MOD Raid GP Office

[The.Greenbase@gb.greenpeace.org]

MOD RAID GREENPEACE OFFICE

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                   GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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MOD RAID GREENPEACE OFFICE

London 17 May 1995, (GP) As police and Ministry of Defence
staff raided Greenpeace offices today, Greenpeace said that
the UK cannot make nuclear weapons without lying and hiding
behind the courts for protection.

The raid, involving about 50 police searching Greenpeace
files, was to gather evidence about recent actions taken
against the Aldermaston nuclear weapons factory and the
Trident submarine at Faslane.

"On the day we blocked the Aldermaston discharge pipe, the MOD
lied to the press and said we could not have been near it.
The truth was that we stopped weapons production for 12 days,"
said Peter Melchett, Greenpeace UK Executive Director.

He said that the MOD had always lied about its Trident
programme which was clearly in breach of the Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT).

"The MOD cannot make nuclear weapons without raiding
Greenpeace offices;  they cannot send their Trident nuclear
submarines to sea without hiding behind the courts; they can't
transport
plutonium for their weapons programme from Sellafield to
Aldermaston without getting court protection," said Melchett.

He noted that the raid came within days of the closure of the
NPT negotiations in New York.

"The MOD hadn't the nerve to raid us while the world's
attention was focused on the NPT."


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