FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Off Moruroa atoll, Monday July 10, 1600 hours local time -- The Rainbow Warrior is making a rendezvous with the Greenpeace yacht Vega and the Danish vessel Bifrost today, 12 hours after being towed by the French Navy into international waters outside the Moruroa test site.
The Rainbow Warrior was boarded and towed into the Moruroa lagoon yesterday before she and her crew being released by French authorities.
Meanwhile, a Greenpeace inflatable with three crew on board remains undetected in the vicinity of the test site. Greenpeace's Stephanie Mills, on board the Rainbow Warrior, said Greenpeace would continue to scale up its protest as long as the French authorities continued to prepare for a resumption of nuclear testing at Moruroa. She said the inflatable crew would remain at the test site and was prepared stay around or go into the atoll to further disrupt preparations for testing there.
The three people aboard the inflatable are Henk Haazen (Netherlands), Chris Robinson (Australia) and honourary chairman of Greenpeace, David McTaggart (Canada). All are very experienced seafarers, equipped with full emergency and safety gear and able to communicate with Greenpeace.
The three sailing vessels will meet to discuss further plans for protest against French nuclear testing in the South Pacific and to re-supply the Bifrost which has been at sea since leaving the Cook Islands on June 29. They will also celebrate the 39th birthday of Steve Sawyer, currently on board the Vega. Steve was celebrating his 29th birthday on July 10 1985, when the first Rainbow Warrior was bombed by French secret service agents in Auckland harbour, killing photographer Fernando Pereira.
Also aboard the Vega is Manuel Miroglio (France) and Jean-Marc
van Chinh (France).
Further information: Stephanie Mills, Jean-Luc Thierry, on board SV Rainbow Warrior +872 1300312
Blair Palese, Cindy Baxter, Greenpeace Communications: +44171- 833-0600