PRESTIGE

international | environment | news report Tuesday July 01, 2003 20:18 by valedipiu

prestige oil spill:september will be late

PRESTIGE Oil Spill: september will be late Por IMC Galiza o 20030617



This is an international calling for break the political silence about the biggest european ecological dissaster: more than 20.000 birds found dead as well as marine mammals and others, more than 100.000 people lost its jobs... SEVEN MONTHS AFTER the sinking of the Prestige, our governement still says 'no problem' despite of the evidences and the aprox. 40.000 tons of this toxic fuel wich remains inside the oil tanker polluting more than a thousand kilometers of coastline. This is the fifth spill we have suffered in the last years, so we need you helping us to promove a Investigation Commission at the European Parliament to avoid this again and requesting the political responsabilities about the management of this tragedy.

As you probably know, last december 2002 the Prestige tanker sunk in front of Galiza's coast in the north-west of Spain.

Galiza is the most affected country by oil spills in Europe: the Prestige oil spill is the fifth one that we have suffered in the past years. It is very difficult to understand why in this circumstances our governements -both statal (spanish) and regional one- have no resources at all, as anti-pollution ships, oil skimmers or simply human resources for coordinating the salvaging operations which causes errors like keeping the Prestige navigating erraticaly during SIX DAYS since they received the S.O.S. Our politicians where hunting and resting kilometers away just saying 'don't worry, there is no problem' in those critical moments.

Thousands of youth people came helping us in the cleaning proceses during the first months, and one more time the governement was not capable of managing that. They refused the help offered from other european countries in order to hide the problem in the Parliament and the international press in the place of facing it, producing the BIGGEST EUROPEAN ECOLOGICAL DISASTER. Now the governement forbids to take photos or videos to testify or evaluate the tragedy, and forbids the teachers to talk to children about the problem. And they obstructs all the attempts to investigate the accident and find the responsibles and the ways to avoid it in the future.

These are basically the reasons than can help you understand why the population of our country have walked together by the first time in its history under the 'Nunca Máis' slogan (Never Again or No More: no more spills, no more incompetent politicians), joining betwen 100.000 and 1.000.000 people at Santiago de Compostela and Madrid's demonstrations. Specially emotional was the 50.000 students formed a human chain along our coastline... There where a lot of police repression too, but despite of the governement efforts trying to criminalize the population reaction, thousands of individuals and organizations created an organization with that slogan as its name: 'Nunca Máis'.

Now, six months later, between 35.000 and 50.000 tons of this very toxic residual oil remains inside the tanker still affecting more than a thousand kilometers of coastline with the silence and inoperance of our governements. More than 6.000 birds where found death (SEO/Birdlife) as well as marine mammals and other species, and more than 100.000 people have lost its jobs.

We, the galician people, are still alive, and our civic platform, 'Nunca Máis' represent us and is alive also. And now we are making our voice to be heard by the European Parliament to request for a complete investigation about the Prestige sinking and help for restore our biosistem. This is not just a local problem of the galician people: this is a perfect example of the consecuences of going against the sustainable developtment in this globalized market wich some people is trying to convert our planet.

So we need you helping us break this political silence, saying to the world NUNCA MÁIS (NO MORE, NEVER AGAIN) joining our demonstration in Brussells (Belgium) next 14/06/2003, requesting for the responsabilities of this ecological delict.