Press release - July 10, 2017
Greenpeace New Zealand has today launched a new educational website about the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, which includes a series of never-seen-before documents.
The educational portal contains a recently declassified Security Intelligence Service briefing and some internal Greenpeace archival material. New material will be added over time.
Greenpeace has made them public on the eve of the anniversary of the 1985 bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, which was carried out by the French Secret Service, and killed Greenpeace photographer, Fernando Pereira.
Greenpeace has been working in collaboration with teachers to build the website in an effort to bring the story of the Rainbow Warrior to classrooms around the country.
Greenpeace Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman, says the lessons learnt from the bombing and the nuclear free campaign are just as important as ever.
“The anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing is also a reminder of how effective people power can be.
“The bombing was intended to shut down Greenpeace’s Nuclear Free Pacific campaign, but what it actually did was bring people together throughout the country to take a stand against the world’s nuclear superpowers. And people power ended French nuclear testing in the Pacific,” he says.
“We’ve now also just marked the 30th anniversary of New Zealand’s Nuclear Free Zone status - a feat of which we can be incredibly proud.
“As we face the two largest existential threats to human survival - climate change and nuclear weapons – I think we can take heart from the fact that when we stand together, we can beat anything.”
“This is particularly important today as we confront the New Zealand Government working in collusion with the oil industry to stop peaceful protest about climate change. Just recently, a group of peaceful protesters, including myself, were prosecuted for putting ourselves in the water in front of the world’s largest seismic ship to stop it from searching for the new oil we know will destroy our climate.
“We were charged by the Government’s oil division under the Anadarko Amendment - legislation that was rushed through in 2013 without any public consultation to shield oil companies from peaceful protest in New Zealand.
“The spirit of the original Rainbow Warrior is still strong in Greenpeace and, working alongside millions of others, we will defeat the oil industry and the Governments it employs.”
ENDS
The recently declassified Security Intelligence Service briefing can be seen here.