Rainbow Warrior bombing 40 years on
The ship was on it's way to Morura Atoll in the South Pacific, to protest French nuclear weapons tests.
40 years on, activists say the attack that was designed to silence the movement, has only made it stronger.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
France agrees to New Caledonian state and nationality, but not independence
France has announced an agreement aimed at granting more autonomy to New Caledonia in the south Pacific, but stopped short of the independence sought by many Indigenous Kanaks. The agreement — hailed by President Emmanuel Macron as ″historic'' — still needed final approval in New Caledonia, a nickel-rich archipelago east of Australia. The accord may face a vote in February by New Caledonians who are divided on their views on independence. It proposed the creation of a ″state of Caledonia″ within the French republic and inscribed in the French constitution, and the creation of a ''Caledonian nationality″ alongside French nationality, according to excerpts viewed by The Associated Press. It was reached after 10 days of negotiations — including a final overnight marathon — with representatives of the central government and those on both sides of the independence question. The talks stemmed from months of unrest that broke out in May 2024 after Paris planned to give voting rights to thousands of non-Indigenous long-term residents. Kanaks feared this would leave them in a permanent minority, crushing their chances of winning independence. As part of the agreement, New Caledonia residents will in the future only be allowed to vote after having lived 10 years on the archipelago. The accord will help "us get out of the spiral of violence,'' said Emmanuel Tjibaou, a Kanak politician who participated in the talks on Saturday evening in the Elysee presidential palace in Paris. He described a ''difficult path'' ahead but one that would allow Kanaks and other Caledonians to move forward together as ''us'' instead of divided. Those seeking to keep New Caledonia firmly in the French fold hailed the accord. Politcian Nicolas Metzdorf called it a compromise born of ''demanding dialogue,'' and described the Caledonian nationality as a ″real concession''. A special congress will be held to finalise next steps, which could include more sovereignty for New Caledonia over issues of international affairs, security and justice, according to excerpts published by New Caledonia's public broadcaster. The accord could also eventually allow New Caledonians to change the territory's name, flag and hymn. Cammi Webb-Gannon researched decolonisation in the Pacific at the University of Wollongong and said the agreement might not be what Indigenous groups wanted, especially young activists who called for their elders and leaders to push for more independence and justice. She also said the agreement still gave voting rights to long-term residents, a trigger for the protests, so more work needed to be done to improve political representation for the country's Indigenous population. But Dr Webb-Gannon said the accord is a "step in the right direction" and showed that France was listening to the sentiment coming from New Caledonia. Participants stressed the importance of rehabilitating and diversifying New Caledonia's indebted economy, which depends heavily on nickel mining, and making it less reliant on the French mainland. Last year's violence, which claimed the lives of 14 people, is estimated to have cost the territory two billion euros ($3.6 billion), shaving 10 per cent off its gross domestic product, he said. Both chambers of France's parliament are to meet in the fourth quarter this year to vote on approving the deal, which is then to be submitted to New Caledonians in a referendum in 2026. There have been three previous referendums since 2018, which all rejected New Caledonian independence. But the last referendum held in 2021 was boycotted by pro-independence groups who were mourning COVID-19 deaths which disproportionately affected the Kanak population. She said the violence last May was the "result of a sense of overall despair" from previous referendums that were seen not to take the Indigenous vote into account. Dr Webb-Gannon said it was still "unclear" what impact this accord will have in practice to quell pro-independence tensions but Kanak politician Emmanuel Tjibaou at the centre of negotiations was well supported by locals. He was also the son of assassinated leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou, who sought interdependence with France, that means an independent state without animosity towards it or any of the other nations whose people settled in New Caledonia. "His really was a vision for peace with justice. "The legacy that [Emmanuel] is continuing to work towards his father's vision is promising." France colonised the Pacific archipelago in the 1850s, and it became an overseas territory after World War II, with French citizenship granted to all Kanaks in 1957. ABC/AP/AFP
