On this day in 1985, the Rainbow Warrior—a decommissioned trawling ship that was owned and operated by activists from Greenpeace—was struck by a mysterious explosion where it was docked at a wharf in New Zealand. A photographer working with Greenpeace, Fernando Pereira, went onboard to try and retrieve his camera equipment before the ship completely sank, only to be killed by a second, even bigger explosion. And who was responsible for this heinous act of terrorism? As it turned out, the French government was.
For years, the Rainbow Warrior and its crew had sailed around the world, mounting all kinds of environmental and humanitarian protests. They intercepted whaling ships off the coast of Iceland and hassled fur hunters in northern Canada—but most of all, they got in the way of nuclear weapons tests. Shortly before its fiery demise, the Rainbow Warrior was scheduled to lead a group of ships from around the world to Mururoa Atoll to protest French nuclear blasts there. So the French government launched a covert mission, aptly named Opération Satanique, against the activist group. After weeks of spying, secret service agents planted two explosive mines on the Rainbow Warrior before it could reach Mururoa, sinking the ship and killing Pereira. The bomb test went ahead as planned.
After months of public outrage, the French government finally admitted what it had done in September 1985, and it paid extensive reparations to both Greenpeace and Pereira’s family. But 40 years later, the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior remains an important reminder that the military-industrial complex is one of the worst threats to both the environment and human life today—and that even supposedly civilized, liberal governments like France’s can never be fully trusted.
The Rainbow Warrior in 1981. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
