Talks on return

Press, 5 August 1988, Page 2

Talks on return

NZPA-AFP Paris High-level talks are under way to decide if the two French agents convicted of the Rainbow Warrior bombing in Auckland Harbour will be returned to Hao atoll to finish their sentences, sources in Paris said yesterday.

Talks were being held “at Ministerial levels,” mainly at the New Zealand Embassy, after a New Zealand Foreign Ministry envoy, Mr Chris Beeby, arrived in Paris last week, sources said. On the French side, the Foreign Minister, Mr Roland Dumas, was in charge of the dossier and was in contact with the Prime Minister, Mr Michel Rocard, and the Defence Minister, Mr JeanPierre Chevenement, the sources said.

The New Zealand Embassy in Paris confirmed it was “in contact with France” over the issue. Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur were to have served three years on Hao atoll after being found guilty of bombing the Rainbow Warrior in Auck-

land Harbour on July 10, 1985.

But Mafart, aged 37, was brought back to France last December, allegedly because of health problems. Prieur came home in May and is now 19 weeks pregnant. Under the original French-New Zealand agreement, the pair were to have remained on Hao until June, 1989. Wellington has insisted they be sent back. Mr Chevenement strongly opposes their return.

Sources said Mr Chevenement might make a Pacific tour in the northern autumn, stopping at Wellington. The Government has not ruled out “favourable trade proposals” being made in exchange for “understanding” over the

Mafart-Prieur affair,

Legal experts at, the French Foreign Ministry are believed to be discussing interpretations of the agreement France and New Zealand signed in 1986 on the Rainbow Warrior affair. The decision of the former Prime Minister, Mr Jacques Chirac, to repatriate the agents was based on a different interpretation of the accord from that of Wellington. During campaigning for presidential elections last spring, Mr Michel Rocard, now the French Prime Minister, accused Mr Chirac of having “broken France’s, word to New Zealand” over the affair. On becoming Prime Min-. ister, he said settling the issue was one of his top priorities.