80s
A beret, a bottle of Beaujolais and a baguette The hole in the side of the Rainbow Warrior is big enough to drive a car through. The first bomb blew the generator to pieces, the second damaged the propeller, stern-shaft and rudder, cracked the stern frame in two places and blew in a ballast tank. The ship has seemingly been sabotaged, and Fernando murdered. But who is responsible? Detective Inspector Allan Galbraith, appointed to oversee the investigation, senses that this will be a long and complicated case, and requests additional resources. By the end of the week the investigation team comprises 56 offices; and this number will grow to over 100. Over the coming four months, more than 6,000 interviews will be carried out. An abandoned Zodiac, a man spotted wearing a wetsuit, and a mysterious white camper van spotted on the night of the bombing all take on sinister new overtones. The camper van is traced to Newman’s car rentals. When the Turenges, a Swiss couple who rented the van, bring it back ‘early’ – because they want to claim a refund of $130 New Zealand dollars staff keep them talking while the police are alerted. The Turenges are taken in for questioning and it is quickly established that they are carrying false passports. Their true identities are Major Alain Mafart and Captain Dominique Prieur, and they are both high-ranking agents of the DGSE, the French Secret Service.
The French connection quickly grows stronger. Frank McLean, a Senior Customs Officer, recalls and reports an incident in late June involving a French-crewed sloop, the Ouvéa, that docked in Whangarei and set sail on 9 July. During routine immigration checks, McLean’s instincts had told him something was amiss; three of the crew had a distinct military bearing and they carried brand new, uncreased and unmarked passports. By 26 July, police investigations point to the Ouvéa being used to transport the explosives and other French agents to New Zealand. Three crew members are eventually identified as DGSE agents Roland Verge, Gerald Andries and Jean-Michel Barcelo. The fourth is Navy reservist Xavier Maniguet, a freelance doctor specialising in the treatment of diving injuries. Brought in after the bombing there is insufficient evidence to hold them, and they – and the Ouvéa – quickly disappear. The police conclude that the yacht now lies at the bottom of the deep ocean and that the men were picked up by a French submarine in the area at the time. It then comes to light that Frédérique Bonlieu - Greenpeace New Zealand’s recent French volunteer – was actually Christine Cabon, a captain in the French army. Information and forensic evidence also emerges showing that Mafart and Prieur met with the agents from the Ouvéa. Such is the depth and breadth of the trail left by the DGSE agents that the papers quickly observe that the only things missing to indicate French secret service involvement in the bombing are ‘a beret, a bottle of Beaujolais and a baguette’.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 59