Greenpeace to Sue France Over Sinking of Ship

The president of Greenpeace said today that the anti-nuclear, environmentalist group plans to sue the French government over the sinking of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior.

David McTaggart told a news conference that Washington-based lawyer Lloyd N. Cutler, an adviser on strategic arms negotiations to former President Jimmy Carter, agreed to represent Greenpeace without charging a fee.

Greenpeace is considering joining a New Zealand suit in the World Court in The Hague, bringing its own suit in the European Court of Human Rights or filing suit in a French court, McTaggart said.

The suit will seek damages for the loss of the Rainbow Warrior and possibly for the widow and children of photographer Fernando Pereira, who was killed in the ship bombing.

McTaggart stopped short of directly accusing the government of Socialist President Francois Mitterrand of masterminding the July 10 bombing in Auckland, New Zealand.

But he denounced an official French investigation by retired senior civil servant Bernard Tricot, which exonerated French authorities of any part in the sabotage, as “an insult to the intelligence,” and said he was disappointed Mitterrand failed to admit France’s guilt.

McTaggart demanded an immediate new inquiry by an “independent body.”