Isolation feeds fears

Pim Opinion

Killings, burnings, bashings, and other forms of violence now occurring in New Caledonia over the long-running independence issue have served only to make more difficult the finding of a workable, and equitable, solution to a problem which everyone has seen coming, and too few have done anything about. As has occurred in other parts of the world, in situations not too dissimilar, violence has served only to polarise attitudes and turn minds away from reason, at just the moment when calmness, compassion, understanding, fairness, and all the other qualities one hopes to see, and seldom does, are most needed.

The French administration in France does, however, at last, seem to be moving towards accommodating Kanak wishes for an end to their long colonialism, and full say in their own destiny. But they are doing so at a time when the white settlers who, with third-party racial groups, like the Wallisians, now outnumber the Kanaks, feel at their most threatened.

Because of the past, the future is dark, and there is now no guarantee that whatever hopeful proposal is put together in the next two months by President Mitterrand’s special representative, Mr Edgard Pisani, will soothe breasts in either Kanak, or European, camp.

While the rest of the world sees the scene in terms of black and white, left and right, rich settlers and poor natives, the reality is much more complicated.

The Kanak case cannot be argued against in today’s world. It is their country, and was before the white man came. But many of the settlers know no other home. What they have today they have grubbed from the earth and, being people of that background, they feel they should fight for what they regard as their own. Of course, in Noumea, it is somewhat different, but the cry remains: “This is our home; where shall we go if we cannot stay here?”

Will the Kanaks be good landlords? For that, surely, must be one of the many questions upon which the future will depend. Equally, will the master make a good tenant?

There are many factions on each side; rage and reason vary as each stratum is tested. About the only common factors are growing fear and uncertainty.

The country is split in two. In the countryside French farmers load their shotguns and barricade their homesteads against groups they see as Melanesian marauders. This fortress attitude has been heightened by the play some Kanak elements have made of ’’support and training” they have received from Col. Gaddafi and his Libyan terrorists. So far, however, and despite some wild talk in Noumea, the settlers have not gone out to attack the Kanaks, nor does there yet appear any serious move to start such a backlash.

On the Kanak side the more reasonable leaders, including Jean-Marie Tjibaou, who heads the provisional government set up

in the wake of the Kanak boycott of the territorial elections, are under growing pressure to be tough, demanding and uncomprom ising. Some Kanaks feel they have the French on the run, and must maintain the pressure if they are to succeed.

But Tjibaou has said he will talk with M.Fisani, as soon as “certain obstacles” are removed. For, doubtless he, like the more moderate (less fearful?) Caldoche, knows that jaw is better than war from which no-one will profit.

Meantime, if the French settlers behind their sandbags feel a growing sense of isolation and rejection by their homeland government, much the same emotion must touch the minds of the Kanaks when they consider the support, or the lack of it, which they have received from around the Pacific.

Some store had been set by the Kanaks on, particularly, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands, exerting their influence, but they did not. Nor, indeed, did Fiji. To be fair to them, however, their colonial history was much different, and their attitudes perhaps, therefore, more conciliatory.

Of all the Melanesian nations only Vanuatu, which itself had some fairly bitter experiences in the final days of reaching independence, has been at all outspoken. Indeed, Vanuatu prime minister, Father Walter Lini, was specific in saying that Pacific countries, as a group, had failed to help New Caledonia. This, he said, had contributed to the difficulty of the present situation, and was a factor in persuading some Kanaks to turn to Libya for assistance and “military training.”

But, even Vanuatu will not raise the question with the United Nations committee on decolonisation, although, at the Forum meeting in Tuvalu in August, Father Lini said he was very much considering it, and would certainly report to the General Assembly on what he saw as the “real situation.” This, he indicated, was that New Caledonia was “out of control” and deteriorating rapidly.

Unfortunately for the Kanaks, Father Lini’s decision is politically sensible, and probably also a commentary upon the current state of the United Nations where the French lobby, particularly among black African countries, is very strong.

Yet the real tragedy of New Caledonia is not political but, as always, human.

The Kanaks need the settlers, and, at least for the foreseeable future, they need the French and the vast amount of money they pour into New Caledonia’s economy. The recent violence may have demonstrated Kanak power by turning tourists away by the thousand, but it also cost the country dearly.

The real friends of New Caledonia, who do not include Col.

Gaddafi, and any adventurers who might turn up from the Soviet bloc, should now be counselling patience, understanding, and accommodation of the inevitable Kanak independence. Mr Pisani has the hopes of much more than just the Kanaks pinned on his search for a peace plan.