Military burial plots under the Tahitian sky

In French Polynesia, there is a unique military burial place: Uranie cemetery, in Papeete, consists of four plots dedicated to:

Veterans of the 1st and 2nd Pacific Battalions (55 graves)

It is not known when the cemetery was established, but the oldest catalogued grave here dates back to 17 April 1844.

One hundred and eleven of the bodies buried in the cemetery are those of Legionnaires, colonial troops, gendarmes and marines who died while garrisoned here, but two other graves are of French servicemen who died overseas.

• One is Jean-Baptiste Ceran, who died on 4 January 1917 at Fremantle Hospital, Australia, where his ship put into port on its way back to France. Ceran was buried in a town in southwestern Australia, but when the concession for his grave came to an end, the Directorate for Heritage, Remembrance and Archives (DPMA) and the French Embassy in Australia took the necessary steps to have his body repatriated to Tahiti, his island of origin, where he was reburied in 2012.
• The other is Corporal Tanerii Mauri, who died on 28 December 2020, in Mali. Born on 26 May 1992, in Papeete, Tahiti, Corporal Mauri joined the 1st Chasseurs Regiment at Thierville-sur-Meuse on 4 June 2013. Deployed to Mali on 15 November 2020 on Operation Barkhane, he died while on duty as Deputy Patrol Leader of the Lamy Desert Tactical Group.

Since 2003, the Directorate for Heritage, Remembrance and Archives (DPMA) has been responsible for the upkeep of the graves in Uranie cemetery, and every year provides the Armed Forces High Command in French Polynesia with the necessary funding for that purpose.

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A few considerations on the upkeep of French overseas military graves under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Armed Forces:

Over 230 000 French soldiers are buried at approximately 1 000 burial sites across nearly 80 countries.

Through the French diplomatic posts or armed forces high commands, the Ministry of the Armed Forces ensures the upkeep, in perpetuity, of the graves of French service personnel killed overseas, as well as memorial steles, in nearly 50 countries.

The graves are linked mainly to contemporary conflicts: the Franco-Prussian War, the First and Second World Wars, the First Indochina War, the wars in North Africa and, more recently, servicemen and women killed in overseas operations. But they also include 19th-century conflicts like the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimean War, in which France took part.

The Ministry of the Armed Forces also preserves the graves of service personnel killed other than in war service, known as tombes de garnison, or “garrison graves”. These graves are located, for the most part, in overseas departments and collectivities, as well as former French colonies.

In other countries, these French military remembrance sites are maintained by governments, local authorities or local organisations. In these cases, the Ministry of the Armed Forces monitors the process through the French diplomatic posts.