Duty to Fight for Land Seen : ‘This Is Our Time,’ Rebels in New Caledonia Assert

NOUMEA, New Caledonia â€”  For the past 11 days and nights, the young Melanesian rebel leader holding 23 French hostages in a cave has not let go of his ax.

It is the same ax, French authorities say, that was used to hack three French gendarmes to death when the hostages were seized.

Of that, authorities say they are certain, because the young Melanesian has refused to wipe the gendarmes’ blood from the ax blade.

The blood apparently serves as inspiration for the kidnapers, who the French charge have “the madness of God.�

But the image is more than just a graphic illustration of the fanaticism of the handful of Melanesian separatists who continue to hold 8,000 troops and the world’s fourth-largest power at bay in the hostage drama. It also is a metaphor for the political blade dangling over France as the potential for more separatist violence increases in its once-idyllic South Pacific island territory.

“There is no doubt it will get worse,� 28-year-old John Peu, who heads the tiny Kanak United Liberation Front, the most radical rebel faction, said in an interview Monday. “This is our time, the time of the younger generation. If we want our children--the next generation--to be free in their land, we must fight. It is our duty to fight.�

In just two weeks’ time, members of Peu’s tiny group have wrested the initiative from their moderate elders in one of the world’s least known yet increasingly explosive struggles for independence--an attempt by New Caledonia’s native Melanesians, who call themselves Kanaks, to make their home a separate state after nearly 150 years of French rule.

Several Kanak leaders said in recent interviews that it is already clear that the fight is likely to grow more violent in the weeks to come, even after the hostage crisis is resolved.

Peu said the presence of French troops, rushed from Paris last week, will escalate their struggle.

“They can use all the French soldiers in New Caledonia, and it will only work against them,� he said. “Our determination is stronger now.�

Asked how the radical Kanaks, estimated to number no more than 300, can face the French army, Peu replied: “We don’t need guns. We have our culture.�

And how can culture fight guns? “Just ask the French soldiers in the cave,� he said.

Peu conceded that his radical group is probably the smallest of the seven organizations that make up the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front, the separatist umbrella group. But he confirmed that it is his group that holds the hostages, in a heavily fortified cave on the nearby island of Ouvea.

Radicals Gain Support

In the last few days, moderate Kanak leaders agree, the radicals have won broad new support among the territory’s 60,000 Melanesians, who represent less than half of New Caledonia’s total population of 145,000, which is dominated by Europeans and Polynesians.

The most new fertile ground for the radicals has been the young Melanesians.

A French Catholic priest, Father Francois Xavier de Vivies, writing from the island where the hostages are being held, said in a letter that reached Noumea on Monday: “There is a new generation of pure in heart among the children . . . you should see the way the little children insult the (French military) helicopters.

“They are drinking in the Kanak pride in kindergarten and nursery school, and the older generation who say ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir’ are toughening every day.�

Almost unanimously, the separatist leaders blame French heavy-handedness in dealing with the hostage crisis and the subsequent violence for the increasing alienation and radicalization of many Melanesians.

One leader, commenting on the rhetoric from Paris, said Monday: “These harsh words are being bandied about to frighten us. But when they reach the ears of the young, they do nothing but make them angry.�

He added that the French troops that have been charging into remote villages with machine guns looking for extremist rebels have frightened and alienated many once-loyal Melanesians.

A separatist communique issued Monday, read to the press by one of the front’s moderates, declared that “throughout the history of the French Republic, each time the army takes over from the politicians it has led to civil war.�

It likened New Caledonia to pre-independence Algeria, adding that the “French government is engaging itself irreversibly on the perilous road of Algerianization. . . . Day after day, the ingredients of a dirty colonial war are being put into place.�

Such language, many observers said, would have been unthinkable only a few months ago.

Unique Culture

These observers say that in order to understand the crisis, it is necessary to understand the Melanesian culture, and the Melanesians say the French have made no effort to do this.

Melanesian culture-- la coutume , “the custom,� it is called--centers on a mystical worship of the land, on ancestral authority and on a way of life similar to that of the aborigines of Australia, 625 miles to the west.

“The custom is the base of our policies,� Peu, the radical leader, said. “The proof of my identity as a person is in the land of what we call Kanaky (the separatists’ term for New Caledonia). This is our concept of belief. It is our original force. We believe in the spirit of this land. We believe that if we are united on this land, it will give us strength.

“If the tribes in the countryside are fighting for the land, it is because they are fighting for their lives--our lives as Kanaks.�

Moderate separatist leaders in Noumea say they seek negotiations with the French government, possibly under the auspices of the United Nations, even though communication between Paris and the Kanaks was severed several years ago under the policies of French Premier Jacques Chirac, whom most Kanaks blame for the crisis.

“But we do not want to negotiate,� Peu said, speaking for the extremists. “We have to let the people in Ouvea decide this, because they are the ones who made the situation.

“For me, to show sympathy with Ouvea we will have to do something here (in Noumea) to destabilize the situation. For us, Ouvea is a model for our unity. This is what we hope will happen now in the other places.�

He hinted strongly that his group will strike sometime this week in Noumea, the territorial capital.

Despite the small size of Peu’s group, French officials have sought to justify the military buildup--now nearly 8,000 soldiers and police--by emphasizing the radical faction’s fanaticism and its ties to Libya.

In a news conference last week, the minister for territorial affairs, Bernard Pons, sent from Paris 10 days ago in an effort to solve the crisis, accused Libya of directing the extremists. But Libya’s official news agency, Jana, said there is no basis for the charge.

‘Madman of God’

Pons described the leader of the hostage takers, the man with the bloody ax, as a “fou de dieu , “ literally a “madman of God.�

Radical leaders, Peu among them, said Pons and French officials in general are mistaking ancient Melanesian customs for religion.

For the Kanaks, Peu said, the custom is not a religion but a way of life. He said it is the French government’s inability to understand the distinction that has caused the hostage crisis.

“This is not a question of God or religion,� he said. “To do something for God, any god, we must be liberated first. To be liberated, we must get back our land, for it is in the land that we have our strength.