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32 | Repúblika | republikamagazine.com Issue 17 | July-August 2015 BOOK You can’t sink a rainbow

By DAVID ROBIE

A year after Eyes of Fire was first published, in January 1987 – four months before the military coups, I was arrested at gun- point by French troops near the New Caledonian village of Canala. The arrest followed a week of me be- This paranoid drama over my re- When Marie-Thérèse and Bengt ing tailed by secret agents in Noumea. porting of the militarisation of East Danielsson’s then 22-year-old damn- When I was handed over by the mili- Coast villages in an attempt by French ing indictment of French nuclear co- tary to local gendarmerie for inter- authorities to harass and suppress lonialism, Moruroa, Mon Amour, was rogation, accusations of my being a supporters of Kanak independence republished in 1986 with new sections ‘spy’ and questions over my book on featured on the front page of the New under the title Poisoned Reign, French the bombing were Zealand Sunday Times and Les Nou- intransigence over nuclear testing and made in the same breath. But after velles Calédoniennes in Noumea. It was demands for independence in Tahiti about four hours of questioning I was also covered by a regional Pacific news was at a peak. It seemed unlikely then released. magazine. that in less than two decades, nuclear

Rainbow Warrior III passes by the last resting place of the bombed Warrior near the Cavalli Islands, Northland. PHOTO: NIGEL MARPLE/

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Rainbow Warrior on the morning after the bombing in Auckland. Inset: The cover of Islands Business featuring David Robies’ story in the August 1985.

testing would be finally abandoned in an arched creation by Kerikeri sculp- The agreement included an apology the South Pacific – and Tahiti’s leading tor Chris Booth – incorporating the by France and the deportation of jailed nuclear-free and pro-independence bombed ship’s brass propeller. secret agents Alain Mafart and Domi- politician, Oscar Manutahi Temaru, However, the decision to scuttle nique Prieur after they had served less would emerge as the territory’s new the first Rainbow Warrior has angered than a year of their 10-year sentences president four times and usher in a skipper Peter Willox to this day. Just for manslaughter and wilful damage refreshing ‘new order’ with a com- seven months earlier, at the time of of the bombed ship. They were trans- mitment to pan-Pacific relations. Al- arbitration hearings in Geneva in May ferred from New Zealand to Hao Atoll though independence is nominally 1987, Greenpeace International’s Da- in French Polynesia to serve three off the agenda for the moment, far- vid McTaggart had told Willcox that years in exile at a ‘Club Med’ style nu- reaching changes in the region are in- he was going to get a cheque in a few clear and military base. evitable. months to fix up the Warrior ‘any way But the bombing scandal did not After being awarded $8 million you want’, Willcox recalls. He was end there. The same day as the scut- in compensation from France by the shocked when told the Greenpeace tling of the Rainbow Warrior in 1987, International Arbitration Tribunal, International board had voted to sink the French Government told New Greenpeace finally towed theRainbow the ship, which had been ‘floating pa- Zealand that Major Mafart had a ‘se- Warrior to Matauri Bay and scuttled tiently in Auckland Harbour for two rious stomach complaint’. The French her off Motutapere, in the Cavalli Is- years’. authorities repatriated him back to lands, on 12 December 1987 to cre- An earlier compensation deal for France in defiance of the terms of the ate a living reef. Her namesake, the New Zealand mediated in 1986 by United Nations agreement and pro- second Rainbow Warrior, formerly United Nations Secretary-General tests from the Lange Government. the Grampion Fame, was launched in Javier Perez de Cuellar awarded the It was later claimed by a Tahitian Hamburg four years to the day after Government $13 million (US$7 mil- newspaper, Les Nouvelles, that Mafart the bombing, on 10 July 1989. And lion) – the money was used for an an- was smuggled out of Tahiti on a false on 15 July 1990, a memorial was ti-nuclear projects fund and the Pacific passport hours before New Zealand unveiled at Matauri Bay featuring Development and Conservation Trust. was even told of the ‘illness’. Mafart

