French P.M. franc-ly woos islanders

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 8

French P.M. franc-ly woos islanders

By

CLAIRE ROSEMBERG,

Reuter (through NZPA) Matautu Wallis and Futuna In an effort to tighten the umbilical cord with its Pacific territories of Wallis, Futuna, and New Caledonia, France’s new Right-wing Government is promising them more money and better facilities. The Futuna and Wallis islands lie half-way across the South Pacific, 2000 km from the divided territory of New Caledonia in the west, 3000 km from French Polynesia, where France tests nuclear bombs. The new French Prime Minister, Mr Jacques Chirac, visited the King of Wallis, Lavelua, during a brief swing through the South Pacific, which took him to four of France’s island territories.

Mr Chirac told King Lavelua that the French election in March, which brought him to office, had also “given back to overseas France the role on the national political scene it merits.” “France is a great nation, present right across the planet. The cultures she represents give it richness and power,” Mr Chirac said. The tall, energetic Prime Minister stood in sharp contrast to the serene, pipe-smoking King, barefoot in a shirt and cloth, outside his twostorey stone palace. The elected monarch, like his two colleagues in Futuna, receives a monthly wage from Paris. He and his subjects also get free medical treatment, free education for their families, and sports facilities. The 12,000 residents of Futuna and Wallis live by

raising pigs and growing vegetables. Fewer than half of them speak French.

But recently the larger island, Wallis, was hooked into a French-language television network twice a week and is about to get daily broadcasts. When Mr Chirac flew from Wallis to Futuna, children held up banners saying “We want a new school canteen,” “We want a modern hospital,” “We want better pensions.”

A small girl told the bemused Prime Minister that the 4000 residents “are the victims of injustice. They have everything in Wallis, we have nothing.”

In Futuna Mr Chirac laid the corner-stone for the island’s first power plant, as well as promising a clinic and a plane.

Travel to the island is limited to a seven-seater

plane three times a week and a monthly cargo ship, both subsidised by France.

The kings of the two monarchies treated their benefactor, in separate ceremonies, to eight rows of six roasted pigs, armfuls of grass skirts and beads, and the centuries old males-only tradition of drinking kava, a murky greenish alcohol that is fermented from a root.

Mr Chirac promised Wallisians more telephones, better health and school facilities, and scientific research on an insect known as “rhinoceros” that has killed most of the-coconut trees on the 95sq km island.

How much France spends on the upkeep of its nine outposts scattered across the world is unknown. But more French francs are to be poured into Wallis, Futuna and New Caledonia this year

and next year than before.

Mr Chirac emphasised that France had brought economic development and higher-than-average living standards to its territories.

He said the next step was to put the region’s 330,000 French citizens on an equal footing with those in France, as well as improving Paris’s strained ties with its neighbours in the South Pacific.

With no armed forces, Futuna and Wallis do not play a military role in the South Pacific, but military sources said they could one day be part of spacerelated activities.

Paris sees its military presence in the South Pacific as one of the key barriers to Soviet infiltration. But it faces opposition from 13 South Pacific nations, which object to French nuclear tests there

as well as France’s refusal to give in to demands for independence by New Caledonia’s indigenous Melanesian Kanaks.

The mood has changed in New Caledonia since violence 18 months ago between separatist Kanaks and pro-French whites left about 20 people dead and brought down the econorhy. The return of a Right-wing party to government in Paris has reassured the majority of European and other settlers opposed to independence.

They are awaiting a referendum scheduled for July or August, which, they say, will prove that the separatists are a minority. The separatist Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front, which won three of four regional councils in territorial elections in September

last year, has threatened to boycott the ballot But it quietened down after the new Government decided to retain the councils, while slightly reducing their powers. During a two-day visit to the territory Mr Chirac tried to placate both camps. He preached tolerance and human rights to the pro-French faction while promising tougher action against new disorders, and financial aid to put the economy in order.

For the firt time, he held talks with the F.L.N.K.S. and promised to consult them on details of the ballot, which a year ago would have sparked violence. Mr Chirac was received with open arms and signed autographs for F.L.N.K.S militants when he went to distribute funds in separatist strongholds.