France a Scandal That Refuses to Die

By Thomas A. Sancton

The worst political crisis to hit the four-year-old government of Socialist President Francois Mitterrand seemed to be turning into a nightmare. For weeks French officials had denied charges that the Paris government was directly involved in the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, flagship of the Greenpeace environmental movement, in Auckland, New Zealand, last July 10. Nonetheless, a police investigation in New Zealand and a stream of press revelations in France steadily increased suspicions that Mitterrand and his advisers had indeed played a role in the affair. Early last week, after forcing the resignations of France's Defense Minister and its head of foreign intelligence operations, Premier Laurent Fabius went on national television and admitted that the Rainbow Warrior had been blown up by French agents on the orders of unnamed government officials.

Instead of putting the matter to rest, the Premier's admission further aroused public indignation. Three days later, Fabius again went before TV cameras to answer the explosive question: Who had actually ordered the attack that caused the death of a Greenpeace photographer, provoked a diplomatic crisis with New Zealand and tarnished the moral authority of the Socialist government? The answer, according to Fabius, was former Defense Minister Charles Hernu, who had resigned five days before, and Vice Admiral Pierre Lacoste, the cashiered intelligence chief. "It is at their level that I place the responsibility," Fabius declared.

By blaming Hernu, a close friend and associate of Mitterrand's, Fabius was attempting to distance both himself and the President from what French newspapers were calling the "Underwatergate affair." But after repeated denials of official involvement, Fabius' reversal provoked widespread skepticism. A Sofres-Le Figaro poll taken just before the Premier's midweek TV appearance indicated 52% of the French people believe that Mitterrand and Fabius knew beforehand about the plan to blow up the Rainbow Warrior. Fully 78% condemned the decision to sabotage the ship.

Public doubts over the government's credibility further darkened the Socialists' prospects in legislative elections scheduled for next March. Even before the Greenpeace debacle, the conservative opposition had been expected to gain a majority in the National Assembly. Political observers last week were wondering whether Mitterrand, whose term does not end until 1988, would be so weakened after the elections that he would be unable to govern effectively in "cohabitation" with the conservative parties. There was speculation that he might be forced out of office before the end of his term. Mitterrand, for his part, issued a terse declaration: "The Premier has made all the statements needed to clear up this affair."

Fabius' most recent version of events was sharply challenged by opposition spokesmen. Declared Jacques Toubon, secretary-general of the moderate- conservative Rally for the Republic Party: "Either Fabius is a liar and seeks to save himself by burying others . . . or he knows nothing, sees nothing and controls nothing and is therefore rather incompetent." Still, major opposition leaders, including former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac, were reluctant to exploit the scandal. They refrained partly out of fear that they might weaken and demoralize the military establishment and partly because criticizing Mitterrand could undermine broad public support for France's independent nuclear deterrent, with which the President is strongly identified.

The French press was quick to point out gaps in Fabius' account. The Communist daily newspaper L'Humanite complained that the Premier was dispensing the truth "drop by drop" but giving no "clear answers." The normally pro-government Le Monde, which played a prominent role in investigating the Greenpeace affair (see box), noted a curious "chronological vacuum": Why had it taken the government from July 17, when Mitterrand first learned that two French agents had been arrested in New Zealand, until last week to establish that French operatives had indeed carried out the attack? Fabius attributed the delay to a cover-up by Hernu, who, he charged, had kept the government in the dark about French involvement. Commented the independent daily Liberation: "Fabius would be more convincing if Hernu agreed to accept the responsibility that is attributed to him."

But the former Defense Minister was not playing along. Hernu, who has repeatedly denied he gave the order to sink the Rainbow Warrior, refused to comment on Fabius' public charges against him. "I have no statement to make," he snapped at reporters. Privately, however, he indicated that he had opposed the Greenpeace operation but had been overridden by a higher authority. That could only mean Fabius, Mitterrand and their inner circle of advisers. Vice Admiral Lacoste also let it be known last week that he would go public with a complete account of the affair if any attempt were made to blame top military men.

As soon as Hernu had vacated the Defense Ministry, his replacement, former Transport Minister Paul Quiles, was given eight days to determine who had sunk the Rainbow Warrior. Within 48 hours he reported his initial conclusions to Fabius. Indeed, Quiles was standing solemnly at the Premier's side when Fabius on Sunday made his initial televised statement that the Rainbow Warrior was sunk by French agents acting "under orders." Fabius added that the real "truth was hidden" from Bernard Tricot, a former aide to Charles de Gaulle, who had submitted a report on Aug. 25 clearing the Mitterrand government of ordering the bombing. The following day, Quiles announced that key documents on the Greenpeace case were missing from the Defense Ministry files, which seemed to imply that Hernu had been involved in a cover-up.

As controversy centered on the Defense Ministry, Fabius was aware of the need to reassure the armed forces. In his midweek TV appearance, he stressed that the army "is absolutely not to blame in all this." He chose a respected military man, Army Chief of Staff General Rene Imbot, 60, to replace Lacoste at the head of the Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure, France's overseas espionage agency. Imbot's first assignment was to reorganize the DGSE. The housecleaning had begun with the arrest of four agents suspected of leaking information on the Greenpeace case to the press. They were officially indicted last week on charges of revealing secrets "damaging to the national defense," an offense punishable by five years in prison.

In New Zealand, meanwhile, two other DGSE agents face a preliminary hearing in November in connection with the sinking. Identified as Major Alain Mafart, 34, and Captain Dominique Prieur, 36, they were arrested shortly after the attack in Auckland harbor. The French government now acknowledges they were a support team for the frogmen who planted the hull-attached mines but argues that they should not be prosecuted since they were acting under orders. New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange, however, has ruled out any "deal" to exchange their freedom for French reparations. Denouncing the sabotage mission as "a sordid act of terrorism," Lange added, "It only remains for France to deliver the people who did the work and see that they are brought to justice."

There is little chance the agents who actually carried out the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior will ever face trial in New Zealand. French law forbids their extradition, and the Mitterrand government, so far at least, refuses to name them. But in the arena of French politics, the prosecution of Laurent Fabius and Francois Mitterrand may have just begun. At week's end DGSE Director Imbot issued an ominous warning: "There has been a plot to destabilize and destroy the intelligence services. I have now sealed off those services. From now on, anything you hear in the press does not come from intelligence agents." That suggested, as both Fabius and Hernu have hinted before, that the DGSE operation ordered against Greenpeace might have been sabotaged by anti-Socialist elements within the intelligence services in order to embarrass the government.

With reporting by William Dowell/Paris