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France relents, Clemenceau recalled
France's highest court has ordered Le Clemenceau, the decommmissioned aircraft carrier, to stay out of Indian waters, pending a suit by environmental campaigners.
The court decision forced President Jacques Chirac to order Clemenceau's return from the Arabian Sea after environmentalists scuppered its proposed break-up in an Indian scrapyard.
Earlier, India's Supreme Court had banned the 27,000-tonne warship from entering port while deciding whether her asbestos was a hazard to shipyard workers. The decision was a triumph for environmental pressure groups, led by Greenpeace.
It claimed Le Clemenceau, the pride of France from the days of the late president Charles de Gaulle until the 1990s, was laden with asbestos, which would not be properly disposed of in India.
Meanwhile, Left-backed trade unions gunned for Union Environment Minister A Raja, accusing him of 'unresponsiveness' to calls to stop the asbestos-carrying French warship's transfer to India for disposal. They also demanded his resignation.
Image: Decommissioned French warship Le Clemenceau on its way back to France.
Photograph: Eric Estrade/AFP/Getty Images
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