Press release - February 1, 2003
20 police officers storm the Rainbow Warrior tonight even though the Secretary of State had failed to obtain a High Court junction excluding the Rainbow Warrior from the waters around the Southampton Military base.
Ministry of Defense officials tonight arrested the Greepeace
flagship the Rainbow Warrior after a six-day anti-war protest in
the UK. Up to twenty police boarded the vessel at just after
10:00pm local time. A further six Ministry of Defense and police
boats, as well as a Royal Navy tugboat, are surrounding the Rainbow
Warrior. Despite an interim high court ruling on Friday evening
which denied a request by the Secretary of State for Defense to ban
the Rainbow Warrior from the area, the Defense Department tonight
directed the forced removal of the Greenpeace vessel from
Southhampton docks until further notice.
"GP has acted completely peacefully during the course of this
anti-war protest and is advised that the Secretary of State
direction is unlawful and an abuse of power," said William Peden of
Greenpeace. "We believe the government is acting beyond its
jurisdiction by going against the due process of law. Not content
to breach international law by pursuing an illegitimate war in
Iraq, they are now disregarding their own domestic courts."
"We will continue to oppose this needless war that will cost
thousands of lives and will not in succeed in removing the threat
of weapons of mass destruction," said Peden.
Greenpeace successfully protested the departure of commandeered
military supply vessels from the UK to the Gulf in the last six
days. Greenpeace has campaigned for more than thirty years against
weapons of mass destruction and believes the only truly secure way
of removing the threat they pose is for all states that possess
them--including the US and the UK--to disarm.