toxics

The International Maritime Organisation has decided not to expel Greenpeace for "unsafe seamanship". The charges - made by flag of convenience states and other targets of Greenpeace direct actions, were discussed at an IMO meeting on 21 November.

Prior to the meeting, thousands of cyberactivists from around the world sent messages of protest to selected delegations that were wavering or supporting our eviction.

In the final forty-eight hours before Friday's meeting, member states began to express their support explicitly.

There has recently been considerable attention paid to the issue of scrapping redundant US naval vessels in the UK. The Greenpeace view is the following:

1. The UK should not import vessels for scrapping from other countries which have the technical ability to deal with their own vessels at high environmental standards. In the case of the US there is clearly the ability to scrap vessels in the country of origin to a high standard and this should be done. No further US vessels should be sent to the UK for scrapping.

Royal Naval ships from Britain are being scrapped in developing countries, with no regard for the environment or the health of the people employed to dismantle them.

At the same time, the Britsh Government acted quickly to make sure ghost ships' from the US were stopped from being scrapped in UK waters. This is blatant hypocrisy - Britain should look after its own toxic ships, just as the US should deal with its own ghost fleet.