N. Caledonia ‘Rhodesia’ warning

Press, 15 July 1982, Page 8

N. Caledonia ‘Rhodesia’ warning

NZPA Port Moresby A ''Rhodesian situation" could develop in ’ NewCaledonia unless moves were ■made now toward Melanesian independence, one of the country's political leaders said in the Papua New Guinean . capital, , Port Moresby, yesterday. Yann Celene Uregei, leader of New Caledonia's independence front, said that: “I can guarantee violence if the current political trend is allowed to continue. Some of the people who make up white political parties in New Caledonia are settlers who have experience in violence.

“Some have come from (the former French-British condominium of) Vanuatu and some originally came from Algeria and belonged to well-known white terrorist organisations. They are the type who could bring about a South Africa/Rhodesian situation."

Mr Uregei. who expressed doubt about the political intentions of the French Socialist Government of Francois Mitterrand in Paris, said that the independence front was now seeking support from the South Pacific Forum, the United Nations. Latin American countries, the Organisation of African Unity and the Cuba-based Non-aligned Movement to secure indigenous Melanesian independence in New Caledonia.

Mr Uregei said he was also trying to destroy the “illusion'' held by some Pacific countries — including Australia and New Zealand — that, the French Government was already moving New Caledonia toward independence. The recent political trend in New Caledonia toward more pro-independence parties was partly led by white settlers with “a definite Rhodesian flavour,” he- asserted.

Indigenous Kanaks — Melanesians as in Papua New Guinea. Solomon Islands and Vanuatu — now comprise only 41 per cent of the New Caledonian population, with French “colons," Polynesians, and other «races accounting for the remaining 59 per cent. The territory has a territorial assembly, but the big finance, foreign affairs, and defence decisions are made in Paris.

The Kanak Independence Front is one of five proindependence parties that now has a majority in the Territorial Assembly and its executive body, the Governing Council. Mr Uregei said that while the former Government of Valery Giscard d’Estaing had supported the territory’s "Right-wing white parties." Mr Mitterrand was instituting reforms in New Caledonia, whose land and wealth was largely controlled by "settlers."

"The coming of these settlers is at the heart of the independence problem: they have taken a stand against Melanesian independence." he said.

■ "Very recently, some of the parties made up of white settlers have taken a proindependence stance, but it has a definite Rhodesian flavour because they are afraid of losing their land and power. We believed the new Socialist French Government would be a real hope for us. but after one year in power we now realise that the promises aren’t being met.

“They have proposed reforms. which our pro-inde-pendence majority in the assembly welcomes and is processing, but there has been no mention from Paris of independence. Our only way out of this blockage appears to be the Pacific States. We are in your hands, through the South Pacific Forum."

Mr Uregei said that his Pacific tour of the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea. Fiji, Western Samoa and Australia was being, helped by the Vanuatu Prime Minister (the Rev. Walter Lini), and would end at the South Pacific Forum meeting at Rotorua next month. “The Government of Vanuatu will recommend to the forum that New Caledonia be placed on the United Nation's decolonisation list, that Pacific governments recognise the Independence Front as the legitimate representative of the Kanak people, and that the economic and social reforms being introduced by France should be seen only as an improvement and not the ultimate goal of Melanesian independence," he said.