From: Greenpeace vessel MV Solo tracking Pacific Pintail
Date: MON 3-APR-95 19:11:36 GMT - DAY 41, PART I

RAINBOW WARRIOR JOINS SOLO IN TRACKING NUCLEAR WASTE SHIP

The Pacific Pintail's position (0600 GMT) is 07 degrees 55 minutes south, and 133 degrees and 34 minutes west, and the ship's course is 319 degrees, sailing at a speed of 14 knots.

Yesterday the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior joined Solo in tracking the nuclear waste ship Pintail's passage through the Pacific Ocean. The Rainbow Warrior, on her way from Panama to Tahiti, previously formed the centre of Greenpeace's anti-plutonium campaign in the Caribbean. The Pacific Pintail avoided sailing through the Caribbean after dozens of countries voiced opposition against the passage of her radioactive cargo through their waters.

The Rainbow Warrior will continue to fight the threat of nuclear pollution in the Pacific posed by French nuclear testing, as well as the trans-shipment and disposal of radioactive waste.

The radioactive waste onboard of the Pintail has been generated in the course of the production of commercial plutonium for Japan in the French plutonium plant la Hague. Many experts regard this industry as one of the major proliferation threats since the produced plutonium can be directly used for nuclear weapons. While a halt is being negotiated to the production of plutonium for military purposes at the Geneva Conference on Disarmament, negotiations for a similar ban on the production of commercial plutonium are being blocked by France, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom.

France and the United Kingdom have not only been blocking progress on talks banning plutonium production, the two European countries have also impeded negotiations for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) -- a treaty which would ban all nuclear testing.

While France has participated in the current moratorium on nuclear testing, the country's Minister of Defense as well as its candidates for the May 1995 Presidential elections have stated the likeliness that France will resume nuclear testing in the Pacific.

Nuclear testing and plutonium production are likely to be substantiative topics of discussion during the April-May 1995 Extension Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in New York. The NPT conference will present the Pacific Island States with an opportunity to not only make known their views on nuclear pollution, but also to influence the choice our society will make on nuclear disarmament and the proliferation of nuclear weapons and materials.

The NPT divides our world into two classes of nations: those with nuclear weapons and those without, and then assigns different rights and obligations to these countries. This institutionalization of nuclear weapons under the NPT has moved the focus of foreign policy on security issues away from its global context to a national one. An indefinite extension of the NPT would protect the position the nuclear weapon states in the world-order and their ability to threaten global security with their nuclear forces.

The majority of the world would prefer a nuclear-weapon free world. The choice of our time is: Do we demand the complete elimination of all nuclear weapons or do we allow some nations to have nuclear weapons leaving others, who see the power they give a nation, to seek them.

The Nuclear Weapons States are seeking the indefinite, unconditional and unamended extension of this badly flawed, outdated treaty.

Greenpeace calls on all States to oppose an indefinite extension of the NPT, and to call for the immediate compliance by the nuclear weapons states of their (Article VI) obligations under the current Treaty. In addition, Greenpeace calls for negotiations to start on a global halt to the production and trade in civil plutonium.

For additional information on the Pacific Pintail's voyage or it's cargo of plutonium waste, contact Bas Bruyne on the Solo (phone: ++872-1301166--WARNING $10 PER MINUTE), or Karen Richardson at Greenpeace UK (phone: ++44-171-226-3151). Photo, video, or other media requests to Blair Palese at Greenpeace Communications (phone: ++44-171-833-0600).

Best regards and No Nukes!
Ulf Birgander (Captain)
Bas Bruyne (Campaigner)

NUCLEAR WASTE SHIP CONTINUES THROUGH PACIFIC AS HUNGER STRIKE BEGINS IN JAPAN

The Pacific Pintail's position (1900 GMT) is 05 degrees 35 minutes south, and 135 degrees and 32 minutes west, and the ship's course is 319 degrees, sailing at a speed of 14 knots.

We're continuing our journey through the Pacific in fair weather and good spirits. The Rainbow Warrior has departed to continue it's journey to Tahiti. In Japan, we've learned through Greenpeace staff there that a group of villagers began a hunger strike in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, on Monday in protest against the planned delivery of highly radioactive nuclear waste. Those living in Aomori Prefecture have become increasingly critical of their region being used as a nuclear waste dump by the nuclear industry We applaud their efforts and hope to join them in support as the Solo continues to track the nuclear waste ship into Japan.

In the Pacific, we've heard from Greenpeace there that there is growing concern about the shipment of nuclear waste through their waters and we know that in the US, Hawaii and Guam have made efforts to keep the ship from their waters. In Fiji, the Japanese embassy took out a full page advertisement extolling the virtues of their nuclear program as environmental to counter continuous criticism by the public and the media. We will hear more what's going on in the region politically in the next week.

For additional information on the Pacific Pintail's voyage or it's cargo of plutonium waste, contact Bas Bruyne on the Solo (phone: ++872-1301166--WARNING $10 PER MINUTE), or Karen Richardson at Greenpeace UK (phone: ++44-171-226-3151). Photo, video, or other media requests to Blair Palese at Greenpeace Communications (phone: ++44-171-833-0600).

Best regards and No Nukes!
Ulf Birgander (Captain)
Bas Bruyne (Campaigner)