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New Caledonia: how Prime Minister Michel Rocard eased tensions in 1988
New Caledonia: how Prime Minister Michel Rocard eased tensions in 1988
(franceinfo)
While the crisis experienced in Nouméa, New Caledonia, is not the first, a solution to ease tensions was found in 1988. The Prime Minister at the time Michel Rocard played an important role in this process.
June 26, 1988: from Matignon, Prime Minister Michel Rocard addresses Caledonians. “I want to tell them ‘take back hope’, a new page will be able to be written: not through weapons, but through dialogue,” he said. Dialogue is essential as a solution while New Caledonia has just gone through the worst crisis in its history: for four years, the territory has been in virtual civil war between Kanak separatists and Caldoche loyalists, of European origin.
While the crisis the island was going through had caused several deaths at the time, the solution to ease tensions was dialogue. Michel Rocard managed to get the Matignon Accords signed, which brought back civil peace. Around the table are Jacques Lafleur, anti-independence leader, and Jean-Marie Tjibaou, Kanak independence leader.
