MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Uruguay will not bow to Greenpeace activists”

Uruguay's President Tabare Vazquez said on Tuesday his government will not bow to pressures from “outsiders” like Greenpeace environmental activists who tried to block construction of two pulp mills in the country.

The Uruguayan Coast Guard briefly arrested nine protesters who tried to interrupt work on one of the mills, being built by Finland's Metsa-Botnia earlier on Tuesday. Spain's Ence is building the second plant nearby.

"We're not going to permit any outsiders from coming and solving the problems of Uruguayans," Vazquez said in an interview with local radio.

"We Uruguayans have never let ourselves be 'roughed up', to use a popular expression, and this government and its people will not be roughed up" he added.

The arrests were the first made in months of protests by Argentines living on the opposite shore of the Uruguay river which is the natural border between the neighbouring countries.

Greenpeace also contracted a helicopter which over flew the area to photograph the activists self chained to the dock being built in the River Uruguay.

The future pulp wood mills, which with a combined investment of $1.7 billion, are Uruguay's most costly industrial project to date.

Following on a local judge's orders all nine activists were released after a few hours.

Argentine residents and international environmental activists argue the plants will pollute the air and hurt the wildlife along the Uruguay River, shared by the two countries.

Greenpeace said protesters from several countries - including Finland, Italy, Germany and Mexico - took a boat across the river that separates Argentina and Uruguay and occupied a dock belonging to Botnia. The organization vowed to keep up its protest actions.

Metsa-Botnia, Europe's second-largest pulp producer, has plans to begin exporting 1.5 million tonnes of wood pulp as of 2007 and Ence is scheduled to start operating in 2008.

Argentines opposed to the Europeans' plans have staged massive road blockades for the past few weeks, preventing tourists from crossing the bridges into Uruguay during the high tourist season.

The companies have argued they are using the most advanced technology available to minimize the impact on surrounding areas and have the support of the local government.

"We don't understand the problem. We have all the permits and have complied with the highest environmental standards ... The highway blockades don't affect us directly, they just raise the tone of the conflict," said an Ence official in Madrid.

Meantime Argentine Foreign Secretary Jorge Taiana presented to the World Bank, (which is partially financing the pulp mill project) the "initial objections" to the environmental report which opens the way for development loans to both European companies.

Main objections are that the World Bank ombudsman preliminary report were not taken into account; chlorine free processing methods for pulp were not considered and the fact that European norms do not prescribe any exclusive method.

Argentina's presentation also argues that the World Bank's environmental report did not include the bi-national legal debate regarding the River Uruguay treaty, or wait for the Bi-national Technical Committee report. Finally Argentina also objects the mathematic model used to calculate odors dispersion.

Mr. Taiana also received a letter from Argentina's Chamber of Transport complaining about the losses originated to truck companies by the blocking of bridges by local pickets.