Green protesters scuffle with Uruguay police

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2007

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) — Uruguayan police scuffled with Argentine environmentalists who were on a boat to protest a Finnish paper mill they fear will spew pollution into a border river, protesters said.

Police boarded one of 20 boats being used by protesters on the Uruguay River in front of the paper mill of Finnish company Botnia which is due to be inaugurated soon, according to images shown on the TN news network.

"We were conducting a peaceful protest near the Uruguayan coast when three Uruguyan police boats surrounded us and wanted to detain us," one of the environmentalists, Gustavo Zapata, told reporters.

Zapata claimed that he was struck by one of the officers, who tried to detain him. Another environmentalist said an officer and a protester fell in the...