France closes training base for agents

Press, 4 October 1985, Page 3

France closes training base for agents

NZPA-Reuter Paris France has started a promised shake-up of its Intelligence services by scrapping a secret training base in the wake of the Greenpeace affair. The Minister of Defence, Mr Paul Quiles, brought in to reorganise the Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (D.G.S.E.) after the sacking of its chief and the resignation of his predecessor, Mr Charles Hernu, announced the closing of the Instruction Centre for Underwater Combat Swimmers at Aspretto, in Corsica. This is where D.G.S.E. agents who sank the Greenpeace protest ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in July were trained. France’s admission that its agents were responsible caused a political crisis for the French President, Mr Francois Mitterrand, and

sent relations with New Zealand plunging to an alltime low. The Prime Minister, Mr Laurent Fabius, who blamed Mr Hernu and sacked the D.G.S.E. chief, Admiral Pierre Lacoste, has indicated that the French Government now considers the affair closed. But Mr Quiles, addressing the National Assembly yesterday, made it clear that investigations into the attack were continuing. As well as announcing the closing of Aspretto base, Mr Quiles said he was reconstituting the elite 11th Battalion, disbanded by a former President, Charles de Gaulle, during the Algerian war, and would put its resources at the disposition of the D.G.S.E. De Gaulle felt many of the battalion’s members, highly trained Intelligence specialists, were bitterly opposed to Algerian independ-

ence. Mr Quiles said yesterday that France would not allow any protest at Mururoa to delay the next nuclear test by a week, a day or even an hour. He said he would personally attend the next test at an unspecified date, adding: “We will not allow French sovereignty (at Mururoa) to be violated ... we will not delay our next nuclear test by a week, a day or even an hour.” He repeated earlier French Government warnings that any vessel violating the territorial limit off Mururoa would be seized and its crew arrested if a landing was attempted. The tug Greenpeace, sent to replace the Rainbow Warrior, is leading a protest flotilla towards Mururoa and the French Pacific fleet is standing by to ward off any intruders.