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reportedly assumed the identity of Fortunately, someone saw that before international recognition. However, a carpenter, Serge Quillan. Captain it got distributed. So Mafart got his fee Danielsson’s health deteriorated after Prieur was also repatriated back to but 40,000 calendars were destroyed.’ this honour and he died in July 1997, France in May 1988 because she was The Danielssons highlighted a pub- barely a year after French nuclear pregnant. France ignored the protests lic opinion poll by the SOFRES institute testing in the Gambiers had ended by New Zealand and the secret agent three months after the Rainbow War- finally. France had agreed to sign the pair were honoured, decorated and rior bombing to gauge what French Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty af- promoted in their homeland. A su- people thought of the ‘Blunderwater- ter a final swansong package of eight preme irony that such an act of state gate’ scandal. While no questions in planned nuclear tests to provide data terrorism should be rewarded in this the poll directly raised the social or for simulation computer software. But age of a so-called ‘war on terrorism’. health implications for the Polynesian such was the strength of international In 2005, their lawyer, Gerard Cur- people, 60 per cent were found to ap- hostility and protests and riots in Pa- rie, tried to block footage of their prove of French nuclear testing (as peète that Paris ended the programme guilty pleas in court – shown on closed long as they were in Polynesia, well prematurely after just six tests. France circuit to journalists at the time but away from France). officially ratified the treaty on 10 Sep- not previously seen publicly – from ‘This represents a “national con- tember 1996. Marie-Thérèse contin- being broadcast by the Television New sensus”, we are told, which should ued in the struggle to ‘help Polynesians Zealand current affairs programme be respected by all peoples in the Pa- to find the right way to a fair and ra- Sunday. Losing the High Court ruling cific,’ noted the Danielssons. ‘So far, tional independence’ and to continue in May 2005, the two former agents no French politician or editorialist documentation of the harm caused by appealed against the footage being has cared to mention the embarrass- French nuclear tests for three decades. broadcast. They failed and the foot- ing fact that political, civic and church But she too died in 2003. age was finally broadcast by Televi- leaders in French Polynesia have for Elaine Shaw worked for Green- sion New Zealand on 7 August 2006 years been asking the French Govern- peace New Zealand for 16 years and – almost two decades later. They had ment to organise a local referendum developed it with an Auckland core lost any spurious claim to privacy over so as to allow the people most con- group into the small but lively move- the act of terrorism by publishing their cerned, the islanders themselves, to ment it had become by the time of the own memoirs – Agent Secrète and decide the issue.’ bombing. But she was not comfortable Carnets Secrets. Mafart recalled in The Danielssons were an inspira- with the changes and rapid growth of his book how the international media tion to the nuclear-free and indepen- the organisation after the bombing. were dumbfounded that the expected dent Pacific movement, especially in She worked tirelessly for the people of huge High Court trial had ‘evaporated the Cook Islands and Tahiti. Along Rongelap as well as French Polynesia, before their eyes’, describing his court- with Elaine Shaw of Greenpeace New the victims of nuclear testing. She con- room experience: ‘I had an impression Zealand, they played a vital role in tinued working for a nuclear-free and of being a mutineer from the Bounty ... raising public awareness of the issues. independent Pacific until 1990 and but in this case the gallows would not Swedish-born Dr Danielsson was di- then decided to take a well-earned be erected in the village square. Three rector of his homeland’s National Mu- break, travelling overland in Australia. courteous phrases were exchanged seum of Ethnology. In 1947, he joined Shaw soon found herself back in the between [the judge] and our lawyers, Thor Heyerdahl’s epic Kon Tiki balsa fray, this time as a Greenpeace can- the charges were read to us and the raft voyage across the eastern Pacific vasser. Tragically, she died from cancer court asked us whether we pleaded Ocean that made a crash-landing on in October that year. ‘I sensed that her guilty or not guilty. Our replies were the atoll of Raroia. He married Marie- interest stemmed from her concern clear: ‘Guilty!’ With that one word the Thérèse, a French national, in 1948 for the people rather than any politi- trial was at an end.’ and they made their home in Tahiti. cal ideology,’ said Tahitian activist Téa Ironically, Mafart much later be- She was very active in local politics Hirshon. ‘She went to many islands came a wildlife photographer, under and women’s environmental organ- and saw for herself what people in the the moniker Alain Mafart-Renodier, isations. She was also the founder of Pacific wanted.’ Bunny McDiarmid, a and filed his pictures through the Moruroa e Tatou (Moruroa and Us), deckhand on board the bombed ship, Paris-based agency Bios with a New a nuclear veterans’ association. While is now executive director of Green- York office. Greenpeace US engaged the Danielssons published several peace New Zealand and providing in- an advertising agency to produce the scientific studies and popular books spired contemporary leadership after a 2015 environmental calendar illus- on the islands, they constantly cam- lifetime of commitment to Greenpeace trated with wildlife images. As Green- paigned to expose French nuclear co- and also to the people of Rongelap – peace chronicler and photojournalist lonialism. she lived for three months with the is- Pierre Gleizes describes it: ‘Incredibly The couple were honoured for landers who had taken refuge on Me- bad luck, out of millions, the agency their commitment and achievements jato Island. As she says: ‘Once you’ve bought one of Alain Mafart’s pictures with the Right Livelihood Award, an seen the effects of nuclear testing with to illustrate a Greenpeace calendar. alternative Nobel Peace Prize-style your own eyes, you can’t pretend it

