uni speaks out in plain language

Vanuatu Prime Minister Walter Lini in last month’s trip to Paris and London pulled no punches in either capital.

He roundly condemned French policies in the Pacific and made his displeasure clear to Mrs Thatcher over Britain’s tardiness in delivering aid money.

Nevertheless, he predicted a greater role for France in the Pacific.

Lini, who addressed the first summit of French-speaking nations in Bislama, said he heard words of regret from the French when he took them to task over nuclear tests.

He said his attack prompted a half-hour speech of justification from French president Francois Mitterrand “that we felt was almost apologetic as far as their presence in the region was concerned. ”

He said that if Mitterrand was sincere he should stop the tests as soon as an agreement emerged between the United States and the Soviet Union to cut back their nuclear arsenals.

Lini said France’s attempts to build a special partnership with developing nations was likely to win it friends in the region despite irritation over its reluctance to cut loose its territories of New Caledonia, Tahiti and Wallis and Futuna.

“As soon as English-speaking countries in the region realise they might get better aid deals they’ll turn to France rather than to the anglophone world,” he said.

Vanuatu was about to sign a comprehensive five-year aid package with France for education, agriculture, medicine and research.

It had also sought to be a full associate in aid schemes and language-development projects outlined during the three-day summit. The country hoped to win publishing contracts and a video assembly line area.

Lini said Mitterrand’s ambition to spawn a French-speaking club of nations rivalling the British Commonwealth would depend on France’s ability to break with colonial attitudes and give small

nations a full role in the new league.

Many African and Arab leaders taking part in the 38-nation summit were irritated by Mitterrand’s overriding concern for the defence of the French language, he said.

“We believe France is one of the forces that destroyed culture.

Why should we try to defend that culture now?” he said.

Once in London, however, Lini told reporters that Vanuatu now had a closer relationship with France than Britain which cut its budgetary aid last year.

Vanuatu was awaiting the Soviet Union to propose fishing rights in territorial waters and perhaps request port facilities, he said.

Lini said the application would be assessed on its merits: “I don’t understand why everyone gets itchy when we sign an agreement with the Russians yet New Zealand can get away with it,” he said.

Australia, too, did not escape unscathed. Lini accused the Australian government of political expediency in pushing through the treaty on the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone.

“I think they are being hasty and they are being dishonest with the people of Australia,” he said in an interview.

They are prepared to declare the whole Pacific a nuclear- free state yet they are not prepared to make their own country a nuclear-free state,” he said.

“It seems to me they are not being consistent.”

Vanuatu, together with Tonga, refused to sign the treaty formulated at last year’s South Pacific Forum in Rarotonga.

“We might reconsider the treaty but I don’t believe France will stop nuclear testing in the Pacific just because a treaty has been signed.

“We cannot see the point in signing a treaty for an area which we do not control.”

Lini said the treaty was premature as terms such as nuclear dumping and nuclear storage had not been properly defined and the treaty had not been ratified by the major nuclear powers.