CEDHA PRESS RELEASE 5 APRIL: Botnia Decides to Ignore Argentine and Uruguayan Presidents’ Request to Stop Construction
Fray Bentos-Uruguay. April 5, 2006 – Hours from the signing of a closing agreement to set the stage for a presidential summit between Argentina and Uruguay on the fate of the controversial papermills being constructed on the Argentina/Uruguayan border, the Finnish company Botnia announced that contrary to what it had said earlier, it will not suspend construction, presumably because of adverse stock price impacts such a decision would have in European markets. Botnia’s decision collapsed the ongoing dialogue between the highest Uruguayan and Argentine authorities and with it any hopes for moving towards a resolution in the conflict.
The Uruguayan Presidential Secretary, Gonzalo Fernandez, in one of the first signs of strain between the Government of Uruguay and the Finnish company, Botnia, confronted Botnia’s decision, in the midst of the worst ever diplomatic disputes between the countries, suggesting that the decision was “abrupt”, and lamented that this obstructs hopes for an eventual resolution to the conflict, especially considering the good will of both nations to resolve the dispute. On the Argentina side, Chief of Cabinet, Alberto Fernandez, lamented that Botnia “does not understand the real dimensions and reach of the binational conflict which has ensued.”
Presidents Kirchner of Argentina and Vasquez of Uruguay had agreed recently in Chile to initiate a 90-day negotiations process to untie the Gordian knot into which the conflict has formed, conditioning advancement of discussions on the lifting of roadblocks by the citizens assemblies of the three bridges that unite Argentina to Uruguay and on the companies ceasing construction. This period would permit both parties to carry out new environmental impact studies to assess social, economic and environmental impacts that have not yet been measured. The roadblocks were lifted by the Argentines, but Uruguay is unable to convince Botnia to halt construction of the mills.
Botnia’s decision is unfortunate, since for the first time, negotiations between Argentina and Uruguay seemed to get underway. Botnia and ENCE, the Spanish company constructing just upstream had both indicated that they would support the decision to halt construction in favor of the negotiating process. ENCE has not begun construction due to freezing of international finance following complaints filed to the CAO by CEDHA, stakeholders, and the government of Entre Ríos. Botnia, which has its own funds (but whose international financing is also blocked), decided to ignore the presidents’ request. If Botnia does not concede to stop construction to carry out missing impact assessments, it is likely that Argentina will make good on its threat to take Uruguay to the International Court of Justice at the Hague.
For more information:
Jorge Daniel Taillant
Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA)
54 9 351 625 3290