http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/current/news/stories/nuclear.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
PAPEETE, Tahiti (Reuter) - Greenpeace's campaign to stop France resuming its nuclear tests in the South Pacific was scuttled Friday when French commandos took control of its two largest ships after activists raided Mururoa Atoll.
``It certainly does impair us from other action,'' Thomas Schultz, Greenpeace's campaign co-ordinator for international disarmament, said at a news conference in Papeete.
But as Greenpeace's protest stalled, anti-nuclear demonstrations on Tahiti heated up with roadblocks erected around the capital, Papeete, late Friday.
Unionists warned that the protests might not stay peaceful, as many people were angry at the detention of Tahiti's leading anti-nuclear activists, Oscar Temaru, onboard a Greenpeace ship.
``The arrest of Oscar Temaru is of great concern ... because there are many who are members of his Tavini Party and we would not be able to control them,'' Ronald Terorotua, deputy secretary-general of the A Tia I Mua labor union, told Reuters.
French officials would not comment on whether Temaru and others detained on the Greenpeace ships would be charged.
French commandos stormed aboard Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior II and MV Greenpeace ships from helicopters and inflatable dinghies around dawn as nine Greenpeace inflatable craft rushed toward Mururoa, France's main nuclear test site.
French authorities said they were pleased with the operation.
``The operation was conducted in good conditions, no violence, no tear gas, no one has been hurt,'' said French Polynesian High Commissioner Paul Ronciere.
French authorities Friday impounded both ships and will tow them to Hao Atoll, 375 miles north of Mururoa.
While French authorities refused to publicly label the operation a success, military officials were confident they had effectively stopped Greenpeace's protest.