France War on an Elusive Enemy

By Jill Smolowe

French Premier Jacques Chirac did not mince words. Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, his voice rising with scorn and anger, he denounced the "leprosy of terrorism" that has become a "systematic weapon of a war that knows no borders or seldom has a face." There were those, said Chirac, who sought to excuse terrorism as a legitimate response to oppression, but such odious methods "rule out our confusing those actions with genuine resistance."

Chirac's sharp rhetoric last week reflected French indignation over the brutal wave of terrorist bombings in Paris that have left nine dead and 163 wounded since Sept. 8. The declared aim of the bombings, which have been claimed by the Committee for Solidarity with Arab and Middle Eastern Political Prisoners (C.S.P.P.A.), is to force the release from prison of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, 35, a pro-Palestinian Marxist with roots in Lebanon's Maronite Christian community. The leader of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (F.A.R.L.), a group that police say may be the same as the C.S.P.P.A., Abdallah is serving a four-year term on charges of possessing weapons and false identification. Last week the Chirac government recommended that Abdallah be tried on charges of complicity in the 1982 slayings in Paris of a U.S. military attache and an Israeli diplomat.

A beefed-up force of 17,200 police and security officers maintained a siegelike vigil in Paris. Though most residents remained on edge, they were breathing easier. More than a week had gone by since the last terrorist bombing, and there was some relief as police arrested seven French militants and four Lebanese for questioning. But no one dared predict that the nightmare was over. Indeed, a C.S.P.P.A. communique warned that the "fire will spread" if its demands were not met. Abdallah, meanwhile, was transferred from Fleury- Merogis prison outside Paris to La Sante prison in the capital for added security.

The crisis rallied popular support behind the government. Approval ratings for both the neo-Gaullist Chirac and Socialist President Francois Mitterrand jumped in opinion polls. Inevitably, though, the ongoing tension spurred some politicking. Nearly 2,000 protesters showed up when the National Front, the far-rightist party led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, defied a government ban by staging a noisy rally in the Place de l'Opera. Le Pen criticized the government for its "nonchalant" attitude toward terrorism.

The government's headaches did not end there. Le Canard Enchaine, a satirical Paris weekly, charged that a French counterespionage agent had met with an "emissary" of the F.A.R.L. in Madrid last May; following that encounter and other alleged contacts in Damascus, the group had suspended its terrorist attacks in Paris in exchange for possible French leniency toward Abdallah. According to Le Canard, the deal was scotched when the U.S. intervened with a civil suit against Abdallah for his suspected role in the 1982 murder of the U.S. military attache. Chirac denied that his government had ever negotiated with the F.A.R.L. "I am allergic to blackmail and to terrorism," he said.

Responding to a French call for united action, interior ministers of the twelve European Community countries met in London last week to discuss ways to coordinate their antiterrorist efforts. Among the steps agreed upon: the sharing of computerized intelligence information, the "targeting" of key terrorists and speedier extradition procedures. The Paris government also explored other channels. Cooperation Minister Michel Aurillac flew to Damascus, where he is said to have sought help in tracking down the bombers. Melchite Catholic Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, 64, who had been involved in negotiations that led to the release of a French hostage in Lebanon last year, visited Abdallah in his Sante cell and reportedly asked him to renounce further attacks.

The prime suspects in the Paris bombings remained Abdallah's brothers: Robert, 20, Maurice, 23, and Emile, 28. In meetings with newsmen in their home village in northern Lebanon, the three have repeatedly denied involvement in the bombings. Police insisted, however, that several factors cast doubt on their claims of innocence. One was the testimony of Gilles Peyroles, a French official who was kidnaped in Lebanon last year. When the former Socialist government was in power, he was released in an aborted deal that was to have set Georges Abdallah free. Peyroles identified Maurice and Robert as two of his captors. Moreover, a clerk at Paris' Orly Airport said she had seen Emile board a flight to Vienna about three hours after the Sept. 17 bombing of the Tati discount store.

Eyewitnesses have identified Emile and Salim el Khoury, 31, as the men who planted the Tati bomb, then sped away in a black BMW. Last week in Lebanon, el Khoury told reporters he had not set foot in France in four years. Prosecutors' files in Lyons flatly contradicted that assertion: they showed that el Khoury had been in four French cities in 1984.

Pressure has mounted to force France to abandon its role in Lebanon. Last week a Shi'ite group calling itself the Revolutionary Justice Organization claimed to have kidnaped one "Marcel Coudari." French officials tentatively identified the man from a photo as Marcel Khodari, 54, a Frenchman who disappeared last February. The group also claimed to have abducted Joseph Cicippio, a U.S. citizen employed by American University in Beirut, who was seized on Sept. 12. That raised to 14 the number of French and Americans missing in Lebanon.

Despite continued tensions, there was no sign that France would reduce its profile in Lebanon, although some of the 1,400 French peacekeeping troops are being redeployed to safer positions. As Israel amassed troops along its northern border last week and carried out two air strikes on suspected Palestinian guerrilla targets in Lebanon, the French refused to relax their guard, either at home or abroad.

With reporting by Jordan Bonfante/Paris