New Caledonia

Press, 5 December 1986, Page 20

New Caledonia

Sir,—Your editorial of December 4 on New Caledonia is both misleading and offensive. It betrays either a shameful ignorance or a blatant disregard of the real issues of justice for the Kanak people. Following the exthe French, who unfail-

ingly attempt to absolve their colonialist atrocities in the name of holy democracy, the editorial blindly assumes that any method that can be called democratic is, by definition, unquestionably right and just. The sordid history of how the Kanak people came to be a minority in their own land (a history quite similar to our own) makes any vote carried out in terms of democracy’s “majority rules” a travesty of justice. The editorial’s second major distortion of the truth is its attribution of threats of violence to the Kanaks. Why are the historical and present severe military repression, political disempowerment and overt murderousness of white settlers not condemned as violence? — Yours, etc., JANE SEVERN. December 4, 1986. [The editorial did not deal with how New Caledonia developed the way that it has. Had it done so, shameful treatment of the Kanaks might have been cited. The argument was that presentday New Caledonia is a multicultural society and the resolution has to take account of that. It is the official policy of the New Zealand Government that all the people of New Caledonia should be taken into account in any settlement. Violence has been employed by those of European background. The editorial’s contention is that it is more the fear of Kanak violence which holds the potential of destabilising the country and which may be determining the present approach by the South Pacific Forum. —Editor.]