Moruroa, South Pacific, August 27, 1995 -- (GP) The Rainbow Warrior rendezvoused today with the Greenpeace yacht Vega and other vessels outside the 12-mile exclusion zone at Moruroa atoll today, as part of the nucleus of an international peace flotilla now gathering at France's nuclear test site .
The Rainbow Warrior met with the Vega 24 miles outside the exclusion zone at 9 a.m. local time (21 deg. 46 min. S, 139 deg. 30 min. W). The Danish vessel Bifrost and the New Zealand naval vessel Tui were already positioned outside the exclusion zone. The MV Greenpeace will join the flotilla early on the 28th local time and Greenpeace USA's charter vessel Manuatea is expected in early September.
The four Greenpeace vessels will be part of an international peace flotilla of between 30 - 50 vessels which will be arriving over the next few weeks to protest France's plans to resume nuclear testing at the atolls as early as next week.
President Chirac announced on June 13 that France would break a three year moratorium on nuclear testing to conduct eight tests between September 1995 and May next year.
More than 150 states and millions of people around the world have condemned France's plans to test in the South Pacific, Greenpeace's Stephanie Mills said from on board the SV Rainbow Warrior.
"The flotilla brings the strength of that protest to Moruroa. We are here to give a direct message to President Chirac that testing bombs to develop more and more deadly nuclear weapons is a dangerous act of nuclear proliferation and an outrage against the environment and people of the South Pacific," she said.
Greenpeace campaigner Xavier Pastor, on board the MV Greenpeace,
said Greenpeace would discuss with other vessels of the flotilla
a range of peaceful symbolic and direct actions over the next few
weeks aimed at stopping the testing programme and pressuring
France and the other nuclear weapon states to urgently agree a
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Further information:
Stephanie Mills or Jean-Luc Thierry on board the SV Rainbow Warrior +872 1300312 ($10 per minute)
Xavier Pastor or Pierre-Emmanuel Neurohr on board the MV Greenpeace +872 1300310 ($10 per minute)
Blair Palese, Greenpeace Communications, London +44 171 833 0600