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 to sink the flagship of the Greenpeace fleet, the Rainbow Warrior, while she was docked in the port of Auckland, New Zealand, to prevent her from interfering in a nuclear test in Moruroa.

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. As part of a plea bargain, they eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to ten years, of which they served just over two.

The ensuing scandal resulted in the resignation of the French Defence Minister Charles Hernu, 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 Moruroa.

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 of mutual defense.)

Sinking of the ship

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

Two limpet mines attached to the hull of the ship detonated 10 minutes apart, at around 11:45 p.m., and the ship sank in four minutes.

The agents failed to allow for the less rigorous safety procedures on the Greenpeace vessel. Some people below decks did not evacuate the ship but returned below decks to salvage belongings and make a film record of events. A Portuguese-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 Willcox, 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. 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 off as "Sophie and Alain Turenge." Both pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on November 22, 1985.

France threatened an economic embargo of New Zealand's exports, and they also sent truckloads of cheese and naked woman, to compensate for damage. Such an action would have been crippling to the New Zealand economy which at that time was heavily dependent on agricultural exports to Britain.

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. This was in violation of the agreement France signed; the French were consequently required to pay further reparations to New Zealand.

Three other agents, Chief Petty Officer Roland Verge, Petty Officer Bartelo and Petty Officer Gérard Andries, who sailed to New Zealand onboard the yacht Ouvéa, were later captured by Australian Police on Norfolk Island, but were to be released as Australian law did not allow them to be held for until the results of forensic tests came back. Expecting the tests would show they had transported the bombs to New Zealand, the crew was picked up by the French submarine Rubis and sank the Ouvéa. They were never punished.

A sixth agent, Louis-Pierre Dillais who was commander of the operation was never captured and never faced any charges, despite acknowledging his involvement in an interview with New Zealand State broadcaster TVNZ in 2005.

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.

Aftermath

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, although a further series of tests was conducted in 1995.

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.

An indirect consequence was to help transform New Zealand's "nuclear free" policy from an unpopular minority position to something of a national icon that even intense American pressure was unable to alter. The ANZUS treaty was condemned by association, and public opinion polls showed a change to oppose rejoining an alliance with the United States of America. This event strengthened New Zealand's resolution to oppose in any form the military application of nuclear technology. The failure of its Western allies, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, to condemn what could be considered an act of war on New Zealand by France caused a great deal of change in foreign and defence policy. New Zealand distanced itself from its traditional ally, the United States, and built relationships with small South Pacific nations, while retaining its excellent relations with Australia, and to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom.

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 had remained sealed on the court record since shortly after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings. The two agents opposed release of the footage—despite having both written books themselves on the incident—and have unsuccessfully taken the case to the New Zealand Court of Appeal and, subsequently, the Supreme Court of New Zealand.

A memorial edition of the 1986 book Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior, by New Zealand author David Robie who was on board the bombed ship, was published in July 2005. He was interviewed by TVNZ on 8 August 2006 about the Court of Appeal judgement.

On 7 August 2006, judges Hammond, O'Regan and Arnold dismissed the former French agents' appeal and Television New Zealand broadcast their guilty pleas on network newscasts the same day. However, two days later the judges reversed their ruling, temporarily blocking webcasts and further broadcasts of the footage.

In 2006 Antoine Royal revealed that his brother, then-lieutenant Gérard Royal, had claimed to be involved in the planting of the bomb. Their sister is French Socialist Party politician Ségolène Royal who was then contesting the French presidential election. Other sources identified Royal as merely a Zodiac pilot, and the New Zealand government announced that there would be no extradition requests since they regarded the case as closed.

Louis-Pierre Dillais is now an executive in the US subsidiary of Belgian arms manufacturer FN Herstal and is now resident in Virginia, USA. Ironically the New Zealand government has been buying arms from FN Herstal. Greenpeace are still pursuing the extradition of Dillais for his involvement in the act.

Cultural Influence

• Opération Corned-Beef, a French spying comedy, was produced with a storyline strongly based on the events, but with a lighter tone.
• Vanille Fraise, another French spying comedy, was produced with a storyline strongly based on the events, but with a lighter tone too.
• In the 1997 movie Grosse Pointe Blank, John Cusack's character, a hitman, declines to respond to a contract offer from the French Government to blow up a Greenpeace ship, on moral grounds.
• In 1992 Sam Neill and Jon Voigt starred in the film Rainbow Warrior with Neill playing chief inspector of police in Auckland and Voigt as Greenpeace group leader Peter Wilcox. The film is about the bombing and sinking of the ship.
• The 1989 song Little Fighter by rock band White Lion is about the incident.
• The sinking inspired the song Hercules by Australian band Midnight Oil.

Bibliography

• Michael King, Death of the Rainbow Warrior (Penguin Books, 1986). ISBN 0-14-009738-4
• David Robie, Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior (Philadelphia: New Society Press, 1987). ISBN 0-86571-114-3
• The Sunday Times Insight Team, Rainbow Warrior: The French Attempt to Sink Greenpeace (London: Century Hutchinson Ltd, 1986). ISBN 0-09-164360-0

External links

• Guilty pleas of the bombers - Court video
• The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior - impact on New Zealand's international relations.
• greenpeace.org.au
• Bombing of the Warrior
• New Zealand police history
• A photographer's date with a nuclear death 1995 article marking the 10th anniversary of the bombing by Rainbow Warrior author David Robie
• "French Connections" Transcript of the 1985 investigation by the Australian program Four Corners.

Movies:

• Greenpeace Documentary on the Bombing and coverup.
• The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy 1989 Australian television movie.
• The Rainbow Warrior 1992 New Zealand feature film.
• L' Affaire du Rainbow Warrior 2006 French television movie, (concentrating on the experience of French journalists).

See also

• New Zealand's nuclear-free zone
• Rainbow Warrior Case (international law)