Anger still crackles 30 years after France bombed Greenpeace ship
Wellington (AFP) - Thirty years after France's deadly bomb attack on the Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand, anger still crackles in Pete Willcox's voice when he discusses the sinking of the Greenpeace flagship.
Willcox was captain of the environmental group's converted trawler when frogmen working for French intelligence slipped into Auckland Harbour late on July 10, 1985, and fixed two large limpet mines to its hull.
Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira died in the subsequent blasts, which New Zealand's then-prime minister David Lange described as "a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism".
"Fernando had two children and his murder blew a hole in their lives that can never be patched up," Willcox told AFP ahead of the anniversary.
"And as a captain, the worst thing you can do is lose a crew member. It was hard."
The Rainbow Warrior had docked in Auckland on its way to protest French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll, about 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) southeast of Tahiti.
But France's spy agency, the DGSE, had other ideas, launching the ominously titled "Operation Satanique" to stop it.
http://news.yahoo.com/anger-still-crackles-30-years-france-bombed-greenpeace-042330979.html
