French troops storm Greenpeace ship

MARYANN BIRD

French naval commandos, lobbing tear-gas, stormed the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior II early yesterday inside a 12-mile military exclusion zone around Mururoa atoll, the French nuclear testing site in the south Pacific.

Maritime safety authorities in New Zealand said they received a mayday message from the protest ship, saying it was being rammed. Eight minutes later, the Rainbow Warrior reported "gas in the radio room''.

The New Zealand government last night summoned the French ambassador to seek an explanation for the use of the gas. "It appears that the French have gone totally over the top,'' a spokeswoman in Wellington said, "bearing in mind that these were 30 unarmed protesters.''

In a dramatic live interview on French television just before communications were cut, Jean-Luc Thierry, a Greenpeace activist, reported: "I am in the radio room. The commandos are trying to open this door. They are now trying to get through the porthole, a ladder has been dropped down. There has already been violence."

He added: "If I am alone in this radio room it is because we were all gassed and I had no time to get myself up on to the bridge with my two comrades."

Mr Thierry said the crew had locked their cabin doors and windows to slow the commandos' advance. "They are trying to enter by a porthole," he said. "I see a man with a black mask trying to get in. I think it's going to happen pretty fast."

French officials in Tahiti confirmed "several'' tear-gas grenades had been used, but said no one on the ship was hurt. The crew, however, may be charged with offences under merchant-marine laws and could face fines and six months in jail.

Two hours before the ship was boarded, the Rainbow Warrior and four of its inflatable dinghies entered the forbidden zone to protest at French plans to resume underground nuclear testing at the atoll in September. The ship was boarded at 6.40am local time (1640 GMT). The navy was authorised to fire on any vessel that got within 12 miles of Mururoa.

The Rainbow Warrior entered the exclusion zone at about 5am, a Greenpeace spokeswoman said, and the navy ''simply announced that we didn't have the right to enter and that they would apply the law''. On board the ship, Stephanie Mills of Greenpeace said earlier: ''We are prepared to risk the force of the French military if we can stop the greater danger of nuclear testing at Mururoa and Fangataufa," a nearby atoll.

The Rainbow Warrior and two companion vessels, the Vega and the Bifrost, sought to reach the atoll, 650 miles east of Tahiti, by today to mark the 10th anniversary of France's sinking of the original Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour. The ship had been on a similar mission when French agents mined the vessel, killing a photographer.

Photograph, page 9