by Mimoza A on 23/06/09 at 11:27 pm
Three people have been arrested in the southern Albanian town of Vlora on suspicion of dumping large quantities of oil residue in the Adriatic Sea. According to local media reports early on Wednesday, large amounts of oil were pumped from tankers in a coastal area south of the town of Vlora, known as Soda’s Forest. Speaking at a ceremony for the inauguration of a new oil terminal, Prime Minister Sali Berisha called the environmental massacre a “conspiracy”, suggesting that the illegal dumping was a plot to distrupt the inauguration of the new oil terminal.“This is the same type of action and conspiracy that was made with President [George W.] Bush’s watch,” said Berisha, referring to erroneous local media reports that the former US president’s watch was stolen during a rally in the town of Fusha Kruja on a visit to Albania on June 12, 2008. The oil terminal was constructed by the Italian company Petrolifera.Petrolifera’s project has been widely contested by environmentalists and civil society activists in recent years.According to police reports, the suspects, who worked for a local company, dumped the heavy oil residue after pumping them out of an Italian-registered ship, which was transporting heavy oil from Albania to Canada.Local media reported that over 60 tonnes of oil were dumped in a canal close to the Adriatic shore, heavily polluting the area.
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