TERRA.WIRE
ICJ to give interim ruling on Argentinian claim against Uruguay pulp mills
 THE HAGUE, July 13 (AFP) Jul 13, 2006
 The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will rule on Thursday on the demand of Argentina that the judges order Uruguay to halt the construction of two potentially polluting pulp mills on their border river while the court prepares to hear the case.

Thursday's ruling will only consider so-called provisional measures while the court prepares to hear Argentina's complaint that the construction of two pulp mills by Uruguay on the countries' border river will cause great damage to the environment in depth at a later date.

Buenos Aires says that Uruguay has violated a 1975 treaty about the use of the Uruguay river by authorising the construction of the mills. In May this year it filed a claim against Montevideo with the ICJ, the UN's highest court which deals with conflicts between states, and has asked for so-called provisional matters.

Buenos Aires says construction of the mills -- which will cost a total of 1.8 billion dollars -- violates a 1975 treaty between the neighbours about use of the river.

Uruguay approved the construction of one pulp mill on the river in 2003 and has now "aggravated the dispute" by authorising the construction of a second mill, Argentina said in its application to the ICJ.

Buenos Aires claims two separate mill projects -- one launched by the Finnish company Botnia, the other by Ence of Spain-- along the Uruguay River could pollute the environment and affect tourism.

The dispute over the mills has heightened tensions between the two Latin American countries.

The court can order the parties in a case to refrain from any acts that might jeopardize the effectiveness of any decision the ICJ may take on the request.

Last month the 14 judges of the ICJ heard two days of legal arguments on the provisional measures demanded by Buenos Aires.

Observers say that it is unlikely that the court will order a complete shut down of construction activities as Argentina has demanded because then it would have to be proven that the activities cause irreversible damage, which is hard to do as the mills are not even functioning yet.

Many expect the court to try to find a middle ground by ordering a temporary halt to construction in order to relaunch bilateral negotiations.

The Hague-based ICJ was created 60 years ago to deal with disputes between states. Its rulings are final and without appeal but the court has no means of enforcing them.

It is not known when the court will examine Argentina's claim fully. On average it takes some four years for the ICJ to complete proceedings from the time a complaint was filed to a final ruling.