Pod Insights ABC Rewind 05 | Rainbow Warrior | Operation Satanique About this episode It’s July 1985, and public anger is at its peak in New Zealand, as the hunt begins for those responsible for bombing the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour. Shockwaves ripple around the globe once it’s discovered who is behind the attack.
Transcript 7,266 words · 19 speakers
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0:39 Speaker 02 In the previous episode, the people of Rangulapato made the heartbreaking decision to leave their ancestral lands. With the help of Greenpeace, the crew of the Rainbow Warrior evacuates to Rangulapis to a new land that hopefully is safer for them and their descendants. A few months later, looking forward to some hour and hour before their next mission into the Pacific, the Rainbow Warrior arrives in the relatively quiet and safe city of Auckland in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
1:18 Speaker 02 June 22, 1985. A vessel eases its way into New Zealand waters after sailing south through the Pacific. Onboard is a crew united in purpose, their minds less on where they've been and more on where they are about to go. It's been a challenging voyage, but its most difficult phase is yet to come. An operation of direct action that may well risk the outrage of foreign governments, public anger and intense scrutiny from international media. The scenario sounds familiar, but this isn't the Rainbow Warrior. And onboard, it's not a multinational crew of environmental activists. This group of sailors have not just completed
2:02 Speaker 02 the evacuation of the entire population of an island who have lived at the mercy of nuclear weapons testing for three decades. Nor are they planning a large and complicated protest off Muridore Eto against French nuclear testing.
2:18 Speaker 02 No, this is the yacht Uvea, chartered in New Caledonia. Her crew of four are all French, secret agents, military, on a mission. Among the diving gear and personal effects are a Zodiac inflatable boat and two hidden magnetic mines, designed to be attached to the side of a ship, and when detonated, to sink it. The Uvea and her crew quietly sail into a deserted harbour in the northernmost part of New Zealand, and just as quietly hide those mines. They are here to play a part in ensuring the Rainbow Warrior, still en route to Auckland from Vanuatu and the Marshall Islands, is truly on her final voyage.
3:05 Speaker 02 For ABC Radio Australia and RNZ, I'm James Norkise, and this is The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior, episode five, Operation Satanic. In this episode, we're going back to where our story started, on a chilly July night in Auckland Harbour, when a boat, crewed by environmental activists and pacifists, was blown up and a man was killed.
3:35 Speaker 02 On the very same day the Uvea reaches New Zealand, a newlywed Swiss couple fly into Auckland from London. Their surname is Turenge. First names Sophie and Alain. That's what their passports say, anyway.
3:54 Speaker 02 And almost the first thing they do after arriving is hire a reliable, roomy camper van. The next day, June 23rd, a man named Jean-Louis Domand lands at Auckland Airport. Again, that's what's on his passport. Monsieur Domand travels into downtown Auckland and takes a room at the Hyatt Kingsgate Hotel. It's called the Pullman nowadays, in the Waterloo Quadrant. The hotel sits on a hill, and if you look out, you can see Albert Park, Auckland CBD, the High Court Buildings, and Auckland University. If Jean-Louis Domand cares to look north, he's met by a view of the harbour, in the direction of Marsden Wharf, where 14 days later, the Rainbow Warrior will dock.
4:39 Speaker 02 The crew of the Ovea, the Swiss couple in the camper van, and Jean-Louis Domand in the Hyatt are seemingly unconnected, as are several other travellers who disembark in New Zealand around the same time. As Domand settles into his hotel on 29th of June, the crew of the Ovea dock at the northland city of Fungarei after a bit of nosing around up north. The four fit young Frenchmen aboard soon make themselves visible around town, buying meals, chatting up the local women, being rude about our wine. They tell locals they had chartered the yacht to New Caledonia, and she was named for Ovea Island, part of what the French call the Loyalty Islands province.
5:20 Speaker 02 The crew, Raymond Vausch, Eric Enjanc, Jean-Michel Bertolot, and Xavier Christian Menogue, and surprise, surprise, these aren't the names printed on their passports either, tell locals they are here in New Zealand for a diving trip.
5:37 Speaker 02 Which is odd, it being mid-winter. Just over a week later, on July 7, 1985, the Rainbow Warrior also makes a very visible arrival in New Zealand, sailing south down the Hauraki Gulf towards Auckland's Waitamataha Harbour. Around her, a flotilla of friendly vessels flying rainbow flags accompany her to dock. She ties up at the Marsden Wharf at the water's edge of downtown Auckland. Waiting for her are the local branch of Greenpeace, who have been preparing for months.
6:12 Speaker 02 But missing from their number is a young French volunteer, Frederique Bonlure, who'd been helping out in the office since April. She'd spent a month there, learning about Greenpeace's protest plans, the movements of the Rainbow Warrior, getting to know the people and the country before leaving, six weeks before the Warrior arrived.
