“For us, it’s not over”said Wednesday April 6 on franceinfo Harry Durimel, environmental mayor of Pointe-à-Pitre, in Guadeloupe, and historical lawyer for the victims of chlordecone in the French West Indies, while the judges decided that there would be no bet under examination in this file which is moving towards a dismissal. “The reason given is not that there is no culprit, it is that it would be too late to act (…) but the massive poisoning that chlordecone causes in our soils, in our bodies and in our bones, is a continuous infraction”denounced Harry Durimel, who points to the fact that more than 90% of the adult population in Guadeloupe and Martinique is contaminated by this insecticide used against the banana weevil until 1993. Si that goes unpunished that “will leave traces in the historical relationship between the Antilles and France”.
franceinfo: No indictment, no trial. How do you welcome this decision of the judges?
Harry Durimel: For us, it’s not over. The prosecutor has two months to take his requisitions and even if a dismissal order comes in a few months, we will appeal. If the Court of Appeal confirms the dismissal order, we will go to the Court of Cassation, because the reason given is not that there is no culprit, it is that there would be too late to act.
The investigating judges of the public health center of the Paris court believe that, since chlordecone was used until 1993, prosecution is impossible. What do you think ?
We consider that the facts are not prescribed since the intoxication, the massive poisoning that chlordecone causes in our soils, in our bodies and in our bones, is a continuous infringement. Time does not begin to run while facts and effects are still in progress. There is also the timeless dimension of chlordecone.
“We cannot oppose time to the victims of chlordecone when we know that it persists in the soil for 700 years. How can an unfinished poisoning not be prosecutable?”
Harry Durimel, historical lawyer for the victims of chlordecone in the French West Indiesat franceinfo
Especially since the Court of Cassation has said that when the offense has been concealed, when it is hidden, the victims are not in a position to act until a certain number of facts are revealed and proven. . We cannot already be late when the causal link between prostate cancer, other cancers, and chlordecone has not been established. We will make all these arguments and we do not despair that there will be recognition of this causal link and that the time is not over to defend ourselves.
If this dismissal were to be confirmed in the coming months, what would be the reaction of the Guadeloupean population for you?
I’m trying to assess what other unassailable crime has done us so much harm. Only slavery is worse and is now prescribed. So it will leave traces in the historical relationship between the Antilles and France, between the Antilles and Europe. This is not a way of threatening, but imagine that it is to be able to compete with the “dollar banana” that France and elected officials from Guadeloupe and Martinique were demanding chlordecone, in order to be able to make money. Justice cannot leave such irresponsible facts unanswered. The purpose is not to send people to prison or to have financial convictions pronounced, it is that justice be done, that we are talking about reparation, prevention, depollution.
Last year, prostate cancer linked to this pesticide was recognized as an occupational disease for those who worked in the banana plantations at the time. Can we go further?
Sure. It’s restrictive to consider that only people who are in bananas have been contaminated. Everyone knows that in tap water, drinking water, last year, we found the presence of chlordecone in Gourbeyre, Guadeloupe. The spectrum of compensation must be extended to all people who use chlordecone. Those who still work in bananas today continue to carry chlordecone at home, on their clothes, on their boots, while eating their sandwiches. It is an ongoing offence. This crime of poisoning and recognition as an occupational disease is progress. You have to admit it. None before did. We had Guadeloupean ministers from right and left in previous governments and no one recognized that. But we say that is not enough.