SOUTH PACIFIC: FRENCH SEIZURE OF RAINBOW WARRIOR UPDATE

Описание: (10 Jul 1995) English/Nat

Australia and New Zealand have condemned France for seizing the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior.

French commandos boarded the ship and used tear gas against the crew of environmental campaigners .

The French stormed the Greenpeace flagship after it entered an exclusion zone around Mururoa Atoll on a mission to stop France from resuming nuclear tests in the south Pacific.

As dawn broke over the Pacific the Rainbow Warrior sailed into the exclusion zone towards Mururoa in a bid to land anti-nuclear protestors on the atoll.

Armed French boats had been pursuing the Greenpeace boat for at least three days after it set sail from Papeete, Tahiti.

Three of them closed in on the ship as it neared the atoll.

As a helicopter hovered, three dinghies approached the ship.

One hour and 45 minutes after entering the exclusion zone about 150 commandos in black helmets and jumpsuits boarded the Rainbow Warrior II.

SOUNDBITE:

"They are going to use force to take control of the ship."
SUPER CAPTION: Captain Le Breton, La Tapageuse.

Greenpeace said they knocked out doors smashed windows and taking two dozen people off the vessel.

About 10 people among those taken off the ship were being held for questioning, French prosecutor Jean-Pierre Dreno said in Paris.

A Greenpeace spokesman in London, said the French allowed a skeleton crew to remain aboard the Rainbow Warrior II to bring it to Mururoa to pick up crew members being questioned by police. It would then be allowed to leave, he said.

The French government said no one was injured by Greenpeace said two people suffered the effects of tear gas. Greenpeace also said the naval frigate that had carried the commandos rammed the Rainbow Warrior II during the seizure.

SOUNDBITE:

"Really the way the commandos did it was the most efficient, quick and there was... well the tear gas is something which is not of course to be used immediately but they were obliged."
SUPER CAPTION: Admiral EU Verte, French Navy.

UPSOUND:

"The vessel has been taken into French control - while we were on the boat the commandos came on board in Zodiacs and they stormed the boat... They smashed through the windows and threw tear gas on board as well as ramming the boat."
SUPER CAPTION: Janet Gibson, Channel 9 Journalist.

SOUNDBITE:

"It was quite dramatic to say the least. I was in the wheel house and the armed commandos came on to the upper deck, realised they couldn't get into the wheel house it was locked. It was barred by welded iron bars and locks. It frustrated them quite clearly."
SUPER CAPTION: Roger Maynard, The Times.

The French action against Greenpeace has provoked a wave of international protest - particularly among Pacific nations.

But France seems as determined as ever to resume testing nuclear weapons at Mururoa Atoll.

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