Kidnap clue in Roseau murder

PARIS - Police investigating the assassination of an influential leader of France's former North African colonists focused yesterday on a possible attempt to kidnap and kill him in 1991, writes Julian Nundy.

Jacques Roseau, one of France's most prominent pieds noirs, was murdered on Friday in Montpellier. He was spokesman for Recours-France, an organisation representing former settlers in North Africa. Roseau was shot as he drove out of a car park in the southern city on Friday. He was 55. Investigators said they did not know of any motive for the crime but Roseau had angered the extreme right-wing with his frequent criticism of racism and xenophobia. In 1991, he was assaulted during a visit to Nice.

As a leader of the pieds noirs, he helped turn them into a pressure group, urging them to vote against Valery Giscard d'Estaing in the 1981 presidential elections and support Francois Mitterrand. Later, he advised his followers not to vote Socialist and, in recent years, supported the Gaullist RPR party.