GREENPEACE SHIP ARRIVES AT NAGASAKI AS FRANCE INDICATES IT IS READY TO SIGN CTBT:

commitment made at Moscow Nuclear Safety Summit.

NAGASAKI, June 27th, 1996:

The anti-nuclear campaign ship MV Greenpeace has arrived in the Japanese port city of Nagasaki, one of the two places on earth to have been deliberately attacked with nuclear weapons.

The ship's arrival coincides with the final days of talks in Geneva to negotiate a Comprehensive nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Greenpeace campaigners on-board the ship told a press conference that there is a threat that the treaty would never enter into force because of a refusal by the UK, China, Pakistan and Russia to compromise.

"The Russian, Pakistani, British, and Chinese delegates to the CTBT Conference in Geneva should come to Nagasaki to reflect upon the real purposes of nuclear weapons -- to kill, to eliminate human life," said Kazue Suzuki of Greenpeace Japan. "As a first step toward total nuclear disarmament, we must have a zero-yield nuclear test ban without delay", she said.

At the CTBT talks in Geneva today, France announced that it would be willing to adopt the Chairman's draft of the treaty, with some changes to the text relating to Entry into Force.

France is the first of the Nuclear Weapons States (NWS) to announce a willingness to adopt the treaty. Greenpeace is calling on the other NWS to follow suit and for Jacques Chirac to raise the issue at the G-7 meeting in Lyon.

"Jacques Chirac must convince John Major to make an urgent compromise on the UK's position on Entry into Force," Greenpeace Disarmament Campaigner Josh Handler said.

"The G-7 leaders must remember that they made a commitment to conclude and sign a CTBT by the end of 1996, just six weeks ago at the Moscow Nuclear Safety Summit. They need to act now so the CTBT can be finished by tomorrow.

The second session of the Conference on Disarmament closes tomorrow, June 28. For the CTBT to be ready for signing at the 51st UN General Assembly in September, it should be finished by the end of this negotiating session.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Josh Handler in Amsterdam on +31.20.523.62.67.;

or

Simon Carroll at the CTBT in Geneva on +41.21.728.52.25. or mobile +41.79.213.70.67.

or

Noriko Oyama/John Willis, onboard the MV Greenpeace 030 216 8214.