Text 5180, 112 rader
Skriven 2010-02-23 13:56:40 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
   Kommentar till text 5158 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: Re: rainbow warrior
===========================
DS> What was the French reasoning to justify that action?  What was the RW
DS> doing at the time?
 
The French never justified, in the days before their involvement was exposed
French authorities pointed the finger even at MI6 (British secret service) and
condemned the bombing. It was interesting that while they were condemning and
pointing fingers, Dominique Prieur and Alain Maffart had already been
apprehended by swift police action and an attentive car rental agent after a
neighbourhood watch across the harbour was able to write down a partial
car-registration. [instead of just abandoning the vehicle somewhere in a
parking garage, they returned to the carrental agency as they needed the
invoice for their administration and a refund of some 120 New Zealand dollars
(?)]
 
The trail of evidencee left behind was so wide and obvious that in the NZ press
a journalist wrote "All that is missing is a beret, a baguette and a bottle of
Beaujolais".
 
The Rainbow Warrior had just returned from an intensive campaign where they
relocated the population of Rongelap in the Marshall islands (US jurisdiction)
which had been contaminated by the radio-active fall-out from 66 US
fission-bomb tests on or near Bikini atol. Inhabitans of Bikini and Eniwetok
had been evacuated by the US but the Rongelapese at 150km (less than 100 miles)
were not so lucky. Within 4 hours of the Bravo-explosion on March 1st 1954 (a
hydrogen bomb, 15 megatons, 1,000 times the force of Hiroshima) fall-out
rained-down on them.
 
Only after 48hrs were they evacuated. The Rongelapese were returned to their
island in 1957 although no attempt had been made for any kind of clean-up
although it continually had been dosed by fall-out from other nuclear tests.
 
In US documents they are described as an interesting test-group to see the
long-term effects of radiation.
 
Thirty one years on, 95% of the population alive between 1948 and 1954 had
contracted thyroid cancer and a high proportion of their children suffered from
genetic defects. The islanders' plea to the US government for relocation had
always been denied, no-one was willing to help them.
 
So in 1985 Greenpeace went there with the Rainbow Warrior and worked with
Rongelapese to dismantle their homes and relocate the people to the safe island
of Mejato, 180 kilometres away.
 
It was a heavy job and when it was done the boat and the crew went to Auckland
for rest, refueling, stocking-up on food and basic maintenance of the ship.
 
After that it would be the lead-vessel in a flotilla of private yachts going to
the French atol of Mururoa where the French had been performing sub-seabed
nuclear tests and in the process were damaging the atol, the reefs and the
seabottom. It would act as a kind of mothership with supplies, rescue,
communication and the intention was to enter the forbidden zone (in
international waters). In the past the Greenpeace yacht 'Vega' had done this
and was sliced in half by a French military vessel. Now there would be dozens
of yachts and the whole French navy was not going to be enough to stop 'm.
 
The only thing that could be done to stop the armada was to stop the Rainbow
Warrior. The other boats were too small to try it unassisted en masse.
 
Greenpeace NZ had been infiltrated by a French undercover agent who prepared
the attack on the Rainbow Warrior on Marsden Wharf.
 
The French flew crews in into Australia and chartered a sailingyacht, the
"Ouvea" who met a French nuclear sub at sea to transfer the explosives. There
were 5 land crews.
 
When the Ouvéa left after the terrorist attack it was never heard or seen from
again but we know it contacted a French nuclear sub which took-on the sailing
crew and most likely the yacht was scuttled.
 
The case caused an incredible riot in France and years later it was revealed
that the order for the bombing came from the President himself.
 
New Zealand immediately alligned itself in the nuclear-arms free world and
cancelled the ANZUS-agreement thereby banning US nuclear powered vessels from
its ports.
 
The attack from France was nothing less than a military assault from one
country onto the territory of one of its traditional allies. It sent a
shockwave through New Zealand.
 
There was a lot of political fall-out. Alain Maffart and Dominique Prieur
pleaded guilty to avoid a lengthy trial and were ordered to 10 years of
emprisonment for manslaughter and related charges (I thought that was a
ridiculous small punishment).
 
France used its political leverage in the EU as a result to block New Zealand
imports into Europe and thereby hurt the NZ economy (I think it mainly had to
do with sheep wool and meat). A deal was eventually struck with a substantial
monetary compensation for NZ, brokered by the UN under Perez-de-Cuellar, and
the 2 French accomplices were transfered to the French Pacific island Hoa to
serve the remainder of their sentence in a French "jail".
 
Within 2 years both were in Paris and free. Alain Maffart for medical reasons
and Dominiqur Prieur also for "medical reasons" ... her husband had visited her
at Hoa and she was pregnant. With no child-support services available she "had
to" be moved to France. Remarkable ... at Hoa they could perform open-heart
surgery, but they could not treat a common-cold nor deliver a baby. (the French
military hospital also served the local population, which included delivery of
babies. The base has been closed in 2002)
 
Both have written books about "Operation Satanique". All the other individuals
have been identified, none were tried, extradition requests by New Zealand
still are denied. One of them is now a FN Herstal (Belgian weapons
manufacturer) executive in the USA. His main client is ... the New Zealand
military.
 
Take care,
 
 \%/@rd

--- D'Bridge 3.49
 * Origin: Many Glacier -- "The Lord of the Pings" (2:292/854)