6:33 Speaker 02 On the same day the Warrior docks, Elaine Tornelle and Jacques Gomudier arrive from Tahiti, where they had worked as physical instructors at a girl's school. Apparently. Just after midnight, François Roger Verlet flies in from Tokyo. What each of these people have in common is that they're all officers in the French Secret Service. Spies. Some dive specialists, some explosive experts, sent by France's intelligence agency, the DGSE. Everything is in place for Greenpeace and its planned protest mission to Mururoa, but also for the far more shadowy mission going on in parallel,
7:17 Speaker 02 the one designed for one reason only: to ensure the Rainbow Warrior never gets anywhere near the testing site.
7:28 Speaker 02 Everyone is here. Everything is in place.
7:35 Speaker 02 10th July, 1985. A birthday party, a celebration, a night filled with high expectations for the weeks ahead, with cake, talking, laughing, planning. It's late evening. About 14 people are on board, the crew of the Warrior and skippers from the other ships in the Peace Flotilla. There's also a young French visitor, calling himself François Verlet. He describes himself as a pacifist, offers his help with contacts in Tahiti, and as he leaves, wishes Steve Sawyer a happy birthday. "I hope you make it to Mururoa," he says. You know what happens next. An explosion. A second explosion.
8:19 Speaker 02 Captain Peter Wilcox orders everyone off the ship, and they huddle together on the dock, watching it go down. The terrible realization hits them too late. Photographer Fernando Pareda was down below deck, getting his photographs together after the first explosion. He didn't make it off the Warrior. Police arrive and take the crew to the station. Bunny McDyman, who'd been off the ship, arrived soon after.
8:43 Speaker 03 Martine Gocce, who was the first mate on board, called us at my parents' place, I think just near two or three o'clock in the morning to tell us that what had happened and also that Fernando was missing. We got up and went straight, straight down to the wharf. And it wasn't really until we saw the Warrior lying on his side against the wharf that we really believed or understood what had happened.
9:06 Speaker 02 The body of Fernando Pereira is recovered around 4 a.m. In the shock and confusion, it quickly becomes clear. This is no accident.
9:17 Speaker 04 Detective Superintendent Alan Galbraith, in charge of the investigation, does not rule out the possibility of action by overseas agents or terrorists. He says whoever planted the bombs knew their business well. And he says whoever sabotaged the ship would have been aware that there were people on board and that their lives were at risk.
9:33 Speaker 02 News travels fast around the world. In the marshals, a horrified Jettonnajan asks, "What have they done to our ship?"
9:42 Speaker 02 And while an infinite number of questions were, the two most urgent are clear. Why? Why sink the Warrior? And of course, who? If the ship had been deliberately blown up, who was responsible? Finding the answer to both questions involves asking one fundamental question. Who has the most to gain by stopping the Rainbow Warrior from sailing to Muradore? The answer is obvious. France. But if this is the French, it's no longer, in any measure, a normal criminal investigation. This is darker, murkier, and stranger than anything we've dealt with in New Zealand before. How are we going to catch these guys?
10:28 Speaker 02 It turns out catching them is the easy part.
10:33 Speaker 02 The population of New Zealand in 1985 is about 3.2 million. Fewer people live in the entire country than in cities like Sydney, or Los Angeles, or Paris.
10:45 Speaker 02 Have you ever lived in a small town? Everybody knows everyone else, knows their rhythms. Strangers are obvious because they stick out like a horny Frenchman in Thangadae. Kiwis being Kiwis, information is usually kept close to the chest. We're not known for opening up, on the whole. But if there's one thing we like less than talking, it's someone doing the dirty on us. As soon as it becomes clear that the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior was not an accident, but an act of terror, we, as a nation, are filthy about it. And then, we go off.
11:20 Speaker 02 New Zealand Police named the hunt for the bombers Operation Rainbow. Such a nicer name than Operation Satanique. First thing they do is set up a tip line. And the normally emotionally repressed Kiwis absolutely flood it. Everyone seems to have seen something. The police wade through a lot of stuff that's well-intentioned but useless. Some of it is, well, very useful.
11:52 Speaker 02 Two yachters report that about 9:30pm on the night of the bombing, they were keeping an eye on the boats tied up at Hobson Bay, just a few minutes' drive east of Marsden Wharf. As they watched, an inflatable Zodiac boat came ashore silently, its engine off. There was one person aboard, and unaware he was being watched, he dumped the engine into the water and was then picked up by a camper van. The men, who thought they were watching a burglary, tell police that there was enough time and enough light for them to see that inside the van was a man and a woman, and to write down the licence plate before the van drove off.
