Paris to commemorate the massacre of 19 Kanak independence fighters by French troops a year earlier on the New Caledonian island of Ouvea. The day before the demonstration a new tragedy struck the Kanak independence movement: two leaders of the
FLNKS [Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front were assassinated in Ouvea by another member of the Front.
Last August, the FLNKS signed agreements with the French government on New Caledonia's development and future status, known as the Matignon Accords [see box]. The assassin, Djubelly
Wea, was a well-known opponent of the accords. Even so, the
"No" vote from the French settlers, the reasons behind the attack remain unclear.
CLAUDE GABRIEL
HE DEATH of Jean-Marie Tjibaou
T and Yeiwene Yeiwene is the most serious test that the Kanak independence movement has ever faced.
The liberation struggle has lost many fine clearly understood by other Kanak militants. The FLNKS has been severely shaken by the agreements reached last summer, but there is no evidence that a real political alternative to the line of the majority of the referendum In the colony on Independence In 10 years time. The accords themselves were passed by an 80% majority in a referendum In France on
November 6, 1988, with a turnout of 60%. * tant components of the Front to accept the compromise put forward by Tjibaou.
However, worried by the derisory results of its media-circus referendum and by the government hesitated to make even the smallest reforms. This reached the point where Tjibaou felt compelled to tell an Australian magazine: "We've been conned; we're going round in circles".
It appeared on the surface as if the government's policy had resulted in a compromise. But in the heart of the Kanak regions things were getting worse. Although Rocard's project did not split the FLNKS, the structure of the independence movement militants, but the shooting of the two main leaders of the Union Caledonienne (UC) by
Djubelly Wea - himself a member of the
FLNKS — during a Kanak remembrance stopped functioning, discontent began io ceremony at Gossanah, dealt a different spread, and increasingly pursued its own line.
It is difficult today to say what the reasons for this act of vengeance
According to some reports, it was Yeiwéné
Yeiwéné alone who was the intended target of the attack. The press has also claimed that when Djubelly Wea came out of prison
FLNKS was developing.
Amnesty for those who perpetrated the massacre
Rocard [the French prime minister] has been giving the impression that he shares the sorrow of the Kanaks. However, some recent events should not be forgotten. For example, when Jean-Marie Tjibaou was was not what it was. A number of the FLNKS' local fightback committees each party [in the Front]
In the recent municipal elections, the Front was disunited. In some places, such as Ouvéa, there were two competing slates, one from the UC, the other a unity slate. Rocard was jubilant. The time had come for financial aid, loans and "development"
he asked - in vain - to participate in the projects to deepen the centrifugal forces.
negotiations in Paris on behalf of the tribe that had been most directly affected by the
There has also been talk of a possible disagreement with "Yéye" about the seizure of hostages at Fayaoué police station on the island of Ouvéa in 1988. This action having difficulty in getting the government ster Le Pensec impatiently and tactlessly proclaimed that "there can be no question of any renegotiation".
And then there was the "grand pardon" proposed by the same Le Pensec to the imprisoned Kanak militants — a miserable
Militants wanted to preserve political unity
The "Rocard method" turned out to be all too expeditious. The Matignon Accords was a part of an overall strategy promoted above all by the UC. With a few exceptions, Ouvéa remained isolated. We can imagine what resentment this caused people such as Djubelly to feel towards the attempt by the Socialist minister to blackmail a people in struggle — which also involved a total amnesty for the troops responsible for executing the 19 Kanaks murdered in Ouvea last year.
were signed because at that time the
FLNKS was a unitary force among the
Kanaks, despite internal differences.
Behind the personality of Jean-Marie Tjibaou and despite doubts and fears, the leadership of the UC.
majority of militants wanted to preserve
Opposition to the Matignon Accords political unity — which was also their peoexists in the FLNKS. But there is no orgaple's unity. The cavalier way in which the nized, let alone united, current. There are accords were worked out, and then their people critical of what happened a year ago implementation in practice, has turned this in all the parties in the Front....Some tribes situation inside out.
are also more critical than others. The
FULK [Kanak United Liberation Front, of which Djubelly
Wea was a member] situation round by killing Jean-Marie Tjidenounced the negotiations from the beginbaou and Yeiwéné Yeiwéné. All they have ning and has continued to state its opposidone is to deepen the divisions. * tion to the accords. But the organization has offered no clear explanation of the basis of this opposition, nor a strategic alternative, so that the reasons for its position are not
The Rocard government got its plan through by applying pressure. It was not concerned with formalities and has exploited all the difficulties of the FLNKS leadership. The goal was simply to get signatures on the document. The whole business opened wounds and left scars. The attempts to sow division in the Front made the drama at Gossanah possible. New Caledonia were constantly delayed. But it was these very promises that had finally persuaded some of the more reluc-
At Gossanah, some militants of the
FLNKS imagined that they could turn the
[Abridged from an article in the
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violence