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French Murder, French Terrorism, French Justice? At 23.49 on 10th July 1985 whilst moored in Auckland harbour New Zealand, a bomb exploded on board the MV Rainbow Warrior. The bomb sank the ship, injuring several crewmembers and killing Fernando Pereira a photographer and crewman. Two days later on 12th July the French Embassy in Wellington New Zealand, issued a statement made on behalf of the French Government in Paris which flatly denied any involvement with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. Three days later (15th July) the New Zealand police arrested French Secret Service Agents Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur as they tried to return their van to an Auckland hire company Within a month (August) the French Government announced the results of it's own inquiry into the Rainbow Warrior sinking. At it's conclusion the head of the inquiry, Bernard Tricot, a former Director- General of the Elysee Palace, announced, 'On the basis of the information available to me at this time, I do not believe there was any French responsibility. Following claims in the London Sunday Times that President Mitterrand had known of the bombing plan, and implicitly, therefore had authorised it, French Defence Minister Charles Hernu resigned and Admiral Pierre Lacoste, director of the DGSE, France's intelligence and covert action bureau, was sacked. Within days Prime Minister Fabius admitted French secret service agents had bombed the Rainbow Warrior under orders. It was, said New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange, nothing more than 'a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism'. Charged with murder and arson, on 4 November Mafart and Prieur, just two of a much larger team of saboteurs, pleaded guilty in the High Court at Auckland to lesser charges of manslaughter and wilful damage and were each sentenced to ten years' jail. Their guilty plea ensured that the facts of the police investigation would never be made public. In June 1986, the United Nations Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, brokered a political deal between France and New Zealand. The elements of the deal included stipulations that France was to pay compensation of NZ$13 million (US$6.5 million) to New Zealand and give an official diplomatic apology for this act of terrorism. In return for these things Mafart and Prieur would be released from their custodial sentences in New Zealand, and would instead be detained at the French military base on Hao atoll for a further three years. Both spies were freed by France in May 1988, much sooner than the agreed three year detention. Brennig Jones, November 1997 You can E-mail me: At home: