‘President knew,’ says newspaper

Press, 27 September 1985, Page 4

‘President knew,’ says newspaper

NZPA-AFP Paris The French President, Mr Francois Mitterrand, “knew everything” from July 17 about the July 10 bombing of the anti-nuclear ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, the conservative opposition newspaper," Le Figaro,” reported in Paris on Wednesday. It said it had learned from “the best sources” that Mr Mitterrand knew the ship was mined by French secret agents, that the operation had been approved by the Defence Minister, Mr Charles Hernu, and that the Prime Minister’s Office had granted secret funds for the action. The newspaper said the Prime Minister, Mr Laurent Fabius, informed Mr Mitterrand of this on July 17. Mr Fabius said in a tele-

vision interview on Wednes-

day that he learned the truth only on September 21. The article said authoritative sources disclosed that as soon as the French agents posing as Mr and Mrs Turenge were arrested in New Zealand on July 15, the French Ambassador sent a coded telegram to the President, the Premier, and the Foreign Minister relating the suspicions of New Zealand’s police. In a separate “Figaro” editorial, a former Gaullist Cabinet Minister, Alain Peyrefitte, wrote that Mr Fabius “knew perfectly” the New Zealand police’s grievances nine weeks before he admitted that French agents had mined the ship, and that “it was as clear as daylight that those grievances were founded.”