FRENCH TO INVESTIGATE SINKING OF PROTEST SHIP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100490018-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 5, 2012
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: August 9, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/05: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100490018-2
M
ims
ON E
N _
NEW YORK TIMES
9 August 1985
French to Investigate Sinking of 'Protest Ship
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
Speaal to The 4ew Yort Tunes
PARIS. Aug. 8 - The French Gov-
ernment began an official inquiry to-
day into the sinking in New Zealand
last month of a ecologists' protest ship.
The decision became known after re-
ports here that French agents may
have been involved in the incident, in
which one man died.
Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, in a
letter made public here this morning,
said that the investigation would estab-
lish whether "French agents, services,
or authorities may have been informed
of the preparation of a criminal attack
or even have participated in it."
A former Secretary General in the
Cabinet of Charles de Gaulle, Bernard
Tricot, was named to lead the investi-
gation.
The ship, the Rainbow Warrior, be-
longed to the antinuclear environmen-
talist group Greenpeace. It was to have
led a "peace flotilla" to the South Pa-
cific atoll of Mururoa, where France
conducts nuclear weapons tests.
A Portuguese photographer was
killed when he went aboard the ship
after an explosion ripped through the
vessel in Auckland harbor on July 10.
He died when a second blast sank the
vessel at dockside. The explosive de-
vices had apparently been attached to
the ship's hull.
After the attack, the New Zealand po-
lice arrested a French-speaking couple
carrying what were apparently false
Swiss passports and charged them with
murder and arson. The police are also
reported to be searching for three
French citizens who are believed to
have been accomplices in the attack.
The sabotage team was believed to
have gone to New Zealand aboard a
ship, the Ouvea, that had been char-
tered in the French Pacific island terri-
tory of New Caledonia. However, the
ship and its crew have disappeared
after last being seen on July 17 at the
Australian island of Norfolk.
The Government's decision to inves-
tigate the bombing followed
ours various unconfirmed reports
an- -here that the sa
bo-
rase team may have had ties to theFrennchi i intelligence service T was un-
clear here whether to investigation
had been provoked by the press re-
ports, which were published without
identifying sources of information, or
whether the Government had reasons
of its own to suspect the involvement of
French officials.
A spokesman maman for Mr. Fabius said
that the iri-y-estigation would look in-to
various "rumors" of official French in-
volvement but that there was no hard
in ormatton indicating that past or
present o tcia s o a intelligence
service had taken part in the incident.
In his letter, replying to a formal re-
quest from the President that a "rigor-
ous investigation" be undertaken, Mr.
Fabius said: "A link between the two
people indicted by the New Zealand au-
thorities in the matter of the Rainbow
Warrior and French services has been
suggested. I think it is necessary to ask
an individual of unquestionable reputa-
tion to look into all the elements of the
affair."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/05: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100490018-2