Two members of the environmental group Greenpeace chained themselves to a Panamanian-registered ship involved in a toxic waste scandal in Ivory Coast to prevent it from leaving the Estonian port of Paldiski, the Postimees daily reported. The Greenpeace activists had learned the ship was to set out to sea at 6 p.m. on Sept. 26 and the activists chained themselves to the vessel in hopes of preventing it from sailing away from EU waters. The activists and two of their companions were detained by border guard officials and fined. An email from a yahoo.com email account asking for the detainment of the ship from the Ivorian environment ministry was discredited by the authorities, however an official request is supposed to arrive on Wed. afternoon. The Estonian government has a request from the European Union's directorate-general for the environment to send them all available information about the Probo Koala's stay in Estonia, but no orders to detain the vessel. In Aug., the tanker had unloaded toxic fuel in the Ivorian port city of Abidjan. The waste was eventually deposited in city landfills where it began to give off poisonous fumes. Greenpeace says the fumes caused seven deaths and forced 44,000 residents to seek medical assistance.
