MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mitterrand authorized “Rainbow Warrior” sabotage

The sabotage of the Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow Warrior 20 years ago in New Zealand was carried out with the “personal authorization” of France's late president François Mitterrand, documents showed last Satruday.

Paris "Le Monde" newspaper published extracts in its Saturday edition of a 1986 account written by Pierre Lacoste, the former head of France's DGSE foreign intelligence service, giving the clearest demonstration yet of Mitterrand's direct involvement in the sinking of the campaign vessel.

Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira died in the attack on the ship that was leading Greenpeace's campaign against French nuclear tests on the Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific.

"I asked the president if he gave me permission to put into action the neutralization plan that I had studied on the request of Monsieur (Charles) Hernu" Lacoste wrote. Hernu was defence minister at the time.

"He gave me his agreement while stressing the importance he placed on the nuclear tests. I didn't go into greater detail on the plan as the authorization was explicit enough," he said.

Lacoste added that he "would not have launched such an operation without the personal authorization of the President of the Republic".

The scandal, which triggered Hernu's resignation and Lacoste's departure from the DGSE, shocked the world and tarnished France's image in the South Pacific.

Two French agents were later tried and imprisoned for blowing up the ship in Auckland harbour, New Zealand on July 10, 1985. They began their sentences in New Zealand but were later transferred to a military base in French Polynesia and were released within three years of the attack.