Heads will not roll, say Paris sources

Press, 30 August 1985, Page 1

Heads will not roll, say Paris sources

NZPA-AFP

Paris

Structural changes aimed at greater efficiency and job satisfaction rather than dismissals are likely to result from an inquiry into France’s external counter-intelli-gence service, ordered by the Prime Minister, Mr Laurent Fabius.

“Heads won’t roll,” informed sources in Paris said yesterday. Citing “shortcomings,” in the D.G.S.E. secret service, Mr Fabius ordered the investigation on Tuesday amid widespread criticism of an official report clearing French agents of the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, the ship of the Greenpeace ecological movement.

Mr Bernard Tricot’s report had said that five D.G.S.E. agents were, or had recently been, in New Zealand on July 10, when mines sank the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, but he said he had no information implicating them. According to the sources, Government officials did not see the problem as one of guilt.

The idea would be to encourage more effective methods and “discretion” within D.G.S.E., and to tackle personnel problems

in recruitment, job rotations and career prospects. The Defence Minister, Mr Charles Hernu, who said last week that a D.G.S.E. “reorganisation” was under way without saying when it began, was working urgently on the “shortcomings” mentioned by Mr Fabius on Tuesday, the sources said.

A reliable defence source said there appeared to have been a series of blunders in the Greenpeace affair, including telephone calls from New Zealand to France, which he said were hardly compatible with secrecy. French officials remained cautious about “proof” reportedly established by New Zealand authorities, particularly as two of the agents held in New Zealand had not had an opportunity to report to their superiors.

One general personnel problem, informed sources said, was that D.G.S.E.

agents, particularly officers and non-commissioned officers, were soldiers somewhat removed from the mainstream Army and its career prospects. The consequence was prolonged postings to secret services, with inevitable routine and the danger of unchecked professional bad habits setting in. One solution appeared to be quicker rotation on lines already introduced by Mr Hernu for military attaches abroad, whose postings are now limited to three or four years and alternated with Army postings. This maintained their contact with the Armed Forces, and their promotion prospects, the sources said. Use was also envisaged of a new military languages and Intelligence school planned to open in Strasbourg this autumn and combining two hitherto separate disciplines to improve recruiting and specialisation.