Retro Raunch Revisit

JUL 10, 1985: A pair of French agents in diving gear and from a harbor in Auckland, New Zealand committ an act of state terrorism (officially named Opération Satanique) after the duo plant 2 bombs (limpet mines) on the hull of the Greenpeace flagship 'Rainbow Warrior' which was preparing for a protest voyage to a Franch nuclear test site in the South Pacific. The detonations were 7 minutes apart & blasted a hole the size of a car that resulted in the death of Portuguese-Dutch freelance photographer Fernando Pereira on board who drowned. The ship was partially sunk. The agents (Jean Camas & Jean-Luc Kister) were working for the French foregin DGSE intelligence agency and had struck against Greenpeace's long global conservationist stance in which the Rainbow Warrior had been active in several anti-whaling, anti-seal hunting, and anti-nuclear waste dumping campaigns throught the late 1970's & early 80's. France started nuclear testing on the Mururoa Atoll in an Archipelago of French Polynesia and in May 1985, the Rainbow Warrior had relocated 300 Marshall Islanders from an atoll heavily polluted by radioactive fallout from American nuclear tests since 1954. The ship had traveled back to New Zealand to next lead a flotilla of vessels to protest at Mururoa. The 2 bombers had gotten their information from 2 other agents (Dominique Prieur & Alain Mafart) providing reconnaissance posing as newlywed tourists who covertly monitored communications, gathered maps, inspected underwater equipment and delivered the mines when the docked Rainbow Warrior was open to public viewing. After the explosions and huge police investigation (also involving Interpol), Prieur & Marfart were arrested and although carrying Swiss passports, their true identities were revealed & traced back to the French government. A number of others in the DGSE team (12 overall but in different support roles) had escaped including a woman who left for Israel and managed to flee gain when she was tipped off, and a trio who were arrested in Australia but released before forensic tests could implicate them. They were picked up by a French submarine that took them away to safety. France denied responsibility but as the criminal attack was a breach of international law against sovereign territory, the ensuing scandal was a public relations disaster that led to the resignation of the country's Defense Minister and the head of DGSE being fired. Charged with arson, conspiracy, willful damage and murder, Prieur & Mafart pleaded guilty to manslaughter and in Nov 1985 were sentenced to 10yrs imprisonment. France threatened an economic embargo of New Zealand in the EEC (Europena Economic Coummnity) if the pair were not released -- which would have crippled New Zealand as it was dependent on agricultural exports from the UK. Due to pressure, the duo spent only 2yrs behind bars and were soon freed. [In Nov 2005, both pled guilty in a video recorded preliminary hearing and unsuccessfully tried to prevent the footage from appearing on New Zealand TV despite each having written books on the incident in 1995 & 1999]. After Prime Minster Laurent Fabius admitted the bombing was a sabotage plot (with claims that President François Mitterrand had approved it), France was forced to apologize and pay reparations of $13 million to New Zealand, as well as $2.2 million francs and an additional life insurance payout of $30,000 Dutch guilders to Pereira's family, and of $8.16 million to Greenpeace. The nuclear tests went ahead on Mururoa in Oct 1985 and were conducted 54(!) more times until the last blast in 1996. In Dec 1986, the Treaty of Rarotonga was enacted and signed by Australia, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, and Papua New Guinea among a handful of others declaring the South Pacific region a nuclear-free zone. In the Rainbow Warrior aftermath, Greenpeace held a benefit concert in Auckland, a memorial sculpture was built, and the ship was scuttled in Dec 1987 to serve as a dive wreck & fish sanctuary. A new ship was acquired and also renamed Rainbow Warrior earlier. In Sept 2015, Kister apologized on a TV program where he confessed his role.