From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency:
French official praises, blasts Israel
France’s foreign minister described Israel’s “colonization” of the West Bank as illegal.Visiting the Jewish state this week, Philippe Douste-Blazy praised the success of the Gaza withdrawal but said that “other steps must follow.” “The colonization of the West Bank is against international law,” he said, “and any continued colonization called into question the very meaning of the peace process.”(JTA, Sept. 9)
In French media, Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem, are commonly referred to as “des colonies juives,” leaving no ambiguity. Settlers are referred to in publications such as Le Monde as “Les Colons,” just as French colonists in Algeria were called.
The International Court of Justice at the Hague on July 9, 2004 confirmed in its advisory opinion, adopted 105-6 by the UN General Assembly, that all Israeli settlements/colonies are illegal under international law.
See our last post on the Gaza pullout.
Lest we forget…
The supercilious French have still got a few colonies of their own, such as New Caledonia in the South Pacific, where the indigenous Kanak people are currently protesting the contamination of their lands and waters by French nickel-mining operations. (Australian Broadcasting Corp., Aug. 17) This colonialism is not as clearly illegal as Israel’s, as the Kanak independence movement has agreed to postpone a referendum on the territory’s status until 2015 (as we recently noted). And certainly the level of violence in New Caledonia/Kanaky isn’t nearly as harsh as on the West Bank—but it was 20 years ago, and colonialism still functions like colonialism, with the local inhabitants reaping little benefit from the plunder of their natural resources. One wonders if the struggle in New Caledonia makes the French newspapers a fraction as often as that in Palestine…
KANAK LANGUAGES TO BE TAUGHT IN NEW CALEDONIAN SCHOOLS
BBC Monitoring International Reports
August 11, 2005
KANAK LANGUAGES TO BE TAUGHT IN NEW CALEDONIAN SCHOOLS
Text of report by Radio New Zealand International on 11 August
[Newsreader] The Union of Kanak and Exploited Workers [USTKE] says its 25-year campaign to get Kanak languages taught in New Caledonia’s schools has finally paid off.
The government has announced that the primary school curriculum will include Kanak languages from as early as February. It is now waiting on the territorial congress to approve a series of new school books which have taken 200 experts three years to prepare.
The territory’s 35,000 primary school pupils have until now had the same curriculum and books as children in metropolitan France.
The executive member of USTKE, Pierre Chauvat, says their next task will be to train up teachers.
[Chauvat] At the moment there’s not enough to teach for everybody, for every schoolboy, but I think that’s a problem that will be resolved in a few years’ time.
Source: Radio New Zealand International, Wellington, in English 0800 gmt 11 Aug 05
New Caledonia’s Customary Senate fully renewed
26 AUGUST 2005 NOUMEA
New Caledonia’s Customary Senate, an equivalent to Fiji’s Great council of Chiefs, has endorsed Chief Gabriel Pata as its new head.The Customary Senate, which consists of representatives of New Caledonia’s eight recognised Chiefly confederations stems from the Nouma Accord, signed in New Caledonia in 1998 (signed between pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front), anti-independence parties and the French government. The Accord, for the first time, recognised in black and white the importance of indigenous Kanak identity.The Customary Senate was created five years ago, a direct consequence of the signing of the Nouma accord, which for the first time stressedPata’s election took place at New Caledonia’s Congress (Parliament), which hosted the chiefs for the occasion.It also comes with a full renewal of the chiefly Senate’s 16 members (two for each of the eight confederations).This is the first time such renewal took place since the Senate was established in 1999.There have been calls recently from Kanak women to join the Senate.
DECOLONIZATION COMMITTEE URGES CONTINUED PEACEFUL PROGRESS
US Fed News
UNITED NATIONS
June 6, 2005
The United Nations issued the following press release:
The Special Committee on decolonization, in a consensual text adopted today, invited the parties involved in the status question of New Caledonia to continue promoting a framework for the peaceful progress of that Territory towards an act of self-determination, in which all options were open and which would safeguard the rights of all New Caledonians, especially the indigenous Kanak people.
