Twenty years after French secret agents bombed the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, members of the original crew gathered to pay tribute to their colleague who died in the explosions and to appeal for world peace.
The New Zealand commemorations were the first of many to be held around the world, including a gathering of 500 activists from 14 countries in Paris.
French President Francois Mitterand gave the go-ahead for the attack, Le Monde newspaper in France reported Saturday, quoting from a document written by then secret service (DGSE) chief Admiral Pierre Lacoste.
On July 10, 1985, two explosions on the Rainbow Warrior rocked Auckland's Waitemata Harbour, killing photographer Fernando Pereira. The bombs were planted by French agents, in response to Greenpeace's protests against the French nuclear testing program in the Pacific.
Two decades later at Matauri Bay, north of here, original skipper Pete Willcox dived 25m to where the wreck of the boat now lies and placed a memorial sculpture on the bridge, while above Pereira's daughter Marelle cast flowers into the water. Crew member Steve Sawyer, whose birthday was being celebrated on the night of the bombing, urged world leaders to stop spending money and intelligence on more sophisticated nuclear weapons and to instead promote peace, combat climate change and preserve the world's forests and oceans.
"Today we are facing a bigger nuclear threat as an ever-increasing number of states continue their development of nuclear weapons," he said.
"No bomb will stop conflict -- whether it be in the arsenals of the nuclear weapons states, on the Rainbow Warrior, on buses and tube stations in London nor on the streets of Baghdad."
Greenpeace France disarmament campaigner Xavier Renou called on his government to get rid of its nuclear weapons. At 11:48pm, at the time the first bomb went off, there will be two minutes' silence at a Rainbow Warrior tribute concert in Auckland. Prime Minister Helen Clark is to speak at a Greenpeace reception before the concert.
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