Tomasi Kulimoetoke II

Who was Tomasi Kulimoetoke II?

Tomasi Kulimoetoke II was the 50th Lavelua of Wallis Island, which is known as Uvea in the Wallisian language, one of the three traditional kingdoms in the French overseas territory of Wallis and Futuna.

He was born in Ha'afuasia in the Hahake District on Wallis island. He was elected king on 12 March 1959, after a 6 month-rule by a Council of Ministers. In early years, he supported closer links with France, recognising that Wallis was economically dependent on subsidies. After a national referendum, he signed treaty to make Wallis a French overseas territory in 1961.

He had six children.

In 2002, the king riled many of his countrymen, as well as France, by shutting down the island's only newspaper because it had carried an editorial criticising him for giving refuge to a family friend, after she was sentenced to jail for embezzling public funds. Reformists also mocked the king's insistence that Wallisians dismount from their bicycles when passing his palace.

In 2005, the King nearly lost his throne after his grandson, Tomasi Tuugahala, was sentenced to serve 18 months in prison for the involuntary manslaughter of a pedestrian who was killed in a drunk-driving accident on New Year's Eve. The King invited his grandson to take refuge in the royal palace, where he hid for four months before surrendering to the French gendarmes. The King's Prime Mnister, holder of the title "Kalae Kivalu" urged the high administrator of the French government Xavier de Fürst to "quit the territory". The King also claimed that the incident was dealt with according to customary tribal law and that the French penal law should be abolished in Uvea.