French frigate retrieves 21 corpses

Twenty-one corpses were retrieved from the sea by a French frigate within the Libyan search and rescue regions, the Armed Forces of Malta said yesterday.

The position given by the army as to where the bodies were found does not tally with what Reuters reported yesterday.

The news agency quoted a maritime official saying the bodies were found off Malta.

"It seems the international media, like the rest of the bigger countries, are trying to put Malta in a bad light," a government source said yesterday.

The army said that, at about 2 p.m. the AFM Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) was informed by the French RCC saying one of its warships had recovered a corpse at sea earlier in the morning.

The frigate, the Motte-Picquet, had recovered eight bodies by 2 p.m. when the army asked the French vessel to carry out a complete search of the area where the corpses were found. Reuters quoted Emmanuel Dinh, spokesman for the French Maritime Authority, saying there was no sign of a boat and that the navy could not yet identify where the bodies came from.

Mr Dinh said the corpses were decomposed, indicating that they had been at sea for several days.

Although diplomatic efforts were underway between France and Libya on where the bodies where to be landed, apparently Libya had not responded to the call. Government sources told The Times that the government was prepared to consider taking the corpses if efforts to resolve the matter with Libya fail.

In fact, the government, for humanitarian reasons, immediately issued clearance for the French frigate to enter Malta's ports in case it came across a problem in landing the bodies.

The source added that late last night, the French frigate decided to proceed to France with the bodies it had retrieved.

Meanwhile, late last night the army intercepted a boatload with 26 immigrants and escorted it to Cirkewwa.