Chrissie Hynde, lead singer of rock group the Pretenders, joined crew onboard Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow Warrior in Valencia harbour this afternoon, to demand that the Spanish government free the ship.
The Rainbow Warrior was impounded following a Greenpeace action at the port on 13th June to block the import of illegal and destructively logged timber from Cameroon's rainforests. The Spanish Government have ordered Greenpeace to post a bond of Euro 300,000 in order for the ship to be released.
Chrissie Hynde, whose band played in Valencia last night, read out the following statement on the ship, in English and Spanish,
'The Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior, is now under arrest here in Valencia. Globally, we lose an area of ancient forest twice the size of this city every day. Yet, the Spanish government is more interested in persecuting the protesters, than the companies importing illegally logged wood. STOP THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ANCIENT FORESTS! FREEDOM FOR THE RAINBOW WARRIOR!'
During the action Greenpeace activists chained themselves to cargo ship MV Honour, to prevent it entering Valencia Harbour with a cargo of illegal and destructively logged timber from Cameroon's rainforests. As a result of the protest the Captain of the Rainbow Warrior, Joel Stewart and four other activists have been ordered to pay a fine totalling Euro 630 and the Spanish authorities have opened a case against the Rainbow Warrior.
'Not since the French response to Greenpeace's protests against the nuclear tests in Muroroa, has Greenpeace seen this kind of repression,' said Joel Stewart. 'The Spanish Government should be going after the real criminals who are destroying the world's ancient forests and not challenging the democratic right of peaceful protest.'
Note:
In 1989 Chrissie Hynde donated a track and time to the Greenpeace double-album Breakthrough the first pop compilation album ever released in the Soviet Union. The proceeds from that record album provided the start-up investment in rubles to begin Greenpeace Russia. She travelled to Moscow for the launch in March of that year and was an inspiring and outspoken champion of Greenpeace and the need to preserve Russia's vast natural heritage.
