A New Zealand solidarity group for Palestine with a focus on settler colonialism has condemned the latest atrocities by the Israeli military in its attack on Rafah — in defiance of the International Court of Justice order last Friday to halt the assault — and also French brutality in Kanaky New Caledonia.
In its statement, Justice for Palestine (J4Pal) said that Monday had been “a day of unconscionable and unforgivable violence” against the people of Rafah.
As global condemnation over the attack on displaced Palestinians in a tent camp and the UN Security Council convened an emergency meeting on the ground invasion, a new atrocity was reported yesterday.
Israeli forces shelled a tent camp in a designated “safe zone” west of Rafah and killed at least 21 people, including 13 women and girls, in the latest mass killing of Palestinian civilians.
“Gaza deserves better. Kanaky deserves better. Aotearoa deserves better. All our babies deserve better,” said the group.
“It is not our role to articulate what indigenous Kanak people are fighting for. Kanak people are the experts in their own lives and struggle, and they must be listened to on their own terms at this critical moment,” the statement said.
“Our work for Palestinian rights is, however, part of a larger struggle against settler-colonialism. It is our duty, honour and joy to make connections in this common struggle.
‘Dangerous ideologies’
“These connections begin right here in Aotearoa, where Māori never ceded sovereignty. As New Zealand’s current government, France and Israel all demonstrate, the dangerous ideologies of colonialism are not yet the footnotes in history we strive to make them.
“We recognise common injustices:
• The failure of media to place the current uprising in the context of 150 years of history of French violence in Kanak,
• The characterisation of Kanak activists as ‘terrorists’ all while a militarised foreign force represses them on their own land,
• The deliberate transfer of a settler population to disenfranchise indigenous people and their control over their own territory,
• A refusal to engage with the righteous aspirations of the Kanak people, and
•The lack of support from Western governments around these aspirations.”
Justice for Palestine said in its statement that it was its sincere belief that a world without colonialism was not only necessary, it was near.
“With thanks to the steadfastness of not only Kanak, Māori and Palestinian people, and indigenous people everywhere.
“The struggle of the Kanak people is an inspiration and reminder that while we may face the brute power of empire, we are many, and we are not going anywhere.”
Justice for Palestine is a human rights organisation working in Aotearoa to promote justice, peace and freedom for the Palestinian people.
It added: “Now is the hour for Te Tiriti justice, and liberation for both the Kanak and Palestinian people.”
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Complaints abound of a toxic culture rife with sexual harassment and unlawful discrimination. Women shouldn’t have to fight this battle on their own
It’s now almost seven years since the US actor Alyssa Milano tweeted: “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” The New York activist Tarana Burke had coined the “me too” phrase in 2006 but Milano’s tweet popularised the movement and triggered a volcanic reaction, as women across the world shared their experiences of sexual harassment and assault.
#Metoo had a profound impact. Businesses made worthy announcements of new policies and initiatives. Politicians clamoured to establish inquiries then introduce policies and laws that would render women safer at work. Major changes were made to workplace laws in response to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Respect at Work report. A movement to ban non disclosure agreements emerged.
“It is depicting us as savages, as violent, and not giving proper context to what has actually happened, and what is happening in New Caledonia,” Ounei said.
Her mum, Susanna Ounei, was born in Ouvéa in New Caledonia, and was a founding member of the Kanak independence movement, now the umbrella group FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front).
More power to Kanaks In 1988, an agreement, the Matignon Accord, between the French and the Kanaks was signed, which proposed a referendum on independence to be held by 1998. Instead, a subsequent agreement, the Nouméa Accord, was signed in 1998, which would give more power to Kanaks over a 20-year transition period, with three independence referenda to be held from 2018.
Jessie Ounei (left), her mum Susanna Ounei, and her brother Toui Jymmy Jinsokuna Burēdo Ounei in Ouvéa, New Caledonia. Image: Jessie Ounei/RNZ
In 2018, the first of the three referenda were held with 57 percent voting against, and 43 voting for independence from France.
