Word: zealand
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...bombed the Rainbow Warrior? That has been the puzzling question ever since two explosions blew a hole in the hull of the 130-ft. converted trawler as it lay anchored in the harbor at Auckland, New Zealand, on July 10. A crew member was killed in the blast. The flagship of Greenpeace, the environmental group that opposes nuclear testing and the killing of whales, the vessel was due to lead a flotilla of ships into the waters around Mururoa Atoll, 700 miles southeast of Tahiti, to protest French atomic tests in the area. As the Rainbow Warrior lay prow...
...sabotage of the Greenpeace vessel. The accusation brought an immediate response from President François Mitterrand, who dispatched a letter to Lange. "The information that has been sent to us leads us to think that a link may exist between the French service and two persons implicated by New Zealand authorities in the affair of the Rainbow Warrior," he wrote. Mitterrand then appointed Bernard Tricot, a highly respected former aide to Charles de Gaulle, to lead "a rigorous investigation" into the French government's alleged involvement, and he ordered all government ministries to cooperate fully. Declared the President: "If responsibility...
Clues pointing to French involvement were not hard to find. The bombing seemed to have been organized with all the bumbling finesse of an Inspector Clouseau rather than the cool efficiency of a John le Carré operative. Following the explosion, New Zealand investigators discovered a distinctive gray-and-black dinghy floating in the harbor near the wreck of the trawler. The dinghy, they found, was of a type not sold in New Zealand, though it is commonly used by the French navy. Oxygen tanks used by divers that were washed up on a nearby beach also bore French registration marks...
...couple who claimed to be on their honeymoon. But a passport check revealed that the couple's Swiss papers were false. VSD, which has a reputation for political muckraking, reported that Sophie-Claire was actually a captain in the French secret service. The Turenges have been charged in New Zealand with murder, arson and conspiracy...
...intruding on this tranquillity. Last week the 13-nation South Pacific Forum met in Rarotonga, capital of the Cook Islands, to consider a treaty declaring the area between the equator and Antarctica and between Australia and South America a nuclear-free zone. Eight members, including Australia, New Zealand, Western Samoa and tiny Niue (estimated population 3,400), signed the treaty. Four others are expected to ratify the agreement in the near future. Only Vanuatu refused, calling it impractical and ineffective...