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Home / New Zealand

Rainbow Warrior: Where are they now?

Herald on Sunday
4 Jul, 2010 11:58 PM4 mins to read

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Allan Galbraith

In 1985, the detective superintendent headed the inquiry into the sinking. He secured two convictions, but regrets not being able to nab more of the 13-strong French team involved.

He was played by Sam Neill in the 1992 movie The Rainbow Warrior, but Galbraith concedes the dramatisation didn't do him or Neill many favours: "It's not regarded as one of his better movies."

Galbraith today calls himself "semi retired", and he presently serves as a member of the Independent Police Conduct Authority.

David Lange

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The mercurial Prime Minister used the sinking to cement in New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy, and his public statements on the matter -including calling the bombing "an act of terrorism" - endeared him to
the New Zealand public.

Later, when French pressure led to threats of economic embargoes, Lange secretly began negotiations that saw Prieur and Mafart released from Paremoremo Prison. S

Shortly before his death in 2005 Lange wrote regretfully of his handling
of the agents in his memoir My Life.

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Alain Mafart

Along with Dominique Prieur, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the bombing.

Mafart was transferred to serve his sentence on Hao Atoll under a controversial deal struck in the middle of 1986. He was released early after complaining of stomach troubles.

In 1999 he released a book, Diaries of a Combat Diver, in which he said he was only following orders. He was promoted after returning to France.

Discover more

New Zealand

At the end of the Rainbow

07 Jul 05:37 PM

Dominique Prieur

Prieur was a French intelligence specialist in European peace movements. She did reconnaissance for the Rainbow Warrior bombing.

She pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in jail but served only three in French Polynesia.

In her book Secret Agent, she wrote of the death: "We were terrified and appalled ... We hadn't come here to kill anyone
...For me, the death of a man was very hard to take."

Last year, Prieur was hired as the director of human resources
for the Paris Fire Brigade, a unit of the French Army.

Martini Gotje

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An accomplished mariner, Netherlands- born Gotje was first mate on the
Rainbow Warrior.

Twice-married (first to original Rainbow Warrior crew member Susi Newborn), he has four children aged 11 to 29. He lives with the three youngest on Waiheke Island and does consultant work for Greenpeace, tracking illegal fishing boats, nuclear transports and whalers and investigating underwater oil drilling.

The bombing made him "an angryman" he says.

Bunny McDiarmid

McDiarmid was a deckhand on the Rainbow Warrior. She and her partner, Henk Haazen, were ashore when the bombs detonated.

They settled in Auckland and had a daughter. McDiarmid now heads Greenpeace New Zealand. She lives in an Auckland apartment over the week but spends her weekends in the eco-village she built with other Waiheke Rainbow Warriors.

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Rien Achterberg

Amsterdam-born Achterberg emigrated to New Zealand in his 20s and opened a short-lived coffee shop in Nelson called Middle Earth.

A chance meeting with Gotje led him to join the peace protest ship Fri, and then Greenpeace. He was shore-based for the South Pacific mission, but was on board when the bombs went off.

He settled on Waiheke Island and had two children. He now runs a jam and
relish stall and is active in the local environmental movement.

Hanne Sorensen

A Danish fitter and turner, Sorensen helped convert the Rainbow Warrior
to a sailing boat at a Florida dockyard for its South Pacific voyage.

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The bombing left her traumatised and disillusioned.

She settled on Waiheke Island with Kiwi partner Rob and had a daughter.

She now does her bit for the planet in the eco-village she helped build with McDiarmid, Haazen, and Newborn and other families.

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