hkskyline
July 10th, 2005, 05:56 PM
Report: France's Mitterrand authorized 1985 bombing of Greenpeace boat
10 July 2005
PARIS (AP) - A former head of France's spy agency claimed that late President Francois Mitterrand approved the sinking of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in a New Zealand harbor 20 years ago, according to a French newspaper report.
In its Sunday-Monday edition, daily Le Monde published extracts of a 23-page account by Adm. Pierre Lacoste, the former head of DGSE spy agency, in which he says that Mitterrand authorized the bombing of the "peace" vessel in Auckland's port.
The handwritten account was published for Sunday's 20-year anniversary of the July 10, 1985, sinking of the ship. The newspaper said Lacoste prepared the report a year after the bombing and that it had remained secret since.
"I asked the president if he gave me permission to put into action the neutralization plan that I had studied on the request of Monsieur (Charles) Hernu," wrote Lacoste, the defense minister at the time.
"He gave me his agreement while stressing the importance he placed on the nuclear tests," Lacoste said. Hernu and Lacoste were both fired for their roles in the affair.
The ship was in the port as part of preparations for a protest at sea against French nuclear bomb tests in the South Pacific, when the explosion ripped open its hull and the vessel sank. A Greenpeace photographer, Fernando Pereira, died in the attack.
Hundreds of sympathizers of the environmental group gathered across France on Sunday for solemn commemorations of the sinking and tributes to Pereira.
In Paris, demonstrators dressed in rainbow colors gathered behind a banner that read "You can't sink a Rainbow," and formed a peace symbol on a square overlooking the Eiffel Tower.
Two DSGE agents, Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur, were convicted of willful damage and manslaughter and were sentenced to 10 years in prison for the sinking. After less than a year in prison in New Zealand, they returned to Paris as heroes. The New Zealand government called the bombing the country's first terror attack.
Lacoste wrote that the spy agency had concluded that "sabotage" against the Rainbow Warrior was the only way to "effectively hinder" any action by Greenpeace against the nuclear tests.
"Despite my reticence, Mr. Hernu provided no objection, nor any reservations about the principle of such an operation," the account from Lacoste said.
"I would not have carried out such an operation without the personal authorization of the president of the republic," he wrote.
In a 1989 book, "Inquiry Into Three State Secrets," French journalists Jacques Derogy and Jean-Marie Pontaut alleged Mitterrand had known in advance of the plans to sink the ship.
A French government report in 1985 said Gen. Jean Saulnier -- then Mitterrand's personal military adviser -- had authorized funding of the operation.
But Mitterrand's exact role has been unclear. Shortly after the bombing, he called the attack on the Rainbow Warrior "a criminal and absurd act."
Lacoste said the cover-up was intentional and Mitterrand "knew but chose to feign ignorance, and take up the game of 'searching for the truth' -- mixed with a vigorous condemnation of the 'criminals.'"
10 July 2005
PARIS (AP) - A former head of France's spy agency claimed that late President Francois Mitterrand approved the sinking of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in a New Zealand harbor 20 years ago, according to a French newspaper report.
In its Sunday-Monday edition, daily Le Monde published extracts of a 23-page account by Adm. Pierre Lacoste, the former head of DGSE spy agency, in which he says that Mitterrand authorized the bombing of the "peace" vessel in Auckland's port.
The handwritten account was published for Sunday's 20-year anniversary of the July 10, 1985, sinking of the ship. The newspaper said Lacoste prepared the report a year after the bombing and that it had remained secret since.
"I asked the president if he gave me permission to put into action the neutralization plan that I had studied on the request of Monsieur (Charles) Hernu," wrote Lacoste, the defense minister at the time.
"He gave me his agreement while stressing the importance he placed on the nuclear tests," Lacoste said. Hernu and Lacoste were both fired for their roles in the affair.
The ship was in the port as part of preparations for a protest at sea against French nuclear bomb tests in the South Pacific, when the explosion ripped open its hull and the vessel sank. A Greenpeace photographer, Fernando Pereira, died in the attack.
Hundreds of sympathizers of the environmental group gathered across France on Sunday for solemn commemorations of the sinking and tributes to Pereira.
In Paris, demonstrators dressed in rainbow colors gathered behind a banner that read "You can't sink a Rainbow," and formed a peace symbol on a square overlooking the Eiffel Tower.
Two DSGE agents, Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur, were convicted of willful damage and manslaughter and were sentenced to 10 years in prison for the sinking. After less than a year in prison in New Zealand, they returned to Paris as heroes. The New Zealand government called the bombing the country's first terror attack.
Lacoste wrote that the spy agency had concluded that "sabotage" against the Rainbow Warrior was the only way to "effectively hinder" any action by Greenpeace against the nuclear tests.
"Despite my reticence, Mr. Hernu provided no objection, nor any reservations about the principle of such an operation," the account from Lacoste said.
"I would not have carried out such an operation without the personal authorization of the president of the republic," he wrote.
In a 1989 book, "Inquiry Into Three State Secrets," French journalists Jacques Derogy and Jean-Marie Pontaut alleged Mitterrand had known in advance of the plans to sink the ship.
A French government report in 1985 said Gen. Jean Saulnier -- then Mitterrand's personal military adviser -- had authorized funding of the operation.
But Mitterrand's exact role has been unclear. Shortly after the bombing, he called the attack on the Rainbow Warrior "a criminal and absurd act."
Lacoste said the cover-up was intentional and Mitterrand "knew but chose to feign ignorance, and take up the game of 'searching for the truth' -- mixed with a vigorous condemnation of the 'criminals.'"