Murnaghan 24.11.13 Interview with Frank Hewetson, Greenpeace

ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: I’m sure my next guest has got plenty to say on the issue of climate change. The Greenpeace activists who were arrested and imprisoned in Russia sought to shine the spotlight on Arctic drilling, well they certainly shone a spotlight on themselves but have they furthered their cause. Well I’m joined now from St Petersburg by Skype by Greenpeace activist, Frank Hewetson, who has been released on bail by the Russian authorities. Good to talk to you, Frank, just first of all on the bail conditions, do you know if you’re free to leave Russia, have you been given your passport back?

FRANK HEWETSON: No, we are definitely not free to leave Russia. I do have my passport but part of the anomaly of the whole situation, we were seized, the ship and us, illegally. We were brought into Russia without a visa and so none of us can actually leave, we don’t have any visas. So at the moment the trial is still on the cards, I think the investigation period ends within three months so I could still be here in three months and I could go to trial in three months.

DM: Let me ask you about that point I made in the introduction, a lot of the focus, you wanted to focus on the drilling in the Arctic region, a lot of the focus of course has been the personal one on you 30. Do you think it has done more to highlight what is going on in the Arctic?

FRANK HEWETSON: Yes, yes I do. I mean I have been locked up in isolation and when I came out I was astounded at the enormity of the coverage, the support and I think the change that a lot of people have had in understanding just how fragile the Arctic is and I think the campaign has gone from strength to strength and I believe a lot more people support us at the moment for our stand, for what we did.

DM: But has Greenpeace learned lessons? Would you do it again and would you go about it the same way?

FRANK HEWETSON: Always learning lessons, always learning lessons. Greenpeace is a group of people, it’s not a solid entity and a lot of people have different feelings about having spent two months inside. It wasn’t nice, I’m still a bit shaky. It’s been 48 hours or even less and you are obviously going to get a difference of opinions and I can’t honestly say myself now that I would do it again. I would have to review the matter at a later stage.

DM: But there is a broader question isn’t there about direct action like that. We saw the footage that your cameraman and others managed to film and it looked from the Greenpeace end of it, and indeed we all know about the response as well, it looked that there were elements of military assault about it.

FRANK HEWTSON: Military assault by us or by the FSB?

DM: Well by the FSB, obviously they were the paramilitaries there but you were trying to board it, the ship was bobbing up and down, it’s direct action isn’t it?

FRANK HEWETSON: It is direct action, it is direct action and I’ve been doing that for 23 years and I’m pretty good at it and you have to take a technical approach if you want to get on to an oil rig. It has to be done safely, you have to have the right equipment and you have to have the training. If that comes across in a sort of a military sense, I can’t really comment on that but we certainly know what we’re doing and we are quite safe about it too.

DM: That’s my point, is would that form happen again? Perhaps not against the Russians, you perhaps would know what their response might be but there are so many other parts of the world that you’re concerned about and you have those skills, you say you have the training, people would go into it this time with their eyes wide open. Is it something that can still be deployed or does Greenpeace have to think again about that mode of protest?

FRANK HEWETSON: No, I think it will happen again for sure. I’m just not going to comment about whether it will happen in Russia, I just don’t have the mental head space to make that sort of decision at the moment but I personally want to go back to the Arctic. I personally want to tackle Shell who can’t drill for toffee. Their ship ran aground, one of them was actually detained by the US State, it was a disastrous [inaudible] in the Arctic. Cairn Energy have spent absolutely millions and millions of pounds and got nothing for it. It’s not an easy thing to do and spillage in the Arctic, if they occur, will be a complete and utter nightmare. Not the nice warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. If that happens underneath the ice, they are stuffed and the environment, the fragile environment in that area, is stuffed along with it.

DM: Okay, Frank, good to talk to you and best of luck with what you face legally in the future. Let’s hope next time we have this debate we are able to do it face to face on UK soil. Thank you very much indeed, Frank Hewetson there.

FRANK HEWETSON: Thank you, cheers.