French Seize Greenpeace Boat, Hold Test

French marine commandos seized a Greenpeace protest yacht Thursday near a prohibited zone around France’s nuclear test site in the South Pacific, and three hours later, the French conducted an underground nuclear test.

The government gave no details about the test, code-named Hero, except to say it was a success. French news reports said the device was believed to be France’s first neutron bomb.

Premier Laurent Fabius headed a top-level official delegation in Mururoa to witness the blast and demonstrate France’s resolve to continue the testing despite stiff opposition from regional governments and ecologists.

Adm. Rene Hugues, commmander of the French Pacific fleet, said that the 13-meter yacht Vega crossed a 12-mile territorial limit around the atoll at dawn despite repeated warnings from a French naval tug that had been shadowing it.

Hugues said eight commandos left the tug in a high-speed dinghy and boarded the yacht when it was 10 miles from Mururoa. The four people on board the Vega were arrested and the vessel was taken in tow to a position about four miles from the atoll, where it was kept until after the test.

Offered No Resistance

Hugues said the four offered no resistance. The admiral said that French officers had intercepted radio messages during the night between the Vega and an accompanying yacht, the Varangian, in which the Vega’s crew said they would try to get to within eight miles of Mururoa if possible.

In London, a Greenpeace spokesman said the protesters had decided to sail directly to the nuclear site after receiving information that France was conducting a test within 24 hours.

The Vega is a veteran of three previous Mururoa protest vigils. Vega skipper Chris Robinson said by radio before his vessel was seized:

“We urgently appeal to France to cancel the test. We are fully aware of the risks we face, but the threat to the future of the people of the Pacific, posed by the release of radioactivity, is far greater.”

The bombing and sinking of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior by French agents in Auckland, New Zealand, on July 10, focused worldwide attention on the tests.

The sinking incensed South Pacific nations, particularly New Zealand and Australia, and heightened opposition to the French nuclear tests. Two French agents were arrested by New Zealand police two days after the ship was bombed and are to face trial in November.