French Polynesia's GIP force has threatened to impose a new blockade of the port of Papeete as early as next week if President Oscar Temaru fails to renew all expiring GIP work contracts.
The warning has come from Rere Puputauki who is the GIP's former boss and a union member claiming to speak on behalf of the 13-hundred strong disaster assistance force.
Walter Zweifel reports.
"Mr Puputauki says this warning to Mr Temaru is his last one, and if ignored will see the blockade of Tahiti's port area as well as the international airport. He says an official strike warning will be issued within 48 hours unless Mr Temaru renews all contracts of the GIP whose ranks were increased by about 300 members during the last term of Gaston Flosse's presidency. In March, the GIP twice blocked the port and forced Mr Temaru to drop Robert Maker as GIP boss only days after his appointment. To end the blockades, a temporary settlement was mediated and guaranteed by the French state but that expired a month ago without the review of the GIP being completed nor a new GIP boss being named. The fresh stand-off comes amid police investigations of GIP-related activities including alleged fraud by the heads of Mr Flosse's intelligence branch linked to the GIP."
