The French secret service frogman who attached the mines which sank the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand 30 years ago apologised for his actions in an interview Sunday with investigative website Mediapart.
Jean-Luc Kister, whose face was not covered in the hour-long video interview, said he believed it was now the right time to say sorry to the family of Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira, who was killed in the explosion, to Greenpeace and to the people of New Zealand.
"Thirty years after the event, now that emotions have subsided and also with the distance I now have from my professional life, I thought it was the right time for me to express both my deepest regret and my apologies," Kister said.
On July 10, 1985, the Rainbow Warrior was docked in Auckland on its way to protest against French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll, about 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) southeast of Tahiti.
Kister was working for France's spy agency, the DGSE, which carried out an unprecedented mission to stop Greenpeace by bombing a peaceful protest ship without warning in the waters of a friendly nation.
He was part of the so-called "third team", whose mission was to attach two large limpet mines to the hull of the converted trawler, working with fellow frogman Jean Camas.
A third member of the team, Gerard Royal, a brother of France's current environment minister and former presidential candidate Segolene Royal, picked up the two men in a dinghy after the covert operation.
"I have the blood of an innocent man on my conscience, and that weighs on me," a visibly emotional Kister said in the interview. "We are not cold-blooded killers. My conscience led me to apologise and explain myself."
He said the mission that the 12-strong unit were ordered to carry out by then French defence minister Charles Hernu was "disproportionate" and he claimed that other less drastic ways of damaging the ship, such as breaking the propeller shaft to prevent it from taking to sea, were rejected by the government.
"There was a willingness at a high level to say: this has to end once and for all, we need to take radical measures. We were told we had to sink it. Well, it's simple to sink a boat, you have to put a hole in it."
Name was leaked
Kister's name was leaked to the media soon after the bombing, albeit with a spelling mistake as Kyster. He said he considered his unmasking to be an act of "high treason".
"I'm not angry at the journalists, it's the political powers I blame. If it had been in the United States, other heads would have rolled."
Two days after the bombing, two of the agents who took part -- Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur, who had posed as a couple of Swiss tourists -- were arrested by New Zealand police and their identities revealed. Hernu, the defence minister, was forced to resign two months later.
Mafart and Prieur were charged with murder, eventually pleading guilty to manslaughter and receiving 10-year jail terms, but they were freed within months under a deal that sparked almost as much anger in New Zealand as the bombing, involving France threatening to block trade access to European markets unless Wellington handed over the agents.
France has since made an official apology for the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior and paid damages. In 1996 it halted the nuclear testing that had prompted the Greenpeace protest.
The interview was carried out by French journalist and Mediapart founder Edwy Plenel, who in September 1985 revealed in a Le Monde newspaper report the involvement of the DGSE frogman in planting the explosives.
Plenel says one aspect of the infamous bombing remains unexplained to this day -- how much then president Francois Mitterrand knew about the operation.
Although Mitterrand was aware that it was going to take place, "at which point did he know the operation was going to be so violent?", Plenel asked.
AFP
Sun Sep 06 2015
![30 years on, French agent apologises for sinking the Rainbow Warrior 30 years on, French agent apologises for sinking the Rainbow Warrior](https://resizer-awani.eco.astro.com.my/tr:w-177,h-100,q-100,f-auto/http://img.astroawani.com/2015-09/41441539973_TheGreenpeaceboat.jpg)
A file picture that shows the Greenpeace ecologist organization boat "Rainbow Warrior" which was sunk in the bay of Auckland on July 10, 1985 by French secret services. - AFP Photo/Patrick Riviere
![Bapa bintang bola sepak Sepanyol, Lamine Yamal ditikam - Laporan Bapa bintang bola sepak Sepanyol, Lamine Yamal ditikam - Laporan](https://resizer-awani.eco.astro.com.my/tr:w-177,h-100,q-100,f-auto/https://img.astroawani.com/2024-08/61723677980_MounirNasraoui.jpg)
Bapa bintang bola sepak Sepanyol, Lamine Yamal ditikam - Laporan
Mounir Nasraoui, bapa kepada Lamine Yamal, ditikam pada lewat Rabu di tempat letak kereta di bandar Mataro di timur laut Sepanyol.
Putin anggap rundingan dengan Ukraine tidak berguna
Presiden Rusia Vladimir Putin menyifatkan, tindakan Ukraine yang menyerang orang awam memperlihatkan keengganan Kyiv menyelesaikan konflik peperangan dua negara dengan cara perdamaian.
Fadillah tiba di Peru, hadiri mesyuarat menteri-menteri tenaga APEC 2024
Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof tiba Lima, Peru bagi menghadiri Mesyuarat Menteri-Menteri Tenaga (EMM) di bawah Kerjasama Ekonomi Asia Pasifik (APEC) yang berlangsung selama dua hari.
BNM denda Maybank RM4.32 juta, CIMB RM760,000 berikutan gangguan perkhidmatan berpanjangan
Bank Negara Malaysia mengenakan Penalti Monetari Pentadbiran (AMP) sebanyak RM4.32 juta ke atas Malayan Banking Bhd dan Maybank Islamic Bhd serta RM760,000 ke atas CIMB Bank Bhd dan CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd susulan gangguan beberapa perkhidmatan perbankan yang berpanjangan.
![Pertubuhan kebajikan New Zealand mohon maaf edar gula-gula bercampur dadah Methamphetamine Pertubuhan kebajikan New Zealand mohon maaf edar gula-gula bercampur dadah Methamphetamine](https://resizer-awani.eco.astro.com.my/tr:w-177,h-100,q-100,f-auto/https://img.astroawani.com/2024-08/41723674988_pineapplesweetsme.jpg)
Pertubuhan kebajikan New Zealand mohon maaf edar gula-gula bercampur dadah Methamphetamine
Auckland City Mission secara tidak sengaja telah mengagihkan gula-gula bercampur Methamphetamine yang boleh membawa maut melalui pek makanan.
Pesakit buah pinggang di Gaza hadapi kekurangan mesin dialisis
Pesakit buah pinggang di Gaza menghadapi kekurangan peralatan dialisis dan bekalan perubatan yang teruk di Khan Younis.
Kekejaman zionis: Hamas hilang kepercayaan A.S jadi pengantara gencatan senjata
Hamas hilang kepercayaan terhadap keupayaan Amerika Syarikat untuk menjadi pengantara gencatan senjata di Gaza.
Kekejaman zionis: Hamas tidak ambil bahagian rundingan gencatan senjata baharu
Hamas tidak akan mengambil bahagian dalam pusingan baharu rundingan gencatan senjata Gaza yang dijadualkan di Qatar, pada Khamis.
Malaysia kecam pencerobohan Israel ke atas Masjid Al-Aqsa
Wisma Putra dalam satu kenyataan pada Rabu berkata perbuatan keji ini yang dilakukan di bawah perlindungan pasukan keselamatan Israel, merupakan pencerobohan serius terhadap satu daripada tapak paling suci Islam.
![WHO isytihar mpox sebagai kecemasan kesihatan awam global WHO isytihar mpox sebagai kecemasan kesihatan awam global](https://resizer-awani.eco.astro.com.my/tr:w-177,h-100,q-100,f-auto/https://img.astroawani.com/2024-08/41723675747_Mpoxvirus.jpg)
WHO isytihar mpox sebagai kecemasan kesihatan awam global
Ini merupakan pengisytiharan kali kedua dalam tempoh dua tahun berikutan wabak yang bermula di Congo sudah merebak ke negara jiran.