SBS Australia
2 days ago
- SBS Australia
Unreleased documents reveal new Australian twist to ship bombing case
Forty years ago, Alan 'Kissard' Buffett was looking out an aeroplane window on the approach to land at Norfolk Island when he noticed a lonely yacht moored at Cascade Bay. As the island's collector of customs in 1985, it was Buffett's job to know where the yacht was from and who was on it. After touching down, he immediately went to one of his officers at the airport to ask about the yacht. "He said, 'I smell a rat'," Buffett said. "And in Norfolk, that means you think there's something fishy going on." "Sure enough, he was on the money. "The crew sort of stood out a fair bit because they had really nice gear. They didn't look like rough-type yachties." The 11-metre yacht named Ouvea had been chartered by four Frenchmen who had just sailed from New Zealand en route to New Caledonia. Alan 'Kissard' Buffett was Norfolk Island's collector of customs in 1985. Source: Supplied The Frenchmen said they were on a South Pacific diving and pleasure cruise. But Buffett and other officials on Norfolk Island soon received warning from the Australian government that the Frenchmen were not who they claimed to be. New SBS Audio investigative podcast Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island has uncovered previously unreleased confidential Australian government documents which reveal concerns the men were actually French secret service agents suspected of being involved in the bombing of environmental group Greenpeace's flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour days earlier. France initially denied any involvement, but then-prime minister Laurent Fabius months later admitted French agents had been ordered to bomb the ship. What the documents reveal The bombing — the 40th anniversary of which was this week — killed photographer Fernando Perriera, made global headlines and sparked one of the biggest police investigations in New Zealand history. The Rainbow Warrior was preparing to lead a flotilla of protest boats in an attempt to blockade a French nuclear weapons test at Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The documents detail how Norfolk Island's three-man police force was authorised by then-prime minister Bob Hawke to shadow the Frenchmen until a party of New Zealand detectives arrived. Dennis Murray, a federal police officer stationed on Norfolk Island at the time, said his orders were simple. "Make sure they don't leave the island. Make sure they don't get on a plane," Murray said. "That was the biggest thing.' Norfolk Island's administrator at the time, former Australian naval commodore and defence intelligence agency head, John Matthew, cabled Canberra to express "strong doubts" about police approaching the Frenchmen's yacht because of the possibility of "armed retaliation". LISTEN TO SBS Audio 09/07/2025 45:12 English Matthew ordered Murray and his police colleagues to remove the Frenchmen's dinghy and hide it so they could not leave the island to reach their yacht, which was moored a distance from the shore. Nearing midnight on 15 July, it was decided that Norfolk Island police and the New Zealand detectives would conduct a raid on the motel rooms where the Frenchmen were sleeping and take them into custody. Murray told the podcast that nerves were running high ahead of the raid. "When you hit those doors, you don't know what's going to happen on the other side ... it could be firearms, it could be anything," he said. In the end, the French agents played it cool and cooperated with the police. They'd been well trained by France's foreign intelligence agency, the Directorate-General for External Security, to withstand interrogation and maintain their cover stories. An impossible deadline? On the morning of 16 July 1985, New Zealand detectives who had flown to Norfolk Island got a shock when they learned the Australian government had set them a deadline of 2pm that day to find enough evidence to charge the Frenchmen with a crime or they would be let go. The detectives had to wait until daylight to search the Frenchmen's yacht. They seized dozens of documents and receipts that needed to be analysed. More importantly, they had taken samples from the yacht's bilge to test for traces of explosives. These needed to be taken to Auckland for analysis because Norfolk Island did not have any laboratory facilities. Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island investigates why this deadline was set and whether it was necessary. Senior police in Auckland decided they did not have enough evidence to charge the Frenchmen before the Australian deadline expired despite the strong feelings of their detectives on Norfolk Island who believed they had the right men in custody. Murray said he felt for his New Zealand police colleagues. "It's got to be done in 24 hours or 'stiff shit' sort of thing. When you think about it, they didn't give them much time," he said. The French secret agents sailed away from Norfolk Island later on 16 July. Their yacht, the Ouvea, was never seen again and the agents are believed to have been picked up by a French submarine. The 11-metre yacht Ouvea had been chartered by four Frenchmen who had just sailed from New Zealand en route to New Caledonia. Source: Supplied The samples from the Ouvea's bilge returned positive results for traces of explosives. And documents taken from the yacht proved a connection between the Frenchmen on Norfolk Island and two other French secret agents already in custody in New Zealand. Forty years later, Buffett is still puzzled by Australia's decision to impose such a tight deadline on the New Zealand police. "It did appear really short to us, really given the fact that someone was killed," he said. "I just wonder whether Australia was pressured by France or some other power. Because it, as I say, it seemed pretty strange that they only gave them that really small window of time to try and find evidence to keep those fellas in under the police guard." Despite it being beyond doubt that the Rainbow Warrior was blown up by limpet mines smuggled into New Zealand by French agents Roland Verge, Gerald Andries, Jean Michel Bertholet and Dr Xavier Maniguet onboard the Ouvea, none of the men ever faced prosecution after being allowed to sail away from Norfolk Island.
ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
Taipan-like helicopter to fly again during Talisman Sabre exercises in biannual war games
A version of the Taipan helicopter which Australia's Army permanently grounded after a deadly crash two years ago will be involved in the international military exercises where the devastating accident occurred. Australia immediately retired its fleet of European-designed MRH-90 'Taipans' following the July 2023 tragedy which killed Captain Danniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Class 2 Joseph "Phillip" Laycock and Corporal Alexander Naggs. A defence investigation into the crash reported in May, and found evasive action taken by the pilot avoided more lives being lost. Australian personnel are likely to fly in three NH-90s operated by New Zealand's Defence Force as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 that formally gets underway this weekend. Since grounding its Taipan fleet, the Australian Defence Force has begun replacing the MRH-90 Taipans with new Black Hawks, but military sources claim the US-made helicopters can play only a limited role in this year's Talisman Sabre exercises. A defence spokesperson said both Black Hawks and Chinook helicopters will be in use by the army during Talisman Sabre. "The Australian Army will deploy rotary-wing capabilities from the Battlefield Aviation Program, including the CH-47F Chinook and UH-60M Black Hawks to support movement of troops and equipment across the battlefield," the defence spokesperson told the ABC. "Partner nations, including New Zealand, Singapore and the United States, will also deploy rotary-wing lift assets." The ABC has confirmed the Armed Reconnaissance (ARH) Tiger helicopters from the Australian Army's 1st Aviation Regiment will also provide armed reconnaissance support during the large-scale war drills. Singapore's Air Force will deploy two CH-47F Chinook helicopters for Talisman Sabre, while the United States Marine Corps will send its controversial MV-22 Osprey Tilt-Rotor Aircraft, which was also involved in a fatal crash in the Northern Territory in 2023. Since being introduced into service in 2007, Australia's fleet of MRH-90s was beset by technical problems and groundings, in contrast to the New Zealand NH-90 fleet which enjoys high flight availability and has just completed its latest upgrades. An official ceremony will mark the start of Talisman Sabre in Sydney on Sunday, with this year's exercises to be the largest in the event's history. Some 30,000 military personnel from 19 different countries will take part, including the United States, Canada, Fiji, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the Philippines. The biannual war games are the Australian Defence Force's largest exercise, and the largest bilateral exercises with the US. In its 11th year, for the first time Papua New Guinea will also host a Talisman Sabre activity, in a sign of deepening defence ties between Australia and its close northern neighbour. China has often sent surveillance vessels to monitor the military exercises off the coast of Queensland, including the two most recent iterations in 2023 and 2021. The military exercises are beginning as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese travels to China, which is not among those countries taking part. The ADF has already said a Chinese vessel travelling close to Australia to monitor the exercises would not be "unusual or unexpected".
