Return of the French

Headlines

By Anna Buckley

ON January 31, 1992, the great, grey French warship Comman dant Birot arrived in Santo, Vanuatu’s largest island. It is also the island from which, 11 years earlier, hundreds of French residents were deported following the Santo rebellion

after Independence.

A French flag on Santo had not been seen since Anglo-French Condominium days, when French settlers there out numbered the British by three to one.

The general election on December 2, 1991, brought Vanuatu’s first francophone Prime Minister, Maxime Carlot, to power. In January, the new Minister for Foreign Affairs Serge Vohor led the first Ministerial del egation to New Caledonia since Inde pendence. Vanuatu received V 35 mil lion to “welcome the new government”.

Walter Lini, now leader of the National United Party (NUP) and Carlot’s partner in the new coalition govern ment, was quick to accuse UMP of selling the nation’s sovereignty for V 35 million. Carlot responded that Vanu atu’s hard-won independence would not be compromised, but that it was natural to develop friendly relations with her nearest neighbour, New Caledonia.

The French navy were paying a courtesy call. On board Commandant Birot , government officials, remaining French residents and the Santo elite were celebrating, with sailors passing around patisseries and champagne flow ing. The first French charge d’affaires allowed in the country' for five years, Phillipe Guerin, chatted with Serge Vohor like an old friend.

It was easy to forget that recent relations between France and Vanuatu have been far from friendly. During his 11-year rule, Walter Lini played a leading role in the Campaign for an Independent and Nuclear Free Pacific.

He was a critic of French nuclear testing in Moruroa and supporter of the Kanak in New Caledonia. Lini juggled overseas donors while maintaining an indepen dent and idiosyncratic foreign policy.

Between 1980 and 1987, three French ambassadors in a row were expelled from Vanuatu for alleged support of the opposition Union of Moderate Parties (UMP). (Formed in the seventies, UMP was initially an odd assortment of francophone parties, custom-oriented movements and cargo cults wanting to delay British-led plans for early Inde pendence). The last French Com missioner, Jean Jacques Robert, is still banned from the country for his Santo rebellion role in 1980. He approved

publicly of plans drawn up for Indepen dence, but Robert is now known to nave supported Jimmy Stevens’ rebels in their fight for an Independence Republic of Vemarana on Santo.

During his brief spell as Prime Minister (September-November 1991), Donald Kalpokas started to normalise relations with France. He attended the Summit of Independent French Speak ing Countries in Paris; renewed the lease on the French Embassy and Lcyee Francaise in Vila and reversed deport ation orders on two French business men. France cancelled Vanuatu’s exter nal debt to it since 1980.

Most political appointees are now French speakers, as are the newly appointed heads of Media Services and Education. Prime Minister Maxime Carlot, educated under the French and British systems, talks of redressing the balance. Francophones have been under-represented in the civil service, the French language regarded as “a linguistic optional extra”, and business and aid policy oriented towards the English-speaking world, namely Britain, Australia and New Zealand, he said.

The UMP election manifesto prom ised free health and education, higher copra prices and lower food prices, promises dependent on more funds from somewhere. In a recent interview, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Serge Vohor, explained that the V 35 million from New Caledonia was just a prelimi nary gift. The new government antici pates hundreds of millions of vatu for health and education. French teachers absent from Santo since the rebellion will be allowed to return, and Vanuatu can expect more French doctors in the future.

The new coalition government could benefit from links with both the anglophone and francophone world.

But first Carlot and Lini have to mark out their differences.

Carlot openly admits that NUP was not UMP’s first choice of a coalition partner, but “time was running out”, he said. “Marriages of convenience are fragile things, so too are coalition

governments.”

The new government was expected to meet for the first time on February 28.

The latest source of aggravation be tween the two leaders has been the return of 20 French deportees for a weekend party. Former copra, cocoa and cattle industry leaders on Santo for decades, they talked of compensation during their a la carte dinner at Santo’s top restaurant. They left 11 years ago with nothing, but were able to hire two

charter planes (Noumea-Vila, Vila-

Santo) for last month’s occasion. □