Govt asked to explain paras’ deaths

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 10

Govt asked to explain paras’ deaths

NZPA-Reuter Paris The French Government was pressed yesterday for a full explanation of the deaths of nine paratroopers in Chad after the brother of one of them drove a car at the Defence Minister, Mr Charles Hemu, earlier yesterday. The incident happened at a funeral ceremony at Toulouse airport for the nine soldiers killed in an explosion in the Chad desert at the week-end. As Mr Hernu offered his condolence to the families, Lionel Rehal, whose brother, Laurent, was among the dead, drove his white Alfa-Romeo at speed straight at the group. A bodyguard fired at the car, hitting the young man in the groin. Screams went up from the crowd as he slumped over the wheel and had to be rushed to hospital.

The French Defence Ministry has issued conflicting reports of the Chad explosion, and commentators said that some of the bereaved families were exasperated about the confusion.

Initially a Ministry statement said that the nine had been killed and six others injured after a shell they were trying to defuse had exploded in a derelict military vehicle.

A later statement said that they had stepped on a mine during a desert patrol. A commission of inquiry has been sent to investigate the incident in Chad, where France dispatched 3000 troops in August to hold off a Libyan-backed rebel offensive against Hissene Habre’s Government. Laurent Rehal, who was

19, was to return to Toulouse at the end of the month after a short spell in Chad.

Another of his brothers told a television interviewer: “We don’t know what happened. Just that they died in Chad, that’s all. Which is the right version? We have to know. It’s not difficult to tell the truth.”

Jean Lecanuet, president of the Centre-Right U.D.F. party, asked Mr Hernu to give full details of the Chad incident as soon as possible.

Claude Labbe, who leads the neo-Gaullist R.P.R. group in the National Assembly, said that his party condemned the deaths of young Frenchmen, “in the service of a non-policy, with missions that are once again ill-defined, as in Lebanon.”

“Are we pledged to demining in the desert, with all the risks involved?” he said.

“What policy are we moving towards?” The Defence Ministry said that the Toulouse ceremony had ended shortly after the incident and that Mr Hemu had gone immediately to the injured man’s side.

Mr Rehal, aged 25, was rushed to hospital. The Ministry said that Mr Hernu had asked to be informed of his progress. Eye-witnesses said that as the bodyguards fired the car went out of control, hitting a flag-draped coffin as it rolled to a stop. Plainclothes security men sprinted to the car and dragged Mr Rehal to the ground before he was given medical aid.