New Caledonia faces partition today

Press, 14 July 1989, Page 6

New Caledonia faces partition today

By

BERNARD DEGIOANNI

of Agence Frarice-Rresse (through NZPA) Noumea For New Caledonians, Bastille Day marks the archipelago’s partition into three provinces and the countdown to 1998, when the territory will vote on the question of independence from France. ’

The formal partition is the final stage in a plan to overcome the bitter rift between the majority European settlers who want New Caledonia to remain a part of France and native Melanesians, who seek independence. Under the plan, known as the Matignon accords, which both, sides agreed to last year in Paris, the newly formed Southern, Northern and Loyalty Islands provinces will have

full political and economic autonomy. The stage is set for growing antagonism between the Rally for Caledonia in the Republic (R.P.C.R.), which controls the wealthy, Southern - province, and the pro-independence Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (F.L.N.K.S.), which claims the underdeveloped Northern and Islands provinces. Underneath the negotiated calm, the two sides are still diametrically opposed. "The (Matignon) accords do not signify a political alliance with the R.P.G.R. The goal is still to obtain independence,” said - a F.L.N.K.S. member. . ’ The R.P.C.R. insists that New Caledonia remain French. As New Caledonia’s first political 1

party, it enters this latest phase of the peace plan armed with the backing of its entire constituency, recorded in the last two polls on the independence issue in March and June. Under the Matignon accord,' the Government has worked for the last year to restore stability to the Islands province by financing Melanesian economic projects, but to little effect. "On the economic front, we are far behind,” said Francois Burck, who succeeded the assassinated JeanMarie Tjibaou as president of the Caledonian Union, the largest party within the F.L.N.K.S. umbrella organisation. “The partition is a thorn in the side of the independence backers, who must start by walking with a limp,” Mr Burck said; , • t-

The Southern province is the only one with a sanguine economic outlook. Most of its 100,000 residents, nearly all of them European settlers, are opposed to, independence from France.

Most of the 50,000 predominantly Melanesian inhabitants of the North and Island provinces want independence.

If the vote were held today, independence would clearly lose. F.L.N.K.S. sees economic progress in the two provinces that it controls as the only way to rally more of New Caledonia’s European population to vote for independence in 1998. The partition also brings with it bureaucratic headaches, with three-

quarters of the 4000 civil servants now having to answer both to the provincial presidents and to the State. The two big civil service unions have criticised the arrangement, saying the State could “no longer assure the flexibility of its agents in delegating its powers and resources” to the provinces.

By "restoring "civil peace,” the Paris accords were a shot in the arm for New Caledonia’s economy, but pushed its inflation rate above 3 per cent.

In response, the Government has called on New Caledonians in newspaper advertisements to buy cheaper products, not realising that the less expensive goods are often higher quality imports. 8