SOUTH KOREA: January 22, 2008
SEOUL - South Korean prosecutors indicted the Chinese owners of an oil
tanker and Samsung Heavy Industries on Monday along with five crew members
of the vessels involved in the country's worst oil spill in December.
A sea-bound crane mounted on a Samsung barge punched holes in the Hong
Kong-registered tanker Hebei Spirit on Dec. 7, causing a leak of more than
10,000 tonnes of crude oil that washed up on South Korea's west coast
beaches, including a nature reserve.
An official at the prosecutors' office said they indicted the
Indian-national captain and the first officer of Hebei Spirit and the
captains of the barge and two tug boats that towed it, all for failure to
exercise due caution.
The prosecution also indicted the owner company of the tanker, Hebei Ocean
Shipping Co. of China, and barge and tugboat owners Samsung Heavy for
violating coastal protection law.
"Captain Chawla (of Hebei Spirit) overlooked the possibility of collision
and carelessly assumed that the tug boat fleet would safely pass by a
distance of about 280 metres (918 ft)," the prosecution said in a statement
announcing the indictments.
Samsung Heavy declined to comment on the indictment.
A spokesman for the owners of the tanker said from Hong Kong the decision
was "both surprising and disappointing" but declined to comment further.
The spill washed up on miles of the coast line of Taean county, about 150 km
(95 miles) southwest of Seoul, blackening a nature reserve, ruining fish
farms and driving away tourists.
More than a million volunteers, soldiers and residents took part in the
clean-up efforts following the spill. But conservationists said even though
the beaches are cleaner, the damage from the oil in the seabed will last for
years, killing fish, marine plants and plankton.
Residents of Taean have been protesting the slowness of compensation
reaching them, although more than 50 billion won (US$52.8 million) in
emergency funds has been released by the government. (Reporting by Jack Kim;
Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
