World Notes: Jul. 22, 1985

NEW ZEALAND

"We don't know what happened," said Peter Willcox, skipper of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior. "There were some loud bangs, the boat shook and we sank within four minutes." The 130-ft. converted trawler was berthed in Auckland, New Zealand, last week, preparing to lead a protest of French nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll, 700 miles southeast of Tahiti. Two explosions ripped a 6-ft. by 8-ft. hole in the hull, scuttling the vessel stern first in 24 ft. of water and killing Ship Photographer Fernando Pereira. The twelve other people reportedly on board escaped unharmed.

Auckland police said the explosions were detonated "on the outside of the hull in the area of the engine room." New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange called the bombing a "major criminal act." Lange, who has banned port calls by nuclear-armed or -powered ships, said he would consider sending a New Zealand naval vessel to lead the Mururoa protest. The Rainbow Warrior was one of four ships used by Greenpeace, an international environmentalist group. "Our actions are all peaceful," said Bryn Jones, chairman of the organization's British branch. "We have not in the past provoked this kind of response."

ARGENTINA

Before its 1982 war with Britain over the Falkland Islands, Argentina shipped corned beef, lumber and other goods worth more than $133 million annually to the United Kingdom. But since the war, a British embargo on Argentine imports has outlawed trade between the nations. Last week, as he embarked on a three-day visit to Brazil, Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe told the House of Commons that Britain had decided unilaterally to lift the trade embargo. Howe, whose announcement coincided with the anniversary of last year's unsuccessful efforts to renew relations with Argentina, urged the government of President Raúl Alfonsín to join with Britain in new trade agreements.

Howe's announcement drew immediate applause from Argentina's meat-packers, who have lost their lucrative British markets to Brazil. But Argentine Foreign Minister Dante Caputo responded that trade talks could begin in 60 days only if the agenda also includes his country's claim to Las Malvinas, as Argentina calls the Falklands. In London, a Foreign Office spokesman called Caputo's reaction "disappointing," adding, "Our position has been set out many times. There is no possibility of our negotiating or discussing sovereignty."

SRI LANKA

After more than two years of civil strife that has led to some 2,000 deaths, tentative steps were taken last week toward a settlement between Sri Lanka's Tamil separatist movements and the government of President Junius Jayewardene. Under pressure from India's Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the island nation's warring factions began peace talks in Thimbu, capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Shortly afterward the government, which is dominated by Sri Lanka's 70% majority of Sinhalese Buddhists, lifted nighttime curfews imposed on five northern districts heavily populated by Tamil-speaking Hindus. The government also released 643 of 1,197 Tamil prisoners who had been arrested under an antiterrorism law.