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doesn’t exist – you’ve got to do some- ing support. But since then Temaru has said that the documents indicated that thing about it.’ won and lost office twice more, most on 17 July 1974, a test had exposed Other Greenpeace stalwarts too recently in 2013, and Flosse is fighting the main island of Tahiti, and the near- have died since the Rainbow Warrior ongoing corruption charges. by tourist resort isle of Bora Bora, to bombing and the first edition of Eyes Since the Temaru coalition first plutonium fallout 500 times the maxi- of Fire, including Warrior of the Rain- came to power, demands have in- mum level. bow author and journalist Bob Hunter creased for a full commission of in- The political fallout from the Rain- (2005), founding president of Green- quiry to investigate new evidence of bow Warrior affair carries on three peace; and David McTaggart (2004), radiation exposure in the atmospheric decades later. After publication of the for many years the inspirational chair- nuclear tests in the Gambiers between 2005 edition of this book, I was in- man of Greenpeace International. And 1966 and 1974. Altogether France terviewed by Democracy Now’s Amy in mid-2005 news came of the deaths detonated 193 of a total of 210 nu- Goodman in the US about revelations of remarkable and internationally re- clear tests in the South Pacific, 46 of in Le Monde that the late President spected New Zealand peace and mili- them dumping more than nine mega- Mitterrand had personally approved tary communications researcher Owen tons of explosive energy in the atmo- Operation Satanique to take out the Wilkes, who had joined a Vega voyage sphere – 42 over Moruroa and four Rainbow Warrior. In 2006, a report in to the Cook Islands in mid-1986, and over Fangataufa atolls. Ironically, even Le Parisien cited then Socialist presi- Fijian nuclear free and independent that champion of nuclear tests, former dential candidate Segolene Royal’s Pacific campaigner Amelia Rokotui- territorial president Gaston Flosse, younger brother Antoine as having vuna. has now swung his voice in support claimed his elder sibling, former DGSE A tireless and courageous advocate of the call for the inquiry. The Green agent Gérard Royal, had told him he of social justice in the Pacific, Rokotui- Party leader in Tahiti, Jacky Bryant, had been a member of the third spy vuna was a trustee of the DAWN Pacific accused the French Defence Ministry team that planted the bombs. Fernan- women’s movement in Fiji at the time of having ‘contempt’ for the people of do Pereira’s daughter Marelle pleaded of her death. Longtime friend, activist Poly- nesia. Replying to ministry de- in a New Zealand Herald interview and academic Claire Slatter described nials in May 2005 claiming stringent for the Government to reverse a deci- her as ‘a commanding public speaker, safety and health precautions, he said: sion to not pursue extradition. As did brilliant in rallies’. ‘It’s necessary to stop saying that the Greenpeace. However, Agence France- In 2013, Marshall Islands Journal Tahitians don’t understand anything Presse news agency reported that he editor Giff Johnson published his bi- about these kinds of quest- ions – they was the Zodiac driver and not suspect- ography Don’t Ever Whisper about his must stop this kind of behaviour from ed of planting the bombs. Sengolene charismatic wife Darlene Keju Johnson another epoch.’ Bryant compared the Royal laughed off the incident as a and her life campaigning for justice French ministry’s reaction with the se- political smear campaign, adding she and the health of her fellow Marshall cretive and arrogant approach of Chi- didn’t know whether it was a French Islanders over nuclear testing until she na and Russia. However, Britain and politics ‘banana skin’. In 2012, inde- died from cancer in 1996 – the year the United States had reluctantly ‘rec- pendent French actor/director Ma- French nuclear testing ended. John- ognised the consequences of nuclear thieu Kassovitz made the controversial son wrote: ‘Darlene’s message to us, tests on the populations’ in Australia, film Rebellion about the extraordinari- clear in life as well as in death: Don’t Christmas Island, the Marshall Islands ly heavy response by the military to be afraid to make your way through and Rongelap. In 2009, the French Na- the Kanak pro-independence protests strong ocean currents to get to the tional Assembly finally passed nuclear of the mid-1980s, known as Les Évé- next island.’ care and compensation legislation, nements, in New Caledonia, New Zea- An encouraging memorial for known as the Morin law after Defence land’s closest Pacific neighbour. The Elaine, Amelia, Owen, the Danielssons Minister Hervé Morin who initiated callous brutality of the period shows and other Pacific campaigners came it. It has been consistently criticised how the prevailing political mind-set in 2004 when Tahitians elected Oscar as far too restrictive and of little real in Paris enabled the Rainbow Warrior Temaru as their territorial president. benefit to Polynesians. bombing to go ahead. He had established the first nuclear- In 2013, Flosse scrapped the Délé- As this book was going to press, the free municipality in the Pacific Islands gation pour le suivi des essais nucléares 2015 Review Conference of the Parties when he was mayor of the Papeète air- (Nuclear Tests Monitoring Office) in to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation port suburb of Faa`a. Having ousted Tahiti led by researcher Bruno Barri- of Nuclear Weapons was in session the conservative incumbent for the lot. The same year, in July, declassified at the United Nations in New York in past two decades, Gaston Flosse – the French defence documents exposed May 2015. But the relatively low-key man who gave Mafart and Prieur a that the nuclear tests were ‘far more Pacific presence was no indicator of a hero’s welcome to Tahiti, Temaru lost toxic’ than had been previously ac- drop in regional concern over ‘nucle- office just four months later. He was knowledged. Le Parisien reported that arism’. The US-Soviet rivalry at the reinstated to power in early 2005 after the papers ‘lifted the lid on one of the time of the Rainbow Warrior bombing a byelection confirmed his overwhelm- biggest secrets of the French army’. It has been replaced by US-China rivalry

