Dutch arrest 30 Greenpeace activists blocking Russian Arctic oil tanker

Activists including members of 'Arctic 30' detained as they try to stop Gazprom ship delivering oil to Rotterdam

theguardian.com- AFP, Thursday 1 May 2014

Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior along with inflatables and paragliders surround
 Russian oil tanker Mikhail Ulyanov to protest against first shipment of Arctic oil
in Rotterdam. To see a larger version of this photograph, click here. Photograph:
Ruben Neugebauer/Greenpeace

Dutch police on Thursday arrested around 30 Greenpeace activists, including the captain of the lobby group's ship Rainbow Warrior, as they tried to stop a Russian tanker delivering Arctic oil from docking.

"The captain has been arrested and the ship is being taken elsewhere else," police spokesman Roland Eckers told AFP of the Rainbow Warrior.

"Several activists climbed a fence to prevent the ship docking and several others were in small boats also trying to impede the tanker and several were arrested, around 30 activists," Eckers said.

Police on board Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior ship. Photograph: Chris
Grodotzki/Greenpeace

The Rainbow Warrior was being captained by Peter Willcox, who was among campaigners detained by Russian authorities last year after staging a high-profile protest against Arctic drilling.

No one else aboard the Rainbow Warrior was arrested, while the tanker, bringing a first delivery of offshore Arctic oil to Rotterdam, was now safely moored, police said.

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