France errs again

The French government's use of an elite squad of commandos, armed with tear gas, to storm the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior II and arrest its crew was an excessive use of force.

Rainbow Warrior's crew of environmental activists and accompanying media representatives posed no threat to anyone -- except possibly to themselves.

They could not have posed a threat to the planned French nuclear testing program at Mururoa Atoll, even if they had planned to. In these circumstances, the use of tear gas was unnecessary and unwarranted.

Rainbow Warrior's crew might be inclined toward over- zealousness, but they were armed only with self-righteousness.

Of course, Greenpeace knew perfectly well that the ship was sailing into a 12-nautical-mile exclusion zone. The French will argue it was attempting to trespass on a military base.

Mururoa is French territory so the boarding party was undoubtedly acting within its legal rights. But it is fatuous to claim, as France's ambassador to Australia, Dominique Girard, that the use of tear gas was not an act of violence.

The main reason for the Rainbow Warrior's presence at Mururoa was to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the fatal sinking of the original vessel of that name by French secret service saboteurs in Auckland Harbor.

This was planned before Chirac announced the resumption of tests, so France cannot be accused of insensitivity to the timing of its action -- that was all within Greenpeace's strategy of appealing to world opinion. To that extent, Greenpeace has won a battle in the propaganda war.

Whatever the French government's motivation for being so heavy-handed with a few harmless protesters, it seems determined to court bad publicity in the South Pacific.

France and Australia have had a long relationship based on shared democratic ideals. We frankly expect better of the French government when it comes to matters such as nuclear testing and actions which do not appear to take account of regional sensibilities.

-- The Australian, Sydney