POPs IN AFRICA HAZARDOUS WASTE TRADE 1980 - 2000 ... - Arte

“wastes to be specifically monitored” (the German term for
hazardous and toxic wastes) from food industries, animal
production, contaminated woods, pulp, pesticide and
pharmaceutical industries, chemical and hospital wastes.
These are practically the bulk of “burnable” hazardous wastes in
the German toxic waste catalogue (with the exception of wastes
from the petrochemical, paint and lacqueur industries, and
halogenated solvents). The quoted “code 19” is not existant in
the catalogue. (Zweite allgemeine Verwaltungsvorschrift zum
Abfallgesetz - Second general administration directive re General
Waste Law)
The investment sum for the installation was to be 9 million USD,
the amount of wastes imported was 100,000 tons per year to
create 18 to 50 Megawatts of electric energy each (no time period
stipulated). Every kind of domestic waste generated in the
Comoros would be treated for free. 57
The reason why only USD 9 million has been calculated in this
case is not understood as in all other cases FMW has calculated
USD 300 million for each facility.
A key person in the respective negotiations is Kamel Zouai, a
well-known politician in the Comoros because he had already
played an important part in the country’s foreign affairs. Of
Algerian descent, he became a “Special Advisor” to the president
of the country, Said Mohamed Djohar, and has held a diplomatic
passport since November 1994. He is the second person in the
Embassy of the Comoros in Paris, responsible for commercial
affairs. He signed a mandate to empower a French engineer,
Claude Deret (“passport no. 178/89 valid until 25 April 1999”)
“to negotiate with German and Austrian authorities” in the name
of the Comoros. The aim was to have “one or several” treatment
facilities built “type F.M.W.” This mission was declared strictly
confidential. This mandate was signed and stamped in a Paris
lawyers’ office of “Bechara Parabe, 12 Ave. Pierre 1er de
Serbie”, on March 22,1995.
In the same document there is talk about letters to be sent by
Deret to the Belgian and Italian ministers of the environment.
A second document obtained by Greenpeace is an unsigned,
undated “Protocole d’Accord” between FMW, The Republic of
the Comores, represented by Claude Deret, and the “Group
Dogmoch”, obviously the company acting on the Comorian side.
According to this document, FMW and Dogmoch are to
construct one or several power plants for the Comores generating
“minimum 18-50 MW each”, but it does not say in which time
frame.
57 Ahmed Ali Amin, “Déchets toxiques: Comores dans la ligne de mire des trafiquants”, Weekly newspaper Al-Watwan, 12 May 1995
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