Tahiti

Letter

The wild and woolly South Pacific

From James Boyack

'HERE’S more to be reported from Tahiti this month than I have the space for, and frankly, after two :eks of bronchitis, the courage to face. But, like the nerican postman defying rain and sleet, here goes z August instalment of life in Tahiti, or, “What could ; Dalton gang possibly do next?”

The Daltons, wild west bad guys immortalised these ys in a popular French comic strip, was the name mediately applied by the Papeete press to those five :al bad guys who escaped from jail again in late June, ell, three members of the gang have been recaptured ice my last writing. The other two are heaven knows iere, the gendarmes certainly don’t.

Only one of the pseudo-revolutionary munitions ieves, Robert Cahn, is still at large, however. (The :ond Papillon is a petty thief with a record number jail breaks.) The 28-year-old son of an American [ based in Bora Bora during World War 11, Cahn s managed to elude authorities during the most in isive manhunt in Tahiti’s history. Every law enforce snt officer on this island has worked non-stop for a □nth on the Dalton case (vacations were cancelled), 'my and gendarme patrols have combed valleys and llsides daily. Occasional roadblocks, certainly the first ’t seen since I arrived here almost seven years ago, ddenly force one’s car to a halt. While a gendarme ishes a light at you, a humourless legionnaire routinely utches his tommy gun.

Cahn, who allegedly organised the munitions robbery, obviously a very determined young man. Prior to s escape, he was faced with the longest prison sentence the seven thieves. He had picked up an extra 18 onths for sawing the bar to his jail cell between escapes le and two. That he remains free is the best proof r his determination. Tahiti is an island on which it is most impossible to hide and nourish oneself simul neously. The mountains and valleys are dense with ish. While providing excellent cover in which to hide, ctle which is edible grows wild. To eat you have to >me down from the mountains, and there are very few sople in Tahiti with a spare bowl of rice for Cahn.

One of those back in custody was taken without a niggle at his girlfriend’s house. A Papeete detective as watching the house daily, and one afternoon his atience was rewarded. William Sam You entered his idy friend’s abode. The cop, a French Polynesian, did

not make his move immediately. He waited a respectful 45 minutes while the young couple were reunited. The detective arrived as Sam You was tightening his belt.

That Sam You clearly demonstrated his willingness to make love and not war may have saved him a trip to one of the roughest French prisons. Felix Teheuira, one of the recaptured thieves, and bad-mouthing (PIM, July) Charlie Ching, were spirited out of their special quarters here just before French Independence Day. A military jet took them to Paris, where, according to the Journal de Tahiti which broke the story, they will be incarcerated at the Fresne Prison. The local jail will seem like a country club in comparison. There is no question that Robert Cahn will join them if and when he is caught.

SOUTH and east of here about 750 miles were the first 1972 French nuclear tests, according to those who apparently knew. There were two alleged tests in late June, and two more were expected before August 15, and maybe before the end of July, depending on the weather. There may have been three tests pre viously, and three to come. No one really knows.

French officials are playing the deaf-mute game without a smile. Official word in the form of a final com munique is all the same expected sometime in August, after the 72 tests have entered radioactive history.

The Pacific Experiment Centre (CEP) press spokes man had only one occasion recently to say more than “no comment” to local journalists. His statement con cerned Craig Alexander Reeves, 20, a New Zealand student who owes his life to French military doctors.

Reeves had completed a month-long visit to Pitcairn Island in late June and was leaving the island in a whaleboat. He was headed out to the freighter “Montreal Star” in rough seas when the shuttle craft overturned. The young man’s leg was ripped and broken on the coral as the boat momentarily pinned him to the reef. Noggie Young, 23, miraculously grabbed hold of Reeves in the foaming confusion and managed to drag him ashore before he drowned. The island nurse began to radio an urgent distress call. This was answered by the French warship “E. V. Henry”, which arrived in the vicinity of the island eight hours later.

Despite 25 to 30 ft waves (the whole story was told to me by Reeves in his Papeete military hospital room), a whaleboat managed to take a doctor off the ship and

ferry him to the island. A motor bike ride over goat tracks got him to the dispensary side of the island, where he worked non-stop on Reeves and other injured islanders from 6 p.m. on a Friday until 9 a.m. the following morning. The doctor chose to evacuate Reeves as soon as the sea permitted. Finally, a heli copter took the boy from the ship to the Gambier Islands, where a special plane immediately flew him the 900 miles to Papeete.

Reeves was enthusiastic about the care he was getting.

As he spoke to local journalists, his left leg was sus pended in a cast. A pin which pierced his calf made me wince. I asked him what the Pitcairn Islanders thought about the French tests. After all, Pitcairn is the foreign, populated island closest to the Mururoa blast atoll. During the 1968-1971 hydrogen test period, it lay almost within the danger zone itself.

