Bangkok,
Thailand — The trial of two Greenpeace activists
at the Bangkok Criminal Court closed today with
the activists facing three criminal counts and
up to five years jail time if convicted. Their
alleged crime? Exposing the role of the Thai Department
of Agriculture (DOA) in the illegal sale and distribution
of GE papaya.
In 2004, Greenpeace revealed
the DOA GE papaya field trials in their Khon Khan
research station was the source of widespread
genetic contamination and that the department
had illegally distributed GE contaminated seeds
to 2,669 farmers in 37 provinces.
The DOA refused to act and clean
up the GE contamination so the activists decontaminated
one of the sites themselves, the very job that
the DOA should have been doing.
Instead of praising the efforts
of the activists in cleaning up the contamination,
DOA officials sued the Greenpeace activists, Ms
Patwajee Srisuwan, a Greenpeace campaigner, and
Dr Jiragorn Gajaseni, former Executive Director
of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, hoping to intimidate
and silence them.
On the final day of testimony,
Melanie Bondera, a papaya farmer from the Big
Island of Hawaii, told the court about experiences
of massive GE papaya contamination in her home
state and its widespread effects. She told the
court of the loss of income after GE papaya was
released and the continued economic and environmental
threats GE posed to Hawaii.
"To us farmers, GE papaya
brought more negative impacts than positive. Farmers
could not grow the same crops if GE organisms
are found in their farm, and therefore lose their
livelihood. Also farmers in Hawaii weren't able
to export their papayas to Japan anymore,"
said Melanie.
Hawaii, the only place in the
world where GE papaya has been grown commercially,
has now damaged its export markets and organic
and conventional growers have suffered due to
GE contamination. Hawaii exports were flourishing
until the introduction of GE papaya in 1998. Most
of the countries importing papaya from Hawaii
including the EU, Japan, and China have rejected
GE crops and foods. Once GE contamination started
in Hawaii, the doors quickly closed on Hawaii's
papaya exports.
Whilst Thailand has an existing
ban on the planting and sale of genetically engineered
crops, this ban has been under constant assault
from the agro-chemical industry, which is trying
to make GE inroads into Thailand's lucrative non-GE
agriculture market.
"Genetic pollution caused
by GE organisms has irreversible effects on the
environment, therefore we must stop the widening
GE papaya contamination in our country. The Constitution
empowers every Thai citizen the right to protect
our environment," said Patwajee.
It has been over a year since
the criminal charges of theft, trespassing and
destruction of property were lodged against the
Greenpeace activists. The GE court trial ended
on the 30 May with a verdict on the court case
expected towards the end of this year.
A Greenpeace South East Asia
report "Contamination by Genetically Engineered
Papaya in Thailand" gives an overview of
the GE papaya scandal.
