Chirac Pledges Fight to Finish Against Terror

Premier Jacques Chirac told the French people Thursday night that his government will never give in to the demands of terrorist bombers and “will do everything--and I mean everything--to punish without pity the murderers and those who manipulate them.”

Chirac pledged that France, which he said has overcome similar tests of its strength and will in the past, will fight the terrorists to the finish.

“The murderers, I assure you, will not escape us,” he said in a nationally televised statement. “You can count on my resolution.”

Earlier in the day, Chirac told a news conference that his government’s treatment of the bombers will be “crushing and without weakness” once they are found. He referred to the terrorists as “the barbarians of the modern age.”

Eight people have been killed and more than 150 wounded in a series of five bombings of well-known places in Paris since Sept. 8.

The French police, however, seemed to be no closer to apprehending the terrorists. Police said they now know the identities of the two men who on Wednesday threw a bomb at a busy clothing store from a black BMW sedan, killing five people and wounding 52 in the latest attack.

Police said that witnesses, sifting through photographs, have identified the men as Emile Ibrahim Abdallah and Salim Khoury. Emile Abdallah is the brother of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, one of three prisoners convicted or charged with terrorist crimes whose release has been demanded by the terrorist bombers.

Georges Abdallah, serving a four-year sentence, has been described by the police as the leader of the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Faction, an organization that has boasted of killing an American military attache and an Israeli diplomat in Paris four years ago. Khoury is a prominent member of Abdallah’s organization.

Appeared in Lebanon

But according to the news agency reports, one of the two suspects, Emile Abdallah, appeared Thursday before reporters in northern Lebanon a few hours after police accused them of the bombing. He denied any role in the bombing and said he had never been to France.

While it is possible that Emile Abdallah may have made his way back to Lebanon in less than a day after the bombing, the suspect’s appearance raised questions about the accuracy of French intelligence.

This seemed like a replay of the embarrassment the government suffered Wednesday, when two other brothers of Abdallah appeared at a news conference in the Lebanese city of Tripoli a few hours after the French police had started putting up posters saying they were wanted in connection with the bombings. These two brothers, Maurice and Robert Abdallah, told the news conference that they had left Paris two years ago.

In his news conference Thursday, Chirac, who is also the mayor of Paris, called on Parisians to display “calm, dignity and courage” in the face of the attacks. He spoke shortly after word had reached him that Col. Christian Goutierre, 54, the French military attache in Beirut, had been killed by an assassin.

Chirac Comments

Chirac took note of this, and also that he had just come from the funeral of the policeman who died last Sunday while removing a bomb from a crowded restaurant on the Champs Elysees. Delivering the eulogy at the funeral, Chirac said his government is determined to battle “this absolute evil led by the barbarians of modern times.”

The news conference was Chirac’s monthly meeting with the press to discuss municipal matters. In a show of calm, he brought up some of the ordinary aspects of Paris life that would normally come up at such a meeting. He discussed an upcoming world championship volleyball tournament, a Japanese sumo wrestling tournament and new housing developments, but his heart did not seem to be in these matters, and his remarks were perfunctory.

The city of Paris appeared calm on the surface, but anxiety showed through, as riot police slowed cars on streets around government buildings, security guards checked bags of customers entering stores, and the government announced that special protection is to be provided for schools.

Mitterrand in Indonesia

Before his statement on television, Chirac had a long telephone conversation with President Francois Mitterrand, who is on a state visit to Indonesia. Mitterrand has been criticized for leaving France at this time, but he has insisted that terrorism must not be allowed to interfere with the normal activities of the president. Chirac has supported him in this.

The premier, calling for solidarity in the fight against terrorism, said he has asked all French political leaders to meet with him today to discuss the problem.

Theories abound about the true identity of the terrorists and their goals. Many official police reports indicate that the government believes that the terrorists are made up of the Abdallah family and the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Faction. But Denis Baudouin, Chirac’s spokesman, hinted Thursday that the government also thinks the matter is more complicated than that.

Baudoin said that while the demands of the Abdallah family clearly account for much of the motivation of the terrorists, they may be linked with other international groups “with other ideas.”

“There may be some overlapping, some encouragement,” Baudoin said, “perhaps with foreign states, perhaps with groups.”