Mutant/GSA trainee
Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 81
Location: Romania
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[From The Guardian Unlimited Online Edition]
Kim Willsher in Paris
Monday September 26, 2005
The Guardian
As attempted coups d'etat go, it was a peculiar affair that started with a drink-driving conviction and culminated with a mobilisation of coconut trees in defence of an octogenarian king.
At stake is the throne of Wallis island, a tiny South Pacific outcrop with a population of 10,000 and a stone house for a royal palace. But the modest nature of 87-year-old King Tomasi Kulimoetoke's seat of power has not prevented a struggle for ascendancy in the tiny kingdom.
Trouble in the French territory, north of Fiji, started in January when the king's grandson was sentenced to 18 months in jail for killing a pedestrian in a drink-driving incident. He fled to the palace, from where the king threatened to expel French officials who tried to make an arrest, insisting tribal justice should take precedence over French law. The grandson surrendered after four months but the incident outraged a rival clan who want the French to stay. They set up their own "government" and said they would crown a new king yesterday.
As tensions rose last week France, which dispatched 18 officers to bolster the local force, prepared to send in riot squad reinforcements from New Caledonia.
In response, the king's supporters stormed the airport and prevented their arrival by blocking the runway with concrete blocks and coconut tree trunks. Yesterday the situation was said to have calmed. A French police spokesman said talks between the factions were under way and the planned coronation ceremony was unlikely to proceed. |
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