Fernando Pereira was a freelance Portuguese-Dutch photographer, who drowned when French intelligence (DGSE) detonated a bomb and sank the Rainbow Warrior, owned by the environmental organisation Greenpeace on 10 July 1985.
The General Directorate for External Security is France's foreign intelligence agency, equivalent to the British MI6 and the American CIA. The DGSE safeguards French national security through intelligence gathering and conducting paramilitary and counterintelligence operations abroad, as well as economic espionage. It is headquartered in the 20th arrondissement of Paris.
The sinking of Rainbow Warrior, codenamed Opération Satanique, was a bombing operation by the "action" branch of the French foreign intelligence services, the Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (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.
Ouvéa, named after Ouvéa Island, was the name of a yacht used by three DGSE agents to import the naval mines used to sink the Greenpeace protest yacht Rainbow Warrior in 1985, killing photographer Fernando Pereira. The Ouvéa was sailed to Norfolk Island after the bombing. After New Zealand Police arrested two other agents still in New Zealand, the Ouvéa set to sea and was scuttled, while the crew transferred to the French submarine Rubis, to make their escape.
Charles Hernu was a French socialist politician. He served as Minister of Defence from 1981 to 1985, until forced to resign over the bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand.
Peter Willcox is an American sea captain best known for his activism with the environmental organization Greenpeace. He was on board as captain of the Rainbow Warrior when it was bombed and sunk by the DGSE in New Zealand in 1985. In 2013, he was aboard the MV Arctic Sunrise when the Russian military boarded it and arrested him and 30 other activists in what became known as the "Arctic 30." He was detained for two months before being released. In 2014, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Guardian for his environmental activism.
Dominique Prieur is a French military officer who was convicted of manslaughter over her part in the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior.
Gérard Royal is a former agent of the French intelligence agency Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure, who is accused of being one of those responsible for the bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior. A long serving officer, who retired from the French Army with the rank of Colonel, Royal works in an "economic intelligence business". He is the brother of former French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal.
In 1984, Prime Minister David Lange banned nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships from using New Zealand ports or entering New Zealand waters. Under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987, territorial sea, land and airspace of New Zealand became nuclear-free zones. This has since remained a part of New Zealand's foreign policy.
The Rainbow Warrior is a 1993 made-for-television drama film directed by Michael Tuchner and starring Jon Voight and Sam Neill.
The Rainbow Warrior Case was a dispute between New Zealand and France that arose in the aftermath of the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. It was arbitrated by UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar in 1986, and became significant in the subject of Public International Law for its implications on State responsibility.
France–New Zealand relations refers to international relations between New Zealand and France. Relations between France and New Zealand have been rocky at times, but more recently have become much closer. Bilateral relations have been generally good since World War I and World War II, with both countries working closely during the conflicts, but the relationship was severely jeopardised by the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland on 10 July 1985 by French Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE) agents.
Rainbow Warrior was a Greenpeace boat active in supporting a number of anti-whaling, anti-seal hunting, anti-nuclear testing and anti-nuclear waste dumping campaigns during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure bombed Rainbow Warrior in the Port of Auckland, New Zealand on 10 July 1985, sinking the ship and killing photographer Fernando Pereira.
Rainbow Warrior was a three-masted schooner most notable for service with the environmental protection organization Greenpeace. She was built to replace the original Rainbow Warrior that the French intelligence service (DGSE) bombed in 1985 in the Port of Auckland, New Zealand, which sank the ship and killed photographer Fernando Pereira.
In the 1970s, an anti-nuclear movement in France, consisting of citizens' groups and political action committees, emerged. Between 1975 and 1977, some 175,000 people protested against nuclear power in ten demonstrations.
Portuguese New Zealanders are either Portuguese who migrated to New Zealand, or New Zealanders of Portuguese descent. According to the latest 2006 New Zealand census, 195 residents of the country declared Portugal to be the place of their birth, and it is estimated that Portuguese migrants and their descendants number approximately 650, down from 900 in 2006, and 1000 in 1996. On 22 April 2010, Portuguese New Zealanders were recognised by the Office of Ethnic Affairs as an official community of New Zealand, having tied the 70th ribbon to Parliament's mooring stone on the Parliament House Galleria. The Portuguese Embassy in Canberra, Australia is accredited to New Zealand, while there are two honorary Portuguese consulates in New Zealand, one in Wellington and the other in Auckland, both of which operate through the Portuguese Consulate-General in Sydney.
Louis-Pierre Dillais is a French businessman. He acknowledged his involvement with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in an interview with New Zealand State broadcaster TVNZ in 2005. Admiral Pierre Lacoste said in 2005 to the New Zealand Herald that Dillais was not part of the "third team".
The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy is a 1988 Australian-New Zealand mini series based on the Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. It was written by David Phillips, and directed by Chris Thomson, and stars Jack Thompson, Brad Davis and Germain Houde.
René Imbot was a French general. In 1983 he was appointed as Head of the French Army. Two years later he reached the normal French army retirement age, but after the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior caused Admiral Pierre Lacoste to lose the position, Imbot took over as head of Overseas Intelligence .
Stephen Gregory Sawyer was an American environmentalist and activist. He served as a leader of Greenpeace for nearly 30 years, including two decades as executive director. While on a mission to stop French nuclear testing in French Polynesia, he survived France's bombing of the Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior, which occurred on his 29th birthday.
