by Cécile Gouarin and Cédric Nieri.

1. Introduction

The Clemenceau is a 40 year-old warship and a former pride of the French Navy. Now it has to be demolished. So the French authorities decided to send it to India, to what is called “the graveyard of ships”. Before its started its last journey, the environmental group Greenpeace denounced the process because the ship contains asbestos. First complication: the transit through  the Suez canal for which the Clemenceau had to wait three days. And that was just the beginning...

2. Sources

2.1.  Identification

BBC news
The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is the national public service broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It produces programmes and information services, broadcasting on television, radio, and the Internet. It is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world.

The Times

The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1785
Long considered the UK's newspaper of record, though it has been bought by Rupert Murdoch, The Times is still seen by some as a serious publication with high standards of journalism.

Greenpeace

This is the official website of Greenpeace, the international environmental organization.

3. Articles

Asbestos test for “graveyard of ships” by Geeta Pandey (February 10, 2006)

The verdict of the Indian supreme Court is awaited eagerly. Greenpeace denounces the presence of hundreds of tons of asbestos on the ship, which is liable to harm the demolition workers’ health. For their part, the owner of the demolition yard and the French authorities (at the beginning only) claimed that the ship-breakers are equipped to handle asbestos. The ship breaking industry in Alang is already suffering from a decline in its activities, to the benefit of yards in China, Bangladesh or Pakistan, where according to the maritime board the environmental standards are looser. Ship-breaking is a very tough and dangerous work. Officially, twenty workers die every year per yard. Nevertheless, Alang’s labourers blame the Greenpeace campaign for this decline in the industry.

Battle on high seas over “toxic” ship by Dan McDougall (February 11, 2006)

Because Greenpeace had won a Court order in Delhi banning the ship from entering Indian waters, Le Clemenceau was awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision in the Arabian Sea. This verdict was due to close a diplomatic and environmental dispute between France and India. At the origin of the controversy was Greenpeace’s accusation, which claims that Alang is ill-equipped to dismantle this kind of vessel, all the more as it contains asbestos. Indeed the ship-breakers are directly exposed to toxic substances, as they work with primitive tools or, often, their bare hands …for two dollars a day. But Greenpeace feared that the Supreme Court’s decision be heavily influenced by the growing military and economic alliance between France and India (France recently won a £1,5 billion contract for the sale of 6 attack submarines).

The Clemenceau Case: Potential Hazardous Material Assessment (February 07,2006)
The environmental group asked for an independent appraisal in order to know what materials there really are in the vessel. It commissioned an assessment from an expert in the field of hazardous material surveys on marine vessels and ship recycling. This assessment has necessarily been based on technical surveys and information available on the case from other parties, because it has been impossible to conduct any onboard survey of the vessel. The main conclusions of the independent  expert assessment are:

1. It is estimated that the Clemenceau may have contained a total of a approximately 760 tons of asbestos, only a fraction of which (approximately seventy tons) appears to have been removed.
2. there could also be a total 165 tons of PCB-containing materials (PCB are toxic chemical chlorinated derivatives).

4. Epilogue

The ridicule has lasted too long. The President of France, Jacques Chirac, decided on February 15th , before the verdict of  India’s Supreme Court, to recall the Clemenceau back to port. But already the mayor of  Brest has refused to receive this toxic old ship.