In 2020, there was a slight increase in the “yes” votes with 47 percent voting for, and 53 percent voting against independence.
The third referendum however was mired in controversy and is at the centre of the current political unrest in New Caledonia.
The date for the vote, 12 December 2021, was announced by France without consensus and departed from the two-year gap between the referenda that had been held previously This drew the ire of pro-independence parties.
The parties called for the vote to be delayed by six months saying they were not able to campaign and mobilise voters during the pandemic and appealed for time to observe traditional mourning rites for the 280 Kanak people who died during a covid-19 outbreak.
France refused new referendum
France refused and Kanak leaders called for a boycott of the vote in December which resulted in a record low voter turnout of 44 percent, compared to 86 percent in the previous referendum, and the mostly pro-French voters registering an overwhelming 96 percent vote against New Caledonia becoming an independent country.
But France and pro-independent French loyalists in New Caledonia insist the vote was held legally and the decision of Kanak people not to participate was their own and therefore the result was legitimate.
Because of this, for the past several years New Caledonia has been stuck in a kind of political limbo with France and the pro-French loyalists in New Caledonia pushing the narrative that the territory has voted “no” to independence three times and therefore must now negotiate a new permanent political status under France.
While on the other hand, pro-independence Kanaks insisting that the Nouméa accord which they interpreted as a pathway to decolonisation had failed and therefore a new pathway to self-determination needs to be negotiated.
Paris has made numerous attempts since 2021 to bring the two diametrically opposed sides in the territory together to decide on a common future but it has all so far been in vain.
“Free Kanaky” . . . pro-Kanak independence protesters outside the French Embassy in Wellington last week. Image: RNZ/Angus Dreaver
New Caledonia’s ‘frozen’ electoral rolls Despite the political impasse in the territory, France earlier this year proposed a constitutional amendment that would change the electoral roll in the territory sparking large scale protests on the Kanak side which were mirrored by support rallies organised by pro-French settlers.
But what is so controversial about a constitutional amendment?
Under the terms of the Nouméa Accord, voting in provincial elections was restricted to people who had resided in New Caledonia prior to 1998, and their children. The measure was aimed at giving greater representation to the Kanaks who had become a minority population in their own land and to prevent them becoming even more of a minority.
The French government’s proposed constitutional amendment would allow French residents who have lived in New Caledonia continuously for more than 10 years to vote. It is estimated this would enable a further 25,000 non-indigenous people, most of them pro-French settlers, to vote in local elections which would weaken the indigenous Kanak vote.
Despite multiple protests from indigenous Kanaks, who called on the French government to resolve the political impasse before making any electoral changes, Paris pressed ahead with the proposed legislation passing in both the Senate and the National Assembly.
On Monday 13 May, civil unrest erupted in the capital of Nouméa, with armed clashes between Kanak pro-independence protesters and security forces. Seven people have been killed, including two gendarmes, and hundreds of others have been injured.
Last Wednesday, Jessie Ounei organised a rally outside the French Embassy in Wellington to raise awareness of the violence against Kanak in New Caledonia.
“For decades, the Kanak independence movement has persevered in their pursuit of autonomy and self-determination, only to be met with broken promises and escalating violence orchestrated by the French government,” she said.
A Kanak flag raised high at the New Caledonia protest outside the French Embassy in Wellington last week. Image: RNZ/Angus Dreaver
‘Time to stand in solidarity’
“It is time to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people and demand an end to this cycle of oppression and injustice.”
Ounei said she was very sad, and very angry, because it could have been prevented.
“This was not something that was a surprise, it was something that was foreseen, and it was warned about,” she said.
Ounei was also born in Ouvéa, and moved to Wellington in 2000 with her mum and her brother, Toui Jymmy Jinsokuna Burēdo Ounei. Susanna Ounei died in 2016, but had never gone back to New Caledonia, because she was disappointed in the direction of the independence movement.