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in the Pacific. Specific threats include thirtieth anniversary of the Auckland the persistent radioactive contamina- bombing by writing a book of his own, tion from the tests; the issue of newer Stemming The Tide (due for publica- fallout from the Fukushima nuclear tion in 2016). As well as many other power plant hit by the 2011 Tōhoku adventures as a Greenpeace captain tsunami in Japan; and concerns about for more than three decades, Willcox’s China’s undeclared plans for , most recent escapade was in Russia. which raises the spectre of nuclear He was arrested illegally by Russian conflict. ‘Nearly 70 years on, the con- authorities as skipper of the Arctic tinued refusal of the concerned pow- Sunrise on 19 September 2013 for tak- ers to own up to their past transgres- ing part in a peaceful protest against sions and compensate victims deepens Arctic oil drilling. The so-called Arctic the sense of injustice in the region,’ 30 were seized by armed commandos said University of the South Pacific in international waters while trying commentator Shailendra Singh. to hoist a banner on Gazprom’s Pri- In August 2011, Rainbow Warrior razlomnaya platform in the Barents II was ‘retired’ from active Greenpeace Sea. They were initially charged with duty, having achieved what her prede- ‘piracy’, but this was later reduced to a cessor had embarked on – ending the charge of ‘hooliganism’. After an inten- French nuclear tests – along with many sive international campaign to free the other successful campaigns, such as final 19 still being detained, the Rus-

