Bomb blasts rock Noumea

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 10

Bomb blasts rock Noumea

NZPA-Reuter Noumea

Three bomb blasts within six hours have rocked the New Caledonia capital of Noumea, blowing a hole in the Court of Justice, sinking a yacht in the marina, and damaging the entrance to a Melanesian school. The blast, late on Monday, at the Kanak school, which is frequently used for pro-independence political meetings, injured seven children and damaged nearby flats. Kanak witnesses describing the school blast, said a white man jumped out of a car and planted a package against the thatched gate. Shortly after, the gate was wrecked and a crater blown in the ground. Riot police with shields and tear-gas rifles cordoned off the area when a fight broke out shortly after the bomb blast.

The Court bombing which was audible in the city centre, smashed windows and blew a hole about a metre wide in the wall, witnesses said.

Only a caretaker, was on duty at the building and no injuries were reported.

The blast at the marina occurred about 30 minutes before the attack on the Court.

A yacht, was completely submerged, with only its mast left above the surface. The explosions occurred just hours after the French High Commission eased a curfew imposed on Wednesday, after one Kanak youth was killed and nearly 100 people injured in the worst violence since the Kanaks started a campaign for independence last November. At the school shocked students near the devastated entrance were quick to blame Right-wing white settlers opposed to independence, as was the pro-inde-pendence leader, Lalie Jack, who immediately rushed to the scene.

Mr Jack, one of the six Kanak Socialist Liberation Party members who deepened a constitutional crisis last week by walking out of the Assembly to protest against continuing violence, said the bombing was a political act. “They are trying to intimidate us. This bomb makes our determination for independence stronger,” he said.