Fernando Pereira

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Fernando Pereira (* 10. May 1950 in Chaves , Portugal ; † 10. July 1985 in Auckland , New Zealand ) was a Dutch freelance photographer Portuguese origin and Greenpeace - activists , who in the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior was killed.

Life and context

Pereira, who was born in the small Portuguese town of Chaves, fled his home country during the reign of António de Oliveira Salazar in order not to be drafted into military service. He fled via Spain on foot and hitchhiked to the Netherlands. There he embarked on a career as a photographer. As a press photographer, he photographed artists, politicians and current events. Almost a thousand of his photos are available through the National Archives of the Netherlands. He eventually became a Dutch citizen through his marriage to a Dutch woman . The family had two children: Marelle and Paul. In 1985 he participated as a photographer and activist in the Greenpeace campaign against the French nuclear weapons tests on the Mururoa Atoll .

He died when the Rainbow Warrior was sunk by the French secret service. After the first explosion he went below deck with other activists, after the second explosion he was missing and could only be recovered dead. The attack on the Greenpeace ship was carried out in the port of Auckland by two agents of the French foreign intelligence service. Two sticky mines were attached to the ship. The captain of the Rainbow Warrior, Peter Willcox , ordered the ship to be abandoned. Pereira went below deck to save his camera equipment. The ship's doctor assumed that the explosion of the second mine had stunned him below deck. Pereira's death triggered worldwide media coverage because it became a symbol of the actions of the secret service against Greenpeace: "Pereira died because the French secret service sank a ship with people who were committed to protecting the environment" (Katja Iken in Spiegel ). The two perpetrators of the attack, intelligence officers Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur , were sentenced in November 1985 to ten years in prison for manslaughter. The Pereira family received compensation of around 300,000 euros from the French government.

The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and the death of Pereira are considered one of the greatest political defeats in Mitterrand's tenure.

In 2005, on the twentieth anniversary of the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, it became public that the French President François Mitterrand himself had authorized the action. In a statement, Admiral Pierre Lacoste , the secret service chief at the time, said that Pereira's death was a heavy burden on his conscience.

Photos by Pereira

literature

  • Robin Morgan: Rainbow warrior. The French attempt to sink Greenpeace . Hutchinson, London 1986, ISBN 0-09-164360-0 .

Web links

Commons : Fernando Pereira  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Photos by Fernando Pereira  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fernando Pereira in the National Archives of the Netherlands , accessed on July 19, 2015
  2. ↑ Presentation by Greenpeace , accessed on July 14, 2015
  3. ↑ Presentation by Greenpeace , accessed on July 13, 2015
  4. ↑ a b Katja Iken, Die Bomben gegen Greenpeace , Spiegel Online (one day) from July 9, 2015. 2015
  5. ^ New York Times, 2013
  6. ↑ Le Monde, 2015
  7. ^ Independent, 1995
  8. ^ NTV, 2015
  9. ↑ Spiegel 29/1986 , accessed on July 15, 2015
  10. ↑ “Lesson in Cynicism” . In: Der Spiegel . No. 25 , 1995, pp. 118-120 ( Online - June 19, 1995 ).
  11. ^ Report Says Mitterrand Approved Sinking of Greenpeace Ship in The New York Times of July 10, 2005
personal data
SURNAME Pereira, Fernando
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch photographer of Portuguese origin and Greenpeace activist
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Chaves , Portugal
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1985
Place of death Auckland , New Zealand