Table Of ContentTHE FRENCH SECRET SERVICE AGENTS -
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Christine Cabon, alias Frederique Bonlieu Cabon joined the French army in 1977, and was later
transferred to the intelligence gathering and evaluation wing of the Direction Generale de la Securite
Exterieure (DGSE - French Secret Service). She infiltrated the Greenpeace New Zealand office in April
1985 to uncover plans for the Greenpeace Moruroa trip and gathered directions, maps, and information
for the Ouvea crew and the Turenges. She left New Zealand on May 24 1985; at the time of the bombing
she was in Israel. The same day the Auckland police asked the Israeli authorities to arrest her, she was
warned off by the DGSE and was able to leave Israel before Israeli authorities arrested her. She has
since disappeared.
Ouvea crew - the French support boat
The three Ouvea crew are believed to have smuggled explosives, an inflatable and an outboard motor
into New Zealand. It is possible but unlikely that one of them actually placed the bombs.
Dr Xavier Maniguet
Maniguet was a doctor specializing in treating diving accident victims. He claimed only to have been a
passenger on board the Ouvea. He was living in Dieppe, Normandy (France) in 1985. He later wrote a
book, The Jaws Of Death (Shark As Predator, Man As Prey), which included reference to his role in the
Rainbow Warrior bombing.
Chief Petty Officer Roland Verge, alias Raymond Velche, Skipper of the Ouvea,
Velche was a combat frogman who joined the French army in 1970 and was later seconded to the
DGSE. He was based at the Navy Frogmen Training Centre (CINC) at Aspretto in Corsica, which was
closed in 1986.
Petty Officer Bartelo, alias Jean-Michel Berthelot
Bartelo was also a combat frogman. His whereabouts since the bombing are unknown.
Petty Officer Gerald Andries, aliases Eric Audrenc, Eric Andreine
Member of the Ouvea crew, Andries was a combat frogman. He bought ,the inflatable and the outboard
motor used in the bombing in London. Andries joined the French army in 1975 and later became a
DGSE agent based at the Navy Frogmen Training Centre in Corsica. Six years after the bombing, on
November 23 1991, Andries was arrested in Basel. He crossed into Switzerland on the Brussels-Milan
Eurocity train without a passport: he could show the customs officers only a driver's licence and an army
document. The police routinely checked the Interpol system and found there was still an international
warrant outstanding for his arrest. He was detained in prison in Basel while the Swiss authorities
awaited an extradition request from New Zealand.
On December 17 the New Zealand government informed the Swiss authorities that they would not be
seeking Andries' extradition. Andries was subsequently released and immediately escorted to the French
border. At the moment of his arrest Andries was still in the army but not a DGSE agent.
Major Alain Mafart, alias Alain Turenge
Mafart was a DGSE agent and deputy commander of the Navy Frogmen Training Centre in Corsica. He
supported the sabotage team and was apprehended by New Zealand police when returning a rental van.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on November 22 1985.
Following a United Nations sponsored mediation between New Zealand and France in July 1986 Mafart
was deported to the island of Hao in French Polynesia to serve 3 years. In return France apologised to
New Zealand and paid New Zealand US$7 million.
On 14 December 1987 Mafart was returned to Paris, after complaining of stomach pains. After treatment
he was not returned to the island. In 1988 he enrolled on a two-year course at the Ecole de Guerre (War
College) in Paris.
Mafart was promoted to colonel in December 1993. According to Le Monde, Mafart was then serving
near Paris on a base housing several command staffs, including that of military intelligence. His
commanding officer during the Rainbow Warrior affair is now an aide to Defence Minister Francois
Leotard.
Captain Dominique Prieur, alias Sophie Turenge
Prieur was a DGSE controller in the intelligence-gathering and evaluation wing, acting as Christine
Cabon's controller. She was a specialist in European peace movements. After her arrest by New Zealand
police, she pleaded guilty with Mafart to reduced charges of manslaughter and was sentenced to 10
years imprisonment on November 22, 1985. Because of the UN ruling in the arbitration between New
Zealand and France (July 1986) she was deported to the island Hao (French Polynesia) to serve 3 years
instead. On May 6, 1988 she was returned to France because she was pregnant (her husband was
allowed to join her on Hao). As with Mafart, she never returned to Hao. She has since been promoted to
the rank of Commandant.
A UN Arbitration panel found that France had breached its obligation to New Zealand several times by
removing the agents from Hao and failing to return them, but it rejected an appeal by New Zealand to
have Mafart and Prieur returned because the term they should have spent there had already lapsed.
Recently published book about her role in the boming.
Colonel Louis Pierre Dillais, alias Jean Louis Dormand Dillais was the chief of mission of the DGSE
operation to stop the Rainbow Warrior on July 10, 1985. A senior officer at the underwater combat
centre at Aspretto in Corsica, Dillais travelled under the code name of Jean Louis Dormand and
reportedly drove the inflatable boat for the two divers who installed the bombs which sunk the Rainbow
Warrior. After the bombing, he sent the two divers to the South Island of New Zealand to ski, and went
himself as a tourist to Queenstown until he flew to Australia on July 23.
In 1994, French Defence Minister Francois Leotard appointed Dillais as chief of the private office of the
Minister of Defence. In this post, he is in charge of military intelligence. Previously, Dillais worked for
the general secretariat of the 'Defense National', attached to Prime Ministerial Services, in charge of
European-Atlantic affairs.
Critics within the DGSE say that Dillais failed to protect his team because their names were revealed to
the New Zealand police and their careers subsequently ended. They say Dillais' own career has been
protected because his father-in-law is former foreign affairs minister Jean Francois Poncet.
Alain Tonel, Jacques Camurier, Francois Verlet Known by these names to the New Zealand police,
these 3 men were the so-called 'third team' of divers, either a back-up team of frogmen or the saboteurs
themselves. Verlet left for Tahiti on July 10 and Tonel and Camurier crossed to the South Island on July
11 with Dillais (Dormand) before leaving the country.
Colonel Jean-Calude Lesquer Lesquer, a colonel in 1985, was head of the action unit charged with the
Rainbow Warrior bombing. Lesquer lost his post over the Rainbow Warrior scandal but was promoted
to Brigadier-General because of his performance in the Gulf War. In February 1995 he was promoted to
Major-General, and assigned to COFRAS, a semi- state body entrusted with following up major
contracts between French arms manufacturers and foreign governments.
One official said he would be posted to Saudi Arabia, one of the French arms industry's main foreign
clients. Lesquer served in Saudi Arabia in 1991 as chief of staff of the French Daguet division which
fought alongside allied forces in the Gulf War.
� Return toRainbow Warrior home page
