Peter Willcox was the captain of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior when it was bombed. Photo / Michael Craig
Peter Willcox was the captain of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior when it was bombed. Photo / Michael Craig
The captain of the bombed Rainbow Warrior says he accepts the apology of a former French secret service officer who was part of a team that planted the bomb - but says justice has not been done.
French spy Jean-Luc Kister last night confessed on TV One's Sunday programme to planting both bombs on the hull of the ship and apologised to the family of Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira who was killed in the explosion, as well as to Greenpeace and the people of New Zealand.
Peter Willcox, who skippered the Greenpeace vessel which was blown up in the Waitemata Harbour 30 years ago, told Radio New Zealand this morning that he accepted Kister's apology.
"It seemed sincere to me. Perhaps late in coming, but sincere," he said.
However, he said he did not think it was "for me to forgive" Kister.
"As I said, I accept the apology, I think it was sincere. It was from one man and I hope that it allows him to sleep better and live his life out, but it doesn't change the fact he and his friends, President [Francois] Mitterrand and everybody that was part of that team who planned the operation and carried it out are murderers, and that should be part of the story."
Mr Willcox also said he did not believe justice had been done in relation to the terrorist attack, and said he found it "very hard to believe" the bombing was a result of a botched mission.
"I'm still shocked that such a professional team could bungle the job so badly," he told Radio New Zealand.
"I mean, the first bomb blew a 2m x 2.5m hole in the hull and the boat sank in 45 seconds, that really doesn't sound to me like they were concerned at all about the life on board the ship. I find it very hard to believe."
He added: "It becomes a question of confidence - this was a professional dive team, they were military trained, I guess they were the best of the French military divers, and you're telling me they had no idea of what the power of that bomb was going to do? I find that very hard to believe that they could be so incompetent."
Justice had "absolutely not" been done, he said.
The Greenpeace Ship Rainbow Warrior sank in Auckland Harbour. Photo / Ben Motu
"I mean, someone was murdered in cold blood. Two people that were part of the team spent a year in jail in New Zealand. No, I don't think justice was ever done, I think that's a ridiculous notion."
In last night's Sunday programme, Kister - who spoke with his face uncovered in the hour-long interview - said he believed now was the right time to say sorry.
"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," he 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 1200 kilometres 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.
"I have the blood of an innocent man on my conscience, and that weighs on me," a visibly emotional Kister said in the interview.
Navy divers search for a missing person who was aboard the Greenpeace protest ship Rainbow Warrior. Photo / Michael Bramley
"We are not cold-blooded killers. My conscience led me to apologise and explain myself."
The former secret service agent was tracked down by journalists from TVNZ and he told them the mission was "a big, big failure".
The bombing, which killed Pereira, rocked New Zealand and shocked the world. It was state-sponsored terrorism and those who carried it out were never properly held to account.
Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur, who acted as a support team, were the only two caught of a dozen agents. They were sentenced to 10 years' jail but were both back in France within three years.
