Spying for Serbia

Always searching for credibility, French diplomacy had no need for an espionage affair benefiting the Serbs. The Pierre Bunel affair is even more delicate for Paris because it can only reinforce the bad reputation of the French army in former Yugoslavia, a view held notably by the American and British services.

Jacques Chirac certainly showed uncustomary firmness toward the Serbs in Bosnia. But the shadow zones have not disappeared -- notably, in the case of Serbian war criminals in Bosnia, who live peacefully in the zone controlled by the French army. The British forces, on the other hand, have not hesitated to make arrests.

It's been whispered that Paris may have closed its eyes to the movement of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his wartime military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic in order to obtain freedom for two French pilots shot down over Serbian Bosnia.

-- Liberation, Paris