Shortly after midnight, Neil Roberts wrote on the toilet wall: “We have maintained a silence peaceclosely resemblingBeneath it, he drew the anarchy symbol and wrote the words “thinking.”
Roberts then walked toward the computer center that stores criminal justice information for use by New Zealand law enforcement agencies.
One of the two security guards in the building’s inner foyer saw him coming. He saw Roberts bend over as if to tie his shoes.
It was 12.35 after midnight.
A deafening noise and a flash, and Roberts exploded. The guards burned their feet, but were unharmed. The entrance to the building collapsed.
Roberts, then 22, “left”, but the 1000 computers inside the building continued to operate.
The Wanganui Computer Centre employed 150 people, but there were only seven on duty that morning of November 18, 1982. All seven fled through the back of the building, away from the horrific scenes unfolding outside the entrance.
Superintendent BK Dean said he had never seen a body so disfigured before.
"They should be discovering pieces of it for days," he said at the time.
A piece of Roberts' chest that was found had the tattoo "This punk won't live to be 23, there's no future." Having identified his fingerprints from his remains, the police concluded he was a punk anarchist, you know the ones with the razor blades hanging from their ears. Everything indicated that he acted alone.
Roberts' act is still commemorated by anarchists and punks every November 18. In 1984, a short film was made . But after more than thirty years, memories of the New Zealand suicide bombing have faded. Many people don't even know it happened.
However, after the Edward Snowden leaks and the discovery of illegal surveillance in New Zealand, carried out on behalf of American organizations when they wanted to arrest MegaUpload owner Kim Dotcom, memories were reawakened.
Roberts even has a memorial page on Facebook. Roberts has been variously described as a misfit, a Guy Fawkes of New Zealand, and most recently a terrorist.
The Police supported those who wanted him to be considered a misfit.
“He had anti-social behaviour and a tendency to protest of various kinds,” Detective RL Butler told the press.
Those who knew him, however, insist that Roberts was protesting against the Computer Centre because he saw it as a threat to freedom. For Roberts and others, the Wanganui Computer Centre was a symbol of Big Brother.
One person who knew Roberts, then 18-year-old Bronwyn Dutton, said that as soon as she heard about the bomb at the Wanganui Computer Centre she knew it was him.
“He hated the Computer Center probably more than anyone,” he said, describing Roberts as “very gentle, calm and very intelligent.”
' story 's Rob O'Neill ZDNet
