Delivering the following speech on May 4, 1989, Jean-Marie Tjibaou presented on behalf of the political bureau of the flnks a customary gift to the people of Ouvéa, one year after the massacre of nineteen of theirs. These will be his last words. A few minutes later, Yeiwéné Yeiwéné and Jean-Marie Tjibaou were assassinated by a former Kanak pastor, Djubelly Wéa, hostile to the Matignon Accords.
In the papers of Jean-Marie Tjibaou were found the preparatory notes to the remarks he was to make the next day, for the end of mourning.
You, the chiefs, the notables, the leaders of the clans, of the struggle committee, of the different groups concerned by the blood that has been shed, who are present today and those who will come tomorrow, allow us to stand before you, to say a few words because the blood that has been shed belongs to you.
We do not have the right to trample this ground without talking about this blood that has been shed. Thank you for allowing us to be here today as a political bureau. Many will not be able to come, because there are other deadlines ahead and there are other meetings to prepare. We are a delegation, as Paul said earlier, which comes from the other islands, which comes from the south of Grande Terre, the Center and the North, to recall that indeed the blood that has been shed belongs to you. . He belongs to the clan of mothers who gave birth to these sons.
But today we come because that blood was shed for us too …
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