Date: Wednesday 14th June. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION OF FRENCH TESTS WELCOMED BY GREENPEACE

On board the SV Rainbow Warrior, June 14 -- (GP) New Zealand and Australia's decision to freeze military cooperation with France in response to a resumption of French nuclear testing in the Pacific and growing international condemnation of the French decision was welcomed by Greenpeace today as a first step.

Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, the United States and the South Pacific Forum, representing the states of the Pacific region, have also expressed deep regret at President Chirac's decision to undertake eight tests at the atoll from September this year until May 1996.

Greenpeace's Stephanie Mills aboard the SV Rainbow Warrior said further diplomatic, economic and practical action should be taken to ensure President Chirac is left in no doubt about the political, environmental and ethical costs of the French decision.

"Urgent international action is now required to reverse President Chirac's decision," Mills said. "France has put at risk the future of the comprehensive test ban treaty and flouted its own commitments made at the Non-Proliferation Treaty talks. This decision is an arrogant slap in the face for non-nuclear nations, particularly in the Pacific, who have been calling for a test ban for more than 25 years."

Mills said a strong response particularly from the other nuclear weapon states (US, UK, Russia and China) and France's European neighbours was essential.

"President Clinton, who is meeting with French President Chirac today, must demand that the French not go forward with testing and that Chirac live up to his international agreements to end testing and work for nuclear disarmament," Mills said. Greenpeace in Washington, DC will hold a protest today in Lafayette Park near the White House where Chirac and Clinton are meeting. A protest is also being held at the French embassy in London this evening.

Greenpeace's flagship Rainbow Warrior is currently en route to Moruroa atoll with the aim of preventing tests resuming at the atoll.

"We have the support of millions of people around the world who want to see an end to nuclear testing forever, now. But we cannot succeed on our own. The international community must take responsibility now to persuade President Chirac he has made a costly mistake, or else see the historic opportunity to agree a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty slip through its fingers this year, and perhaps forever." ENDS

Contact: Stephanie Mills, Jean-Luc Thierry aboard the Rainbow Warrior +(00) 872 1300312

Blair Palese, Greenpeace Communications +44 171 833 0600

ANNEX: CHRONOLOGY OF OPPOSITION TO A RESUMPTION OF NUCLEAR TESTING IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC

-May 7: Jacques Chirac is elected President of France

-May 8: The South Pacific Forum, in a formal statement welcoming the election President Chirac, said France's relations with the region would be damaged if tests resumed. The New Zealand and Australian governments reiterate their opposition to a resumption of nuclear testing.

-May 9: Denmark, on behalf of the five Nordic countries, issued a statement at the NPT Review and Extension Conference, calling for a continued moratorium: "The negotiations on a comprehensive test-ban treaty should be concluded as soon as possible. Until that has been accomplished all nuclear-weapon States, including China, must refrain from nuclear testing." (NPT/CONF.1995/31

-May 12: Australia issues a formal statement welcoming the indefinite extension of the NPT and opposing French nuclear tests. Foreign Minister Gareth Evans said: "I repeat my appeal to the new French President to maintain the suspension of nuclear testing in the South Pacific..."

-May 22: French Prime Minister Alain Juppe tells Parliament that France would soon be in a position to decide if it needed to resume nuclear weapons tests.

-May 23: The Philippines President, Fidel Ramos, urges France to abandon any plans of resuming nuclear testing in the Pacific. He said in a statement the Philippines was deeply concerned with the issue of nuclear testing in the Pacific because of the environmental damage it caused and other hazards it posed to countries in the area. "The Philippines calls upon France to display the sense of global responsibility that it has shown on many other occasions, by not resuming nuclear testing in the Pacific," Ramos said. -June 6: France's Defence Minister Charles Millon welcomes a report by a military experts panel, headed by Admiral Lanxade, recommending a resumption of nuclear testing at Moruroa. The panel said up to ten tests would be 'politically palatable', and should occur as soon as possible.

-June 6: Greenpeace announces in Paris that it is sending its ship the Rainbow Warrior to Moruroa.

-June 7: The South Pacific Forum protests the suggestion that France will resume testing.

-June 7: The Director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, John Holum, said the US hoped France would not resume testing. "When the world is in the process of eliminating, dramatically reducing their nuclear weapons, no country really needs to be modernising and updating their nuclear capabilities." The Fiji Government sends a diplomatic note to the French ambassador to Fiji protesting any resumption.

-June 7: The Australian Federal Cabinet endorses a joint diplomatic offensive with New Zealand and other Pacific Island states to deter France from resuming. New Zealand's Prime Minister personally rebukes the French Ambassador to New Zealand over any resumption. The leader of the Labour opposition party calls for a suspension of joint military cooperation with France in the South Pacific.

-June 7: The Foreign Affairs Minister of Chile announces that the Chilean Government will make an official protest to France about any resumption of nuclear testing and would work with other Latin American Governments to prevent further tests.

-June 7: The secretariat of the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Movement, the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre, calls for an immediate suspension of France's South Pacific Forum Dialogue Partner status should French testing resume.

-June 9: Germany's opposition Social Democrat Party (SPD) calls on France not to resume nuclear testing, saying it would be a slap in the face for those countries which had accepted indefinite extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

-June 10: President Gaston Flosse of French Polynesia withdraws his long-time support for nuclear testing and says he opposes resumption of nuclear testing at Moruroa.

-June 10: Chile, Ecuador and Peru, meeting at a session of the Association of American States, issued a statement urging France not to resume tests at Moruroa atoll. The General Secretariat of the Permanent Commission for the South Pacific representing Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru announces its opposition to further testing in the Pacific.

-June 12: President Chirac presides over a meeting of the Conseil de Defense (Defence Council) during which a resumption of testing is agreed.

-June 13: President Chirac announces France will resume testing at Moruroa atoll. Eight tests will take place between September 1995 and May 1996, he says, before France agrees to a comprehensive test ban treaty. The Socialist opposition oppose the decision.

-June 14: Australia announces it is freezing all military cooperation with France at existing levels. New Zealand dismisses the French ambassador from a meeting with Foreign Minister Don McKinnon, and also freezes military cooperation and says it is not ruling out sending a NZ frigate to the test zone. Japan says it deeply regrets the decision and regards it as a betrayal; and Belgium officially condemns the decision to resume testing. The United States says it 'regrets' France's decision to resume testing.