INDIAN AUTHORITIES PUT RAINBOW WARRIOR's MUMBAI PROGRAMMES IN JEOPARDY; THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS DISAPPOINTED.

Mumbai, 1 December, 2003: Activists, crew and volunteers aboard Rainbow Warrior may not be able to participate in the 'Global Day of Action against Corporate Crime on 3rd December, 2003 to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the Bhopal
disaster in Mumbai as announced.

Rainbow Warrior was scheduled to dock at Mumbai port on 28th November 2003 to a grand welcome, and open days with over 3000 school children expected to visit her for education in marine ecology on 29th and 30th November.

The Customs authorities have rescinded their earlier order of 28/11/03 to allow er to enter Mumbai port, subject to clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Shipping, Mumbai Port Trust and Coast Guards and have issued a fresh order dated 1/12/03 compliance of which will take over three days.

The ship, with volunteers and crew from USA, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Lebanon, Ghana, India, Australia and New Zealand, has been at sea for over 25 days and her supplies of water and food are down to minimum. The
situation is serious and may spark an international incident if the ship is not allowed to dock immediately.

The ship's woes began when it exposed a scandal involving a UK shipping company exporting an end-of-life vessel "Genova bridge" to Alang in violation of Basel Convention and Supreme Court directives. The Gujarat Pollution Control Board that subsequently re-inspected the ship, filed a report acknowledging that the ship indeed had asbestos and other hazardous waste inherent in the ship's structure. The Coast Guards asked the ship to leave Alang port limits on a complaint from Gujarat Maritime Board, the authority governing the ship- breaking yards. The ship complied with the Coast Guards order and moved to International waters. All the ship's master's efforts to engage an agent to complete the ships entry formalities into Alang port over two weeks were stone- walled.

"The utter disregard of Rainbow Warrior's role in exposing an international crime, shown by the Indian authorities reeks of pressure from vested interests, most likely ship breakers who want to continue their dirty ship-recycling practices and would much rather allow countries like UK to dump their toxic waste on India. The fact remains that our present predicament arises because no agent was willing to represent us in Alang/Bhavnagar following pressure from ship breaking industry," said Shailendra Yashwant, Campaigns Director, Greenpeace India. " We will continue with our efforts to cooperate with the authorities to get the necessary permissions meanwhile it is imperative that the ship be allowed to dock immediately on humanitarian grounds."

Rainbow Warrior, the globally recognized campaign ship of the international environmental watchdog, Greenpeace, has planned a series of joint programmes over two weeks in Mumbai with organizations like Bombay Natural History
Society, International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, Reef Watch, Kids for Tigers, Schools, Colleges and other NGO's, in an aim to raise awareness about environmental issues, corporate accountability and responsibility for a cleaner planet.

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