Mike Mate

The pop of a rifle being fired drew me out of the bridge. Through my binoculars I could see climbers, with their backpacks full of rope, running along the top of the coaling jetty. Some had reached the top of the crane. Another pop of rifle fire and in the same moment an object fell from the top of the coal crane, 100 meters into the sea. “There goes a climber” I shocked Hans, the radio operator, standing beside me watching. I knew it was just the banner. A guard had reached the top of the crane, drawn a knife and cut it down before it could even be unfurled. But the gun fire brought a swift end to our assault on the coal fired power plant this morning. Guns and Greenpeace do not belong together.

Our land team managed to get the message ‘Coal kills Climate’ hung onto the power station. They were also chased away with gunfire. It was all over very quickly and now we are anchored off the nearby port of Jepara – famous for furniture.