Forty years after the Rainbow Warrior, justice still waits

As France rebrands itself as a climate and ocean leader, Pacific civil society reminds the world of its unrepented nuclear legacy and unfinished colonial business, writes Dave Sweeney.

FORTY YEARS AGO this week, the quiet of Auckland Harbour was shattered when a bomb placed by French security agents sank Greenpeace’s flagship, the Rainbow Warrior.

This act of murder was a state terror response to sustained non-violent criticism from across the Pacific over France's nuclear weapons program and continuing colonial impact and legacy.

Four decades later, a new Pacific civil society initiative has emerged calling on France to “pay its dues” to the Pacific.

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Convened by Pacific advocates, including the Suva based Pacific Network on Globalisation, to coincide with the French sponsored United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) held in Nice last month, around 80 organisations representing millions of people from across the Pacific issued a joint civil society statement acknowledging the importance of urgent climate action and ocean protection through the UNOC process, but declaring that:

France's claims of being a responsible steward of the ocean are undermined by its historical actions in the Pacific, including:

A brutal colonial legacy dating back to the mid-1800s, with the annexation of island nations now known as Kanaky-New Caledonia and Ma’ohi Nui-French Polynesia.

A refusal to complete the decolonisation process, and in fact the perpetuation of the colonial condition, particularly for the aforementioned “territories” on the UN decolonisation list. In Kanaky-New Caledonia, for instance, France and its agents continue to renege on longstanding decolonisation commitments, while weaponising democratic ideals and processes such as “universal” voting rights to deny the fundamental rights of the indigenous population to self-determination.

Thirty years of nuclear violence in Ma’ohi Nui-French Polynesia with 193 test detonations — 46 in the atmosphere and close to 150 under the Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls, irradiating both land and sea and people. Approximately 90 per cent of the local population was exposed to radioactive fallout, resulting in long-term health impacts, including elevated rates of cancer and other radiation-related illnesses.

Active efforts to obscure the true extent of its nuclear violence in Maʻohi Nui-French Polynesia, diverting resources to discredit independent research and obstructing transparency around health and environmental impacts. These actions reveal a persistent pattern of denial and narrative control that continues to undermine compensation efforts and delay justice for victims and communities.

French claims to approximately one-third of the Pacific’s combined EEZ and to being the world’s second largest ocean state, accruing largely from its so-called Pacific dependencies.

The supply of French military equipment, and the 1985 bombing of the Greenpeace flagship “Rainbow Warrior” by French secret service agents — a state-sponsored terrorist attack, the 40th anniversary of which is marked on 10 July.

Since the late 1980s, France has worked to build on diplomatic, development and defence fronts to garner support from Pacific governments. This includes development assistance through the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Asian Development Fund (ADF), language and cultural exchanges, scientific collaboration and humanitarian assistance.

A strong diplomatic presence in Pacific capitals as well as a full schedule of high-level exchanges, including a triennial France-Oceania Leaders’ Summit commencing in 2003, together function to enhance proximity with and inclination towards Paris sentiments and priorities.

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French leadership at this UNOC process is once again central to its ongoing efforts to rebrand itself as a global leader on climate action, a champion of ocean protection and a promoter of sovereignty.

Nothing can be further from the truth.

The reality is that France is rather more interested in strengthening its position as a middle power in an Indo-Pacific rather than a Pacific framework, and as a balancing power within the context of big-power rivalry between the U.S. and China, all of which undermines rather than enhances Pacific sovereignty.

And, our leaders must not allow France to build this new global image on the foundations of its atrocities against Pacific peoples and our ocean continent.

Pacific civil society, therefore, calls on France:

for immediate and irreversible commitments and practical steps to bring its colonial presence in the Pacific to an end before the conclusion, in 2030, of the Fourth International Decade on the Eradication of Colonialism; and
to acknowledge and take responsibility for the oceanic and human harms caused by 30 years of nuclear violence in Maʻohi Nui–French Polynesia, and to commit to full and just reparations, including support for affected communities, environmental remediation of test sites, and full public disclosure of all health and contamination data.

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We further call on Pacific Leaders to:

keep France accountable for its multiple and longstanding debt to Pacific people; and
ensure that Ma’ohi Nui-French Polynesia and Kanaky-New Caledonia remain on the UN list of non-self-governing territories to be decolonised (UN decolonisation list).

Pacific leaders must ensure that France does not succeed in laundering its soiled linen, soiled by the blood of thousands of Pacific Islanders who resisted colonial occupation and/or who were used as test subjects for its industrial-military machinery, in the UNOC process.

Against a global backdrop of rising global nuclear tensions and concerns, the Pacific statement is a reminder of the extensive and intergenerational stories of nuclear dangers and deceit. And of the continuity of community struggle and action for justice, the arc may bend slowly, but it is bending, rainbow-hued and unsinkable.

As we move towards another 12 July Bastille Day and a national celebration of liberty, equality and fraternity, the calls for France to walk the talk in the Pacific remain constant and compelling.

Note: the full statement and further background to the renewed push for recognition and justice can be seen here.