The French special agent who bombed the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior 30 years ago has apologized for his action. Jean-Luc Kister made his apology on the New Zealand channel TVNZ, saying, "I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest regret."
In July 1985, the Rainbow Warrior was preparing to sail for French Polynesia in order to protest against nuclear weapons testing. Kister led a special operations team that was ordered to stop the ship. They placed two bombs on its hull, which blew up and caused the Rainbow Warrior to sink immediately. A Portuguese photographer named Fernando Pereira was still on board.
He added that the mission was "an unfair, clandestine operation conducted in an allied, friendly and peaceful country" that "unfortunately resulted in the accidental death of an innocent man."