Pol Le Gourrierec
French diplomat
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Pol Le Gourrierec (or Le Gourriérec, 15 January 1921 – 19 July 1995) was a French diplomat who was best known for an incident during his service as French Ambassador to Pakistan.
Early life
Diplomatic service
He had an early interest in North Africa.[5] In 1948, he joined the diplomatic service.[2]
He served as an embassy secretary in Morocco in the late 1950s.[6] He was Chargés d'Affaires in Iraq from February to September 1963.[7]: 67 [8]: 77 He was First Counselor of the Embassy in Warsaw in 1964.[9] In the late 1960s, he was Director of North African Affairs,[10]: 1076 and visited Tunisia in 1969.[11] He served as French Ambassador to Bulgaria from 1971 to 1975,[7]: 46 to Pakistan from 1976 to 1979,[7]: 87 and to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1979 to 1982.[7]: 102
Pakistan
Background
The French had initially resisted US pressure to cancel a contract to build a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, but the deal gradually unravelled sometime in mid to late 1978, certainly by February 1979, as the French became concerned about Pakistan's intentions regarding nuclear weapons.[12]: 472 [13][14]
Incident
On 26 June 1979, Le Gourrierec and his First Secretary, Jean Forlot, were stopped at a checkpoint. They were driving alone through the town of Kahuta some 25 miles southwest of Islamabad, in a vehicle with a local rather than a diplomatic number plate and without displaying a diplomatic flag. According to Denoël, they were driving to Islamabad, and intended to visit a long-unused military fortress, but accidentally took a wrong turn and passed near a secret nuclear bomb complex.[15]: 191 However, according to several sources, their presence was intentional.[12] There was a physical altercation with five or six men.[12]: 66 [16][17]
Le Gourrierec was severely beaten,[14][16] and sustained a broken tooth, while Forlot had a split skull.[18] The men who assaulted them were not bandits or thugs, as initially suggested by the Pakistani authorities,[15] but were plain-clothed members of the security forces, acting under orders.[16][17] According to Khan, Forlot was passing on information to the CIA and may have been actively spying on its behalf.[16][17][19] Khan suggests that foreigners "got the message" and subsequently avoided the area,[16] but the Yugoslav ambassador later drove slowly along the perimeter wall in a show of solidarity, albeit with a diplomatic flag.[12]