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27 July 2007
One Year Post Aggression…. And Oil Spill
What happened to the Cleanup and Prosecution of Israel
One year has passed after the Israeli Aggression on Lebanon and its
devastating impacts on the civil life, infrastructure and environment
of Lebanon including the major oil spill off the Lebanese coast
resulting from the intentional bombardment of the Jiyyeh tank farm.
On July 13 and 15, the Israeli airforce repeatedly attacked the fuel
tanks of the Jiyyeh power plant south of Beirut leading to an enormous
fire burning about 50000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and the leak of
about 15000 tonnes into the sea causing the worst oil spill ever to
hit the Eastern Mediterranean basin. This spill polluted about 120 km
of Lebanese shores including very important and sensitive marine
ecosystems, and a world heritage site in Byblos. This was followed by
a sea and air blockade that prevented any response to restrict the
damage and commence an early cleanup operation as usual in such
disasters.
Today, one year after the spill, still no comprehensive scientific
assessment of the Environmental Social and Economic damages has been
done. On the contrary, two United Nations Agencies presented
diametrically contradictory reports. While UNEP (United Nations
Environment Programme presented the impacts as modest and that Lebanon
evaded serious damage, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)
presented the spill impacts as severe, disastrous and long term.
From its side, Israel rejected any responsibility claims and
considered the issue as part of the collateral damage of war.
On its part, the Lebanese government did not, to date, present any
compensation claims to the UN or any of its relevant agencies to help
it control the impacts and conduct the recovery; as if the disaster
happened on another planet and not that the real responsibility lies
in the hands of the US government which prevented then all calls for
cease fire and then to end the blockade worsening the impacts of the
spill.
Professor Richard Steiner from the University of Alaska and member of
the IUCN Commission of Environmental Economic and Social Policy
reaffirmed his conclusion that Israel intended to cause an
environmental disaster as it knew exactly that the oil can only be
used for the power plant and not any other activities related to war,
making this attack a clear war crime.
This confirmation came in a press conference held today by the two
Lebanese NGOs Green Line and Byblos Ecologia at Le Meridien Commodore
Hotel.
The two NGOs seriously criticized the international community and
specifically the US government for failing to take any measures to
hold Israel liable and force it to compensate for the intentional
damage caused to humans and environment. The international efforts and
donations to date are a failing blind wash attempt.
Professor Steiner conducted on behalf of Green Line and CEESP as
assessment of the current situation coming up with the following
conclusions:
1. Large areas of the Lebanese coast are still severely polluted as if
there were no cleanup activities there,
2. Although about a thousand tones of oil and waste were removed, the
waste is still on site endangering the ecosystem while awaiting
treatment,
3. There is still no National Contingency Plan to confront similar oil
spills,
4. Cleanup should be resumed to the rocky areas using high pressure
hot water or steam despite other contradictory recommendations;
5. A comprehensive rehabilitation plan for the marine ecosystems
should be started immediately.
6. Recovery and rehabilitation should be paid for by Israel or the
international community
7. Despite the scarcity of the funds that were allocated for cleanup,
a major question regarding the USAID grant to SEACOR amounting 5
million dollars which did a very lousy cleanup operation; and the full
scale cleanup and recovery grant from Bahr Lubnan NGO that was
accepted by a special governmental decree but not materialized into
action.
Green Line and Byblos Ecologia request the Lebanese Government to
assume its responsibilities to remove all impacts of this disaster
facing its people and their environment, as this is the ground of
existence of any government.