More than halfway through its month-long session, the Special Committee also considered the political status of two more Non-Self-Governing Territories – United States Virgin Islands and Bermuda.
By another term of the draft submitted by Fiji and Papua New Guinea, the Special Committee, noting the importance of the positive measures being pursued by the French authorities, urged all the parties involved to maintain, in the framework of the Noumea Accord, their dialogue in a spirit of harmony.
(The Noumea Accord was signed on 5 May 1998 by representatives of the Government of France, the Rassemblement pour la Calédonie dans la République (RPCR) and the Front de libération nationale Kanak et socialiste (FLNKS). Annexed to a Secretariat paper before the Committee, (document A/AC.109/2005/2114), the Accord puts forth the signatories’ decision to work together towards a negotiated consensual solution, which they would submit to the inhabitants of New Caledonia for a decision. This solution will define the Territory’s political organization and the arrangements for its emancipation over the next 20 years.)
In a related provision of the resolution, the Special Committee acknowledged the close links between New Caledonia and the peoples of the South Pacific and the positive actions being taken by the French and territorial authorities to facilitate the further development of those close links, including the development of closer relations with the countries of the Pacific Islands Forum.
In that regard, the Special Committee welcomed New Caledonia’s accession to the status of observer in the Pacific Islands Forum, continuing high-level visits to New Caledonia by delegations from countries of the Pacific region and high-level visits by delegations from New Caledonia to Forum member States.
Taking up the question of the United States Virgin Islands, Carlyle Corbin, Representative for External Affairs of that Government, commended the Special Committee for the adoption of resolutions in support of self-determination, but said that if the actions called for in the 25 years of texts had been implemented, the Territories would be much farther along in their political development. But, implementation of those texts left much to be desired.
Citing insufficient follow-up of the texts, such as on the question of whether Committee members had reviewed the status of the Islands’ admission to such regional bodies as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Dr. Corbin said that adoption of the resolutions without a modality to implement them raised false hopes in the Territories. Little progress would be made unless the gap between adoption and implementation was narrowed.
A representative of the Bermuda Independence Commission, Dianna Kempe, touched on the constitutional alternatives for Bermuda – an overseas territory of the United Kingdom – as well as the social problems confronting its population. She said that, unlike past colonial jurisdictions, there was no financial imperative for Bermuda to change, nor was there any substantial impasse with the governing authority. Because many saw little or no British influence and because the standard of living in Bermuda generally was extremely high, Bermudans did not see a need for change.
She said that others, however, viewed independence as the needed last step to “shake off slavery, colonialism and segregation”. Both views were held strongly, and the strongest advocates on both sides failed to listen to each other. The Commission’s education efforts might not have changed too many entrenched views, but there was now a much better understanding in the country of what independence would mean to Bermuda and Bermudans.
Also addressing the Special Committee today were several Bermudan student winners of the competition on the best essay devoted to independence: Akilah Beckles; Caitlin Collis; Dedra-Lee Bean; and Genevieve Brown. They described the assignment, along with how they had arrived at their particular views on the question of whether or not Bermuda should “go independent”.
Speaking on the burdens facing the Virgin Islands in their quest for self-determination, the President of the African-Caribbean Reparations and Resettlement Alliance, Shelley Moorhead, said that the curse of European colonial domination had not left one stone unturned. Many of the remaining territories still carried those burdens today, under similar, if not the same, inhumane circumstances. He had come to extend a new paradigm for international reconciliation and to introduce a twenty-first century prototype for how “colonizer and colonized” could progress past historical challenges and cultivate enabling relationships.
Reparation was not just about money, he said. It was not even mostly about money. Reparation was mostly about making repairs – mental, psychological, cultural, organizational and educational. The Alliance model in the United States Virgin Islands had initiated the repair of European society and the eradication of the colonial mentality, which had allowed for the dehumanization of African people and the elevation of one race above another. Bolstered by a recent legislative resolution, the Alliance and the Virgin Islands Reparations Movement were now introducing new formulas for international repair and reconciliation.