12:37 Speaker 02 Working off that tip, police find an abandoned Zodiac boat in Hobson Bay, then its engine, and two oxygen bottles used by divers. Not just any dive bottles, though. These have a special unit on them to prevent bubbles rising to the surface. And if no one sees bubbles, no one knows you're underwater, doing god knows what. Then there's the information from up north.
13:04 Speaker 02 People ring in about a dozen to say that there were French yachters living it up in Fangare. Those four roosters have certainly made an impression, spending it up big in local restaurants and getting to know the women of Fangare. Almost like they want to be visible, or are just too French to care.
13:22 Speaker 02 Police are told the name of their yacht is Orvea, but it's now at sea on the way to Numia.
13:30 Speaker 02 Police traced the number plate of the van, seen picking up the diver in Auckland to Newman's, a car rental business. Newman's staff tell police it was hired by a Swiss couple, newlyweds named Turange, according to their passports anyway.
13:46 Speaker 02 Things move fast from here.
13:51 Speaker 02 12 July, just two days after the bombing, a Newman's office in Mount Wellington, East Auckland. Becky Hayder is working the desk that day. Swiss couple Elaine and Sophie Turange turn up to drop off their rented camper van. Becky recognises them. They'd come in two days earlier, wanting to replace the camper van they'd been driving around the country in for weeks.
14:14 Speaker 05 And most of the time we were with the vehicle with the broken windscreen and I just remember he wouldn't leave it, you know, like normally someone would sit in the waiting room and have a cup of coffee, but he was very definitely staying with the vehicle and very definitely did not want any help moving gear from one van to the other.
14:29 Speaker 02 Having helped the couple with their swap, Becky was asked to contact the police, who wanted to know all about the couple with the camper van.
14:36 Speaker 05 And I didn't think too much of it. I just thought it was not really my business. But the next morning I walked into work about eight o'clock and I said to one of the other girls, "Oh, do you remember the Turanges?", you know, because of the phone calls from the police. And she said, "Yeah, that's them there."
14:52 Speaker 02 So now, the torrenters are sitting in the newman's office, returning their van early. Becky asked them to wait while she processes a refund. Out of earshot, her colleague gives the police a bell. They ask her to keep the couple busy, they're on their way.
15:07 Speaker 05 So we said to them, well look, we owe you some money because you're bringing your vehicle back early, but we can't do it yet because there's no managers here to sign the cheque.
15:15 Speaker 02 So, she chats, office tea, keeping it casual, apologising for keeping them waiting. The couple was getting edgier by the minute, but Becky doesn't lose her cool.
15:27 Speaker 05 But the police just talked for ever, like apparently they couldn't find a car, or the car had been taken away for cleaning, or they couldn't find the keys or something. So the police talked nearly an hour, and so it started getting a little bit tense. And I remember Alan Masai was just standing there, looking at me very intently, and on some level, he knew his instincts were telling him that something was wrong.
15:51 Speaker 02 Finally, the police arrived.
15:53 Speaker 05 A man walked into reception who was obviously a detective, had a very nice suit on and short hair. And he was leaning over this top to the receptionist, sort of talking very quietly to her, and she was sort of looking up at him, not having a clue what was going on, looking quite quizzically at him. And I thought, oh my god, you know, we didn't tell her. So I just walked over and stood right next to him, but as though I was talking to the receptionist, and I just said, "They're right behind you." And he immediately turned around and went out. And so I went and stood behind the receptionist, because I said, "Oh, I'm not going to miss out on this." And then the door opened and a lot of, it seemed like about seven or eight detectives walked in, and it was probably only about three or four, but in my memory, the room was just full of men in suits.
16:35 Speaker 05 And they just went over to Alan Masai and Dominic Preu, and they talked for a little while, and then they took them out.
16:44 Speaker 02 Becky Hader has done a great job. Maybe the secret to her cool, calm work was the fact she hadn't yet connected the couple with the van to the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior.
16:55 Speaker 05 And then, you know, some of the older people in the office, who was sort of a bit more on to it, said, "Oh my god, this must have something to do with their boat being blown up." So, and so then we realised that, you know, it was quite a big deal what we were sort of mixed up in.
17:10 Speaker 02 Did you catch the two names Becky used there? Elaine Maffar and Dominique Prieur? Not Elaine and Sophie Touraine? The first charges are laid by police in Operation Rainbow.
17:24 Speaker 06 The couple, a man and a woman, are appearing in court today on charges laid under the Immigration Act. The man in charge of Operation Rainbow, Detective Superintendent Alan Galbraith, alleges the couple's Swiss passports are irregular and says because of this, they can't be certain of the couple's identities.
