GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS FIRED AT WITH RUBBER BULLETS AND HELD IN JAIL

BARCELONA HARBOUR - DECEMBER 2ND 1996

  19.00 Action starts. Police were waiting with 2 speed-boats, inflatables and 2 helicopters trying to stop us putting people on the keyside. We were able to break through and 10 activists chained themselves wearing flags saying "X-GENETIC EXPERIMENT".

19.45 The soya-ship " Uniwersytet Jaiellonski " was taken back out of the harbour by the tug-boats. Police told us, that the soya-company didn't want any confrontation.

21.00 Police arrested the crew of the press-boat. Two inflatables managed to escape and hide. Police cut off the activists on the keyside and arrested them. The police were still searching for the remaining inflatables.

  00.00 The Soya-ship tried to come in again. We broke through and circled between the soya-ship and the keyside with our flags. The police got aggressive, driving at high speeds, and started shooting with rubber-bullets. One shot hit an inflatable driver in the head, he lost control of his boat for a second and collided with the police-speed-boat, after this the police inflatable rammed his boat. At least 10 shots were fired by police on board the cargo vessel and a police launch. Three Greenpeace activists received minor injuries from the rubber bullets.

The soya-ship was taken closer in, one speedboat was still between them and the keyside.

01.30 The soya-ship finally got on the keyside.

A total of 14 activists from Spain, France, Germany and the UK were arrested by Spanish police who have the power to detain them for 72 hours without charge.

  The Spanish action was the seventh in a series of actions (Hamburg, Antwerp, Ghent, New Orelans, Amsterdam, New Orleans, Liverpool and Barcelona) during the last three weeks against soya imports into Europe and exports from the United States.

"Spain and other European countries should not be providing a police escort for the controversial gene soya. EU countries should implement their rights to prevent the soya being imported into their territory," Greenpeace European Unit spokesperson Louise Gale said.


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