighties and a mission by the United
Nations to stabilize the country has now ended in apparent
political failure.  The war led to a serious famine that was solved
by the intervention.  Less publicized was the exploitation of the
Somalian crisis by firms who specialize in the disposal of
hazardous waste.

      In the fall of 1992 reports began to appear in the
international media concerning unnamed European firms that were
illegally dumping waste in Somalia.  By most reports, several
thousand tons of waste, mostly processed industrial waste, had
already been dumped there.  It was also reported that waste was
seen being dumped off the Somali coast into the Indian Ocean.  To
further compound the country's environmental problems, a storage
facility in northern Somalia filled with pesticides had been
destroyed during the war.  The spilt chemicals and resulting fire
poisoned one of the few sources of drinking water in the famine
ravaged country.

      What caused controversy in 1992, however, was reports of a
contract established between a Swiss firm, Achair Partners, and an
Italian firm, Progresso, with Nur Elmy Osman, who claimed to be the
Somali Minister of Health under an interim government headed by Ali
Mahdi Muhammad.  Osman had been a health official in the Barre
government, but allegedly was no longer recognized as a government
official by Ali Mahdi.  Osman had supposedly entered into an $80
million contract in December of 1991, whereby the two firms would
be allowed to build a 10 million ton storage facility for hazardous
waste.  The waste would first be burned in an incinerator to be
built on the same site and then stored in the facility at the rate
of 500,000 tons a year.

      Reports of the alleged contract outraged the world community.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) investigated the
matter at the urging of Somalia's neighbors and the Swiss and
Italian governments.  What ensued was a period of accusations as
both firms denied entering into any agreement, Osman denied signing
any contract and the Swiss and Italian governments said they had no
knowledge of the two firms activities.

      As a result of the UNEP's investigation, the contract was
declared null and the facility was never built.  Still it became
apparent to the UNEP's director Dr. Mustafa Tolba that the firms of
Achair Partners and Progresso were set up specifically as
fictitious companies by larger industrial firms to dispose of
hazardous waste.  At one point Dr. Tolba declared that the UNEP was
dealing with a mafia.

      Beyond the obvious ethical question of trying to coerce a
hazardous waste agreement out of an unstable country like Somalia,
the attempt by Swiss and Italian firms to dump waste in Somalia
violates international treaties to which both countries are
signatories.  Switzerland has signed and ratified the Basel
Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous
Wastes and their Disposal (see BASEL case).  Somalia and Italy have
not signed the Basel Convention.  The Basel Convention prohibits
(among other things) waste trade between countries that have signed
the Convention and countries that have not signed the Convention
unless a bilateral waste agreement has been negotiated.  Somalia
and Switzerland had no such bilateral agreement.  The Basel
Convention also prohibits shipping hazardous waste to a war zone.

      Although not a signatory to the Basel Convention, Italy has
signed the fourth Lome Convention.  It is the only country in
Europe to do so.  Italy signed the Lome Convention in order to
"prove" its good intentions with regard to the disposal hazardous
waste.  No reason is given for Italy's failure to sign the Basel
Convention (see NIGERIA case).  Article 39 of the Lome Convention
clearly prohibits the export of waste to Africa as well as the
Caribbean and the Pacific.

SOURCE: American University, Washington DC.
http://www.american.edu