Statements were also made by the representatives of Congo, Cuba, China, and Papua New Guinea. Fiji’s representative, also on behalf of Papua New Guinea, introduced the draft resolution on New Caledonia.
The Special Committee on Decolonization will meet again at 10 a.m. Monday, 20 June to continue its work.
Background
The Special Committee on decolonization met this morning to consider the question of New Caledonia, for which it had before it a draft resolution. It was also expected to take up the questions of the following additional Non-Self-Governing Territories: American Samoa; Anguilla; Bermuda; the British Virgin Islands; the Cayman Islands; Guam; Montserrat; Pitcairn; Saint Helena; Tokelau; the Turks and Caicos Islands; and the United States Virgin Islands. A number of petitioners were also scheduled to speak.
By the draft resolution, entitled “Question of New Caledonia” (document A/AC.109/2005/L.9), submitted by Fiji and Papua New Guinea, the Special Committee would invite all the parties involved to continue promoting a framework for the peaceful progress of the Territory towards an act of self-determination, in which all options were open and which would safeguard the rights of all New Caledonians, especially the indigenous Kanak people, according to the 1998 Noumea Accord, which was based on the principle that it was for the populations of New Caledonia to choose how to control their destiny.
In a related provision, the Special Committee would acknowledge the close links between New Caledonia and the peoples of the South Pacific and the positive actions being taken by the French and territorial authorities to facilitate the further development of those close links, including the development of closer relations with the countries of the Pacific Islands Forum.
In that regard, the Special Committee would welcome New Caledonia’s accession to the status of observer in the Pacific Islands Forum, continuing high-level visits to New Caledonia by delegations from countries of the Pacific region and high-level visits by delegations from New Caledonia to Forum member States.
The Special Committee would also welcome the cooperative attitude of other States and Territories in the region towards New Caledonia, its economic and political aspirations and its increasing participation in regional and international affairs, as well as its intention to host the 2005 meeting of the Ministerial Committee of the Pacific Islands Forum.
Question of New Caledonia
Introduction of Draft Resolution
The representative of Fiji, also on behalf of Papua New Guinea, introduced the text (document A/AC.109/2005/L.9), noting that there were minor changes in the text that reflected new developments on the ground. Operative paragraph seven would read: “Requests the administrative Power to continue to transmit to the Secretary-General information, as required under Article 73 e of the Charter”. It would also read: “According to the report of the Secretary-General A/60/69 which was presented to this Committee last week, the administrative Power has submitted information on New Caledonia for the period 2003 and therefore, we believe that it should continue its commitment in this area in future”.
The second change, he said, was on operative paragraph 15, which was a totally new paragraph. That paragraph would read: “Also welcomes the cooperative attitude of other States and Territories in the region towards New Caledonia, its economic and political aspirations and its increasing participation in regional and international affairs and its intention to host the 2005 meeting of the Ministerial Committee of the Pacific Islands Forum”. The sponsors had included the paragraph, as it indicated the willingness and supportive roles played by other States and territories towards New Caledonia in their effort to provide a conductive environment to promote New Caledonia’s economic and political participation in the region.
The Committee then adopted the text, as orally amended, without a vote.
What Price Gloire
by DANIEL SINGER
[from the May 28, 1988 issue]
Paris
The only free Kanaks are dead ones, the outgoing French government might have argued. In principle, all the inhabitants of New Caledonia are French citizens, and the great sin of the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (F.L.N.K.S.) was to have rejected this privilege and demand independence. But when, for obviously electoral purposes, an assault was staged on May 5 to free French gendarmes held hostage by the Kanaks on the island of Ouvéa, and the resulting carnage proved too bloody, Prime Minister Jacques Chirac found a way to minimize the massacre. Only two Frenchmen, he claimed, had been killed-meaning the two soldiers of the intervention force; the nineteen murdered Kanaks had simply been deprived of their nationality. Kanaks, in this version, regain their independence on the way to paradise.
