RNZ National Radio "Morning Report", 4 September.

Q: Why was the MVGP seized?

A: Yves Bourbillon, French PR at Moruroa: ........ this was done also because the helicopter made a couple of low `break ins' and the helicopter came from the MVGP and everything, helicopters, zodiacs, everything are considered as a whole in that case.

Q/MH: Given what the helicopter had done over the last week wasn't what happened over the weekend not inevitable? Don Rood (Radio New Zealand journalists on board the MV Greenpeace who remained on the ship till all but the skeleton crew were left).

DR: It was not perhaps inevitable, but that the French boarded outside (the zone) in international waters is another question entirely. The MVGP was three miles outside the 12 mile exclusion zone and steaming away from it when it was boarded.

MH: From the time when it was apparent that they were trying to take the ship to the time it was over, how long did all of that take.

DR: About twenty minutes I think, because the MVGP had all the doors locked - they smashed down a lot of the doors to get inside the ship to key areas like the radio room. They had all the doors sealed shut and a steel door put in place and that took about a quarter of an hour for them to bash their way through in there.

MH: It was the airborne side of things that was successful over the weekend and we saw the pictures of the zodiacs coming alongside the ship - it flipped - how close to a tragedy was that?

DR: I was standing right above the zodiac when it happened. The GP heaved up in the air - it was very rough waters. The zodiac got sucked underneath. The GP came down on top of it. It flipped. There were about six or seven commandos inside it. I only saw four heads come up afterwards and then the boat drifted astern. All French efforts then went on rescuing the people from the zodiac. I was told later when I questioned one of the French officers, he said that all the French people had been rescued and were safe.

MH: Once the French arrived, what sort of resistance was put up by GP?

DR: The GP members put up quite a bit of resistance, mostly passive. They blocked the entrance to the bridge. As the French made to fire tear gas they ripped the masks off their (the commandos) faces and threw them overboard. I think that was what eventually thwarted any major use of tear gas - the fact that all their gas masks had gone by that stage. Anything that the French put down on deck, even momentarily, packs, anything, were just thrown overboard. There was quite a bit of stuff jettisoned that way. There were some violent scuffles and I followed one French officer around as he moved around the front of the bridge with a baton as he tried to smash his way through the window there. That proved unsuccessful, because it was toughened glass.

75KB GIF or 22KB JPG. French commandos board Mv Greenpeace ©Greenpeace/Beltra

MH: You were observing while all this was going on?

75KB GIF or 22KB JPG. French commandos board Mv Greenpeace ©Greenpeace/Beltra

MH: You were observing while all this was going on?

DR: I was observing - I was just following around. They left me alone. They did not touch me until right at the end when orders were given to put everyone below decks. I moved to the back of the boat so I could see what was happening. I watched the GP crew hustled below decks. They then turned to the media. There was a Spanish photographer, a British film cameraman and myself and we were grabbed and hustled - I broke away again and got back to watch as they pushed the others downstairs. They then came for me. Forced me through the broken door and used their batons to persuade me to go downstairs.

MH: So initially when the French came on board you were able to identify yourself as a journalist? Or they knew this already?

DR: Well I was standing there with my tape recorder over my shoulder and I had the mike in my hand with RNZ plastered all over it. So it was clear who I was a journalist.

MH: There have been plenty of reports over the weekend of rough treatment bordering on violence. What can you tell us of this?

DR: I don't think it bordered on violence - I think it was violence. I saw, especially yesterday, when the French legionnaires were called in to split the crew up into a skeleton crew to take the GP to Hau and the rest who were going to be deported. GP members resisted this. They staged a sit in. The legionnaires were called in. They poured down the stairs and they grabbed anyone they could find. I saw one man being kicked and carried away with a legionnaire kicking him in the head. I saw others being punched. There was a former French soldier there, who was singled out for special attention. He was leapt on by two or three of the French commandos and legionnaires and he was punched around the head. He actually broke away and karate kicked one of them in the back. That, of course, enraged them and was very roughly handled as he was pulled up the stairs. I saw people being dragged up the stairs - their heads banging on the stair as they went up. Later on when I was hustled out, they had to pass the message up that this was a journalist coming through - so I'm not quite sure what that meant.