In July 1985, the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior was sunk off New Zealand in an act of state sponsored terrorism. Not by
Al-Quaida or another fundamentalist organisation – but at the instruction of the French Secret
Service. Paul Brown, Guardian journalist who was on board the Warrior only the week before it was attacked, recalls the immediate aftermath and reviews what has become known about the event over the last 20 years.
In 1985, the Rainbow Warrior had been called on a mission to the island of Rongelap. Here, the 1956 Bravo bomb released by the Americans as part of their nuclear testing programme had caused severe radioactive contamination. The US had removed the thyroid glands of all
islanders to 'protect’ them from developing cancer but had been monitoring them since to see further reactions to the radiation. Elders of the community had called on Greenpeace for help as children were developing abnormalities and the islanders wanted out. For a month in the summer of 1985, the Warrior evacuated the islanders to New Zealand.
The explosions and sinking of the ship shocked the world. New Zealand has never seen an act of terrorism like it, before or since. At one point several crew were missing but were later found; one crew member was killed as he tried to retrieve some equipment. At the time, suspicion fell on the French and two French secret service agents, Alain Marfart and Dominique Prieur were arrested and charged with arson and murder.
President Mitterand denied involvement at first but about 2 months later, Prime Minister Laurent Fabius admitted that the French Secret Service had been behind the attack, in which limpet mines had been attached to the outside of the ship. French defence minister Charles Hernu resigned but relations remained strained between France and New Zealand. The two agents had their charges reduced to manslaughter but were imprisoned for 10 years. France objected and threatened sanctions against New Zealand. It took the United Nations three years to sort it out and, eventually, France made an official apology to New Zealand and paid them $13 million in compensation. The French also settled with Greenpeace, which was suing the government; the $8 million they got went towards a new Rainbow Warrior.
Marfart and Prieur were returned to France to serve out their sentence but were freed just months later.
The original ship was a wreck and was sunk as a reef; its replacement was again attacked by the French in 1996, when it was on patrol in the Pacific as part of the continuing campaign against nuclear testing. The French testing programme had to be abandoned soon afterwards because of worldwide pressure.
Looking back now, the lack of worldwide condemnation of the sinking itself seems strange. No country came out and objected strenuously, including Britain. As the Warrior was a British ship, this seems even more a puzzle. Everything is still hush hush, but perhaps more people were in on what happened. Eventually, when the official papers are released, after 70 years or whatever, we will know the truth. But, by then, will anybody still care?