France orders inquiry into bombing reports

Press, 9 August 1985, Page 1

France orders inquiry into bombing reports

By

GEOFF MEIN

The French Government has ordered an inquiry “without limitations” into allegations that French secret service agents were responsible for the bombing of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior.

The allegations were made in this week’s issues of weekly magazines, “V.S.D.” and “L’Evenement du Jeudi.” “V.S.D.” reported that the sabotage was ordered after France's secret service, the D.G.S.E. (External Security General Directorate) learnt that the Greenpeace ship was carrying equipment capable of analysing the effects of a neutron bomb. The D.G.S.E., described as “the aquarium in which the French spies swim in troubled waters,” was ordered by the French military to “efficiently and discreetly neutralise the Greens,” the article said. The French President, Mr Francois Mitterrand, ordered a top-level inquiry, saying that if responsibility was proved, the guilty must be severely punished, regardless of their positions. Late last evening, a former adviser to President Charles de Gaulle, Councillor of State Bernard Tricot, was appointed to conduct the inquiry. He was told to establish the truth and define responsibilities without limitations. Sources in Paris told “The Press” last evening that the French Prime Minister, Mr

Laurent Fabius, said in a letter to Mr Mitterrand that he had earlier suggested an investigation after a link was established between two persons charged by the New Zealand authorities and the French secret service. The timing of President Mitterrand’s statement ordering the inquiry was described as unusual by the

Europe One radio station, which had been following closely the Rainbow Warrior inquiry. The announcement was made at 1.10 a.m., after France’s morning newspapers had gone to press. the two-page article in “V.S.D.” featured photographs of Sophie Turenge, the woman with a Swiss passport arrested in Auckland, and Fernando Pereira, the Greenpeace crewman killed in the bombing. The article gives the names of about a dozen agents it alleges were involved. A secret service agent, named in the artcile, is reported to have got in touch with an arms merchant who dispatched a troop of mercenaries to the South Pacific. The magazine said that the D.G.S.E. had already used this “very special kind of manpower” in Chad in 1983. The Rainbow Warrior mission was given to a commando of civilian spies which aparently had no links with the official secret services, the article said. In May, a boat dealer flew from Paris to Noumea and hired the yacht Ouvea for 50 days. The D.G.S.E. sent to

Auckland a woman to act an an ecologist and infiltrate Greenpeace. On June 9, the boat dealer was back in Noumea with two crew members, one posing as a photographer, and the other as a commercial agent. The three men modified the yacht, installing an automatic pilot, satellite navigation system, and a quartz radio for international communication. On June 10 a Parisian doctor, ostensibly on a holiday in Noumea, boarded the Ouvea bound for New Zealand. A group of spies stayed behind in Noumea to set up a rear base, and “observers” were sent to Australia. A couple left Paris for New Zealand via London, and were met in Auckland by “honourable correspondents” of the D.G.S.E.

One was identified in London as a “captain” in the French secret service. Several items, including two 20kg bombs, a Zodiac inflatable boat, and deepsea diving equiment, were apparently stolen in New Zealand. The article did not elaborate on the bombing, other than to say that a strong Frenchman was seen on the wharf just before the explosions. The Ouvea headed back into the South Pacific and, after giving a false position, “turned into a ghost boat.” Most of the “adventurers” returned to Paris, some to report to the D.G.S.E. Diplomatic sources in Paris described the “V.S.D.” as a reasonably serious magazine, and “L’Evenement du Jeudi” as a “lighter” magazine with a pin-up cover. Foreign correspondents working in Paris told “The Press” last evening that “V.S.D.” was lively by French standards and renowned for investigative reporting. It had recently been the first journal to publish accounts of K.G.B. spying in France, which had proved accurate. Sources in Paris said the New Zealand authorities be-

lieved there was a “French connection” in the attack on the environmental group’s vessel. The sources said the New Zealand police were now convinced that the attack on the Rainbow Warrior was planned and carried out by French citizens. The New Zealand Government has offered to assist the French Government in its inquiry. The Acting Prime Minister, Mr Moore, said the New Zealand police had benefited greatly from the assistance of their French counterparts in conducting their own inquiry. “Both Governments are very determined to combat terrorism and the Rainbow Warrior bombing certainly falls into that category,” he said. Detective Superintedent Allan Galbraith, who is head

of the New Zealand investigation into the bombing, said that the police were discussing with the French authorities, the possibility of sending detectives to France. “From our point of view of this inquiry and our perspective we would have to consider these (the magazines’) comments as being pure speculation,” he said. “The police have been assured by Steve Sawyer, an international director of Greenpeace, that the Rainbow Warrior had on board a $2OO radiation detector the size of a pocket transistor radio which was not as sophisticated as a geiger counter,” he said. Agence France-Presse reports that the French secret service linked to the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior is a group that works abroad only, and has a mandate to detect spying from abroad. The organisation, headed by Admiral Pierre Lacoste, was the D.G.S.E., the French news agency said. The service’s name was changed in April, 1982, from the External and Counterespionage Documentation Service (Service de Documentation Exterieure et de Contre-Espionage).

The group’s task was to “seek and use” documents regarding France’s security, and to detect and prevent enemy espionage activities, A.F.P. said. The Intelligence community regarded it as a smallscale equivalent of the American Central Intelligence Agency. It had an estimated annual budget of about 300 million francs ($63.94 million), but secret funds were available for special assignments, A.F.P. said.