P.M. gives view on French inquiry

Press, 12 August 1985, Page 4

P.M. gives view on French inquiry

PA Auckland Involvement of foreign agents in the Rainbow Warrior bombing could become an international law issue, according to the Prime Minister, Mr Lange. Discussing the French Government inquiry into allegations that agents acting for a French secret agency masterminded the attack, Mr Lange said: “It is a matter of very grave moment for any country to have the allegation raised against it that one of its instrumentalities has been involved in an act against the sovereignty of another one.”

The move by President Mitterrand, in the circumstances, was appropriate, he said.

The suggestion that a country had done a “physical, criminal act” against another was extremely serious, but it also was important to let the inquiry continue without prejudice. He said that the New Zealand Government would not interfere with police inquiries into the bombing last month and police ef-

forts to bring the saboteurs to justice. However, reports of official involvement in the fatal bombing were a different matter. “If it be established in respect of this incident or any other incident that a foreign Government has been behind it then it becomes a matter for Govern-ment-to-Government action and principles of international law are invoked,” said Mr Lange. Asked at the week-end whether the Paris inquiry was a move to “take the heat off’ Mr Mitterrand’s Socialist Government, he said that was most unlikely because the man appointed to conduct the investigation, Mr Bernard Tricot, was prominent in the Gaullist Opposition. The New Zealand police said yesterday that they knew nothing about reports from New Caledonia that a joint French-New Zealand task force would investigate the disappearance of the yacht Ouvea, sought in connection with the sabotage of the Rainbow Warrior.

A police spokesman told

Reuters that all New Zealand detectives hunting the Ouvea and the three Frenchmen crewing it had returned to Auckland. He said that authorities in Noumea called off their search for the Ouvea last week.

Three French police inspectors are expected in Noumea from Paris tomorrow, NZPA-AFP reports. The New Zealand police have received no official information linking any French Intelligence organisation with the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, said Detective Superintendent Allan Galbraith.

He told reporters in Auckland that obviously information being discovered during the inquiry pointed to French people being implicated.

“But we have not linked it (the bombing) with any particular agency,” said Mr Galbraith. He said three more New Zealand detectives would fly to Paris soon to look into the backgrounds of people being sought in the investigation. :