THE FIGHT AGAINST GM FOODS RENÉ RIESEL SUPPORT COMMITTEE

On 19 November 2002 the Appeals Court confirmed the sentencing of both José Bové and René Riesel to fourteen months in prison and payment of €19,725 each in legal costs, interest and fines; Dominique Soullier received a six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine. Their crime was the destruction of a transgenic-rice nursery at the state-supported CIRAD research centre in Montpellier in June 1999.

These prison terms are the provisional epilogue of a struggle undertaken in 1997 against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by the Confédération Paysanne/Farmers' Confederation, of which union René Riesel was at that time secretary-general (he left the organization in March 1999). The action against CIRAD in Montpeller was supported by the Intercontinental Caravan (People’s Global Action). This same Caravan had been planning an action against the AZF factory in Toulouse before the catastrophic explosion there in 2001.

In the wake of the Appeals Court ruling René Riesel's first choice was not to seek a Presidential pardon but to file a request for non-revocation of the suspension of the eight-month prison sentence to which he was condemned at Agen in February 1998 for destroying transgenic maize seed belonging to Novartis. If successful, this procedure could reduce Riesel's prison term from fourteen to six months. A decision will be handed down in Montpellier on 29 January 2003. Until then Riesel is free. At the same time he is under indictment, along with eleven other people, for an action carried out in May 2000, at Namur in Belgium, against the cultivation of Monsanto transgenic beet and rapeseed. The accused are to appear in court at Namur on 10 March 2003.

Less than a month after the Appeals Court decision, the French Academy of Sciences and Academy of Medecine and Pharmacy have both given their approval to the growing of genetically modified food. In actuality their reports merely rubber-stamp a decision, already taken at the European level and embodied in successive measures passed on 28 November and 9 December 2002, to end the moratorium on the cultivation of GM foods. Even this moratorium, which never amounted to much, and which is thus now on the way out, would never have been imposed had it not been for the actions of people like José Bové et René Riesel. The reason why this Committee has chosen to support René Riesel in particular is twofold: first, his attitude has in every circumstance remained consistent and determined; secondly, unlike Bové et Soullier, he has no trade-union support. Our goal is to disseminate the facts concerning his situation and to collect funds to help him cover the costs imposed on him by the justice system. As we await a new mobilisation around the judgements at Montpellier (29 January 2003) and Namur (10 March 2003), we invite everyone to disseminate this text as widely as possible.

Paris, 7 January 2003.

To support René Riesel: Checks/money orders may be made payable to "René Riesel" to cover fines, and to "Association COSEDI" (Association against Scientistic Obscurantism and Industrial Despotism) to cover damages and interest and legal costs. Please send all contributions to: Boîte 19, 52 rue Damrémont, 75018 Paris, France. To contact the René Riesel Support Committee: send e-mail to: soutien.riesel@tiscali.fr; or write to: Comité de soutien en faveur de René Riesel, 3 rue Xaintrailles, 75013 Paris, France.