Ghana wants Argentine ship moved to clear port space
ACCRA: Ghanaian officials asked a judge on Thursday to order an Argentine navy ship detained in the West African nation over a debt dispute to be moved because it was blocking valuable space at the port of Tema.
Ghana's port authority appeared in Accra's commercial court following an October 19 filing asking for the ARA Libertad to be moved to an anchorage, saying the three-masted tall ship was harming commercial activity.
Tema is Ghana's largest port and sees major traffic from commercial vessels. "There is congestion at the port and commercial activities are virtually coming to a standstill," a lawyer for the authority, Asare Darko, told AFP.
"The situation is getting more and more chaotic. You can't put a military vessel in the midst of commercial vessels. As at yesterday, we could count about 20 vessels waiting to berth."
A lawyer representing Argentina's government, Kizito Beyuo, told the court Buenos Aires would oppose the request and asked for an adjournment until November 1, which was granted. NML Capital Limited, whose court claims led to the detention of the ship, will not oppose the request to move the frigate to anchorage, according to its lawyer Ace Ankomah.
More than 280 sailors, most of them Argentines, who had been stuck in Ghana for more than three weeks since the court detained their ship flew out aboard a chartered flight on Wednesday.
The group also included sailors from Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Venezuela. Argentina was forced to organise the evacuation after an Accra court upheld an order secured by NML, a Cayman Islands investment firm, which said it is owed $370 million (283 million euros) by Argentina.
NML, a subsidiary of New York-based Elliott Capital Management, bought Argentine bonds at a discount when the country's economy was in freefall in 2000. Buenos Aires later defaulted. Argentina has rescheduled and refinanced much of its debt, but bonds held by speculative funds are among its unsettled business.
Source: AFP
Source: I-Net Bridge
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