Read all weblog entries of November
Read all weblog entries of December
Greenpeace continues working on shipbreaking. Read all about our work on the special shipbreaking site!
This morning we paid another visit to the immigration police, but they were still unwilling to change the order. So we still can not disembark. So with sadness in our hearts we have decided to sail to Colombo, Sri Lanka. We could wait until this is sorted out (as it probably will be) but this may take a few more weeks and the Rainbow Warrior needs to be in Singapore in the beginning of January. We and the campaign team from India are clear that our leaving doesn't mean we will stop working on our campaign. To clarify this we put a banner on our stern saying: "We will be back".
Before we left we held a press conference on board. The purpose of this was to clarify our position on the shipbreaking campaign and also to explain why we were leaving. We are committed to continue our work on this campaign. We have an excellent team in India, so the story will continue. Despite all the paperwork and the waiting our campaign has been quite successful. The fact that the authorities have reacted so strongly shows that the campaign work we have been doing had an impact. There was a huge amount of media, most centered on the campaign rather than our paperwork situation and the debate about shipbreaking has entered the national media for the first time in a long while. We have interacted with many ministries and political players on this issue and will hopefully continue this in the following months.
After the press conference we had to say good- bye to the Indian team. We have had some intense weeks together so it is sad to say farewell. It was great working with such an international team. We had a final meeting in the mess room with everyone. Unfortunately the new crew waiting to get on board couldn't embark, so they will have to fly to Sri Lanka and meet us there next week. Around four o'clock we were ready for departure. A final good-bye and there off we went. On our way to Sri Lanka. Thanks everybody! We will keep up the good work! See you next year? We will be back!
Early in the morning the German consul visited us. Later that day the Australian consul paid us a visit. We will have to see if they can help us. We have set ourselves a dead-line. If tomorrow nothing has changed we will leave Bombay. We have been waiting for such a long time now and we have 14 people who are hoping to get home before Christmas. Everybody seems to talk with everybody but so far without any success.
Today was the first time I set foot on land after a long time. It has now been exactly one month since we left Bombay the first time. It felt strange, I even got a little bit dizzy. The reason I got on land was to take a picture of the banner between the masts. The banner reads: "Greenpeace - Persecuted for Exposing Corporate Crime". Below the banner we also hung all the flags from all nationalities on board. Beside me there were of course a number of people watching us. It almost feels that we are monkeys in a zoo, trapped in their living environment.
We finally got fresh supplies on board, so finally we have fruit and vegetables again! Everybody is very happy about that. But it still feels strange that we're not allowed off the ship. Some of us have contacted our consuls. The latest we heard is that all consuls got together to discuss our issue. They planned on talking to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. So that's good news. Hopefully this and all people who send faxes to the Ministers will help. Most of the crew also got response from family and friends. So I would like to thank everybody who's trying to help us. Keep your fingers crossed!
While we are not allowed to leave the ship, we continue with our work. We get a lot of visitors, like school children, volunteers, journalists, supporters and friends of Greenpeace and various officials. We show them around the ship, tell them about our work and about the situation we're in right now. Everybody seems excited to be visiting the ship.
Our place in the port is a very public place. So we decided to make a banner. We agreed quickly about what it should say: "Persecuted for Exposing Environmental Crime". We want to explain to people why we're stuck here, that we're not the bad guys, we're here to help. Whatever we do on the ship, we always have an audience. This can feel a bit weird. Sometimes we have an audience consisting of more than twenty people and the only thing they do is stare at us. So when we made the banner, we had a huge audience to perform for.
We're all under house arrest in Bombay. Although the Rainbow Warrior has been finally allowed to dock at the port after having been detained outside Bombay anchorage for 6 days, we (the crew) are not being allowed to disembark. It's strange that we're so close to India, but we cannot enter the country. We have guards standing at our gangway and policemen are standing ashore to see who enters and leaves the ship.
We made a letter to send to four Ministers in India. They have the power to let us in. We need all the help we can get! So if you want to help us out, you can download this letter and fax it to one of the Ministers, or to all. The more letters they receive the better. Download the letter here! Thanks for your help! I will keep everyone updated.
Early in the morning I woke up to see the last sunrise at sea. It was strange to see Bombay lying at our feet. It felt strange to see land again. We've been at sea for three and a half weeks now. We all were excited to enter the harbour. At the same time we all would miss the beauty of the sea. Around nine we started our engines and headed for Bombay.
We heard music playing. As we came closer we saw a hug crowd with banners saying: "Welcome back", "You can't sink a rainbow" and "Victory for Greenpeace". And a band was playing. It was great to see that people were awaiting us to come back and that our work is being appreciated. All crew were smiling and it gave us a good and strong feeling. We made it back and we would continue our work. When we came ashore we all got flowers. We still weren't allowed off the ship, because we had to clear immigration.