It would all be bizarre if it were not so cynically sinister. The French hostages were unscathed, even during the assault. Their Kanak keepers were slaughtered–some, witnesses allege, after they had surrendered. The Socialists are thus inheriting an additional deep division in an already messy situation. In economic and social terms, New Caledonia is a typical case of colonialism, with the power, the best land, and nickel and other wealth concentrated in the hands of the white settlers. But in electoral terms, it is not typical. The Europeans and their imported supporters have a slight numerical edge and will keep it for a few years until the rising Kanak generation comes of voting age. The new government has sent a commission of inquiry to find out what–if anything–can be done to reconcile the two communities. It would do well to order an investigation of the Ouvéa massacre in an effort to gain the trust of the Kanaks and warn the Caldoches, as the French settlers are called, that their days of unpunished arrogance may be over.
At least it can be said that the crime did not pay. The whole circus of Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, of which this episode was a crucial act, was of no electoral avail. Some National Front votes were certainly bought with Caledonian blood. But they were probably balanced by the resulting mobilization of liberal and leftist supporters. The second ballot of the presidential poll thus contained two consoling thoughts. First, that you can’t fool all of the French all of the time; second, that for the time being at least, the presidential candidate openly wooing the National Front is in for a beating. Chirac’s mere 46 percent, after the right had been ahead in the first ballot, is convincing proof.
Return to Ouvea, New Caledonia
By David Stanley
Last edited: Monday, June 20, 2005
Posted: Sunday, March 20, 2005
Ouvea is everything you’d expect in a South Pacific island. Twenty kilometers of unbroken white sands border the lagoon on the west side of the island and extend far out from shore to give the water a turquoise hue.
“Ouvea is everything you’d expect in a South Pacific island. Twenty kilometers of unbroken white sands border the lagoon on the west side of the island and extend far out from shore to give the water a turquoise hue. The wide western lagoon, protected by a string of coral islands and a barrier reef, is the only of its kind in the Loyalties. On the ocean side are rocky cliffs, pounded by surf, but fine beaches may be found even here. At one point on this narrow atoll only 450 meters separates the two coasts. Traditional circular houses with pointed thatched roofs are still common in the villages.”
Those words appeared in the 1985 edition of my South Pacific Handbook after a visit in 1983. Just over 20 years later I returned to Ouvea to discover that little had changed in this French colony east of Australia.
Most Ouveans still live in traditional thatched case (houses) and the beach is as dazzling as ever. On my first evening there, as I watched the red fireball set slowly across the lagoon, I felt a strong affinity with my previous visit.
Yet something terrible had happened in my absence. On May 5, 1988, 300 French elite troops stormed a cave near Gossanah in northern Ouvea to rescue 16 gendarmes captured two weeks earlier by Melanesian freedom fighters.
Nineteen Kanaks (the collective name used by the indigenous peoples of New Caledonia) died in the assault, including several who suffered extrajudicial execution at the hands of the French police after being wounded and taken prisoner.
None of the hostages had been harmed. Thus began one of the final chapters of what is now known as the evenements (events) of the 1980s. Three years earlier independence leader Eloi Machoro had been murdered in cold blood by police snipers as he stood outside a rural farmhouse near La Foa, on New Caledonia’s main island, Grand Terre.
By 1987 France had 14,000 troops stationed in its mineral-rich Melanesian colony, one for every five Kanaks. The independence movement was to be crushed one way or another.
When I tried to visit the cave at Gossanah on my recent trip, I was told that the area was taboo to allow the spirits time to rest.
Instead I was permitted to visit the grave of Djoubelly Wea in Gossanah and allowed to take pictures of his home. My host on Ouvea told me the story. Evidently, the hostages had been taken by young Kanak activists from other parts of the island, and the captive gendarmes were brought to Gossanah only because the cave was considered remote.
Residents of the area weren’t involved. Yet when the French police arrived in search of their comrades, they rounded up the people of Gossanah and assembled them on a football field in front of the village church.
