France Orders Greenpeace Blast Probe
The government today ordered an inquiry into reports that the French secret service sank a sailboat that the Greenpeace ecological group planned to sail into the French nuclear testing grounds in the South Pacific.
Two explosions rocked the Rainbow Warrior on July 10 in the harbor at Auckland, New Zealand, blasting gaping holes in its hull. A Portuguese member of the Greenpeace staff was killed.
French news reports said the secret service believed that the ship carried equipment capable of analyzing the effects of the French neutron bomb, expected to be tested this year.
Thierry Maus, a spokesman for Greenpeace in Paris, denied the reports. He said the group planned only to lead a fleet of ships into the testing area at the Mururoa Atoll to protest the blast.
Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, acting on a request from President Francois Mitterrand for “a rigorous inquiry” into the incident, appointed Bernard Tricot, once secretary general to President Charles de Gaulle.
Mitterrand said, “If (French) responsibility is proven, the guilty parties, at whatever level they are found, will be severely punished.”
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