Subject: [cwj 152] Greenpeace rails against Japanese aid agency in Bangkok
From: Corporate Watch in Japanese <cwj@corpwatch.org>
Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 12:35:41 -0700
Seq: 152
Monday, May 21 6:08 PM SGT Greenpeace rails against Japanese aid agency in Bangkok BANGKOK, May 21 (AFP) - Greenpeace staged a protest Monday at the Bangkok headquarters of Japan's largest public bank for loans to developing countries, accusing it of funding toxic fume-spewing incinerators in Thailand. Members of the environmental activist group unfurled a massive yellow banner that read "Japan: dioxin pusher. Stop incineration!" across the facade of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). Some 20 activists gathered near the bank's entrance and held signs calling on the bank to scuttle loans to incinerator projects in Thailand, including the On-Nuch solid waste treatment center in Bangkok. JBIC has also lent money to a coal power plant in Thailand, the group said. "Greenpeace demands that JBIC, as the largest source of public funding for projects in (Southeast Asia), immediately cancel all plans related to financing dirty projects," the protestors said in a statement. In addition to damaging the environment, incinerators were costly and siphoned off funding that could be used more effectively for other development projects, it said. "The cost of incinerators in Japan has increased over ten years ... if every developing country follows Japan's path, then we will use up all available funds for development assistance," said Ayako Sekine, an anti-toxics campaigner with Greenpeace's Japanese branch. "Incinerators are costly end-of-pipe solutions to the worsening waste problem. It is not only expensive, it also produces toxic emissions in the form of dioxin, known to be fatal to human health," the statement said. Japan is the largest source of aid money for most development projects in industrialising countries, Greenpeace said, adding that JBIC had issued loans totalling 4.9 billion dollars in Southeast Asia in 1999. Last month, the group warned that Japanese-built garbage incinerators on the Thai resort islands of Phuket and Koh Samui were damaging the health of nearby residents. The incinerators allegedly release dioxin at levels about 15 and 40 times respectively the legal limit in Japan and Europe. The group said people living within three kilometers (two miles) of the plants risked inhaling airborne pollutants, consuming them in locally-produced vegetables, eggs and milk or picking them up through soil contact. FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Corporate Watch in Japanese is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability, human rights, economic democracy and social justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. ------------------------------------- Corporate Watch in Japanese Transnational Resource and Action Center (TRAC) P.O. Box 29344 San Francisco, CA 94129 USA Tel: 1-415-561-6472 Fax: 1-415-561-6493 Email: cwj@corpwatch.org URL: http://www.corpwatch-jp.org ------------------------------------- ______________________ The Corporate Watch in Japanese http://www.corpwatch.org/japan (CWJ) mailing list is a moderated email list in English designed to connect activists campaigning against Japanese corporations and investments around the world. * To unsubscribe from the CWJ mailing list, send an email to majordomo@jca.apc.org with text "unsubscribe cwj". To subscribe to the CWJ mailing list, send a message to majordomo@jca.apc.org with the text "subscribe cwj" * The CWJ mailing list is NOT intended for wide distribution. If you would like to post messages from this list somewhere else, we ask that you first contact us at cwj@corpwatch.org ______________________