Elio Machoro, victim of French imperi Eloi Machoro was general secretary of the Caledonian Union, the largest of the independence organizations grouped together in the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), which was formed in September 1984. He was also minister of security in the Provisional Government set up by the FLNKS. Together with Marcel Nonarro, FLNKS leader in Canala, he was assassinated by French colonialist forces on the morning of January 12, at the culmination of a large-scale military operation and a siege that had lasted the entire preceding night.
The FLNKS activists were caught by surprise at a meeting which was held on the property of a Kanak, a member of the FLNKS, and not that of a European colonist, as claimed in the official version put out by the French high commissioner in New Caledonia, Edgard Pisani.
The two Kanak leaders were shot down as they came out to negotiate by members of the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) sent by Edgard Pisani. The FLNKS has revealed that the action of the repressive forces was carried out in close collaboration with a group of fascist commandos who were on the spot at the same time.
These two Kanak fighters for independence paid with their lives for the commitment to the cause of Kanak socialist independence. The loss of Eloi Machoro will undoubtedly leave a big empty place in the FLNKS. After the occupation of the town of Thio, which Machoro led without shedding any blood, he set about building a system of self-defense for the Kanak tribes on a national scale to prepare to fend off any violent reaction by the extreme rightist colonists. This was why the French government wanted to get its hands on the independence fight leader.
Ud OT alism
ASSASSINE!
In fact, the neocolonialist plan concocted by Edgard Pisani has the concomitant of resuming operations designed to restore fully colonialist order. These operations are in line with the strategic choice of protecting the interests of the European colonists. Nonetheless, the organizational work undertaken by Eloi Machoro will be carried on. At present there are in New Caledonia 2,300 CRS (elite militarized police) and gendarmes mobiles (members of a repressive force attached to the army) and 2,000 soldiers. This is for a population of 145,000, of which 64,000 are Kanaks. And the French government has just sent off a thousand additional soldiers, paratroopers who were involved in the military operations in Chad and Lebanon. The Mitterrand government has already touched off the typical spiral of colonial war.
For many weeks, the bourgeois press and the government strained every effort to portray the FLNKS activists and especially Eloi Machoro, whom they, presented as a blood-thirsty military chief, as criminals. To the contrary, Eloi Machoro, with whom members of the French section of the Fourth International were able to meet on a number of occasions, was representative of a new generation of Kanak nationalist political activists.
In the spring of 1984, Machoro spoke at a rally organized by the LCR at Le Bourget [near Paris], expressing the FLNKS' rejection of the Lemoine Plan. At the time, he was very favorably impressed by the support shown him by the thousands of activists present on that day. Since then, French Fourth Internationalists who went to New Caledonia were always welcomed by him in a very fraternal way.
The following interview was given to Vincent Kermel in the town of Thio in New Caledonia on December 6, 1984.
Question. What is your assessment of the mobilizations for independence in recent weeks?
Answer. The active boycott campaign succeeded. The results show an abstention rate of 50 percent, which is a lot for a population that is three-fifths nonKanak. Nonetheless, the Administrative Tribunal ratified the election results. The French government found it difficult to approve the results, but, as always, it did not want to take a clear position. So, we decided to launch actions throughout the islands to get the election results annulled. Our objective was also to prevent any application of the Lemoine law.
Q. On the last point, the FLNKS seem to have achieved some success.
A. That is not yet certain. The government has not yet taken a clear stand. Replacing the high commissioner, pushing Lemoine aside to some extent, and putting the Caledonian question in the hands of the premier mav be indications of a of the premier may be indications or a
But that change.
could be a good or
The action conducted around the town of Thio has been the most important of these initiatives. What is your explanation for that?
A. In this region, we could have staged actions locally in all the townships. We preferred to conduct an action at Thio because on the east coast this town has always been one of the strongest bastions of the anti-independence forces. The mayor, Roger Galliot, is a member of the extreme rightist Caledonian National Party.
Moreover, in this region there was a crucial question to be settled, in particular since Galliot's party, like the other rightist parties, had begun to try to buy Kanaks.
So, we came from several places in the region to settle the problem at Thio, that is, to assure that the Kanaks, who are the majority in the local population, had control of the town in their hands. The fact is that the Kanaks in the Thio region have become conscious of their strength and
International Viewpoint 28 January 1984 bad sign. In fact, the government keeps sending observers here who come to look for a third road, when there is no third way.
