Leaderless FLNKS
p. 43 · Read in the full issue
Headlines
Leaderless FLNKS worries Kanak
A SENIOR member of New Cale donia’s Kanak independence movement has called for the quick convening of the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) con gress to srengthen the movement and keep alive the flames of peace.
Paul Neaoutyne, head of the northern province’s committee on economic de velopment, said the survival of the FLNKS was important to continued peace in New Caledonia, and the surviv al of the Matignon Accord peace treaty.
Under the terms of the accord, the peo ple of New Caledonia will decide by re ferendum in 1998 whether to have inde pendence from France or not.
“If some think they can eliminate the FLNKS and continue the plan for 10 years, they’re wrong. The FLNKS has to meet and re-organise now,” said Neaoutyne, who belongs to the moderate wing of the FLNKS’s second-largest par ty, the Socialist Party for Kanak Libera tion (PALIKA). He warned that further postponement of the FLNKS congress was unhealthy. He accused the FLNKS majority party, Union Caledonienne (UC), of holding up the congress.
Originally planned for May, the
annual congress of the FLNKS’s six member group was cancelled following the assassination of Jean-Marie Tjibaou, (president of both the FLNKS and the UC) and of Yeiwene Yeiwene, the UC vice-president. The congress, which will decide the new leader, was put off until August, but it is not expected now until the end of the year.
“The decisions about the provinces are
being made now,” said Neaoutyne, “By
January 1990 things will be up and run ning and grassroots members will be fac ing a fait accompli. ” Neaoutyne, an eco nomist who headed Tjibaou’s political staff, indicated that if the FLNKS no longer existed, PALIKA might not con sider itself bound by the peace plan. □