KIRCHNER BREAKS SILENCE ON PAPER MILL CONTROVERSY

", 54900,3/1/2006 21:00,06BUENOSAIRES486,Embassy Buenos Aires"",CONFIDENTIAL,06BUENOSAIRES451,""VZCZCXYZ0008" RR RUEHWEB DE RUEHBU #0486 0602100 ZNY CCCCC ZZH R 012100Z MAR 06 FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3656 INFO RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 5382 RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 5170 RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0851 RUEHHE/AMEMBASSY HELSINKI 0042 RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ MAR LIMA 1784 RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 1656 RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 5362 RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 4981 ,C O N F I D E N T I A L BUENOS AIRES 000486 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/02/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV SENV SOCI EAGR AR UY SUBJECT: KIRCHNER BREAKS SILENCE ON PAPER MILL CONTROVERSY REF: A. BUENOS AIRES 451 ¶B. BUENOS AIRES 407 ¶C. MONTEVIDEO 155 ¶D. MONTEVIDEO 149 Classified By: Ambassador Lino Gutierrez for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (U) During his annual address to Congress on March 1 (SEPTEL),President Nestor Kirchner made his first public remarks regarding the controversial paper mills under construction in Uruguay (REFTELS). In his remarks Kirchner appealed directly to Uruguayan President Tabare Vasquez to, stop the paper mill construction for only 90 days while the best environmentalists in the world study the project"" and to seek an immediate solution to the problem."" Kirchner's request was met with enthusiastic applause in the Congressional Chamber which held nearly every prominent figure in the GOA. ¶2. (C) COMMENT: While the paper mill dispute has been front page news for weeks, Kirchner until now had left it to others, such as Foreign Minister Taiana, to press the Argentine case. However, in a measure of the seriousness with which the GOA is taking this dispute, an EU diplomat (protect) told the Ambassador on March 1 that Deputy Foreign Minister Garcia Moritan had told the Finnish Ambassador in Argentina (who is also accreditied to Uruguay) that the GOA was prepared to break off diplomatic relations with Finland if construction of the plants continued. END COMMENT GUTIERREZ