Kanaks willing to accept Libyan aid

Press, 15 May 1987, Page 4

Kanaks willing to accept Libyan aid

NZPA-AAP Noumea Kanak separatists would accept aid from Libya if it were offered, New Caledonia’s independence movement leader said in Noumea yesterday. The Coalition Kanak National Socialist Liberation Front president, Jean-Marie Tjibaou, also called for international support and warned that young Kanak militants were prepared to take up arms to force negotiations on independence with the French Government. "Diplomatic Support is important, but we also needfinancial aid and .material support,” he said.

Mr Tjibaou’s stance comes more than a week before the South Pacific Forum meeting in Apia, where New Caledonia and Libyan influence in the region is expected to dominate discussions. His comments come a week after F.L.N.K.S. sought to distance itself

from one of its leading members, Yann Uregei, who made a controversial visit to Tripoli last month.

Mr Tjibaou told AAP that F.L.N.K.S. would probably ask for a boycott of the Pacific Games in Noumea in December. Australia, New Zealand and Japan might also be asked to impose a tourists’ boycott of New Caledonia and unions within the forum might be asked to make periodic boycotts of French shipping and aviation.

He said F.L.N.K.S. would accept aid and materials from any country if no conditions were attached. “We need tools for development, technical training, computers ... and if you asked the young, they will say grenades and maChine-guns. To discuss with these people you need to have the same strength.” Asked about the possible reaction of regional

Governments if Kanak separatists received Libyan aid, Mr Tjibaou said, “Instead of asking ‘Why accept aid from Libya’ they should say ‘You don’t need Libya, here is your aid’. “If you are drowning in the sea, you don’t look at the colour of the rope or lifebuoy that rescues you. You need to be rescued. We are in that situation.”

In March, 1986, Mr Uregei was suspended temporarily from his functions within F.L.N.K.S. after making a similar visit to Tripoli against F.L.N.K.S. orders.

. "The nations that accompanied us to the United Nations must now accompany us to independence,” he said. “To speak of an independent and nuclear-free Pacific presupposes that all its members attain independence and be responsible for a zone of peace in the Pacific. It is a new responsibility for the region.”