Reeves told me, “The islanders are quite assured that there is no harm from the tests. They’ve had six years experience with them. I don’t think there are any worries there at all, except perhaps about the crops, but the crops don’t seem to have been affected.

“And in a way, the tests are a good deal for them, like this year. There have been very few ships calling at Pitcairn. The islanders always know the French are around when the tests occur.”

Just before Craig flew to New Zealand for surgery, Pitcairn cabled the military here. The telegram said in part, “All of us on Pitcairn were much impressed by the gratefully appreciated French navy assistance to our medical emergency”.

MOT so much impressed by the French military have . been several local and foreign politicians who made their anti-test views known in Tahiti recently.

The autonomist Territorial Assembly majority, per haps with the feeling that other Pacific nations were damning the tests in louder voices, reiterated its own opposition in late June. Wording of the protest was the strongest ever by local politicians. The demand that tests end came from the Permanent Commission, which stands when the assembly is not in session. The com mission by a vote of 5-0 adopted John Teariki’s lengthy plea to ban the bomb. Teariki outlined the numerous occasions since 1963 that he and his party had protested against the CEP.

French National Assembly Deputy Francis Sanford flew to New York in early July with a copy of the commission’s resolution. He presented it unofficially to United Nations delegations. At the same time he in quired in UN corridors how the world body might be able to intervene in the political life of French Polynesia.

Sanford favours immediate self-government for French Polynesia and he has often publicly stated that if France did not grant “autonomic interne” to these islands, he would take his case to the UN.

French Senator Pouvanaa A Oopa, just prior to Sanford’s departure, cabled UN Secretary General Waldheim. His wire outlined the Permanent Commis sion stand on tests and asked the UN executive to thank those nations which condemned testing during the Stockholm conference on the environment.

At about the same time, former Senator and Mayor of Papeete Alfred Poroi publicly announced that his Polynesian Union party supported the CEP presence here for economic reasons. His communique said that the military provides one-third of the local budget and creates thousands of jobs.

Colin Bednall, Australian Labour Party candidate and former prominent press and TV executive, came to Tahiti to express opposition to the tests. He was one of those scheduled to accompany Labour Deputy J. F.

Cairns to Tahiti. At the last minute, France informer Cairns and crew they were not welcome here. If the; insisted on coming, they would not be allowed to deban at Faaa Airport. Bednall was not on the “no-no” lis< so he came anyway. He had not been here 24 houn when he was politely informed that he could return td Sydney on the next plane, a few hours hence. He dio [Back in Sydney later Mr Bednall said, “The Chief c: Police did me the honour of arresting me personally a a ‘temporarily undesirable person’.”] Although Melbourne University radiation specialis P. J. Robotham accompanied Bednall here, he was noc only permitted to remain in Tahiti, he was given ; Cook’s tour of the main radiation control laboratories m French Polynesia. During a press conference at thu atomic installation that was filmed by Australian teles vision’s Channel 10, Robotham told assembled journalist! and French scientists, “One can suppose that precautioni taken by France have been more than adequate in view of the verifiable results obtained with which I becamti acquainted today.

“All the same, even if one admits that the dange; from French testing is minimal, there is some dangen and I remain opposed in principle to all weapons testf ing.”

Robotham was impressed by the quality of scientific work being done by those who w'atch over radioactive levels in French Polynesia, but he stressed the principle that there can be no “threshhold” after which radios activity becomes dangerous. “Why must one be exposeo at all?” he asked.

VTUCLEAR testing did not stop French Polynesia from ■L' having important elections in July. The City Council: of 44 new “communes”, regional administrative sub-< divisions, were elected—67B new officials in all. This sweeping administrative reform gives each “commune” (composed of one or more districts in Tahiti, or one or more islands, elsewhere) the right to allocate funds for public works of its own choosing. No longer will these new townships have to beg funds from the Terri torial Assembly.

Which is why the autonomist majority of the did its best to block government imposition of the “communes”. I have said in several letters that the “communes” were worth a long analysis because compli cated and revolutionary. I was wrong. The debates which preceded the election were what was complicated* the political manoeuvring to control the new administra tive units was what I did not understand.

The best I can make of it is that the autonomists in the assembly figured part of their power was being stolen and handed over to others. The pro-Frenchr parties, on the other hand, argued that real at a local level was, for the first time, being instituted..

And their view of the situation seems to have carried! election day.

Six of the 11 autonomist candidates seeking control! of city halls were defeated. Among those to bite the; dust was Senator Pouvanaa A Oopa in his natives Huahine.

Five of the six anti-autonomy assembly councillors to seek mayors’ jobs won.

I did not believe Gaullist claims of a solid slap at the; autonomy movement until I read a UJAI (Youngs Autonomist Union) communique in the local papers..

It admitted that “a certain number of political personali ties have been rejected during the recent election at the; level of their district” and it called on all young people; to contact them for information on how they “could I take over the destiny of their country if the need should 1 make itself felt”.