blocking coal ports and obstructing sian Duma voted to grant them an am- INNER CITY NEWS destructive fishing operations. Four nesty after they had served 100 days Author David Robie with a copy of the original Eyes of months later, the $32 million super- in detention. Willcox told the Moscow Fire book on board the Rainbow Warrior before she was laid to rest in the Cavalli Islands, off Motutapere, green sailing ship Rainbow Warrior III Times after his release: ‘There is no in 1987. The painted motif on the smokestack was was commissioned and entered the amnesty for the Arctic. ... I should nev- from the Kwakiutl First Nation in Canada. global fray. er have been charged and jailed in the perhaps Elaine Shaw and the Daniels- From the ‘floating farmhouse’ first place.’ Reflecting on the Rongelap sons will one day get their full com- that had been the Phyllis Cormack evacuation, the now 62-year-old skip- mission of inquiry into the Tahitians’ in the first Greenpeace expedition to per described the operation as: ‘One of health after all. And the Tahitians the Aleutian islands in the North Pa- the mostly profoundly emotional ex- could win some serious compensation cific, the environ- mental movement periences of my life. In many respects, for being poisoned like the Ronge- had made do with refitting existing this is why Greenpeace acts to ‘bear lapese. France’s Morin law in 2010 has ships for its campaign needs. Finally, witness’ to these abuses; to shine a been too little, too late. But with nine four decades later, Greenpeace had a light on the terrible things that we do French Polynesian nuclear test veter- custom-designed campaigning vessel. to the Earth and to each other. Sure, ans winning compensation in Janu- The sleek new 58 metre Rainbow War- Greenpeace cares about whales and ary 2015 and another, a former radar rior III is fast – cruising at 7 knots but polar bears, and corals and seals, but operator at Hao and Moruroa atolls, able to go up to 15 knots, she can de- we also care about humankind and who is a tetraplegic with brain cancer, ploy action boats within minutes, and our kids, our future grandkids.’ winning a case two months later, there has a helicopter landing pad. She sails It was a tragic irony that the are some optimistic signs. The original chiefly under sail-power with a 55 me- Rongelap voyage for humanity should Rainbow Warrior’s last voyage and the tre A-frame mast with back-up electric end in death at the hands of French death of were not in engines. Greenpeace International’s state terrorists. The pressure on France vain. From nuclear refugees to climate executive director Kumi Naidu de- and other nuclear countries will con- change refugees, the activist struggle scribed her as ‘an icon of non-violent tinue. The sordid Rainbow Warrior af- for peace, environmental and global action and a beacon of hope’. Rain- fair was a diplomatic debacle for the justice lives on with Rainbow Warrior bow Warrior III visited New Zealand French, especially in the South Pacific, III. in 2013 and after Cyclone Pam devas- and it has taken years for Paris to re- tated Vanuatu in March 2015, she was cover some mana in the region. Green- loaded up for a relief support voyage peace and the environmental move- to the stricken islands which echoed ment have grown dramatically and nThis is an extract from Dr David Robie's the humanitarian efforts of her name- matured over the past three decades. book, Eyes of Fire, which tells the story of the last voyage of the original Rainbow Warrior, sake in the Marshall Islands in the Campaigns have been broadened into a Greenpeace campaign vessel bombed same month 30 years ago.7 issues such as climate change, driftnet by French secret agents on 10 July 1985 in Auckland. It adapts text from the final Greenpeace skipper , flsheries, genetic engineering, glacier chapter of the 30th anniversary edition of the only person to captain all three retreat, offshore oil drilling and the Eyes of Fire published in July 2015 by Little Rainbow Warriors, approached the illegal rainforest timber trade. Now Island. http://eyes-of-fire.littleisland.co.nz/

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