17:41 Speaker 02 The police know they didn't act alone and have the intel on those French sailors in Thangarei. So, just two days later, July 15th, a nine-strong New Zealand police team arrives on Norfolk Island. Norfolk's what's called an external Australian territory in the Pacific Ocean, halfway between New Zealand and New Caledonia. The Kiwi police are here to talk to the crew of the Ovea, which sailed out of Thangarei the night of the bombing. The officers don't get a lot out of the crew. One had already left for Singapore. They're able to carry out a close check of the yacht for traces of explosives. On board is a Newman's map of Auckland with fingerprints on it.
18:23 Speaker 02 But Australian law doesn't allow them to hold the crew any longer than 24 hours without an arrest or significant evidence. Cheers for that, Oz. So the Ovea is free to set sail the next day, 16th July. The crew say they're going to Numir. And sure enough, the ship's set sail. The police powerless to stop them, but the yacht never gets to Numir, nor do the men.
18:53 Speaker 02 The trail of baguette crumbs is leading in only one direction, but the French Embassy in Wellington officially denies the country has had anything to do with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. The French government, says political councillor Charles Montagnon, doesn't deal with its opponents in such ways. Yeah, right. But there's knowing something and there's being able to prove it. Frustration is high, felt by the police and the public at large. Prime Minister Longi sums up the mood.
19:23 Speaker 07 From the best information I have, I know who did it. And I know, from the best information I have, why it was done. But, let's be quite clear, that is different from having proof which can go to a court of law.
19:40 Speaker 02 Longi said three things about the bombing were clear.
19:43 Speaker 07 First, that it is well-funded. Second, that it is meticulously planned.
19:50 Speaker 02 And then he said something that the Kiwi public doesn't feel quite right about.
19:55 Speaker 07 Third, that it was external, in the sense that it is obviously
20:01 Speaker 07 nothing to do with New Zealand, except as the venue.
20:05 Speaker 02 Yeah, true, but also, yeah, nah. How well-planned or well-funded can an operation be if it can be taken down by waiting for a refund in Mount Wellington? Whether we were just a venue for this violence or not, here in New Zealand, Kiwis take the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior very personally. But right now, our collective feelings take a backseat to the extraordinary speed of the investigation.
20:34 Speaker 02 On July 23rd, materials seized by police from the yacht Uvea are confirmed to be from the explosives used to blow up the Rainbow Warrior. And the fingerprints of Elaine Turunge, Elaine Mafar, one-half of the Swiss couple, are found on that Newman's map police took from the yacht. Clearly, there's a link between a four-strong group of French yachters living up in Fungare, and a supposed Swiss couple who wanted a refund on their hired camper van. With that key bit of evidence, Operation Rainbow moves into its next phase. The Swiss newlyweds, who everyone knows are not Swiss newlyweds, are recharged, and this time, it's for more than dodgy passports.
21:15 Speaker 08 A man and a woman will appear in the Auckland District Court at TIM tomorrow morning. They will appear on charges of murder, arson, and conspiracy to commit arson. Mr Galbraith said that the arson charges related to the damage to the ship Rainbow Warrior by means of explosives.
21:32 Speaker 02 Everyone now believes it was France what done it, but no one can prove the French government, led by President Francois Mitterrand, actually ordered the operation. And from France itself comes a tidal wave of la fautes, deliberately designed to deflect attention and blame. Some of it comes from French government PR sources, masquerading as independent French journalists, using their independent investigative skills to ask some hard-hitting questions. Maybe, they muse, it was MI6, the CIA, or the South African Secret Service, or, yeah, the KGB. Aren't the crew all communists, anyway? Why is it impossible that one of the crew blew up the Rainbow Warrior?
22:18 Speaker 02 That's the sort of thing communists do, isn't it? One newspaper even claims that if France had blown up the Rainbow Warrior, it was justifiable because it was in self-defense. Here's their argument. You'll enjoy this.
22:36 Speaker 02 Paris Match magazine publishes an article saying that Greenpeace was not planning to protest at Mururo, but to invade it. The magazine says that part of the flotilla, a tug named Greenpeace, has a military-style landing craft on board. The crew of the tug had been planning to use the craft to recapture Mururo Atto by sending ashore ecologists and Polynesians.
23:06 Speaker 02 Ecologists and Polynesians. Heaven forbid. French President Mitterrand publicly condemned the bombing, calling it a criminal attack. If French agents are involved, he assures anyone who listens, then there would be stern punishment. He also writes a letter to Prime Minister Longi, offering France's full cooperation. But he probably didn't really mean it. By August 1985, some properly independent French journalists are asking France's political leaders tough questions, laying out the evidence that there is a case to be answered. Under pressure, the French government appointed an official, called Bernard Tricot, to investigate.
