Separatists Who Seized 27 Fail to Halt New Caledonia Voting

Regional elections in this French-ruled South Pacific territory got under way today despite a demand by Melanesian separatists holding 27 French policemen hostage that the voting be canceled.

The kidnapers also demanded that the French government call off a search for the hostages, seized Friday after a bloody attack on a police post on the southern island of Ouvea about 190 miles from Noumea, the New Caledonian capital.

Three paramilitary gendarmes were hacked to death and about 20 people were wounded in the attack.

“The lives of the hostages are in the hands of the French government and the president of the republic,” separatist leader Leopold Jorodier quoted the kidnapers as saying.

Jorodier, No. 3 official in the separatist Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) party, said he received the kidnapers’ demands through intermediaries.

He quoted the kidnapers as saying they would only release the hostages if today’s elections were canceled, French security forces were withdrawn from Ouvea and France sent a mediator to New Caledonia.

Jorodier said the 20-person band, which had hidden its hostages in small groups scattered throughout the Ouvea atoll, wanted the mediator to prepare for a new referendum on independence for the territory.

In a referendum last September, 98% of voters wanted New Caledonia to stay French. The separatists boycotted that referendum, saying only Kanaks (indigenous Melanesians) and first-generation settlers should be allowed to vote. Kanaks make up 43% of the territory’s 145,000 population.

Balloting for local offices went ahead today. One policeman was wounded by gunfire in front of the town hall of Canala, 125 miles northeast of Noumea, after the polls opened at 8 a.m. local time.

In Paris, Premier Jacques Chirac announced that Overseas Territories Minister Bernard Pons had been sent to New Caledonia. A spokesman for Chirac said Pons would not negotiate with the kidnapers.