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French MNC passes the buck to Indian crew for oil spill

Ranvir Nayar in Paris

A judicial committee appointed by the French government to investigate the marine accident that caused the largest oil spill in Europe has exonerated the Indian captain and crew of the vessel Erika from any responsibility. ''In fact, in this whole incident, it was only they who acted responsibly,'' notes the committee report.

Captain Kanwar Sundar Mathur and his crew of 13, all Indians, were on board the 25-year-old tanker carrying over 35,000 tonnes of light crude for the French oil giant, TotalFina, from the northern French port of Dunkerque to Italy, when on December 11 the ship broke into two and sank near the French coast. It created a huge oil spill that has severely polluted over 600 kilometres of beaches in France and done incalculable damage to marine life in the area.

The committee while praising the captain and the crew for their actions in the face of the disaster, has come down very heavily on TotalFina and the French merchant navy authorities, holding them entirely responsible for the accident.

But as TotalFina and the French authorities are yet to even acknowledge their responsibility for the disaster, Captain Mathur and his three crew members are literally being held hostages in France. Mathur was arrested the day he was rescued from Erika and his three crew members were arrested the next day. The four were kept in prison for nearly a fortnight and denied bail. But a huge outpouring of protest from the French environmentalists and merchant navy associations forced the judge to release them on bail. The judge, however, ordered the police to impound their passports and asked the four to remain in Paris for the duration of the trial.

The committee has severely criticised TotalFina for its handling of the situation. The committee said TotalFina had knowingly chartered a 25-year-old tanker and had not taken due precautions to see if it was seaworthy. For the future, the committee has listed seven points for TotalFina and other petroleum companies in chartering vessels. The report has also criticised the French marine authorities for being opaque about the threat posed by the pollution and of covering up the extent of the disaster.

Even before the report was submitted, environmentalists in France had been blaming the two for the disaster. The anger was fomented by the irresponsible statements made by TotalFina for weeks after the disaster.

''I will be glad to offer them a day's portion of my salary,'' Thierry Desmarest, the chairman of TotalFina told a French radio station in an interview, referring to the work being done by thousands of volunteers on the coast who are trying to fight the massive oil slick.

This statement best represents the callous attitude taken by TotalFina. The company has also refused to take any action to pump out the 20,000 tonnes of oil that still remains trapped within the ship at the bottom of the sea. It is very much possible that this oil would also spill and pollute the sea further.

Environmentalists point out that in a classic display of how not to handle public relations, TotalFina has been indifferent in its reaction to the disaster. Hiding behind technicalities, the company has been refusing to own up responsibility for the accident.

''They knew fully well that the ship was old and it was under a flag of convenience. The ship owners are a Maltese company based in Italy, owned by a Greek, whose reputation in the shipping business borders on notoriety. So TotalFina knew exactly what it was doing when it chartered Erika and now it is trying to escape the responsibility by pointing fingers at others,'' says an enraged Bruno Rebelle, Executive Director of GreenPeace France.

Rebelle alleges that the French government and the company began a cover-up operation from the moment the accident happened. ''Their first reaction was that everything was under control and that they had taken enough measures to ensure that the oil slick does not hit the coast at all. But eventually, it became apparent that they had been purposely misleading the people all along,'' Rebelle said.

Rebelle said that the French government wanted to protect TotalFina, which, after its proposed merger with Elf, will become the world's fourth largest oil company. ''The French government was keen to protect the company which they display as a French success story and did not want this success story tarred by the oil spill,'' Rebelle said.

Instead of initiating any action against TotalFina, the French authorities swooped down upon the helpless Indian crew of the ship. ''These people are so busy in their dirty business, that they have no idea of how much ill-will their actions are creating amongst the people,'' said Rebelle.

It was eventually left to the European Commission and the stock markets to bring TotalFina in line. The EC forced it to eat humble pie and own up responsibility for the disaster. After the committee's report, TotalFina has been forced to take measures to fight the spill, but environmentalists say it is too little and has come too late.

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