Friday, 20 September 2013 - 02:17
Russians aboard Greenpeace ship
Greenpeace re-established contact with the Arctic Sunrise and reports their ship that has been taken over by the Russian coastguard, south from Nova Zembla. Among the crew are two Dutch activists.Despite a poor connection, a crew member managed to Twitter the coastguard gathered the crew has the dining room.
At the end of the afternoon eight armed coastguard officers boarded the ship. They climbed down ropes from a helicopter. After they entered the ship part of the crew was brought on deck where they had to kneel and were held at gunpoint.
Arctic sunrise,
Wikimedia commons,
Mz At 17.20 some of the crew still had themselves barricaded in the ship. They twittered the situation was terrifying. Hard banging. Shouting in Russian. Coastguard trying to kick in the door. The attack reportedly took place in international waters and came as a surprise to Greenpeace. After the arrest of two activists yesterday on a drilling platform of energy giant Gazprom, the activists withdrew and remained calm, said spokesperson Jorien Blank in the Radio 1 Journaal. The Arctic Sunrise sails under Dutch flag and had two Dutch on board. Greenpeace counts on Timmermans, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to do everything in his power to free all detainees. Greenpeace wants to prevent Gazprom from drilling for oil in the Pestjora Sea, south of Nova Zembla. The environmental activist group is afraid that it'll lead to an environmental disaster. Crew of the Arctic Sunrise managed to board a Gazprom drilling platform yesterday. They were picked up by Russian customs. According to Greenpeace, the Russians fired warning shots.
Wikimedia commons,
Mz At 17.20 some of the crew still had themselves barricaded in the ship. They twittered the situation was terrifying. Hard banging. Shouting in Russian. Coastguard trying to kick in the door. The attack reportedly took place in international waters and came as a surprise to Greenpeace. After the arrest of two activists yesterday on a drilling platform of energy giant Gazprom, the activists withdrew and remained calm, said spokesperson Jorien Blank in the Radio 1 Journaal. The Arctic Sunrise sails under Dutch flag and had two Dutch on board. Greenpeace counts on Timmermans, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to do everything in his power to free all detainees. Greenpeace wants to prevent Gazprom from drilling for oil in the Pestjora Sea, south of Nova Zembla. The environmental activist group is afraid that it'll lead to an environmental disaster. Crew of the Arctic Sunrise managed to board a Gazprom drilling platform yesterday. They were picked up by Russian customs. According to Greenpeace, the Russians fired warning shots.