23:55 Speaker 02 In less than a month, on August 26, 1985, the Tricot Report is published. Spoiler alert: it doesn't go well. The report says, "Yeah, the Turenge's are French, not Swiss. Their real names are Commander Alain Mafard and Captain Dominique Prillot. And yeah, they're agents of the DGSE, France's secret service. And oh yeah, three of the crew of OVA, who have now turned up in Paris but with different names? They're DGSE too, and the fourth was a doctor in the reserves. And yeah, Frederique Bonneville, the Greenpeace volunteer, well, her real name is Christine. Well, actually, Lieutenant Christine Cabon.
24:39 Speaker 02 And yeah, she's also DGSE. But nah, they didn't blow up the Rainbow Warrior. Their job was to infiltrate Greenpeace, to observe, and to think up ways to counter the group's actions. So nah, definitely nah, none of these secret agents blew up Greenpeace's ship. And there's no evidence to suggest any of this was ordered at the highest levels of French government. No one, and I mean no one, believes Bernard Tricot's report. Even lots of French go, "Oui, non." One French newspaper goes with the headline, "Tricot washes whiter."
25:22 Speaker 02 Prime Minister David Longy had the best line, though, as usual. "The Tricot Report was not a whitewash," he said, "because it's too transparent." Bernard Tricot later admits he may have been deceived by his sources. Meanwhile, the French government refuses to extradite the OVA crew, who have turned up in France, back to New Zealand for questioning, which is what President Mitchelon must have meant when he pledged full cooperation. In September 1985, Le Monde, hardly a radical newspaper, publishes a story saying there was actually a third team of agents in New Zealand, and the orders came from the top. Remember, it'd been just four months since the bombing, and Le Monde don't have all
26:06 Speaker 02 the information yet, but you'll see just how close they get to the full picture.
26:14 Speaker 02 First, there's the Ovea crew. They transported the Zodiac boat and the magnetic mines to New Zealand. Second, the Terrengers, who aren't the Terrengers but Alain Maffa and Dominique Prieur, got the Zodiac and the mines to the dive crew, who Le Mon named as Jean Camas, alias Jacques Camurier, and Jean-Luc Guister, alias Alain Tonnal. They attached the mines to the hull of the Warrior. In charge of it all, from his vantage point in the Hyatt Hotel, was Jean-Louis Domard. His mum calls him Louis Pierre Delay. His colleagues in the DGSE, they call him Colonel Delay. Delay, or perhaps another, we'll get to that,
26:57 Speaker 02 probably skippered the Zodiac with the divers on board. They attached mines to the Warrior around 8:30 PM, during the planning meeting held by the skippers of the Peace Flotilla. The Terrengers picked up the driver of the Zodiac and some of the gear in Hobson Bay, where they were seen at 9:30 PM and reported on. The teams disperse. The Terrengers to their hotel, presumably. François Verlay, the friendly visitor to the Warrior that night, flies out to Tokyo. The Ovea and her crew leave for Numira. They scuttle the yacht after leaving Norfolk Island and it's believed they're picked up in the middle of the ocean by a French Navy submarine and eventually go home to France. The dive crew go to the South Island
27:40 Speaker 02 and spend an enjoyable couple of weeks skiing before leaving the country.
27:46 Speaker 02 French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius orders a new investigation. He says he wants the truth this time.
27:54 Speaker 02 As the facade starts to crumble, so too do operatives of the French government. On 21st September 1985, the French Defence Minister Charles Hurnou resigns. Admiral Pierre Lacoste, DGSE boss, is sacked for not answering official questions about the bombing. Two days later, Prime Minister Fabius fronts up to the media. Fabius admits everything. Agents of the French Secret Service, the DGSE, sank the Rainbow Warrior. They were acting on orders.
28:28 Speaker 02 The truth, he says, is cruel. This sounds like vindication for Greenpeace, for the family of Fernando Pereda. But Prime Minister Fabius goes on to say that their agents must be protected. They wouldn't be extradited or charged. After all, they were only doing what they were told.
28:53 Speaker 02 So, not really a victory at all, and certainly not for New Zealand, which was about to pay a long, painful, and humiliating price for being just the venue for an act of international terrorism.
29:08 Speaker 02 In November 1985, in front of TV crews from around the world, the criminal proceedings against Alay Mafah and Dominique Prier begin in the Auckland High Court.
29:19 Speaker 02 New Zealand's never seen security like this around a court case.
29:23 Speaker 09 Electronic screening is installed for the duration of the hearing, with everyone having to go through a metal detector at the main door. If the alarm sounds, the person and their baggage will be searched before they're allowed to proceed any further. Everyone, including all counsel, will be screened in this way. Outside, closed-circuit TV cameras are focused on the building, and spotlights are mounted along the roof. The man in charge, Chief Inspector Joe Dumble, won't elaborate much further, but admits the measures are unprecedented for this country.
