a peacemaker
p. 16 · Read in the full issue
The warning of a peacemaker
By Jale Moala
ASK Oscar Temaru to describe himself and he will look you straight in the face and say: “I’m a peacemaker.” That he may be, but this pro-independence leader of French Polynesia also readily admits that a time will come when he will not be able to prevent the violence. “Violence is already there,” he said. “For many years people have been put in jail, people had been exiled from Tahiti to France. People around the Pacific don’t know what is happening in our country. It’s very hard.”
Anti-French feelings spilled out last month when France detonated a 20-kilo ton nuclear device in French Polynesia despite worldwide protest against any resumption of nuclear testing there. So called pro-independence supporters stormed the international airport at Faa’a
French Polynesia’s largest municipal
ity and of which Temaru is mayor and set fire to the terminal building and vehi cles in the carpark. They then attacked shops in the capital Papeete.
“The Tahitian people are a very, very
quiet people,” said the 51-year-old
Temaru in Suva before the riots in Tahiti.
“But when they become angry it is very hard to control them. I am not saying that I am the only person who can calm the people, but I really don’t know what will happen if people like me and some other people around me disappear. There will be a lot of trouble on the island. There are some people who are very militant. Our
ultimate date is the year 2000. After that I cannot guarantee anymore what will hap pen in the future.. We want to live in peace. We want the Pacific to remain pacific.” Temaru’s party, the Liberation Front of Polynesia, or Tavini Huiraatira, is at the forefront of the battle for indepen dence from French rule. “The struggle is not easy,” he said. “There is a lot of harassment, threats. They have also tried to kill me. But I am still alive.
“Our hope,” he said, “is to get inde pendence in the year 2000. In 1988 the United Nations passed Resolutions 42-47 stating that the decade between 1990 and year 2000 should be the decade in which the world should eradicate colonialism.
The decision by French president Jacques Chirac for his country to resume nuclear testing is a very good example of the colonial system. He made that decision without asking the people of Tahiti. It was a unilateral decision by one man. The entire world is protesting against it.”
The question obviously is what will happen if France refuses to release French Polynesia by the year 2000? Will there be violence? “I’m not a violent man,” said Temaru. “We have decided to use non-violent means to achieve those goals and for nearly 20 years now we have been fighting and educating our peo ple.
“There will be more and more actions and more and more anger throughout the country and also throughout the South Pacific and even in France.” And his ulti mate goal for French Polynesia?
“Freedom. Freedom. Freedom.” A
Arin Chandra
Temaru: “I’m a peacemaker.”