That afternoon a lot of people came to visit us. Finally we got together with our landteam, who all had worked real hard to get us back. Now we could give all formal papers customs needed, so we could close that chapter. The last thing we needed to sort out was immigration. Later we got the news that we weren't allowed of the ship. All the names of the non-Indian crew on board the Rainbow Warrior were written down on a piece of paper with the order to stay on board. Without giving a reason why! So now we're stuck here! People all around us, but we have to stay on board.
Today should be the day to get into harbour. But the last week we've said that every day to each other. All day long we were waiting for the call to come. We kept on working. At night we enjoyed the sunset, it was beautiful. Around ten o'clock at night we got a call that we should prepare for departure! We couldn't believe it.
Everybody jumped up. It seemed that our agent wasn't pushing our situation very strongly with the customs authorities. Now Shai and Vinod, our special agents, arranged our clearance themselves! They talked directly to customs and it was no problem for us to get in. Around eleven we sailed to Bombay. It would take us 3,5 hours to get there. Because we would go at anchor and not directly on land, most of the people went to bed. Tomorrow will be a busy day!
Nothing much happened today. I mean, we're still at the same place in the Arabian Ocean. Tomorrow our lawyer and our agent fly to Bahvnägar to get the paperwork done with customs. So hopefully we are able to enter Bombay tomorrow.
Maybe it's getting boring to say this, but we're still at sea. Still waiting. The water is still running out, so hopefully we'll get a water barge today. We need water to survive: to drink, to cook, to clean. And I can tell you this, a shower would be a good idea for everybody on board. But despite all this, we keep it up. Injustice is being done here and we have to fight this. We are inspired by the survivors of Bhopal who have been fighting for justice for nineteen long years.
Because the chance was very high that we were not able to join the 'Global Day of Action against Corporate Crime', we started thinking of a way how we could participate anyhow. We created a banner saying 'Remember Bhopal'. Besides that we collected all the flags of the different nationalities on board, saying we support the survivors of Bhopal. People from everywhere are remembering the horrible night nineteen years ago and justice should be done. The whole crew of the Rainbow Warrior was standing behind this message.
That afternoon we got a confirmation that a water barge was heading our way. Finally some good news! They would arrive between seven and eight o'clock at night. This would probably mean they would be here much later - which is what happened. Around eleven the barge showed up. We were all very excited. This would give us some rest, more energy to face the situation we are in right now. If the survivors of Bhopal can keep up the fight even after nineteen years, we should take an example from that. The crew from the Rainbow Warrior is in spirit with the people from Bhopal.
Again another day at sea. There's still no progress to get us back into the Bombay harbour. Yesterday the Indian Greenpeace office sent out a press release to the media, saying that the Indian authorities have put the Rainbow Warrior's Bombay programs in jeopardy.
We already have had to disappoint 3000 school children who would have visited us last weekend for environmental education. And now we're probably not able to participate in the 'Global Day of Action against Corporate Crime' on the 3rd of December 2003 to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster in Bombay as announced.
Let me explain something what happened nineteen years ago. During the night of the 2nd to the 3rd of December 1984 thousands of people were killed in Bhopal due to a toxic gas spill caused by the chemical factory Union Carbide. Still thousands are suffering. People are still living in this poisoned area and are surrounded by toxic chemicals. In 2000 the multinational company Dow Chemicals bought the chemical factory Union Carbide in Bhopal. It's really awful if you realise that thousands of people are drinking polluted water. Children are playing at toxic grounds. It's outrageous that this is possible! If a factory causes pollution, they should be obligated to clean up their mess instead of just running way to ensure that people can live a safe and healthy life. When Dow bought the Union Carbide factory, they not only bought the profits of this company but also the responsibility to end this corporate crime.
At the same time in London, the IMO meeting is continuing. India has officially requested the adoption of a global mandatory regime to make sure that ship owners make their ships toxic-free before sending them for scrap. The Greenpeace delegation gave a symbolic present to highlight this request. Small ships, made from scrap material of the exploded Greek ship Amina, were offered to all the IMO officials. Tomorrow is decision-making day. So let's keep our fingers crossed for a global mandatory regime!
Still at anchor... Our landteam is working real hard to get us in. But until now we haven't heard of any progress. The fresh fruit has also now almost gone, so today we're only allowed to eat one piece of fruit each. Still we need fresh water. There are also a few of the crew who after three months on board, are due to go home this week and will be replaced by new people. It is getting very hard to plan this as we are still not sure when they will be able to leave the ship and we are having to call travel agents to change peoples flights in and out on India.