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Pacific News Minute: French Court Strips Pro-Independence Leader of His Seat in Tahiti’s Assembly

Remi Jouan
/
Wikimedia Commons

A court in France found irregularities in the finances of French Polynesia’s major pro-independence party and stripped its leader of his seat in the territorial assembly for a year. The party claims he’s been targeted because of his anti-nuclear activism.

Recent political history in French Polynesia has been dominated by three men.

Gaston Flosse, who’s been convicted several times on corruption. He was once found guilty of taking the presidential dinner dishes with him when he left office. His son-in-law and former protege Edouard Fritch, re-elected President last May despite a conviction for corruption. And Oscar Temaru, who’s served five separate terms as president and whose Tavini Huiraatira stood last spring, as the only party whose candidates had never been convicted.

Last week, the top administrative court in France ruled that campaign accounts did not properly explain 36,000 dollars in contributions, and stripped Temaru of his seat in the assembly for one year.

He protested his innocence, while a statement from the party said that Temaru was being punishedbecause he’d accused France of crimes against humanity for its nuclear weapons tests in French Polynesia. The party statement also drew comparisons to an earlier figure in the territory’s political history – independence advocate Pouvanaa a Oopa.

Credit Remi Jouan / Wikimedia Commons
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Wikimedia Commons
Statue of Pouvanaa a Oopa

In 1959, he was convicted for instigating violence as part of his anti-nuclear campaign. Earlier this month, that conviction was overturned when new evidence revealed that the police had fabricated evidence and that the French Governor had signed an arrest order charging him with burning down Papeete, before the fire started.

A memorial statue of Pouvanaa a Oopa stands in front of the territorial assembly building.

Over 36 years with National Public Radio, Neal Conan worked as a correspondent based in New York, Washington, and London; covered wars in the Middle East and Northern Ireland; Olympic Games in Lake Placid and Sarajevo; and a presidential impeachment. He served, at various times, as editor, producer, and executive producer of All Things Considered and may be best known as the long-time host of Talk of the Nation. Now a macadamia nut farmer on Hawaiʻi Island, his "Pacific News Minute" can be heard on HPR Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
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