Warrior bombing ‘stupidity’

Press, 22 September 1987, Page 8

Warrior bombing ‘stupidity’

NZPA-AFP Paris The French secret service bombing of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in July 1985, was “stupid and unacceptable,” President Francois Mitterrand said in an interview to be published today. “The Government of Laurent Fabius (then France’s Socialist Prime Minister) paid the price” for the attack in Auckland Harbour, Mr Mitterrand told the weekly “Le Point.” Mr Mitterrand said the repercussions of the attack on the vessel, which killed one crew member,

were “severe.” “The people who because of their positions must be considered responsible were hit,” he said, referring to the Defence Minister, Charles Hernu, who resigned and the then head of the secret service, ’ Pierre Lacoste, who was dismissed. The Rainbow Warrior was sunk as it prepared to head a protest flotilla against French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll. One man, a photographer, was killed in the blast The two secret service agents who carried out

the bombing are serving three year jail terms on the atoll of Hao, after being released by the New Zealand authorities. “A boat was blown up. One man was killed, there was damage of all sorts. The Government of Laurent Fabius took the consequences,” Mr Mitterrand said.

In the latest development in the Rainbow Warrior case, French authorities have arrested a former secret service agent involved in the operation against the vessel, who gave an interview earlier this month to French television.