Page 16 - IB June 2020

French Polynesia French Polynesia

Oscar Manutahi Temaru Photo: Nic Maclellan

FRENCH PROSECUTOR PURSUES

INDEPENDENCE LEADER

By Nic Maclellan undue influence. The court found that financial support from
Faa’a town council to Radio Tefana benefitted the indepen-
In French Polynesia, long-time independence leader Oscar dence party Tavini Huiraatira no Te Ao Maohi, which Temaru
Manutahi Temaru is again locked in battle with the French le- has led since its founding.
gal system. Last month, Temaru launched a two-week hunger Across the francophone Pacific, it’s common for local and
strike, in protest over the seizure of his personal finances by territorial governments to fund independent community radio
French prosecutor Hervé Leroy. stations, to broaden public debate beyond the state-run
For French authorities, the latest actions are part of a French radio and TV stations. Both supporters and opponents
long-running case over the funding of the pro-independence of independence commonly provide grants to radio stations,
radio station Radio Tefana by the municipality of Faa’a, where such as Radio RRB and Radio Djiido in New Caledonia, or Radio
Temaru has been mayor for nearly 40 years. In contrast, Tefana and Radio Maohi in Tahiti. Temaru’s supporters note
Temaru sees the actions of French judicial authorities as po- that the regulation of such funding is unevenly enforced, with
litical rather than legal – payback for his protests on decolo- differing penalties for breaches (French Polynesia’s current
nisation and nuclear testing that have embarrassed successive president Edouard Fritch received a much lighter penalty in
French leaders. 2016, when the municipality of Pirae was criticised for fund-
In October 2018, Temaru lodged a complaint before the ing Radio Maohi).
International Criminal Court, accusing the French state Despite this, French prosecutor Herve Leroy re-opened
of committing a crime against humanity, through France’s Temaru’s case in September last year, asserting that he had
nuclear weapons testing program in the Pacific (between 1966 misspent taxpayer funds, because the Faa’a municipal council
and 1996, France conducted 193 atmospheric and under- had funded his defence during the 2019 court case over the
ground nuclear tests at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls). At community radio station.
the time, Temaru said: “This case aims to hold all the living Last month, Temaru was again called before the court,
French presidents accountable for the nuclear tests against and on 4 June, prosecutor Leroy ordered the seizure of 11.5
our country.” million French Pacific Francs (US$108,000) from Temaru’s
Since then, he has faced a series of legal battles and accu- personal bank account. Leroy stated: “This step, known as
sations of corruption, that have tied up the veteran politician ‘value confiscation’, has allowed us to seize the exact amount
in legal red-tape. of public funds improperly charged to the budget of the mu-
nicipality of Faa'a for legal fees and expenses in the case for
Legal battles continue which he was prosecuted and convicted at first instance.”
In 2019, Temaru was given a six-month suspended prison Launching a hunger strike on 8 June, Temaru argued that
sentence and was fined $US50,000 for exercising so-called because the 2019 case was still on appeal, the prosecutor

16 Islands Business, June 2020