solution says

No French solution says Kanak leader

The leader of the moderate independence party LKS, Mr Nidoish Naisseline, visited Australia in March and held talks with Foreign Affairs department officials. Speaking to reporters in Sydney Mr Naisseline said the South Pacific region “must make it clear to France that there is no French solution to New Caledonia’s problem but only a local one - a local consensus has to be found in the territory supported by the region”. France is in third position where New Caledonia’s problems are con cerned, he said, “the problem must be seen in terms of the South Pacific Forum and the destabilisation for the region”. Forum policies were pro-South Pacific, not anti-French, he said.Naisseline said the LKS called for the referendum to be postponed until after the French presidential elections in 1988 because the issue was being used for domestic political purposes by French leaders during the presidential campaign. “But most importantly,” he said, “we want it put off because it will solve nothing. After it has taken place Overseas Territories Minister Pons will present the new statute to Parliament, and perhaps we will boycott these institu tions as well if they are anti-independence. Then we’ll be facing the same situation as in 1984...Naisseline said many people both within and outside the French Government had described the referendum as useless.

He said that Minister Pons “will have to try and provoke violence to enable the referendum to be cancelled to save his honour - this would suit him. The referendum is very dangerous for France because if all the independence supporters boycott - 35% - and an average of 15% habitual abstainers, then they won’t get 50% participa tion. So the role of LKS and OPAO (a second, smaller moderate independence party) is very important, and can deny the credibility sought by Pons for the referendum.

“The LKS leader criticised the terms of the proposed referendum and warned that “if the French Parliament accepts as it is, then we can’t accept it.” He said the questions in the poll were badly framed, and voters were not being asked to “say yes or no to an independence constitution with clearly defined institutional powers”. Mr Naisseline said the LKS wanted “independence to be prepared peacefully together with France” and that France should not depart from the country but stay with an important role in aid and trade. He warned there was a risk of violence with the referendum but stressed that if the LKS boycotted the poll, it would be “with dignity and non-violence”. He said in the case of a boycott by independence parties the LKS and the FLNKS would be obliged to work together - “but the problems of interned divisions won’t be solved”. He said the FLNKS and the LKS had signed a joint petition to the UN during the decolonisation committee meeting on New Caledonia.

He warned that “large section of the right wing will be tempted to cause violence - they are well-armed, well organised and ready”.