Ouvéa cave hostage taking
1988 CE.
Shown on the map at -20.652°, 166.562°.
The Ouvéa cave hostage taking occurred from 22 April 1988 to 5 May 1988 on the island of Ouvéa, New Caledonia, a south Pacific archipelago under control of France. During the stand-off and seizure of a brigade of gendarmerie, members of an independence movement, the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, killed four gendarmes (including two unarmed) and took 27 unarmed gendarmes hostages (weapons were in the armory during the night), later also taking hostage a public prosecutor who had been sent to negotiate, seven members of the French GIGN military unit and a regular army lieutenant. They demanded talks with the French government about independence for New Caledonia from France. In previous years, about ten gendarmes had been killed in New Caledonia in connection with the independence movement, also some Kanaks had been killed by policiers and gendarmes as well like Richard Kamuda in 1975, Théodore Daye in 1980, Eloi Machoro and Marcel Nonaro in 1985 and a young Kanak of the Saint-Louis tribe in 1987. The French government said it refused to negotiate with terrorists or agree to the group's demands.
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