France to compensate N.Z. over bombing

Press, 27 September 1985, Page 4

France to compensate N.Z. over bombing

PA Wellington France has agreed to compensate New Zealand for the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, said the Prime Minister, Mr Lange yesterday. Mr Lange told a postcaucus press conference that he had received a letter from the French External Relations Minister, Mr Roland Dumas, on Monday morning offering reparation. Asked whether France had conceded in the talks, between Mr Dumas and the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Palmer, in New York, that reparations would be paid Mr Lange said, ‘‘Their initial letter to me from the Minister of External Relations refers specifically to

now moving to talk about the matter of reparation.” However, France had said the three Ouvea crew members sought by the New Zealand police in connection with the bombing were not to be pursued as they were agents acting under orders. Mr Lange said New Zealand had in turn also made it clear that the French couple facing charges of murder and arson in New Zealand, Captain Dominique Prieur and Major Alain Mafart, would not be part of ongoing reparation negotiations.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Palmer, has had two meetings with Mr Dumas in New York this week and intends to leave for London today, but Mr Lange has

said officials will continue the talks.

The meetings between Mr Palmer and Mr Dumas had concerned establishing ways in which reparations could be agreed upon. The amount of compensation to be paid had not yet been an issue, he said.

“New Zealand and France have to create the terms of their own court,” he said. Mr Lange said implicit in the reparation package would be an apology to be tendered as part of the settlement.

He expected the negotiations to continue for at least nine months. New Zealand would be living with the Rainbow Warrior and its aftermath for another nine months, he said.

There would not be further meaningful negotiations, after Mr Palmer’s departure, for at least a month.

Mr Lange said he had issued a specific instruction to the New Zealand negotiators in New York that the trial of the French couple in Auckland was not to be an issue in the negotiations. The taking of depositions on charges against them of murder and arson would proceed. “I have given an emphatic pledge here and by direction there that it is not a matter for a bargain.” Mr Lange said the direction was sent on Monday afternoon after the reparation discussion suggestion had come from Mr Dumas.