Police board Greenpeace protest vessel in Danish port

But a small number of the Greenpeace activists succeeded in escaping the armed raiding party in two motorised rubber rafts, and prevented the harbour pilot from boarding the Italian-registered freighter Explorer, news reports said. Some 40 activists on board the MV Greenpeace since Saturday had hindered the vessel carrying 20,000 tons of gene-spliced soya animal feed from Argentina from unloading its cargo in Aarhus.

The Greenpeace action was a protest against the annual import to Denmark of 1 million tonnes Argentine soya animal feed, 90 per cent of which is genetically modified in order to withstand the controversial pesticide RoundUp, the conservationist organization said in a statement. Around 25 of the activists, mostly foreigners, were arrested on board the MV Greenpeace and taken into police custody in Aarhus. All of them were charged with breaking the peace, and the non-Danish activists face being expelled from Denmark for one year, news reports said. Greenpeace said that gene-spliced soya feed is not covered by the E.U.'s labelling regulations.

"Since we in Europe need to import increasing amounts of soya and corn products for animal feed because of the ban on meat and bone feed it is a matter of urgency to that feeds from Argentina and the United States be separated and labeled," Greenpeace said. The E.U. banned the use of animal wastes in cattle feed in a bid to halt the spread of the mad cow disease BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy).

(la/dpa)