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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

France Grabs 3rd Ship Protesting Nuke Tests

Philip Shenon New York Times

The French Navy on Sunday captured a third protest ship in the waters off the Polynesian atoll where French scientists are making final preparations for a series of nuclear tests that have drawn worldwide condemnation.

The seizure of the small, French-registered sailboat came two days after French Navy commandos stormed aboard a pair of larger ships owned by the environmental group Greenpeace, which is saying that its protests last week off the test site at Mururoa Atoll have forced the French to delay the tests.

French military spokesmen said that the sailboat, the Kidu, and its crew of two were seized by commandos Sunday morning after the boat entered the 12-mile exclusion zone around Mururoa.

Lt. Col. Yves Bourboulon, a spokesman in Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, said that the Kidu pierced the exclusion zone three times and was warned away before the commandos arrested the crew. “The fourth time, we decided this was enough,” said Bourboulon.

While the French Navy has insisted that the actions of a 25-vessel protest flotilla around Mururoa have not delayed the testing, news reports in France have suggested that the first test was supposed to have been carried out before dawn Friday.

It was early Friday that the lead Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior II, taunted the navy by entering the zone, and that two Greenpeace divers managed to reach the atoll aboard inflatable dinghies.

The French government plans to end a three-year moratorium on nuclear testing in French Polynesia and carry out seven or eight tests from September through May before renouncing nuclear testing. France has said that it intends to sign a global comprehensive test-ban treaty next year.

The two Greenpeace vessels remain under the control of the French Navy and are reportedly being towed away from Mururoa.

Another Greenpeace ship, the Manutea, joined the protest flotilla off Mururoa last week.

On Saturday, an estimated 3,000 protesters, led by dozens of foreign officials, gathered in the streets of Papeete to demand that France cancel the nuclear tests.

“We are approaching the close of the 20th century and nuclear testing is about to be resumed in this beautiful area of the South Pacific,” said Japanese Finance Minister Masayoshi Takemura. “I think this is nothing but a terror for us.”