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Rainbow Warrior Affair Haunts New Zealand

David Robie writes from Auckland
MOVES to extradite an arrested French undercover agent alleged to have taken part In the 1985 bombing of the Rainbow Warrior has reopened a bitter controversy about the sabotage of the Greenpeace environmental ship and violation of New Zealand sovereignty
The seizure of diver Gerland Andries by Swiss immigration officials during a routine passport check on a train entering the Swiss city of Basle from France has surprised politicians.
Andries, alleged to have smuggled the bombs to New Zealand on a chartered yacht in an operation regarded by New Zealanders as state ter rorism, was being sought on an Interpol warrant accusing him of murder. Two other crew members are wanted on similar warrants.
While New Zealand police have two month* to prepare their case for the handing over of Andries and Prime Minister Jim Bolger has been cautious over the arrest, opinion polls show 70 per cent of New Zealanders want the Frenchman brought to justice before a New Zealand court.
The arrest has embarrassed the New Zealand and French governments. They though the Rainbow Warrior affair was over after Paris paid US $7 million compensation and apologised to Wellington in mid-1986 following mediation by United Nation* Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar.
Relations between New Zealand and France had gradually thawed, culminating earlier this year with a visit to New Zealand by then French Prime Minister Michel Rocard and a recent meeting between Bolger and current French Prime Minister Edith Cresson in Pari*.
Strong feelings by the New Zealanders about the Rainbow Warrior "violation' now jeopardise a visit by Cresson to New Zealand as part of her Pacific visit planned for January.
French ambassador Gabriel de Bellcscizc has been recalled for consultations at the Qua! d'Orsai. The view of French foreign affairs officials that the case is dead has been rejected in New Zealand which considers the 1986 negotiated settlement covered only two other French agents Involved in the bombing — Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur.
Bolger, anxious to salvag-the warmer relations with France, is caught in a difficult position. Saddled with the lowest popularity rating (seven per cent) of any New Zealand prime minister in the past 16 years and mounting bitterness over his handling of the troubled economy, he cannot risk further alienating the elec-
But he has encountered some surprising allies in former Labour Prime Minister Gcoffry Palmer and several newspapers which have challenged whether anything is to be gained by allowing the diplomatic "terrible nightmare" to be reopened.
Palmer, who played a key role in the events leading up to the UN arbitration, questions whether it is In New .Zealand's
best interests to pursue the extradition.
Recalling the impact on New Zealand-French relations of the bombing and the Jailing of the two French secret agents caught at the time, he said the imprisonment of Mafart and Prieur was appropriate — "but how long do you go on with these matters?"
The Sunday Star called on Attorney-General Pul East to declare the country did not want Andries before there was any suggestion of political deals, threats of trade embargoes by France or offers of money.
"France is the guilty party," the paper said. "It always was — and it still is. The (nuclear) tests at Moruroa Atoll, which the Rainbow Warrior was In the course of protesting, are an affront to this part of the world."
The arrest of Andries is bad news for Bolger also because he had previously attacked former prime minister David Lange's handling of the case involving Mafart and Prieur.
New Zealand came under heavy threats of European trade sanations if the pair were not released. They,served
only a fraction of their JO-ycar manslaughter sentence on the French Polynesian Atoll of Hao and then returned to France — allegedly because Mafart was ill and Prieur pregnant.
Bolger took a strong "no deals" line as Opposition Leader. Now he has refused to assure Parliament he would not do a deal with international authorities over Andries.
Andries, also known as Eric Audremer or Eric Audrenc, faces charges of murder, willful damage and conspiracy to commit arson.
He and his cremates — Roland Verge and Jean-Michel Barcelo — on board the 11.6 metre yacht Ouvea were questioned on Norfolk island several days after the bombing, but the police did not have
enough proof of their involvement.
Andries. Verge and Barcelo were then believed to have scuttled the Ouvea tn the Coral Sea and been picked up by the French nuclear-powered submarine Rubis. which took them to Tahiti and safety. ’
Andries later embarrassed the French secret service, DOSE, by giving ipterviews to a French magazine and taking Kin the writing of a book, lion Oxygen, which purported to be an inside story on the sabotage operation.
The embarrassment for' France has been deepened with the signing of a declaration against terrorism late tn November. Along with Britain and the US, France supported the declaration which said: “The three states reaffirm their complete condemnation of terrorism in all its forms' and denounce any complicity of states in terrorist acts.
The three states reaffirm their commitment to put an end to terrorism. They consider that the responsibility of states begins whenever they take part directly in terrorist actions or directly through harbouring, training, proving facilities, arming or providing financial support, or any form of protection, and that they are responsible for their actions before the individuals states and the United Nations."
Tlje declaration also cited the bombings of Pan Am flight 103 and UTA 772 and demanded that Libya "prove its renunciation of terrorism."
Commentators in New Zealand accuse France of hypocrisy if it condemns alleged Libyan terrorism while exonerating itself over the role of Andries' in the Rainbow Warrior — GEMINI NEWS
DAVID ROBIE Is a New Zealand Journalist specialising tn Pacific and development Issues.