MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Work in pulp mills resumes with dispute unchanged

Paper pulp mill workers in Uruguay returned Monday to work after a 10-day break over the Easter holiday.

Their return has further sparked anger in Argentina, as the cities of Colon and Gualeguaychú in Entre Rios province have voted to maintain their blockades of roads leading to international bridged linking the two countries.

Fabían Gadea, vice-president of the Uruguayan construction workers union confirmed the recommencement of work adding: "Construction is again full steam ahead".

Residents of the Argentine cities, however, rejected calls to lift their road blockades, saying that the paper mills under construction in Uruguay will lead to water and air environmental damage in the region.

The 10-day lull in construction of the plants being built in the Uruguayan town of Fray Bentos coincides with an extended holiday period in Uruguay.

Both the Argentine and Uruguayan governments had called for a 90-day stoppage in construction to allow for a binational environmental survey to be carried out.

The Finnish company Botnia building one of the paper mills ? the Spanish firm ENCE is constructing the other ? rejected the 90 day proposal which led to the cancellation of a meeting between President Néstor Kirchner and his Uruguayan counterpart Tabaré Vázquez to resolve the ongoing crisis.

Environmental assemblies in the Argentine cities of Colón and Gualeguaychú have remained vocal opponents of the paper mills, and voted to maintain their road blockades that began over two weeks ago.

Some residents, however, supported the Argentine government's proposal of lifting the blockades as part of a larger offensive against the paper mills, which includes taking Uruguay to the World Court based in The Hague. Uruguay wants to take Argentina to the Mercosur Council to claim losses generated by the pickets.

Meantime the World Bank which is scheduled to partially finance the pulp mills investment suspended all loans pending the findings of an independent environmental impact assessment report which was interpreted as supportive by both sides of the controversy, Uruguay which argues the pulp mills are being built following the latest European Union standards, and Argentina which says they will contaminate and accuses Uruguay of withholding information.

A previous environmental impact assessment by the World Bank and its ombudsman was rejected by Argentina as "unsubstantiated and non rigorous".

Uruguay and Argentina share and jointly manage the river Uruguay which acts as a natural border and where the paper mills are under construction.

Argentina claims Uruguay and the European companies have been reluctant in supplying information on the undertakings. Finnish Botnia which has tried to keep a low profile in the dispute says the whole operation is private and insists that is has scrupulously complied with Uruguayan law the terms of the contract.