Kanak case
p. 13 · Read in the full issue
Chief points in the petition presented to the South Pa cific Forum by the Kanak
independence advocates
from New Caledonia were; • ‘New Caledonia has been colonised by France since September 24, 1853, and for more than 125 years the French colonial power has made the Kanak people exiles in their own country, on their land, in relation to its natural wealth, and in all fields of activity.’ • ‘The accession of the Kanak people to indepen dence is in accordance with the wishes of the French people who abolished French colonialism by approving the constitution of 1958. In the struggle for liberation of the Kanak
people we distinguish be
tween the desire of the people of France to grant us independence, and the dic tatorial policy of the French military and imperialist state which has silenced the legitimate voice of our
people by implanting in
New Caledonia an artifici ally imported population.’ • Tt is thus urgent and ab solutely necessary that the case of New Caledonia be included in the list of “non autonomous territories” whose cases are studied by the United Nations Com mittee of 24 with a view to achieving their decolonisa tion.’ • ‘We would remind you that by resolution 66 (1) of December 14, 1946, of the General Assembly of the
United Nations, New Caledonia was among the 74 territories listed as non autonomous by the UN. But the following year, unila terally and without the prior agreement of the General Assembly, France withdrew it from the list using as a pretext the fact that New Caledonia, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and the French territories in the South Seas, whose populations already enjoyed extensive political rights, had been endowed with a form of administra tion which, on the whole, was very similar to that of the departments of France itself as far as the status of the inhabitants and their system of political represen tation are concerned. For this reason, the French Government ceased to give information to the UN about New Caledonia .. .’
• ‘A request for inclusion of New Caledonia in the list of non-autonomous terri
tories is nothing new . .
(The petition then gave details of similar requests to the UN Committee of 24 in relation to French Somalia, in 1965, and the Comore Islands, in 1971.) • ‘Bearing in mind the above, and recalling that New Caledonia is part of the Pacific region, the movements for Kanak lib eration, united in the one cause, ask the Pacific states, with their high awareness of French colonial policy in this region, and the South Pacific Forum, as a united political force, to take the initiative in asking for the inclusion of New Caledonia in the list of non autonomous territories be fore the UN Committee of 24.’