“Ouvéa has a staunch history of taking a stand against French imperialism, colonialism,” Jessie Ounei said.
“I have grown up hearing, seeing and feeling the struggle of our people.”
She said her mum, and a group of activists, were the original people who had reclaimed Kanak identity.
“If I can stand here and say that I’m Kanak, it is because of those people,” she said.
Now Ounei has picked up the baton, and is following in her mum’s footsteps.
She said after spending her entire life watching her mum give herself to the cause, it was important for her to do the same.
“I have two daughters, I have family, if I don’t do this, I don’t know who else will,” she said.
“And I can’t just stand back. It’s not the way that I grew up. My mum wouldn’t have stood back. She never stood back.
“And even though I feel quite under-qualified to be here, I want to honour all the sacrifices that the activists, including my mum, made.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Saudi Arabia is set to host the United Nations’ Internet Governance Forum in Riyadh at the end of this year, from the 15th to the 19th of December. The United Nations’ division was created as a multistakeholder platform facilitating the discussion of public policy issues pertaining to the internet, in December, the program will be shaped along four main themes:
Harnessing innovation and balancing risks in the digital space
Enhancing the digital contribution to peace, development, and sustainability
Advancing human rights and inclusion in the digital age
Improving digital governance for the Internet We Want
However, there is an underlying hypocrisy in the hosting of this event by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as the country is notorious for its lack of respect for basic international human rights, scoring 8 out of 100 in the 2023 Freedom House report – classified as “not free”. Indeed, its absolute monarchy restricts almost all political rights and civil liberties. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Vision aims to increase the country’s sustainability and green initiatives, along with increasing the government’s non-oil revenue, amongst many other goals. These initiatives have been heavily criticized, projects such as NEOM have been under scrutiny for greenwashing, but also as seen as “delusional”. Therefore, at least two out of four of the main themes of the Internet Governance Forum go against Saudi Arabia’s reality, being a country that is not advancing human rights and inclusion, neither contributing to peace and sustainability; presenting a true example of whitewashing by hosting the Forum.
Focusing more on digital rights, there is concrete evidence that the country uses social media platforms to police political discourse, attack dissidents, and suppress influential voices. Authorities maintain extensive censorship and surveillance systems, supporting online networks of bots and accounts that spread pro-government messages and target perceived dissenters, particularly the infiltration of X, formerly known as Twitter, spreading propaganda in support of Saudi Arabia. The goal of these domestic manipulation operations is to fabricate an appearance of widespread support for the state and its leaders while silencing dissenting voices, thereby eroding the right to information and democratic principles. In fact, Saudi Arabia is the second country after China with the highest number of removed accounts by Twitter. Activists, journalists, government employees, and other professionals report a climate of fear, compelling many to self-censor or participate in pro-government discourse online. Those perceived to voice dissent online, including critics and activists, face severe repercussions such as harassment and arrest.
The overall lack of digital rights makes the kingdom an unsuitable host for the Internet Governance Forum, which relies on open dialogue and freedom of expression to address global internet governance issues effectively.
To add fuel to the fire, Saudi Arabia’s investments in technological projects only increase its opportunity to abuse even more of censorship and data surveillance. Indeed, the NEOM project in Saudi Arabia raises significant concerns about digital rights and privacy abuse due to its extensive surveillance infrastructure, which involves ubiquitous monitoring through cameras, sensors, and biometric data collection, leading to constant tracking of residents and visitors without their consent. The project aims to collect vast amounts of personal, financial, and health data, yet lacks robust data protection laws and clear regulations on data management, posing risks of misuse and unauthorized access.
Adding on to this, Tech Giant Google has installed a new Cloud Region in the Kingdom, Google Cloud services facilitate small to medium-sized businesses’ operations, so they don’t have to own their own data centers and servers. This project is a joint venture with Aramco, a Saudi state-owned oil company, which causes concern as it allows the state to access even more mass quantities of personal data: the collaboration between powerful tech companies and autocratic regimes such as Saudi Arabia facilitates the opportunity for further national digital repression.
