MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pull mills dispute: Argentina warns picketers

The Argentine government openly disagreed with pickets blocking bridges leading to Uruguay and said picketers will be responsible for any damages the protests could cause to Argentina's strategy in the pulp mills conflict with Uruguay.

The announcement was made mid afternoon Thursday following a meeting of Argentine president Nestor Kirchner with cabinet chief Alberto Fernandez, Entre Rios province governor Jorge Busti and Environment Affairs Secretary Romina Picolotti in Government House, Buenos Aires.

"The federal and Entre Rios provincial governments disagree with the Gualeguaychu assembly decision to promote the cutting of routes which link Argentina with Uruguay", says the release signed by the cabinet chief and Entre Rios governor.

"This openly contradicts the interests of the position adopted by Argentina before international tribunals and organizations" and warns that "the damages which such actions could cause to Argentine interests will be the responsibility of those who proceed in such a way".

Argentina and Uruguay have been at odds for months over the construction of pulp mills on a shared border river which Buenos Aires argues will contaminate water and air. Montevideo claims the pulp mills have state of the art technology and furthermore World Bank environmental accumulated impact reports support Uruguay's position.

In spite of the environmental reports residents from Gualeguaychu, across from where Finland's Botnia is building a pulp mill, have announced they will be cutting two main routes leading to Uruguay across international bridges beginning Friday afternoon until Sunday evening, which happens to coincide with a long weekend.

The bilateral dispute has been addressed both in the International Court of The Hague and Mercosur's Tribunal, with no definitive ruling yet but calling on both sides to act positively, "as good neighbors", and putting an end to the free movement of goods and peoples between both countries. A 1975 bilateral agreement rules the management of the shared river.

Pickets of Gualeguaychu residents and environmentalists during most of last summer (2005/06) blocked the bridges to Uruguay demanding an end to the construction of the paper mills and their relocation where they will not pollute water or air.

The Kirchner administration policy has been to passively support the protests by not interfering with the pickets but since the rulings, and the fact a second pulp mill to be built by Spain's Ence decided to re-locate, is now against pickets blocking routes.

Environmental Affairs Picolotti publicly asked the Gualeguaychu assembly "to think about their decision".

"Social mobilization must continue, but the route cuts modality are not functional to the interests of the Argentina government that are the interests of all Argentines, and which is that Botnia does not construct the pulp mill in that river location", she emphasized.

"The blocking of routes now is counterproductive to Argentina's interests and therefore to the interests of the Gualeguaychu assembly"

Picolotti said a "protest demonstration is necessary", but there must be other creative ways of mobilizing. She recalled that the Argentine government has activated several options regarding the dispute: environmental, political and even financial, which means blocking World Bank soft loans for the pulp mills.

Meanwhile the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, officially announced the findings of the independent environmental study will now be reviewed together with Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, which will decide "shortly" whether to recommend approval of financing and guarantees to the pulp mills 1.7 billion US dollars project in Uruguay.

EcoMetrix, the Canadian-based environmental consultancy that conducted the study, said in the report that tourism, agriculture, fishing and apiculture that are the principle natural resource-based activities in the area of the pulp mills "are not likely to experience long-term negative impacts as a result of the construction or operation of the two pulp mills as the need for new plantation areas to supply the mills will be minimal and the facilities will operate under best available techniques".

Air and water emissions should be "well below" levels that are known to have any health effects, the study found. Effluents from the mills, to be operated by Spain's Ence and Metsa-Botnia, "compare favourably" with pulp mills around the world, the study said.

Uruguayan authorities praised the report which had been partly advanced earlier in the week and pointed out that the original two pulp mills in the area are now only one, so the environmental impact, if any, will be even more moderate.