We will never accept a third road, because what we are asking for is simple justice. Like all his predecessors, Edgard Pisani came here to look for a third way. At the present time, the FLNKS and our provisional government have asked us to remove the road blocks so as not to pose any obstacles to discussions with the government. We are respecting this order. But during the two months that the government's representative has gotten to gain an understanding of the Caledonian problem and find a solution, while we may not be on the roads, we will be active in other places.
We are going to maintain the mobilization so that, if need be, we can reoccupy the positions that have already been won, and also so that we can organize ourselves better. ourselves better.
are organizing so as to be still more effective.
Q. What was the attitude of the FLNKS toward the European population of Thio when the town was occupied?
A. We asked for a meeting with the Europeans in the town to explain to them the meaning of our action. Unfortunately, they were afraid, and only about a dozen of them came to our meeting. We explained the general objectives of our action, making it clear that we had one specific aim for this town — to make sure that the town was run by people who wanted to work together for the benefit of everyone and not to gain their own personal ends, as was the case of the present mayor, Roger Galliot.
Galliot was the one who obstructed discussion among people. Everyone knew that he belonged to the extreme right. He banded together a half-dozen "superhards." We gave a list of their names to the non-Kanak inhabitants of Thio. We also explained to them that their tranquility depended also on their behavior and the relations they maintained with the Kanaks.
Moreover, we asked the gendarmes in Thio not to come out of their barracks, promising them that order would be maintained. So, we organized to protect the sectors for which we had responsibility.
Q. As regards the negotiations that are to begin with the representative of the French government, Edgard Pisani, you may be offered a referendum to determine the future of the territory with the right to vote accorded to the Europeans and immigrants who have been here for example for more than six or more than ten years. What do you think about that?
A. Such a proposition by the French government would be a bad one. Why den years and why not the "victims of history," as we have described the European Caldoches whose fathers or mothers were born in New Caledonia? And, to take it further, why not the Kanaks alone? International Viewpoint 28 January 1984
SLIN An FLNKS barricade in Ouega (DR) In fact, the government's problem is that it does not want to take a position. It does not want to adopt our point of view so as not to be accused of letting the FLNKS drag it around by the nose. But, the French government should decide either to stick by the French constitution or to carry out a decolonization policy favorable to the Kanak people.
In all the proposals we have made, we have always demanded a reform of the electoral register to assure that it is the real inhabitants of the territory who decide on its future, and it is in this sense that we have talked about the Kanaks and the "victims of history." This request has been rejected by the National Assembly [in Paris ] as unconstitutional.
At present, we are fighting for the self-determination of the Kanak people alone,
Eloi Machoro (DR)
and we have legal grounds for this. Article 75 of the French constitution recognizes the special character of the Kanak people by granting them a special status. It is up to the government to choose. We will do everything possible on the ground to tip the balance in our favor.
In order to take up the discussion with Pisani, we made a lot of concessions, such as releasing the subprefect of Lifou, or removing the road blocks. In return for this, they are still killing us, as in Hienghene. In the incidents that have occurred, the Kanaks have never been the ones to start it.
Everytime they have fired, the Kanaks have done so to defend themselves. In Thio, we took over the town without firing a single shot at a European.
The Socialist Party government has been carrying out a right-wing policy here because the right is helping the government keep the territory under the domin- ment keep de betrot under be donn ation of France. The French government does not want to let New Caledonia go because of the strategic position it holds and because of its riches.
The only basis of support for such a position here is the colonialist right. So, decolonialization remains on the agenda, it has not yet started. For the Kanaks, the colonial situation has not changed.
Q. There is a lot of talk about support from Libya (for the Kanaks] and Australian designs on New Caledonia.
A. Australia, as well as New Zealand, are corner stones of the Pacific Nations' Forum. They are also two satellites of the United States. There is the problem of imperialism and control of the Pacific region. That is why over the years we have seen a shift in the position of Australia and other countries in the Pacific Nations' Forum. At the beginning, they were very favorable to independence because they had designs. They wanted, with the help of the Kanak people, to get France out of here and gain control of the Pacific.
However, as our demands became more well defined, these countries became afraid of removing a power such as France from'the Pacific. We think that it is because of this fear that today they are supporting the policy of France.
Moreover, we are a native people, and so that [a victory for the Kanak people] would pose the threat of provoking reactions from their own native people. Thus, the last position taken by the Pacific Nations' Forum was to support the Lemoine statute that we have rejected.
We knocked for a long time on France's door asking for help in decolonizing our country. The answer was a document [the Lemoine plan] designed for the destruction of the Kanak people. We asked the Pacific Nation's Forum to support our struggle. They supported the policy of the French government. So, we have been obliged to go looking for help elsewhere and we will seek it wherever it may be found.
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