Pereira's daughter begs NZ to reconsider

PARIS - The family of Fernando Pereira, the Portuguese photographer slain in the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, have demanded that Gerard Royal, identified as the suspected bomber in the operation, face trial for murder.

"We are still fighting for justice," said Marelle Pereira, who lost her father when she was aged only 8. "The person who planted the bomb should be tried for his actions. We shall never forget the matter. We should like to see him tried for murder."

Pereira, speaking by phone with the Herald from her home in Holland, said the family and her grandfather in Portugal appealed to New Zealand to reverse its decision not to seek the suspect's extradition and begged anyone with evidence to come forward.

Gerard Royal, the brother of leading Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal, was named in a press report last week as having planted the mines that sank the Greenpeace ship in Auckland Harbour in July 1985 in an operation by the French foreign intelligence agency, the DGSE.

The source was Royal's brother, Antoine; but since then other sources have claimed that Gerard, although a trained combat diver for the DGSE, did not plant the bombs himself but transported the two bombers aboard a Zodiac inflatable. Fernando Pereira was the sole casualty from the ill-starred operation. He went below decks after the first bomb exploded, apparently to get photographic gear.

He left Marelle, her younger brother Paul and a wife, who live in Holland. He had fled there in 1974 to avoid being sent to fight a rebellion in Angola, then a Portuguese colony.

"If it is true that Gerard Royal planted the bomb knowing that lives could be at stake, he is responsible for his decision," said Marelle. "My father stood for his actions and deserted the Portuguese Army. He made the decision not to kill people and give up his life in Portugal, knowing he might never be able to go home."

Pereira, a nursery school assistant, said she felt no animosity to Segolene Royal. "You can't hold anybody accountable for what your brother has done. But I still find it a crime that the persons involved are not going to be tried and it hurts my heart that state terrorism can go unpunished. In a way, it makes it harder knowing his name and that he is so close, and not being able to get him in court, to get him tried for the crime he committed."