GREENPEACE SENDS 10 SMALL BOATS INTO 12-MILE EXCLUSION ZONE AS FRENCH PREPARE TO CARRY OUT FIRST NUCLEAR TEST MORUROA

5:12 a.m., Moruroa, South Pacific, 1 September, 1995 -- (GP) Greenpeace has sent 10 inflatable boats and a helicopter into the 12- mile exclusion zone around the Moruroa test site in order to prevent imminent French nuclear testing.

The dozens of activists will attempt to enter the Moruroa atoll lagoon and occupy the equipment used for nuclear testing. At the time of release, the MV Greenpeace and Rainbow Warrior remained outside the 12-mile exclusion zone.

Greenpeace ships were warned by French authorities not to enter the exclusion zone.

"The last and only resort we have is to peacefully bear witness at the test site, and to do whatever it takes within our means to try and prevent the first of a series of French nuclear tests," Greenpeace's Stephanie Mills said from on board the Rainbow Warrior. "We can do no more and no less when President Chirac has remained deaf to the world's plea not to test at Moruroa."

Mills said nearly 5 million signatures had been collected to present to President Chirac today, in spite of a ban by the French authorities on a public demonstration in Paris. Around 160 governments have formally condemned French testing, and a peace flotilla of more than 30 vessels is gathering at the test site.

"Whether in Moruroa, Tahiti or in Paris, the international community's opposition to nuclear testing and its call for an urgent comprehensive test ban treaty cannot be silenced by frigates, helicopters, commandos or bans," she said. "France can defend its resumption of nuclear testing only by brute force. It has lost all moral and political credibility by breaking the moratorium on nuclear testing; by going ahead with tests now France will become a pariah of the international community."

Greenpeace has been campaigning to end nuclear testing for 24 years. The organization's maiden voyage in 1971 was undertaken to attempt to prevent US atmospheric testing at Amchitka off the coast of Canada.

Greenpeace has called for peaceful international protests around the world should France undertake the first in a series of nuclear tests.*

Contact: Stephanie Mills or Pierre-Emmanauel Neurohr on board the SV Rainbow Warrior: +872 1300312;

Xavier Pastor or Jean-Luc Thierry on board the MV Greenpeace: +872 1300310;

Thomas Schultz, Greenpeace International, Tahiti: +689 770 613;

Blair Palese, Greenpeace Communications: +44 171 833 0600

Note to Editor:

Greenpeace Executive Director Steve D'Esposito has issued a plea for all protests taking place in the event of French testing to be peaceful. For a copy of the statement, please contact the numbers above.