Reaction in Paris
p. 15 · Read in the full issue
Paris
Nicholas Rothwell reports
on reaction in Paris to the
killings
THE SHOTS that claimed the lives of Jean-Marie Tjibaou and Yeiwene Yeiwene present French Prime Minister Michel Rocard’s Socialist government with a new set of problems in the Pacific territory. New Caledonia was in mourning and thus calm in the weeks following the killings, but in Paris the initial, and near-unanimous, fulsomely
expressed grief gradually gave way to
an increased anxiety over the future of the territory and the viability of the
all-important Matignon accord.
Rocard flew to Noumea both to pro nounce an address of tribute to the slain Kanak leaders he had been especially close to Tjibaou and to reassure the territory’s two main com munities of continued French commit ment to the place and development process enshrined in the accord.
Rocard and his advisers at first announced the postponement of the June regional elections so the cus tomary period of lamentation for the dead could elapse. After his 13-hour visit to the territorial capital Rocard decided to proceed with the poll that will select officials for the regional in stitutions called for under the Matig non agreement. The regional govern men will come into force, as Tjibaou had wished, on July 14, the 200th anniversary of the focal point of the French Revolution the storming of the Bastille.
While the killings appear to have
paradoxically confirmed the import
ance of the accord and the process of reconciliation between the European and Kanak communities, the effect in France remains less certain.
The killings may jeopardise the al ways-fragile Paris consensus on Rocard’s approach. A France-wide re ferendum held last November to ratifv the accord was widely ignored bv mainland voters; the Kanak commun ity voted for it while the Europans of New Caledonia ignored the advice of their leader, Jacques Lafleur and re jected the plan by a large majority. A consensus in Paris on the course being pursued is essential. There is no guarantee the Government in Paris will remain in power until the crucial 1998 referendum. Nor is there any guarantee that the conservative opposition, once elected, will feel bound to respect Matignon, especiallv with the two most prominent Kanak politicians departed from the scene.