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No regrets say Greenpeace Arctic activists after UK return
by Staff Writers
London (AFP) Dec 27, 2013


Greenpeace activist 'even more dedicated' after Russia ordeal
Moscow (AFP) Dec 27, 2013 - A Greenpeace activist who spent more than two months in prison in Russia over a protest against oil drilling said on Friday the ordeal had made her "even more dedicated" to saving the Arctic environment.

Dutch activist Faiza Oulahsen told AFP she had "no regrets" over the protest against a Gazprom rig in the Barents Sea, in an interview just before leaving Russia after benefitting from a Kremlin-backed amnesty.

Oulahsen and 29 other crew members of the Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise ship were detained in September at sea and then held in prisons in Murmansk and then Saint Petersburg before being released on bail.

All 26 foreign activists in the so-called Arctic 30 are now in the process of leaving Russia, after the Kremlin amnesty prompted the criminal cases against them on hooliganism charges to be halted.

"I have no regrets, I did not have regrets when the ship was boarded or during the two months detention," Oulahsen, 26, told AFP by telephone as she prepared to leave Saint Peterburg.

Their initial arrest came when the Dutch-flagged Arctic Sunrise was seized by the Russian security forces who winched down from a helicopter in a commando-style operation.

"We did nothing wrong and I am still very dedicated to saving the Arctic and stopping Arctic oil drilling," she added.

"You can say I have become even more dedicated while in prison."

"They put us away for two months on absurd charges. I kept saying (while in prison) I am going to continue working as a campaigner, no matter what they do."

'Do I need to be sorry? No.'

The activists were first slapped with piracy charges although they were then reduced to hooliganism charges. But this still risked seeing them all jailed for several years if the case was brought to trial.

The entire crew was arrested after two activists scaled Gazprom's Prirazlomnaya oil platform, which Greenpeace has warned is an environmental disaster waiting to happen.

"Do I need to say sorry for a crime I did not commit? Do I need to say sorry for trying to protect the Arctic for future generations? No. I took action for something I believe in, in a peaceful non-violent way," said Oulahsen.

She described an announcement by Gazprom on December 20 that it had already launched production from the Prirazlomnaya platform as a "slap in the face".

"But you are not going to win the fight over the Arctic in a couple of months or with one action. Environmental battles like these take years and this is only the beginning."

'I barely slept for a week'

Oulahsen said her biggest low was when all the activists were ordered to spend two months in pre-trial detention in Murmansk days after their arrest.

"From that moment I barely slept or ate for a week, I lost a lot of weight. My first concern was for my mother."

"I was concerned about ending up behind bars in a country where anything can happen," she said.

She said rats appeared in her cell in Murmansk and a window was broken. But consolation came from the prison walks when she could shout over the walls to her fellow Greenpeace campaigners.

Then the realisation came that "this is a political process, they want to scare us, this is a statement, they want to make us suffer for a while" but in the end everything would be fine.

After her release on bail in late November, Oulahsen said she was able to enjoy some of the attractions of Russia's former imperial capital.

But "if you are locked up for two months it is a pretty big transition to be on the street with no guards and nobody next to you," she said.

Five British Greenpeace activists arrived home in defiant mood on Friday after Russia granted them an amnesty to halt their prosecution for protesting against oil drilling in the Arctic.

Precisely 100 days after they were arrested on a Greenpeace ship, they flew from Saint Petersburg to Paris and then took a Eurostar train to London.

Anthony Perrett, Phil Ball, Iain Rogers, Alex Harris and filmmaker Kieron Bryan smiled as they posed for a scrum of photographers before emotional family reunions in the arrivals hall of St Pancras station.

Perrett said it was "good to be back" and he was "looking forward to spending some time in the woods" in his native Wales.

He said conditions in the prison in the Arctic Circle city of Murmansk, where the group of 30 activists were first held, were "a real challenge" and admitted he had experienced "quite a few dark moments".

Perrett said there had been deep snow and they were held in their cells for 23 hours a day, sharing a toilet between three people.

They were later moved to a more comfortable prison in Saint Petersburg before being released from custody after two months. They were allowed to leave Russia after the Kremlin-backed amnesty was issued.

Asked if the protest had achieved Greenpeace's aims, Perret said: "Of course it has been worth it. Our mission is to save the Arctic and stop oil exploration and we've never enjoyed quite so much media."

He said it was "completely preposterous" that the group had initially been charged with piracy, which carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years under Russian law.

The Greenpeace activists had been on board the Dutch-flagged ship Arctic Sunrise, targeting an offshore oil rig owned by the Russian energy giant Gazprom when they were seized in September by Russian security forces who winched down from a helicopter.

Seven of the so-called Arctic 30 charged in the probe have now left Russia after Dmitri Litvinov, a Swedish-American, left Saint Petersburg for Helsinki on Thursday.

Alexandre Paul of Canada flew out of Russia on Friday with the five Britons.

'I won't stop Arctic protests now'

Alex Harris, the Greenpeace communications officer on the ship, said she thought the Russian government had granted the amnesty to avoid global criticism with just weeks to go until the start of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

"I think it was the easy way out for Russia, to get rid of us before the Olympics began and before there's a big PR pressure from Greenpeace and the rest of the world," she told journalists.

The activist said she too had experienced appalling conditions in the Murmansk prison.

"The conditions are really bad, it's cold, the food is unedible -- it's not good," she said. "I had a leach on my toothbrush at one point.

"There was no physical violence towards me but it was torture -- we spent two months in a Russian jail cell and 100 days detained for a crime we didn't commit.

But she insisted she would carry on "peaceful campaigning" against Arctic oil exploration.

"I have gone through a lot for this campaign and I am not going to stop now."

The arrest of the Arctic 30 -- who hail from 18 different countries -- risked becoming another bone of contention in increasingly tense relations between Russia and the West.

Russia's Federal Migration Service said all the 26 foreigners will have been given exit visas by the end of Friday. The other four activists are Russians.

Peter Willcox, the veteran captain of the Arctic Sunrise, was also expected to leave Russia on Friday. He was captain of Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior ship when it was bombed by the French secret service in port in New Zealand in 1985.

Dutch activist Faiza Oulahsen, 26, told AFP before leaving Russia on Friday she also had "no regrets" over the protest and it had made her "even more dedicated" to save the Arctic.

But even as the Greenpeace activists left Russia, Gazprom announced on Friday it had begun oil production at the Prirazlomnaya oil rig that was the focus of their actions.

Two jailed members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, were freed on Monday after benefitting from the same amnesty.

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ICE WORLD
Russia closes first case against Greenpeace activists
Moscow (AFP) Dec 24, 2013
Russia has closed the criminal case against one of the 30 crew of a Greenpeace ship who were charged with hooliganism over a protest against Gazprom oil drilling in the Arctic, the group said Tuesday. The move, part of a Kremlin-backed amnesty, should pave the way for the other 29 crew to have their cases closed and then allow the 26 foreign nationals charged in the saga to finally leave Rus ... read more


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