Pubdate: Sat, 24 Aug 2002
Source: Reuters (Wire)
Copyright: 2002 Reuters Limited

FRANCE CONDEMNED FOR 'COWBOY' HIGH SEAS RAID - PAPER

PARIS - The French Navy's dramatic high seas raid in June of a ship 
suspected of smuggling drugs has been attacked by Greek and Spanish 
officials for a lack of professionalism, France's Le Monde newspaper said 
on Saturday.

The "Winner," a Cambodian-flagged freighter bound for Spain from the 
Caribbean, was seized in the Atlantic in an operation ordered by the French 
interim right-wing government three days before the decisive second round 
of the legislative elections.

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin had at the time hailed the 
operation "a great success against international drug trafficking."

Le Monde said the French authorities launched the raid without the 
cooperation of several countries, including Greece and Spain, which had 
been part of an international effort to dismantle drug trafficking between 
Europe and Latin America.

The two-hour operation gave crew members time to dump crates of cocaine 
overboard, allowing the French Navy to recover only about 80 kilos of 
cocaine when the freighter was suspected of carrying up to two tons of the 
drug, a Greek anti-drug official named as Rachovistas told Le Monde.

Spain also criticized France's handling of the operation after a Spanish 
crew member was injured and evacuated to a hospital in Senegal, where he 
died five weeks later.

"We are not at all satisfied by France," Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesman 
Fernando Belloso told the paper.

"Even if this man was involved in various illegal activities, there was no 
reason to shoot him during a patrol operation, and rather an odd one at that."

Le Monde said controversy over the French operation also arose in France, 
where a group of lawyers representing crew members criticized the "cowboy" 
seizure of the freighter and the illegality of the crew's 13-day detention.

Lawyers for a Romanian mechanic filed a complaint on Friday for violation 
of his freedom and rights.

The prime minister's Matignon Palace, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the 
Defense Ministry all declined to comment, Le Monde said.
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