From: Greenpeace Vessel SV Rainbow Warrior
Date: Thursday 24th August 1995
Subject:Diary update

In a dusty park, under some huge shady fig trees, right in the centre of Papeete you can find the Tahiti Peace Village. Three traditional houses, built of local materials -- coconut woven matting and palms -- stand in the space between the local Territorial Assembly building and the French High Commission, challenging the legitimacy of these institutions in the most peaceful way possible. Lines of brightly coloured red, yellow and black flags flutter in the breeze, and anti-nuclear slogans fall from the boughs from which they are hung. The Peace Village has been manned day and night since July 3rd, when it was established after a three day blockade of Papeete. The group who has maintained this vigil is the local organisation Hiti Tau, an environmental and anti nuclear group.

The crew -- those allowed off the boat who don't have exclusion orders banning them from setting foot on French Polynesian soil - - were invited to the Peace Village for a ceremony on Wednesday afternoon: a huge pile of fruit and vegetables was laid out on banana leaves and in baskets woven from cocnut palms. This was the produce of the hands and gardens of the Maohi people of Tahiti-Polynesia, and was presented to us, along with bunches of sacred alpi leaves, to feed us and protect us on our journey. A representative of Hiti Tau has joined us on the ship too, an illustration of our shared task: to stop this nuclear testing once and for all. Alice (Richard) Leney.

From: From Stephanie Mills aboard Greenpeace Vessel SV Rainbow Warrior
DateThursday 24th August 1995
Subject: Campaign update

The Rainbow Warrior left Papeete at 2pm local time this afternoon and is proceeding south-east from Tahiti towards Moruroa. Our ETA off the 12 mile zone is late Saturday August 27 local time.

76KB GIF or 25KB JPG. ©Greenpeace/Morgan

We have 37 people on board, including 10 journalists, five of whom will be transferred to the MV Greenpeace when we rendezvous with them on the 27th. Our communications systems are therefore very overloaded, so please bear with us if you have trouble calling in to the ship.

77KB GIF or 24KB JPG. ©Greenpeace/Morgan

The crew include Roger Teaotea of Hiti Tau, an anti-nuclear group in Tahiti and Joseph Bove of the Larzac farming region, who has been active in successfully opposing French military plans to establish a missile test base in the region over the past decade. His group has been visiting Tahiti in solidarity with the people of Polynesia who are trying to get rid of nuclear testing on their soil.

The French military have been reported as saying that they will not permit Greenpeace vessels to even cross the 12 mile zone, let alone enter the lagoon at Moruroa. Some journalists are being flown to Moruroa this weekend but on the understanding that they will leave the atoll before a test takes place. There are many conflicting rumours about when the first test will occur. In the meantime, the large demonstration planned for Saturday (August 26) by the Eglise Evangelique (Protestant Church) and other groups will coincide with the visit by the Minister of Overseas Territories, M. Perretti to Tahiti to attend the closing ceremonies of the South Pacific Games.