Account by Alan Baker and Matthew Whiting, Greenpeace activists on Moruroa Atoll during the first French test.

3rd September 1995

00.05hrs: Dropped from the yacht La Ribaud approx 15 miles from the exclusion zone (30 miles from the atoll). Travelled in a zodiac inflatable towing two sea kayaks and carrying flares, cameras, telephones, navigation equipment and food and water for two days.

0240: Landed at the atoll and leaving the inflatable dragged the kayaks across the coral and launched them in the lagoon.

0400: After paddling for two hours they found bushes to camouflage themselves, the canoes and the equipment and hid. 0700: Helicopters circle the bushes close enough for the two to see the faces of the crew. Both then slept.

1810: Matt paddled toward the life zone with an arrangement for Al to set off distress flares in two hours time as a distraction tactic.

approx 2000: After paddling for a couple of hours Matt camouflaged the canoe on an unpopulated part of the island and began to walk towards the Life Zone. Al sets off first distress flare at campsite.

90KB GIF or 27KB JPG.Matthew Whiting under French police guard.

90KB GIF or 27KB JPG.Alan Baker in Kayak.

4th September, 1995

approx 0200: Al paddled toward test rig and set off a second flare 400 yards from the drilling rig. A patrol boat passed without seeing him.

approx 0400: After paddling across the lagoon Al set off a third distress flare. He continued to paddle towards the inhabited end of the atoll in choppy waters and surrounded by sharks.

approx 0200-0400: About 50 metres away from a military radio tower, Matt saw a number of people come out of the bushes. He ran towards the lagoon and began to swim towards the Life zone. He swam approx 1km before coming ashore near an industrial complex in the Life Zone where he walked amongst the buildings sticking NON stickers on buildings, posts, barrack doors and a telephone box outside the police station. Took photographs. Headed towards the airport taking photographs before heading back to where he had left the canoe.

On the way back he was spotted by French parachute marines and again attempted to hide by jumping into the water. He was grabbed by the wrists, thrown on to the ground and held at gunpoint. He was pinned down and his hands tied behind his back and to his ankles, so that his hands touched his ankles. They put a nylon cord round his neck and tied it to the rope holding his arms and feet, swinging him from side to side and dragging him along the ground. One of the soldiers smashed the butt of the gun against his elbow and then his knee cap before putting the muzzle to his forehead and threatening to kill him if he didn't tell where the other people were. He told them there was only one other. They also poked him in the back with covered bayonets, cutting his back.

Matt was picked up by the rope that was around his neck and thrown into the back of a white van. He was taken to the radio tower and handed over to the gendarmes. He was then taken to the gendarmerie station and treated at the infirmary for his wounds. He received four stitches to the elbow, iodine to the rope burns on his neck and his knee was x-rayed, showing a hairline fracture. He was then interrogated for several hours at the gendarmerie and at daylight was taken to a concrete cell.

0700: Concerned about radiation he may have been exposed to overnight on the atoll and the possibility of the test taking place, Al decided to hand himself in. He saw a helicopter fly over and then pass over again before spotting his canoe. The helicopter hovered over the canoe destabilising it; Al signalled to the helicopter to back off, fearing being tipped over. He then set off a fourth smoke flare and signalled the direction he was paddling. The helicopter followed. Three inflatables came towards the canoe, 1 with approx seven armed men and two other with approx three legionnaires in each. He paddled toward them signalling to slow down, then came alongside, reached out and climbed on board.

5th September, 1995

90KB GIF or 27KB JPG. 96KB GIF or 20KB JPG.

Click here for a video clip of the detonation as seen from the air above Moruroa
( 8 seconds of video with sound. WARNING! 1.4MB)

Both men were left in separate cells when the bomb was exploded while all other personnel were taken to a safety platform.

Matt: "I was lying on a mattress on top of a concrete bed and I literally raised off the mattress when the bomb went off. Imagine lying on a single bed with someone lying underneath and then kicking you sharply from under the mattress. There was a thunderous bang and then you could feel the shockwaves cruise through the land." Al: "I could hear over the intercom a countdown every ten minutes or so, I was waiting for them to come and get me and put me on the safety platform when the bomb went off. The place was deserted. I heard a siren and then the floor appeared to drop and then come up and then drop again. I heard a very loud muffled bang and at the same time I could hear the room settling down and the timber and concrete creaking back into place. I couldn't believe that they didn't come and get us so that we could be on the safety platform when the test went off."

After 48 hours both men were handed over the Foreign Legion because the gendarme could not hold them for any longer without charging them. They were held for a further two and a half days before being flown to Papeete and then escorted by a dozen riot police armed with pump action shot guns to the Papeete gendarmerie. They were searched and handcuffed and then taken before a judge who told them they were to be deported to Paris. They were then held in a garage for six hours with Matt's ankle cuffed to Al's hand. They were then handed over to the Tahitian national police who loaded them onto a commercial Air France flight. At Los Angeles they attempted to leave the plane but were again detained before being flown to Paris where they were met by French special branch and uniformed police officers who drove them to a twin-propped plane. They were flown to London City airport, arriving at approx 18.30 on 10th September, 1995.