Toxic waste 'dumped' in Golan

Syria wants all the Golan Heights back before peace

Syrian students have staged a protest in Damascus over what they say is the dumping by Israel of toxic waste on the occupied Golan Heights.

Israel does not transfer any type of waste to the Golan Heights

Israeli Environment Ministry

Calling for international help, they urged the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to send a mission to investigate.

A spokesman for the protesters, Medhat Saleh, said barrels of paint, containing poisonous substances which could cause cancer or gene deficiencies, had been discovered near five Syrian villages on the Golan.

Private deal

The Israeli Environment Ministry denied the allegation. It said in a statement that Israel did not dump any kind of waste on the Golan Heights.

But it added that a Golan resident, in a private deal, did store an amount of paint whose sell-by date had expired, in a Druze Arab village in the area called Majdal Shams.

The ministry said that immediately after learning of the deal, the Environment Ministry took action to remove the paint and began legal moves against those involved.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.

Peace talks with Syria faltered a year ago over the future of the strategic plateau, which Damascus wants to reclaim in its entirety.