A black spot in New Zealand history 

The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior is a black spot in New Zealand's history. Twenty years on a former French Prime Minister says he was betrayed by his own defence minister over the bombing.

Laurent Fabius' admission comes just two weeks before the anniversary of the sinking of the Greenpeace flagship, which killed photographer Fernando Pereira.

Fabius was forced to apologise to New Zealand after French secret service agents bombed the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland on July 10, 1985.

The boat had been docked in Auckland harbour while Greenpeace prepared for a protest voyage to the nuclear test site at Moruroa Atoll.

According to a police report two high explosive devices attached to the hull of the Rainbow Warrior detonated within the space of a few minutes shortly before midnight. It is thought the devices had been attached to the hull some time before. The force of the explosion blew a hole 2.5 metres in size below the waterline at the engine room and the vessel sank within minutes.

Two days after the bombing the French Embassy in Wellington issued a statement denying any involvement.

But within days police had arrested French secret service agents Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur as they tried to return their van to an Auckland hire company.

It was an act of international sabotage and Laurent Fabius says it was hopelessly planned.

"It was a mess from beginning to end," he told TVNZ's Sunday programme

The former French Prime Minister also admits he was betrayed.

"People have lied to me and it was only the end of the process when the Minister of Defence Mr Hernu had been fired that everything came clear."

Fabius says the then Defence Minister not only ordered the bomb attack, but lied about his involvement.

Mafart and Prieur were charged with arson, conspiring to commit arson and murder. Initially they pleaded not guilty, but when they appeared in the high court in Auckland on November 4 1985 the pair changed their pleas.

They admitted a lesser charge of manslaughter and arson and were sentenced on November 22 to 10 years imprisonment on the charge of manslaughter and seven years imprisonment on the charge of arson.

In June 1986, in a political deal presided over by UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, France agreed to pay compensation of $13 million to New Zealand and apologise, in return for which Mafart and Prieur would be detained at the French military base on Hao atoll for three years.

The agents were both free by May 1988.

Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira was the victim - he had drowned, trapped in his cabin.

He left an eight-year-old daughter behind, who now lives in Amsterdam and is unhappy with the sentence the agents received.

"My dad has been murdered. I don't see it as manslaughter," Marelle Pereira told Sunday.

"It's always in your memories and that's with you all the time. Sometimes you think why?" she says.

According to a police report the Solicitor General said the Crown was prepared to accept a plea on the lesser charge of manslaughter as it could not be established that Mafart and Prieur were personally responsible for the placing of the explosive devices or that they intended anyone should be killed or injured.

Police inquiries suggested Mafart and Prieur's role had only been one of support for those who had placed the explosive devices, but six months after the bombing Auckland police were still working to locate and bring to trial the people who attached the actual devices to the Rainbow Warrior.

A third agent has now admitted his involvement to the Sunday programme.

Former army officer Louis Dallias lives in Washington DC and is a respected businessman. While he regretted someone was killed in the mission, which was dubbed Operation Satanic, he says he was simply a soldier following orders.