Honouring a pledge for Tahitian independence

Radio Australia video.

The United Nations General Assembly has restored French Polynesia to the UN list of territories to be decolonised at a meeting boycotted by France. The resolution, passed by consensus, was sponsored by Solomon Islands, Nauru and Tuvalu last February but not tabled until Friday. It calls on France to intensify its dialogue with French Polynesia to include a fair self-determination process. France withdrew its Pacific territories from the UN list in 1947 and earlier resisted the re-inscription bid by the French Polynesian government. France has immediately condemned the UN move, describing it as a glaring interference in its affairs and a total lack of respect for the choice made by Polynesian voters.

Backgrounder by Caroline Lafargue

IN 1977, when he founded the Tavini Huiraatira party, Oscar Temaru swore to win independence for French Polynesia.

Until the latest territorial elections earlier this month, he was French Polynesia's President. The territory also has its own ministers, its own territorial assembly and its local laws. This was made possible by a new status granted by Paris in February 2004.

Flosse to sue France 3 TV over JPK 'defamation'

Controversial Senator Gaston Flosse, the conservative Tahitian politician who has dominated political life in French Polynesia for more than two decades, plans to sue France 3 television over a documentary broadcast last week. The programme, Death in the Tropics, implicated Flosse in claims about the 1997 disappearance of a Tahiti journalist, Jean-Pascal Couraud (pictured), widely believed to have been murdered. The programme, which was broadcast in Tahiti and in France, explored the mystery surrounding the affair which has been at the heart of a stalled judicial investigation.
Flosse, president of French Polynesia’s local government when Couraud - known as "JPK" - disappeared, was quoted in Tahitipresse as saying he had been accused of "the most abominable deeds".
He plans to file a defamation writ because the TV programme - in the Tempo investigative series - didn't give him any right of reply in the face of the allegations. Flosse claims the programme violated the basic principles of democracy.

• Flosse threatens to sue over 'JPK' doco
• JPK Updates website, edited by Jason Brown
• France 3 documentary - Mort sous les tropiques
• Daily Motion videos on Flosse and JPK