Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

KANAK SOCIALIST NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT • 345was taken by callers claiming to represent the “Kanak LiberationFront” or the “Army for the Liberation of New Caledonia.” Authoritiessuspected that PALIKA was responsible for these attacks.In New Caledonia clashes and shooting incidents erupted betweenKanaks and French settlers from 30 November to 6 December 1984,leaving 10 dead and four injured. Following these incidents, the headof the Union Calédonienne and chief leader of the FLNKS, Jean-Marie Tjibaou, confirmed that 17 Kanaks had received paramilitarytraining in Libya. On 4 May 1987 the FLNKS officially disavowedthe pro-Libyan stand and statements of FULK leader Yann CeleneUregei, who was in Tripoli at that time. Because pending Frenchautonomy plans and regional elections threatened the hope of Kanaksovereignty, independence activists attacked French gendarmes onthe small island of Ouvea on 24 April 1988, killing four gendarmesand holding another 23 as hostages in a cave. When negotiationsfailed, French commandos stormed the cave on 5 May, killing 19 andcapturing eight of the Kanak militants. In addition, the French soldiersmanhandled noncombatant islanders and tortured their Kanakprisoners, three of whom died.Following this incident, Kanak youth from the FULK party attendedthe 13th World Festival of Youth and Students held inPyongyang, North Korea, in July 1989, eight of whom remainedbehind to attend a “training camp” that may have included terroristtactical instruction. Apart from the potential importation of terrorisminto New Caledonia from outside parties, such as Libya andNorth Korea, intramural tensions within the Kanak community alsoportended political violence or terrorism, as became evident in theassassination of the politically moderate Kanak leader Jean-MarieTjibaou on 5 May 1989. Tjibaou went to Ouvea to attend the anniversarycommemoration of the deaths of those Kanaks killed byFrench commandos a year before. Because Tjibaou’s accompanyingdeputy, Yeiwene, was viewed by the Ouvea islanders as a pro-Frenchtraitor, both Yeiwene and Tjibaou were assassinated by relatives ofthose killed or tortured by the French commandos. Following theKanak separatists’ failure to win a majority in the 1998 referendumon Caledonian independence, the FLNKS coalition ran candidatesin the 9 May 1999 election for the Congrès Territorial and won 18of the 54 seats. Although tensions between Kanak separatists andsettlers and among the Kanaks themselves have remained high, in