29:48 Speaker 02 This isn't a full trial, but a preliminary case to establish if there's enough evidence to proceed with a criminal case. There's certainly enough drama.
29:57 Speaker 10 Alay Mafah have arrived paramilitary style in a windowless van with bull bars that's never been seen before. Two police cars escorted them with lights flashing. The van backed into a specially constructed area, watched over by an armed soldier, and the whole procedure was videotaped. About 50 cameras and television lenses tried to focus in on the couple and the cars, but it looks as if attempts to get photos of Prier and Mafah were thwarted by high-security gates.
30:25 Speaker 02 But almost as soon as it began, the drama's all over.
30:31 Speaker 11 There's been a sensation at the Rainbow Warrior court hearing in Auckland this morning, with the two French Army officers admitting their involvement in the bombing and the death of one of the protest boat's crew members.
30:41 Speaker 12 The sensational move came after the Crown dropped the murder charges against them, and substituted those charges with charges of manslaughter, which carries a much lesser penalty. The couple were formally identified in court for the first time as French Army officers, Captain Frederick Prir and Major Alan Muffar. They both formally pleaded guilty to charges of willfully damaging the ship, the Rainbow Warrior, by means of an explosive device. They also pleaded guilty to charges that they caused the death of crew member Fernando Pereira by an unlawful act, namely by willfully damaging the ship by means of explosive, and thereby committed manslaughter. The solicitor, General Paul Nazer, who appeared in court, said that whatever larger question arose from the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, the proceedings were concerned only with
31:25 Speaker 12 the criminal responsibility in New Zealand law of the two accused. He says the issue of prime importance was whether the Crown should seek to proceed with the charge of murder. He accepted that the evidence that was available and admissible could not establish that the two were personally responsible for placing explosive devices on the Rainbow Warrior, nor that they had the intention anyone should be killed, nor that they had knowledge of where the explosives would be placed and that they'd be likely to cause death. The two, who have now admitted the charge of manslaughter, have been remanded for sentence.
31:56 Speaker 02 In a plea deal, Muffar and Prir are sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter, which seems to most New Zealanders as kind of light in the circumstances. It is the first of a series of disappointments. David McTaggert from Greenpeace tries to be brave about it.
32:10 Speaker 13 I would say this is the first step of justice, but there's still a lot of other agents and the French government that should be responsible and should have been in court today.
32:21 Speaker 02 Almost immediately, there are calls inside France to get their agents home. Just days later, France increases the heat in these negotiations by calling for economic sanctions against New Zealand, and, to a lesser extent, Australia, who had the temerity to support the Kiwis. In the new year, France comes good on its fret, banning the import of our fish, our canned kiwi fruit, frozen lamb, and bizarrely, lamb brains. Who knew? Geoffrey Palmer knew, that's who.
32:52 Speaker 14 This was an act of war on a friendly power. You can't go around bombing people's ships in harbors without being at war.
33:01 Speaker 02 In 1985, Palmer was New Zealand's Attorney General and Deputy PM. He's 82 now, still lecturing in law at Victoria University of Wellington with a formidable record of legislation and publications to his name. I'm in his office there. Palmer is friendly, enthusiastic, and with a halo of frizzy white hair. Despite this, I feel a bit like I did when I once studied law there. For all I think I know, this man knows much, much more.
33:28 Speaker 14 I made New Zealand's speech at the United Nations General Assembly, objecting to the behaviour of France in a pretty downright manner.
33:37 Speaker 02 In 1985, it was his job to take to the international stage to demand that the French be held to account.
33:44 Speaker 14 I started negotiations about this whole matter with the French Foreign Minister, Dr Dumas, who was at the General Assembly at the same time.
33:55 Speaker 02 But these negotiations are very, very tough. France won't make a move until her agents are returned. By the middle of 1986, the dispute is in front of the United Nations. David Longy, as Prime Minister, had been eloquent and forceful in putting New Zealand's case to the public, at home and abroad.
34:14 Speaker 14 We had also a lot of public support, and that was critical. The efforts to dislodge the public from us were, on this issue, a lamentable failure.
34:27 Speaker 02 Publicly, yes, there was support among the people. But even at this point, not many nations want to stand next to New Zealand, as we argued with a nuclear nation the size and importance of France. New Zealand's traditional friends and allies, the United Kingdom and the United States, rally away from her. British Prime Minister Thatcher, no friend of Greenpeace, refuses to condemn France or, as her Foreign Secretary says, rub salt in the French wounds. French wounds, huh.
34:59 Speaker 02 But by July 1986, nearly a year after the bombing and the killing of Fernando Pradera, an agreement is finally reached.
