Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
1985 covert attack by French foreign intelligence service on a Greenpeace ship / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The sinking of Rainbow Warrior, codenamed Opération Satanique,[1] was a state terrorism bombing operation by the "action" branch of the French foreign intelligence agency, the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), carried out on 10 July 1985. During the operation, two operatives sank the flagship of the Greenpeace fleet, Rainbow Warrior, at the Port of Auckland on her way to a protest against a planned French nuclear test in Moruroa. Fernando Pereira, a photographer, drowned on the sinking ship.
Sinking of Rainbow Warrior | ||||
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Date | 10 July 1985; 38 years ago (1985-07-10) | |||
Location | 36°50′32″S 174°46′18″E | |||
Caused by | Retaliation for protests by Greenpeace against French nuclear testing | |||
Goals | To sink Rainbow Warrior | |||
Methods | Bombing | |||
Resulted in | Rainbow Warrior sunk, 1 person killed | |||
Parties | ||||
Lead figures | ||||
Skipper Peter Willcox Prime Minister David Lange | ||||
Units involved | ||||
Casualties and losses | ||||
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The sinking was a cause of embarrassment to France and President François Mitterrand. They initially denied responsibility, but two French agents were captured by New Zealand Police and charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson, willful damage, and murder. It resulted in a scandal which led to the resignation of the French Defence Minister Charles Hernu, while the two agents pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to ten years in prison. They spent a little over two years confined to the Polynesian island of Hao before being freed by the French government.[2]
France was also forced to apologise and had to pay reparations to New Zealand, Pereira's family and to Greenpeace.