Decolonise French Polynesia

and New Caledonia

France has openly defied the wishes of the Pacific Island nations to be free of nuclear contamination. If French Polynesia and New Caledonia were to he decolonised, the Pacific would have its way.

By Roman Grynberg

Watching the collapse of the European empire is always best from a great distance.

But even sitting in the South Pacific, at the furthest reaches of Europe’s dominions, you cannot escape the pitiless mess the Europeans make when they voluntarily disengage from their empires. Our old masters the British, have also pulled out of the South Pacific Commission and appear only interested in assuring that we get even less aid than in the past.

The responses to the recent decisions of the French to recommence nuclear testing in the Pacific was uncharacteristic because, for the first time in memory, it began to sound as though the islands were going to actually do something beyond the

usual limp-wristed Forum communique.

The immediate dispatching of a mission of Australia, New Zealand and Forum offi cials to Paris with the expected negative response has drawn immediate responses from Pacific countries. Nauru broke diplo matic relations, Australia recalled its ambassador and New Zealand, with its usual diplomatic vigour and unbending ideological commitment to lamb exports to the EU did nothing except reconsider French commercial contracts.

The only reason the French test their weapons here is that New Caledonia and French

Polynesia are colonies of

France.

The country out of step was Vanuatu which, 10 years ago under Father Lini, spearheaded the Pacific island opposition to French testing. Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Maxim Carlot Korman who is increasingly seen as France’s “Monsieur Oui” in the Pacific was reported to have said he did not consider French testing as dangerous but that he would accept the

Forum position. All the more aid to you Maxim. As the Forum works on political consensus, there is no doubt that Korman’s policy will be the weak link in the chain of

Forum opposition.

The Marshall Islands which knows well the effects of “safe nuclear testing” has condemned the nuclear testing in Mururoa. Its condemnation would be taken a bit more seriously if large parts of its political establishment were not, at the same time, bending over backwards in a desperate attempt to turn their country into a nuclear waste-dumping ground.

Even the serious measures of condem nation are not seen as being enough for some. The French nuclear tests are viewed in the South Pacific, quite rightly, as French disrespect for the feelings of all the nations in the region. The French response to our protests has been slightly less that a polite yawn. Diplomats will tell you that even if all the island states of the Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand, broke diplomatic relations and imposed trade sanctions on France, their response would be to shrug their shoulders.

In fact, if you listen to the diplomats, there is nothing we can do to France.

Diplomats are not people given to doing much - much of their job is to stop things being done. But it is not entirely true that we have no options that would hurt France. When you throw the old cliche at the French that if the testing is safe why don’t you do it in France, the French response is “we are testing it in France”.

That of course is precisely the problem.

French Polynesia is legally part of France, in the same way that Algeria was. The French used to test their nuclear weapons in Algeria in the 1950 s when it was “part of France”.

But this is not France’s problem - it is ours. We have unfinished business in the Pacific. The only reason the French test their weapons here is that New Caledonia and French Polynesia are colonies of France. But it is we who are weak because even at the height of the fighting in New Caledonia in the 1980 s, Pacific island states did not do the obvious. We have authority in only one place and that is in

Even the serious measures of condemnation are not seen

as being enough for some. The

French nuclear tests are viewed in the South Pacific, quite rightly, as French disre spect for the feelings of all the nations in the region.

the United Nations. We are a dozen votes and it is time we got to the heart of the matter of French nuclear testing - that French Polynesia is the very last vestige of European colonialism in the Pacific.

As the British flag sets in Hong Kong and the Russian empire crumbles at its Islamic edges, we must finally bid adieu to our French “friends” who treat us with such disrespect. It is time for our diplo mats to return to the UN Committee on Decolonisation and ask the UN that New Caledonia and French Polynesia be placed on the now empty list of territories for decolonisation. With President Mandela ruling a black-dominated South Africa and colonialism finished on the African conti nent, such calls have an anachronistic ring to them - they should belong to another era but regrettably they don’t.

To bring the status of French Polynesia to the UN would be the one measure that would get to the very heart of why these tests are happening here in the Pacific and not in metropolitan France. And it would simultaneously punish France for its actions.

But if we proceed in this way it will not be without cost. The French have already talked about cutting off aid. The New Zealanders would lose their lamb market, the Fijians their free Renault trucks and Vanuatu its umbilical cord to the French coffers. But if we show some seriousness maybe we will begin to bring European colonialism in the Pacific to an end and provide our children a future without European and American atomic bombs.