Murder Charges for Toxic Dumping

In 2006 Trafigura, an oil-trading company, dumped tons of toxic waste in one of the world's poorest countries, Ivory Coast. (The toxicity of the waste is under dispute not the dumping.)  This month Greenpeace claimed that the dumping caused thousands to became ill and also caused miscarriages, birth defects and death.  One of the world’s most well known environmental organizations wants Dutch courts to bring charges of murder, manslaughter, negligence and conspiracy against Trafigura. 

Trafigura, which last year had sales of $73 Billion, approximated twice the GDP of the Ivory Coast, has already agreed to pay millions to settle a lawsuit brought by 30,000 Abidjan residents who suffered short term illnesses.  But they deny that anyone suffered severe long term illnesses or death due to the dumping.  

The sludge which was dumped at 18 sites around Abidjan, including drains and lagoons, was the by-product of processing “dirty oil” bought at a Mexican refinery.  The processing took place on board an oil tanker off the coast of Abidjan not in the EU because the EU has outlawed this environmentally unsafe practice.  

In 2006, the year that Trafigura used the City of Abidjan in the Ivory Coast as their toilet, its poverty rate was 50%.  The nation ranks 164 out of 177 countries ranked on the United Nations’ Human Development Index.  The UNHDI rates the overall economic health of a country.  Only 13 other countries received a worse rating than the Ivory Coast. 

To admit that I find that it is unbelievable that this horrific crime can occur at the beginning of  21st century would probably put me in the “very naive” category.  Sometimes deviant behavior seems plausible when an individual’s or a group’s life is threatened or when they desperately need food, or medical attention.  But to commit a heinous act simply to add a relatively miniscule amount of profit to your bottom line is truly evil. 

I don’t believe in nor has history shown that an “eye for an eye” prevents any further malevolent acts.  Usually is actually escalates a conflict.  So if the Board of Directors of Trafigura were forced to live out the rest of their lives in one of the lagoons in Abidjan filled with their toxic sludge most likely future atrocities would still occur.  But the rest of us might feel just a bit better.