African News Agency : Welcome

London, 26 Sep - (ANA) - Trafigura, the multinational company behind the 2006 dumping of toxic waste in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, resulting in over 100,000 people seeking medical assistance, must be criminally investigated in the UK, Amnesty International and Greenpeace Netherlands have concluded in a major new report. The Toxic Truth is the result of a three-year investigation and provides an in-depth examination of the tragic litany of failures that created a medical, political and environmental disaster. It details how existing laws aimed to prevent such tragedies were flouted, with several governments failing to halt the progress of the Probo Koala and its toxic cargo towards Abidjan. The report further challenges the legality of a settlement in Côte d’Ivoire that allowed Trafigura to evade prosecution for its role in the dumping of the toxic waste. Through interviews with both the victims of the toxic dumping and medical experts who treated them the report sheds new light on the devastating impact it has had. “Six years have passed since this horrible tragedy was allowed to happen,” says Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. “It’s time that Trafigura was made to face full legal accountability for what happened. People in Abidjan were failed not just by their own government but by governments in Europe who did not enforce their own laws. Victims are still waiting for justice and there are no guarantees that this kind of corporate crime will not happen again”. (ANA)