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

110Xinhua English Language News Service, December 8, 1988; The Sunday Times, November 20, 1988.
111West Africa, December 19-25, 1988.
These actions followed an article in the London Sunday Times on
November 20, 1988. Two reporters, posing as chemical
company representatives, approached an English waste broker
firm, Redell Development, to negotiate a waste trade scheme.
Redell’s director, Charles Deck (who also goes by the name of
Baker) offered to get rid of any type of hazardous wastes for
$800 a ton. Deck said that he had a six ton ship that could
transport the waste, falsely labeled as liquid fertilizer, to an
illegal dumpsite near a port in Liberia. According to Deck, crops
were grown on the 500-acre site, which his company owned, to
hide the toxic dumpsite.
Deck reassured the reporters that his firm would not question the
contents of the wastes sent to Liberia. “We don’t want to know
what is really on board”, he explained, “You can give us a false
invoice on false headed paper. Nobody will ask any questions.
We have about 50 local officials who we pay each month to keep
their mouths shut. Even if it is radioactive, it doesn’t matter.”
When asked about possible health and environmental threats the
wastes pose to Liberia, Deck responded that “If anything happens
to the Africans because of the waste, that’s too bad. It’s not our
problem.” 110
A Liberian newspaper, the Daily Observer, subsequently accused
the Randell Development Corporation (Possibly Redell
Development) of dumping thousands of tons of wastes near the
Liberian town of Buchanan, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east
of the capital, Monrovia. In December 1988, Liberia’s Justice
Minister, Jenkins Scott, announced that a government inquiry
was underway. He declined to make any further comment. 111
Scheme: Three Companies Struck Down
Date: 1988
Type of Waste: Toxic
Source: Western Industrialized Countries
Exporter: Three Unnamed Firms
Pretext/Fate: Dumping, Money, Hospital and USD 1 Million in
Medicine
Status: Rejected
On June 23, 1988, Health Minister Belleh announced that Liberia
had rejected three separate requests from western firms to dump
toxic wastes in Liberia. Belleh did not disclose the name of the
firms or their location. Each proposed scheme was turned down
because of concerns over the health and environmental impacts
of accepting toxic wastes.
According to Belleh, one firm offered to build and equip a
hospital in exchange for a waste disposal contract. The firm
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