There they were tortured for information, and Wea’s father was among those who died of shock. Later 33 Ouveans were sent to prison in France, Djoubelly Wea among them.
These events chastened Kanaks and French alike, and the heads of the main political parties, the Kanak leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou and the representative of the French settlers Jacques Lafleur, were called to Paris by Prime Minister Michel Rocard to negotiate and eventually sign a peace treaty known as the Matignon Accords.
A referendum on independence was promised in 1998, and massive economic aid was to be channeled into the Kanak regions. An amnesty was granted to all those arrested during the troubles, and no investigation into the Ouvea massacre or the murders of several dozen other Kanaks by French settlers or troops would be required.
Fast forward to May 1989, as the top Kanak leaders Jean-Marie Tjibaou and Yeiwene Yeiwene arrive on Ouvea for a commemorative ceremony exactly one year after the massacre.
As the leaders are being received at the chefferie (chiefly house) of Wadrilla near the center of the island, Djoubelly Wea steps forward and shoots the pair dead at point blank range. Wea was reflecting a feeling still palpable in New Caledonia that Tjibaou had sold out to the French and derailed the struggle of independence.
Tjibaou’s bodyguard killed Wea, the final shot of the evenements. Today the chefferie of Wadrilla is much the same as it was in 1989, a large thatched case surrounded by a palisade of driftwood logs.
Across the coastal highway, a large monument has been erected to the 19 Kanak martyrs of 1988. Designed with two curving white walls to resemble a cave, the monument bears the photo, name, and date of birth of each victim.
Their traditional war clubs have been placed on the back side of the monument and their remains are interred below.
No memorial to Jean-Marie Tjibaou exists on Ouvea but the French have constructed a massive cultural center to his memory in their stronghold Noumea.
In fairness, it must be said that Tjibaou only considered the Matignon Accords a temporary stop on the road to independence. His assassination froze the agreement into a sort of permanent solution which the French have used to justify continuing colonial rule ever since.
The promised 1998 referendum was never held. Instead an updated treaty called the Noumea Accord was signed. This postponed the referendum for another 15 or 20 years and promised many things the French government has yet to deliver.
For example, a key provision creating a special New Caledonian citizenship status intended to control immigration from France was declared unconstitutional by a French court in 1999.
Metros (metropolitan French) continue to flood into the territory (in violation of United nations resolutions on the norms of conduct for colonial powers in non-self-governing areas) and Europeans may soon from a clear majority of the population.
Toward the end of my stay I visited the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center in the Tina Peninsula, 12 kilometers northeast of New Caledonia’s capital Noumea. Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, it was built by French contractors between 1994 and 1998 at a cost of over US$50 million. The center opened on May 4, 1998, 10th anniversary of the assassination of Jean-Marie Tjibaou.
No visitor can help but be impressed by the spectacular botanical garden interwoven with references to Kanak legends which encircles the center’s three villages.
A contemporary art gallery, temporary and permanent exhibitions of Kanak and other Pacific art, a library, an audiovisual room, indoor and outdoor theaters, and a large ceremonial area are only some of the center’s outstanding features.
Yet the Tjibaou Cultural Center presents Kanak culture as a regional folklore rather than a national tradition.
Events such as the Ouvea Massacre and the other murders of the 1980s are barely mentioned. A room in Village Three provides photos and texts on the life of Jean-Marie Tjibaou, but there’s no explanation as to why he was assassinated or the background of his assassin.
The 19th century land seizures and the muscle flexing and maneuvering that have prevented independence are carefully avoided. The highlight for me was an amazing three-meter-high bronze statue of Tjibaou himself, clad in a Roman toga, on a hill overlooking the center.
Tjibaou was the last real Kanak leader, and in a land where the spirits of the dead have an important role in the lives of the living, his soul must be suffering.
================================================================
David Stanley is the author of Moon Handbooks South Pacific which has a chapter on New Caledonia. His photos of the territory can be perused on Pacific Pictures.