Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Chairman and Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell has expressed outrage over the planned shipment of nuclear waste through the Caribbean Sea.
The CARICOM Secretariat was advised by the British High Commission in Guyana that the shipment involves High Level Nuclear Waste and is expected to be transported from France to Japan via the Caribbean Sea, the Panama Canal and the Pacific Ocean.
Prime Minister Mitchell said the countries involved in this shipment, namely Japan and France together with support from the United Kingdom, have held no formal consultations with CARICOM on the matter. Dr Mitchell has written the leaders of all three countries strongly condemning the shipment.
The Prime Minister noted that 1998 has been designated the International Year of the Ocean in order that global awareness can be heightened regarding the importance of marine life in sustaining human life and environmental balance.
Prime Minister Mitchell said the 1996 CARICOM initiative to have the Caribbean Sea recognised internationally as a “Special Area in the context of Sustainable Development,” an initiative which was subsequently endorsed by the Ministerial Council of the Association of Caribbean States in November 1997, must be respected by all countries.
30 January 1998
