Rainbow Resonates 20 Years On

July 10 marked the 20th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing in Auckland Harbour. The Greenpeace flagship was targeted by French agents under the orders of then President Francois Mitterand, in retaliation for Greenpeace protests against French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Photographer Fernando Pereira was killed in the blast. NZ held a memorial service at the site of the bombing, followed by a commemorative concert. Services were also held in Paris and Sydney, and Canada declared July 10 to be Rainbow Warrior Day in Toronto and Vancouver. “Today we are facing a bigger nuclear threat as an ever increasing number of states continue their development of nuclear weapons,” said 1985 crew member Steve Sawyer at the NZ memorial. “No bomb will stop conflict – whether it be in the arsenals of the nuclear weapons states, on the Rainbow Warrior, on buses and tube stations in London, nor on the streets of Baghdad.”