35:08 Speaker 14 A secret negotiation was held between the French lawyers and the New Zealand lawyers in Switzerland. And the result was that the defects that were rectified, and it was all put in front of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Perez de Quayre. And he issued a binding ruling on New Zealand and France. The result was that what we got out of it was everything that you could ever get without going to an international court, which France would have resisted and could have resisted.
35:43 Speaker 02 France will apologize to New Zealand and also pay it thirteen million dollars in compensation. Mafard and Prier will be transferred to Haul-Attos, a French military base in the Pacific, to serve a minimum three years of their original ten-year sentence. By a happy coincidence, Prier's husband, Joel, is soon made head of security there. Yeah. In June 1987, New Zealand feels slightly better about the whole thing when it humiliates the French rugby team in the final of the World Cup. The venue: Auckland, New Zealand. But then...
36:20 Speaker 14 The French, having agreed to keeping the French prisoners in detention, let them out.
36:27 Speaker 02 That's right. The agents are set free. It seems that the lame Mafard has a mysterious stomach ailment and will be transferred off Haul back to France to have it treated. The French won't provide any details, but trust them, the condition cannot be doubt with on Haul. David Longy says the agent should come to New Zealand to be treated. After all, he says, they're clearly not treble shy.
36:52 Speaker 02 And six months later, the Priers get to go home too. Dominique is pregnant, and her father is suffering from cancer.
37:01 Speaker 02 Both Mafard and Prier are given a hero's welcome in France, plus medals and promotions because... justice... or something.
37:10 Speaker 02 Mafah makes a full recovery from his tummy ailment. Thank goodness. Neither heed nor prayer ever return to Ha'otu. Three years later, in 1991, a man called Girale Andri is arrested in Switzerland. He had been known in New Zealand as Iriig Enjank, one of the hyper-French crew of the Ovea. New Zealand wants to extradite him to face the music. France denies this request, arguing that the 1986 agreement covered all their agents, not just Mafah and Prier. And just in case that argument proves to be the nonsense it sounds like, they again threaten to crush New Zealand exports to France. New Zealand caves. Andri is not extradited. It's a complete humiliation.
37:57 Speaker 02 There have been some wins along the way, I guess. The protest by a flotilla of peace ships still took place at Mururo, led by the Tag Greenpeace. No environmentalists, all Polynesians invaded the Atau. You're welcome. Although the tests go ahead, public sympathy in New Zealand swings behind Greenpeace even more strongly and keep the threats caused by nuclear testing front of mind for Kiwis. By the end of 1986, a full 90% of New Zealanders support banning nuclear ships. Even more support banning the French.
38:28 Speaker 15 South Pacific nations are close to agreement on a formal treaty declaring the South Pacific a nuclear-free zone.
38:35 Speaker 02 The Treaty of Rarotonga is signed that year, too.
38:38 Speaker 15 The treaty proposed by Australia two years ago will bind the 13 nations of the South Pacific Forum to forbid forever the manufacture, stationing, and testing of nuclear weapons in their territories.
38:50 Speaker 02 On August 6, 1985, the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Naoru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, New Zealand, and Australia met in Rarotonga to sign the treaty. A year later, it came into full effect. An enormous part of the Pacific became nuclear-free and remains so to this day.
39:15 Speaker 16 What it does do is bring the South Pacific together on the issue and try to put pressure on France to have some sympathy about the nuclear thing issue and to stop it if possible.
39:31 Speaker 02 11 years later, in 1996, the United Kingdom signed the treaty. And believe it or not, so did France. But they had decided to stop testing in the Pacific by then. A bit of a hollow gesture. In 1987, the Nuclear-Free New Zealand Zone Disarmament and Arms Control Act had come into force. The Act bans nuclear-powered ships from entering New Zealand waters, as well as the acquisition, stationing, and testing of nuclear explosive devices. In response, the United States and Australia suspended their ANZUS obligations to New Zealand. We were now friends, not allies.
40:13 Speaker 02 As of November 2024, the Act is still part of New Zealand law.
40:18 Speaker 14 That is the law then, passed in 1987. It is the law today. It has never been changed, and it works.
40:29 Speaker 02 There have been various admissions and apologies over the years. Aleem Mafar left the DGSE end in 1999. He published a book about his career. In it, he expressed his sorrow for the death of Fernando Pereira. "They never meant to kill anyone," he said. He also called New Zealand "the Switzerland of the South", "an insular nation distant, withdrawn, which does not think for a second that it will get caught up in the turbulence of the world." True perhaps, but you know, a bit rude. Mafar also claimed informing the police is a national duty in New Zealand. I think this would come as a surprise to New Zealand police. Aleem Mafar later became a wildlife photographer, and one of his pictures was published in a Greenpeace calendar.
