Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior

The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, codenamed Operation SATANIC, was a special operation by the "action" branch of the French foreign intelligence services, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), carried out on July 10, 1985. It aimed at disabling the flagship of Greenpeace, the Rainbow Warrior, in the port of Auckland, New Zealand, to prevent her from interfering in a nuclear test in Mururoa.

Fernando Pereira, a photographer, drowned on the sinking ship. Two of the French agents were subsequently arrested by the New Zealand Police on passport fraud and immigration charges. Following questioning, they were subsequently charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson, willful damage and murder. The ensuing scandal resulted in the resignation of the French Defence Minister, and the subject became so touchy that it was not until twenty years afterward that the personal responsibility of French President François Mitterrand was officially admitted.

Background

In the 1980s, the direction of military applications of the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique was developing new nuclear warheads for the new M4 SLBM, which were tested in underground explosions in the French Polynesian atoll of Mururoa.

Greenpeace was opposed to testing and had planned to lead a flotilla of yachts to the atoll to protest against the test, including an illegal incursion into French military zones. The Rainbow Warrior had not previously visited New Zealand, but David Lange's New Zealand Labour Party government opposed nuclear weapons development and had banned nuclear armed or powered ships from New Zealand ports. (As a consequence the United States was in the process of withdrawing from its ANZUS treaty obligations to protect New Zealand from foreign attack.)

Sinking of the ship

Agents had boarded and carefully examined the ship while she was open to the public. Explosions were calculated that would be sufficient to cripple the ship, but precise and small enough not to take life.

Two limpet mines attached to the hull of the ship detonated 60 seconds apart, at around 11:45 PM. The ship sank in four minutes.

The agents failed to allow for the less drilled safety procedures on the non-military vessel. Some below decks did not evacuate the ship but returned below decks to salvage belongings and make a film record of events. A Dutch photographer, Fernando Pereira, drowned in the flooding that followed the second blast while attempting to fetch his equipment. The other ten crewmembers evacuated on the order of Captain Peter Wilcox, or were thrown into the water by the force of the explosion.

Scandal

Operation SATANIC was a public relations disaster. New Zealand was an ally of France; New Zealand troops had fought along with France in two World Wars. France initially denied any involvement, and even joined in condemnation of it as a terrorist act.

After the bombing, an immediate murder inquiry was started by the New Zealand Police. Two agents were captured by the prompt actions of a local Neighbourhood Watch, Captain Dominique Prieur and Commander Alain Mafart, passing themselves as Sophie and Alain Turenge. Both pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment on November 22, 1985.

In July 1986, a United Nations-sponsored mediation between New Zealand and France resulted in the transfer of the two prisoners to the French Polynesian island of Hao, to serve three years instead, as well as an apology and a NZD 13 million payment from France to New Zealand.

Mafart returned to Paris on December 14, 1987 for medical treatment, and was apparently freed after treatment. He continued to serve in the French Army, and was promoted to Colonel in 1993. Prieur returned to France on May 6, 1988 because she was pregnant, her husband having been allowed to join her on the atoll. She, too, was freed and later promoted.

Three other agents, Chief Petty Officer Roland Verge, Petty Officer Bartelo and Petty Officer Gerard Andries, who sailed to New Zealand on board the yacht Ouvéa, were also captured, but had to be released as New Zealand law did not allow them to be held for sufficient time until the results of forensic tests came back. Knowing the tests would show they had transported the bomb to New Zealand, the crew rendezvoused with a French submarine and sank the Ouvéa. They were never punished.

As evidence gathered, a superficial commission of enquiry headed by François Tricot cleared the French government of any involvement, claiming that the arrested agents, who had not yet pleaded guilty, had merely been spying on Greenpeace. When The Times and Le Monde claimed that President Mitterrand had approved the bombing plan, Defence Minister Charles Hernu resigned, and the head of the DGSE, Admiral Pierre Lacoste, was fired. Days later, Prime Minister Laurent Fabius admitted that the bombing had been a French plot.

Afterward

In the wake of the bombing, a flotilla of privately owned New Zealand yachts sailed to Muroroa to protest against the French test.

French nuclear tests in the Pacific were halted.

Evidence from within France has since shown there was justification for some of Greenpeace's claims about the testing: radiation leakage did occur from the atoll, and cancer rates were raised amongst military and civilian personnel who had worked on the testing sites. Similar data was found for Pacific Islanders who lived close to American test sites.

The Rainbow Warrior was refloated for forensic examination. She was deemed irreparable and scuttled in Matauri Bay, near the Cavalli Islands, on 2 December, 1987, to serve as a dive wreck and fish sanctuary.

New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy went from an unpopular minority position to something of a national icon that intense American pressure was unable to alter. The ANZUS treaty was tarred by the same brush, and public opinion polls showed a change to oppose rejoining an alliance with the United States of America.

On the twentieth anniversary of the sinking, it was revealed that the French president François Mitterrand had personally authorised the bombing. Admiral Pierre Lacoste made a statement saying Pereira's death weighed heavily on his conscience. Also on that anniversary, Television New Zealand (TVNZ) sought to access a video record made at the preliminary hearing where the two agents pleaded guilty. The footage has remained sealed on the court record since shortly after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings. The two agents oppose release of the footage—despite having both written books themselves on the incident—and have taken the case to the New Zealand Court of Appeal and, subsequently, the Supreme Court of New Zealand. [1]

A memorial edition of the 1986 book Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior [2], by New Zealand author David Robie who was on board the bombed ship, was published in July 2005.

Trivia

• Opération Corned-Beef, a French spying comedy, was produced with a storyline heavily inspired on the events, but with a lighter tone. [3]

• In 1992 Sam Neill and Jon Voigt starred in the film "Rainbow Warrior" with Neill playing chief inspector of the police in Auckland and Voigt as Greenpeace group leader Peter Wilcox. The story of the film is about the bombing and sinking of the ship.[4]

External links

• greenpeace.org.au
• Bombing of the Warrior
• New Zealand police history, http://www.police.govt.nz/operation/wharf/

Movies:

• Greenpeace Documentary on the Bombing and coverup.
• The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy 1989 Australian television movie.
• The Rainbow Warrior 1992 New Zealand feature film.
• A photographer's date with a nuclear death 1995 article marking the 10th anniversary of the bombing by Rainbow Warrior author David Robie
• L' Affaire du Rainbow Warrior 2006 French television movie, (concentrating on the experience of French journalists).