Uregei Seeks Status

New Caledonian Kanak leader, Yann Celene Uregei, vice-president of the F.L.N.K.S. (seen here, on the right, with his interpreter, Pierre Xulue), was again at the Forum meeting. This time he was more vocal and more visible. However, he failed to win observer status at the Forum and his main mentor, Father Walter Lini of Vanuatu, again was unable to convince his Forum colleagues to take the question of New Caledonian independence to the U.N. Forum members said privately that while they had sympathy for the F.L.N.K.S. cause, to admit what was technically a “rebel” or “revolutionary” organisation to the Forum might be to set an awkward precedent. Photo: Lawrance Bailey, Rarotonga.