Partition For New Caledonia?

New Caledonia

A radical caldoche plan for the troubled territory.

By David Robie

Lionel Cherrier, New Cale

donia’s elder statesman, had just be gun talking to me at his villa in the Noumea seaside suburb of Magenta when his wife called him. “There’s a woman on the phone who wants to talk to you,” she said, “and she says she is Madame Pons.”

They looked at each other and laughed.

Another crank, posing as the wife of the then French Overseas territories Minister Bernard Pons? Or, more likely, somebody trying to abuse or threaten Cherrier.

The phone went dead.

Death threats for Cherrier, the 58-year old former senator for New Caledonia in the French Parliament, are commonplace these days and he rarely answers the phone himself. It is screened by his “minders”.

In fact, he and his family have had to watch their movements since the end of 1984 when he announced the creation of a “Group of Study and Reflection on the Future in a Melanesian Country” (GER APM). Low-key though the movement sounds, it was like a red rag to extremist anti-independence parties and militia groups among European settlers.

Chenier’s initial statement was even more provocative, as far as they were con cerned: “The Melanesian people have an innate right to independence,” he de clared, just a week after the Kanak So cialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) boycotted the territorial elections, set up barricades cutting off the major arterial roads and “liberated” the town of Thio.

“That was recognised at Nainville-les- Roches” [a summit with President Mit terrand in 1983],” Mr Cherrier recalled.

“And at the same time the Kanak people recognised the inalienable rights of the other ethnic communities, particularly those they themselves called the ’victims of history’.” The “victims” are the cal doches, who have been a part of society in New Caledonia for several generations.

Cherrier warned then that all other eth nic groups must “hold out their hand in friendship” and work with the Melane sian people to eliminate hatred and to ne gotiate positively a way forward to independence with a place for everybody.

“Outside of this option which is that of wisdom, reason and in the best interests of everybody there can only be ruin, de spair and disorder,” he added.

Over the past three years Cherrier has encouraged meetings of caldoches who believe constructive independence is the only way for a peaceful future. However, because of the potential for a right-wing backlash the identities of most of his sup

porters have been kept secret, and the group’s meetings have been held in homes or other inconspicuous venues.

“We had to keep our identities secret, otherwise we would be put on a hit list and our children would be persecuted,” said one person who has attended meetings.

“But despite our secrecy the number of people taking part has been growing and the meetings have been springing up in towns from Koumac to Paita.

“Despite the FLNKS call for a boycott, we decided to vote for Mitterrand in the presidential run-off that is why he dou bled his vote from the first round to 10 per cent in the second.”

Only a handful of people have been publicly identified with GERAPM. Be sides president Chenier, a civil engineer who has been in politics for 30 years, there are vice-president Dr Bernard Lotti and secretary-general Michel Robin. Al though the group was scorned by former Prime Minister Jacques Chirac and Mr Pons, it quietly made submissions directly to President Mitterrand. And now, in view of the more liberal political mood as a re sult of the reassertion of socialist rule, some of their ideas are surfacing as important options for the future.

One radical plan advocated by the group (at least in the short term, as part of the evolution toward independence) is the creation of a two-state federal condomi nium with greater Noumea under com bined French and Kanak rule and the rest of the territory under Kanak rule.

In a paper outlining details of the pro posal, it was noted that the Chirac Government and its New Caledonian proxy Rapprochment pour Caledonie dans la Republiue (RPCR) had trumpeted their “victory” in last September’s referendum on independence: A 59 per cent voter tur nout in defiance of the FLNKS boycott, and a majority in favour of remaining part of France.

“But honesty commands a more re fined analysis, without complacency over the results,” the paper said. “For a start, it is possible to confirm that the independ ence movement has lost none of its influ ence, and moreover that there exist two polarised groups; the French and the independantistes Of the 85,000 votes, 57 per cent were in favour of remaining part of the French re public while votes for independence or ab stentions as part of the boycott totalled 42 per cent (the rest were spoiled votes).

However, the ethnic breakdown showed that 84 per cent of the Kanak population

boycotted the vote while 16 per cent of non- Kanaks abstained.

“Furthermore,” said the paper, “the referendum only served to harden the po larisation between Kanaks and non-Kan aks, and to confirm the gulf between greater Noumea the capital and the communes of Mont Dore, Dumbea and Paita, with 52 per cent of registered voters and 79 per cent of the European popula tion and the rest of the territory.”

The only difference between this vote and previous ballots was “legal fraud”, in cluding the Pons measure that enabled voters to cast up to five proxy votes in stead of two.

Stressing the huge difference between developed Noumea, Dumbea and Mont Dore and the “notoriously underdevel oped” rest of the territory, GERAPM pro poses the following solutions: • Partitioning the territory into two parts Noumea and its two adjoining com munes (excluding Paita), and the rural hinterland. • Conducting a “real” referendum among the Kanak people and the “victims of his tory” (those caldoche or other ethnic groups with at least one parent born in the territory) on whether to become inde pendent or remain part of the French re public. Predictably, a ballot on such a basis would result in the rural area becoming the independent state of Kanaky.

The report cited the constitutional precedent of the wartime occupied Alpine valleys of Tinee, Vesubie and Roya in France, which voted in a referendum in 1947 on whether to remain French or to become part of Italy. Franchise criteria in cluded at least one parent born in the area or at least 25 years’ residency. • Creating an administrative “condom inium zone” in greater Noumea, to be jointly controlled by France and the new state of Kanaky. The zone would be set up for a long period and renewable.

Kanaky would be required to allow free circulation between the zone and the in dependent country, and to guarantee to protect the activities of French citizens.

Although the concept of a condomi nium has unfortunate connotations after the experience of the Anglo-French “pan demonium” in neighbouring Vanuatu (then the New Hebrides), the radical plan has been given serious consideration by the political mission that visited New Cale donia recently. Even millionaire business man Jacques Lafleur, leader of the anti independence RPCR, has admitted the territory could face being carved up. □