Fernando Pereira (10 May 1950 – 10 July 1985) was a Portuguese-Dutch freelance photographer, who drowned when French intelligence ( DGSE) detonated a bomb and sank the ''Rainbow Warrior'', owned by the environmental organisation

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

on 10 July 1985. The bombing of the boat had been designed to make the ship unsalvageable. The first smaller bomb bent the propeller shaft, making repair uneconomic. Pereira stayed inside the boat to get his camera and other pieces of equipment. The second, more powerful explosion, designed to sink the boat, caused a huge inrush of seawater that drowned Pereira. The ''Rainbow Warrior'' led a flotilla of yachts protesting against French

nuclear testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...

at Mururoa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago of

French Polynesia )Territorial motto: ( en, "Great Tahiti of the Golden Haze") , anthem = , song_type = Regional anthem , song = " Ia Ora 'O Tahiti Nui" , image_map = French Polynesia on the globe (French Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of Frenc ...

and was about to depart Auckland for a campaign of legal demonstrations in international waters near the French military operational areas at Moruroa Atoll.

Subsequent updates

On the twentieth anniversary of the sinking, it was revealed that the French president

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...

had personally authorized the bombing. Admiral Pierre Lacoste made a statement saying Pereira's death weighed heavily on his conscience. Also on that anniversary, Television New Zealand sought to access a video record made at the preliminary hearing where the two agents pleaded guilty. The footage has remained sealed on the court record since shortly after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings. The two agents oppose release of the footage – despite having both profited from writing books themselves on the incident – and have taken the case to the New Zealand Court of Appeal and, subsequently, the Supreme Court of New Zealand. In 2006, Antoine Royal, brother of the French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal, revealed in an interview that their brother,

Gérard Royal Gérard Royal is a former agent of the French intelligence agency Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (DGSE-"General Directorate of External Security"), who is accused of being one of those responsible for the bombing of the Greenp ...

, a former French intelligence officer, had been the agent who put the bombs on the Rainbow Warrior.Royal link to Greenpeace bombing as probe begins
The Times, 2 October 2006

Photographs by Pereira

Popgroep ABBA aangekomen op vliegveld Zestienhoven Rotterdam v.l.n.r. Björn U…, Bestanddeelnr 930-5073.jpg, ABBA (1979) CharlotteRhodes9Oct1979.jpg, ''Charlotte Rhodes'' (1979) Persconferentie van Italiaanse componist Luigi Mono in Hilversum Luigi Mono (ko, Bestanddeelnr 923-6003.jpg, Luigi Nono (1979) Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1980).jpg, Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1980) Blokkade kerncentrale Dodewaard door leden aktiegroep Breek Atoomketen Nederland, Bestanddeelnr 930-8444.jpg, Anti-nuclear protests (1980)

References

External links

"Death of a Rainbow Warrior,"
10 July 2005 (20th anniversary), Greenpeace website.
www.rainbow-warrior.org.nz
– article on the twentieth anniversary (2005).

Greenpeace archives

– New York Times (3 October 2006)

New York Times (3 October 1987)

New York Times (6 September 1995) * ttp://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/history/the-bombing-of-the-rainbow-war/Fernando-Pereira/ "Fernando Pereira, 1950 – 1985" Greenpeace International {{DEFAULTSORT:Pereira, Fernando 1950 births 1985 deaths People from Chaves, Portugal Portuguese photographers Dutch photographers Dutch people of Portuguese descent Dutch people murdered abroad People murdered in New Zealand Deaths by drowning in New Zealand Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior People associated with Greenpeace Environmental killings People killed in French intelligence operations