41:12 Speaker 02 Mafar had fooled everyone by entering under a different name. Not for the first time, but an absolute dick move. Dominique Prier also published a book in 1995. In it, she says she was terrified and appalled by Pereira's death. "We hadn't come to kill anyone," she wrote. Prio later became an HR person for the Paris Fire Brigade. In 2005, Admiral Lacoste, who was Mafar and Prio's boss at DGSE, confirmed that President Mitterand, who died in 1996, personally approved the plan to blow up the Warrior. Well, quell surprise, mon ami. In 2006, Gerard Royal, brother of French politician Segoline Royal,
41:56 Speaker 02 was named by journalists as the third member of the dive team. The New Zealand government decided against seeking extradition and laying charges, despite pleas from the family of Fernando Pereira for justice for their father. Over the years, there have been a string of further apologies by Jean-Luc Kyster, Christine Gabon, et cetera, et cetera. All of them followed the Mafar-Prio script. Appalled by the death of Fernando Pereira, never meant to kill anyone. Sorry to New Zealand, what a failure the mission was. Exactly what you would say if you were them, I guess. Rainbow Warrior skipper Peter Wilcox has always been consistent in his response to these apologies. He finds it hard to believe the French team didn't know what would happen when the mines went off.
42:40 Speaker 17 The first bomb blew a two-by-two-and-a-half-meter hole in the hull, and the boat sank in 45 seconds. It really doesn't sound to me like they were concerned at all about the life on board the ship. This was a professional dive team, they were military-trained. I guess they were the best, best of the French military divers. And are you telling me they had no idea what the, what the power of that bomb was gonna do?
43:07 Speaker 02 He also said it was not up to him to forgive, and justice had not been done.
43:11 Speaker 17 Someone was murdered in cold blood. Two people that were part of the team spent, I guess it was a year in jail in New Zealand. No, I don't think justice was ever done. I think that's a ridiculous notion.
43:26 Speaker 02 Prime Minister David Longy, who died in 2005, always maintained that the French weren't sorry for blowing up the Rainbow Warrior. They were just sorry they got caught. Geoffrey Palmer agrees.
43:38 Speaker 14 Oh, come on. If you're going to mine a ship, do you think it's going to sink or not? Any sensible analysis would not have suggested to France that they should have done this.
43:48 Speaker 02 The crew have mostly been gracious about these apologies. But most seem to agree with Peter Wilcox that justice, for the ship, for Fernando, for his family, has never really happened. Meral Pirea, who was eight when her father was trapped and drowned in his cabin by the second mine exploding, told a film crew in 2018 that the family had accepted what had happened to her father. That didn't mean they were going to forgive and forget. 2025 marks 40 years since the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior and nearly 30 since the end of testing in the Pacific. Relations between France and New Zealand are pretty good, according to Geoffrey Palmer. He thinks the profile of Greenpeace soared after this time, too.
44:32 Speaker 02 And the anti-nuclear cause went mainstream across the world. But they're at a price, eh? The Warrior was lifted out of Auckland Harbour, refloated and repaired, just enough to make a last, last voyage. On July 16, 1986, the patched-up-old Warrior was towed to Motori Bay, nearly 300 kilometres north of Auckland, on the east coast of Northland. The local Iwi, Natikula, had offered to take her under their protection and to let her have a new ending to her story. On another winter's day, with a flotilla of boats all around her,
45:13 Speaker 02 the Rainbow Warrior was sunk once more, this time gently and with love, to create an artificial reef for fish and a site for divers to visit. On the tip of the bay above her, there's a memorial by sculptor Chris Booth. In the centre, facing east towards the rising sun, is the ship's propeller. Around it is an ark of rocks in the shape of a rainbow.
45:46 Speaker 02 Next episode, we go back to the Marshall Islands to look at the fallout from Operation Exodus, the fate of Jeter Najan, and the future of the Rongelap people. That's in the finale of The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior.
46:04 Speaker 02 The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior was written, produced, and presented by me, James Norkese. Sophie Townsend is the script editor and writer. Justin Gregory, writer and producer. The Last Voyage is a co-production between ABC Radio Australia and RNZ. Justine Kelly is the head of ABC Radio Australia. Tim Watkins is executive editor, audio for RNZ. Faleanga Fulu Inga Stunza is the content director for ABC Radio Australia. Piana Yuritic-Gregg is the production coordinator for RNZ. Alison Barclay for the ABC. RNZ's Rangi Poik engineered the series. Designed by Dexter Edwards. Website by Hingi Kong for RNZ.
46:46 Speaker 02 Huge thanks to Eve Burns, Hilary Hosier, Giff Johnson from the Marshall Islands Journal. Our respect and love to all the people we met in the Marshall Islands. To listen to more episodes of The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior, head to ABC Pacific. Fathai dalava, komutalo.
47:05 Speaker 02 Catch the whole series wherever you listen to your podcasts.
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