Davey Edward, a Rainbow Warrior campaigner at Rongelap who cared and never gave up

Greenpeace campaigner Davey Edward ... in the workshop on board the bombed
ship Rainbow Warrior when he was chief engineer in 1985. IMAGE: David Robie/APR

By ASIA PACIFIC REPORT

A former Rainbow Warrior campaigner and Greenpeace International technical manager, Davey Edward, has died in Perth, Australia. He was 68.

Edward had a long history with Greenpeace. He started sailing with the global environmental movement in 1983 and was chief engineer on board the first Rainbow Warrior when it was bombed by French secret agents in Auckland in 1985.

Earlier that year, he had been part of the Rainbow Warrior mission to relocate the Rongelap Atoll community in the Marshall islands who had suffered from US nuclear tests.

After that UK-born Edward sailed as chief engineer on several expeditions, including the Antarctic.

• READ MORE: Eyes of Fire : 30 Years On for background on the Rainbow Warrior Rongelap voyage
• LISTEN: Martini Gotje’s Navigator programme on Radio Waiheke, Sunday night 6-9pm NZ time

Since his sailing career, Edward returned several times to Greenpeace, and left Greenpeace in the early 1990s.

NZ nuclear-free activists, campaigners back Tahiti’s Mā’ohi Lives Matter rally

Three generations of Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific activists crossing paths
- Hilda Halyard-Harawira, Ena Manuireva, and India Logan-Riley - asking for reparations
for the damage caused by nuclear testing and fighting for a better future
for the next generation. IMAGE: Jos Wheeler

By Asia Pacific Report

Moana activists, campaigners, scholars, researchers and Green MPs gathered last Sunday in a show of solidarity for Tahiti’s Ma’ohi Lives Matter rally at Auckland University of Technology and vowed to work towards independence for the French-occupied Pacific territory.

A live feed from the Tahitian capital of Pape’ete was screened and simultaneous events happened across the Pacific, such as in Fiji.

Many of the Auckland participants were stalwarts from the early days of the Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement from the 1970s and 1980s and declared their support for pro-independence Tahitian leader Oscar Temaru.

• READ MORE: The Auckland event on Sunday mirroring the Mā’ohi Lives Matter rally in Pape’ete
• Nine takeaways from the Mā’ohi Lives Matter solidarity rally in NZ
• Thousands rally in Tahiti in protest over nuclear weapons legacy
• Temaru calls for massive turnout for Mā’ohi Lives Matter nuclear-free rally
• Mā’ohi Nui’s search for nuclear justice – the French ‘reset’ button still to be reset
• France denies cover-up over deadly nucear tests
• Macron hosts French ‘truth and justice’ Pacific nuclear test legacy talks
• A round table on nuclear power to determine relations between France and Polynesia
• French nuclear tests: ‘I bury people nearly every day, what was our sin?’
• French nuclear tests legacy and Disclose revelations

Mā’ohi Nui’s search for nuclear justice – the French ‘reset’ button still to be reset

 

A younger Tahitian leader Oscar Temaru (centre) leads an anti-nuclear protest in
Pape'ete during the height of the demonstrations against three decades of French
nuclear testing at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls. Image: RT

 
SPECIAL REPORT: By Ena Manuireva and Tony Fala

On 27 May 2021, a significant event took place in Rwanda where French President Emmanuel Macron asked for forgiveness from the people of Rwanda after admitting for the first time that France bore a “terrible responsibility” for the deaths of hundreds of thousands in the 1994 genocide.

This is how President Macron’s wording appeared in The Guardian:

“France played its part and bears the political responsibility for the events in Rwanda. France is obligated to face history and admit that it caused suffering to the Rwandan people by allowing itself lengthy silences at the truth exam …”

On the other hand, the French government assumes no liability for the genocide and ecocide perpetrated in Mā’ohi Nui (French Polynesia)- the "crown jewel" of France’s overseas territories.

• READ MORE: Macron hosts French ‘truth and justice’ Pacific nuclear test legacy talks
• Other French nuclear tests reports

The French administration is living in denial concerning its responsibility to the Ma’ohi Nui people vis-a-vis the impact of nuclear tests in the region.