MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Massive demonstration demands paper mill projects be scrapped

Some 100,000 people on Sunday protested in Argentina against Uruguay's plans to build two paper mills along the Uruguay River, a project opponents say will pollute the waterway dividing the two countries, police said.

Carrying hundreds of signs, Argentine flags and wearing caps bearing the slogan "No to the paper mills," the demonstrators marched through the Argentine city of Gualeguaychu to the General San Martin bridge crossing the river to the Uruguayan city of Fray Bentos, where the paper mills are to be built.

Involved in the $1.8 billion project - Uruguay's largest ever foreign investment - to construct the two mills are Spanish firm Ence and Finnish company Botnia.

"Yes to life, no to the paper mills," "Get out, Botnia" and "Let's save the Uruguay River" were just a few of the slogans on the signs carried by demonstrators at what was billed the Great March and Embrace of the Uruguay River Valley.

The march came one year after another similar one to protest the mills, but this year's gathering drew two-and-a-half times as many people. Both organizers and police said that some 100,000 people participated in the protest.

"We request that international banking and the accomplice governments of Spain and Finland not directly or indirectly finance" the construction of the paper mills, said protesters in the document read on the bridge by members of the Gualeguaychu Environmental Assembly, which organized the march.

The Assembly members, who read the document after singing the Argentine and Uruguayan national anthems, expressed their "energetic rejection of the (project) ... authorized by the neighboring country, without considering the serious consequences (the mills) will cause in Argentina." "The construction of the plants does not respect the Uruguay River Treaty signed by Argentina and Uruguay. These projects are highly polluting all over the world. We ask the governments to respect the statutes concerning caring for the environment," the document read.

Members of social, environmental and union organizations travelled from Buenos Aires and other interior Argentine provinces to join the demonstration, and groups of anti-paper mill demonstrators also showed up from Uruguay and Chile.

The march was monitored by some 700 police, but no incidents were reported. Entire families, including small children and the elderly, drove in a caravan of automobiles from the center of Gualguaychu along Route 136 to the bridge, but authorities limited the number of vehicles and people they allowed on the structure "to ensure the stability" of it, the National Highway Directorate reported.

The demonstration was supported by the Association for the Defense of Pontevedra Inlet, in Spain, which sent a message to the Assembly expressing its solidarity "with the peoples of Argentina and Uruguay in defense of their right to a clean and livable environment." Since the protest march held a year ago, residents of Gualeguaychu, which is in the Argentine province of Entre Rios, have blocked the route connecting the city with the border to protest the paper mill project.

The mill construction plans have sparked a conflict between Uruguay and Argentina, the latter of which requested the suspension of the project for 90 days so that an environmental impact study can be conducted.

The Argentine government fears that the mills will contaminate the Uruguay River Valley, which the two nations share, a claim that has been denied by Uruguayan authorities and the two firms involved.

Next Friday, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner will come to Gualeguaychu to participate in an environmental defense event, along with the governors of most of Argentina's provinces.

The event will be held one day after the presentation the Argentine government is scheduled to make against the paper mill project before the International Court at The Hague.