The hosting of the Internet Governance Forum is a true example of whitewashing, illustrating the pure hypocrisy of the country’s blatant disregard for digital rights, let alone basic human rights, along with its deluded façade of protection of human and digital rights and peace promotion.
Six people including barrister held for social media posts before Tiananmen Square anniversary
Hong Kong police have arrested six people, marking the first time that the city’s new national security law, known as Article 23, has been used against suspects since it was implemented in March.
The six people, aged between 37 and 65, are accused of publishing messages with seditious intent ahead of an “upcoming sensitive date”, according to a police statement.
There is an important story to be told behind the story Aotearoa New Zealand’s mainstream media has been reporting on in Kanaky New Caledonia. Beyond the efforts to evacuate New Zealanders lies a struggle for indigenous sovereignty and self-determination we here in Aotearoa can relate to.
Aotearoa is part of a whānau of Pacific nations, interconnected by Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. The history of Aotearoa is intricately woven into the broader history of the Pacific, where cultural interactions have shaped a rich tapestry over centuries.
The whakapapa connections between tangata whenua and tagata moana inform my political stance and commitment to indigenous rights throughout the Pacific. What happens in one part of the South Pacific ripples across to all of us that call the Pacific Ocean home.
Since the late 1980s the Kanak independence movement showed itself to be consistently engaging with the Accords with Paris process in their struggle for self-determination.
The Nouméa Accord set out a framework for transferring power to the people of New Caledonia, through a series of referenda. It was only after France moved to unilaterally break with the accords and declare independence off the table that the country returned to a state of unrest.
Civil unrest in and around the capital Nouméa which has continued for two weeks, was prompted by Kanak anger over Paris changing the constitution to open up electoral rolls in its “overseas territory” in a way that effectively dilutes the voting power of the indigenous people.
Coming after the confused end of the Nouméa Accord in 2021, which left New Caledonia’s self-determination path clouded with uncertainty, it was inevitable that there would be trouble.
Flew halfway across world
That France’s President Emmanuel Macron flew across the world to Noumea last week for one day of talks in a bid to end the civil unrest underlines the seriousness of the crisis.
But while the deployment of more French security forces to the territory may have succeeded in quelling the worst of the unrest for now, Macron’s visit was unsuccessful because he failed to commit to pulling back on the electoral changes or to signal a meaningful way forward on independence for New Caledonia.
Green MP Teanau Tuiono (left) with organiser Ena Manuireva at the Mā’ohi Lives Matter solidarity rally at Auckland University of Technology in 2021. Image: David Robie/APR
Paris’ tone-deafness to the Kanaks’ concerns was evident in its refusal to postpone the last of the three referendums under the Nouméa Accord during the pandemic, when the indigenous Melanesians boycotted the poll because it was a time of mourning in their communities. Kanaks consider that last referendum to have no legitimacy.
But Macron’s government has simply cast aside the accord process to move ahead unilaterally with a new statute for New Caledonia.
As the Kanaky Aotearoa Solidarity group said in a letter to the French Ambassador in Wellington this week, “it is regrettable that France’s decision to obstruct the legitimate aspirations of the Kanak people to their right to self-determination has led to such destruction and loss of life”.
Why should New Zealand care about the crisis? New Caledonia is practically Aotearoa’s next door neighbour — a three-hour flight from Auckland. Natural disasters in the Pacific such as cyclones remind us fairly regularly how our country has a leading role to play in the region.
But we can’t take this role for granted, nor choose to look the other way because our “ally“ France has it under control. And we certainly shouldn’t ignore the roots of a crisis in a neighbouring territory where frustrations have boiled over in a pattern that’s not unusual in the Pacific Islands region, and especially Melanesia.
There is an urgent need for regional assistance to drive reconciliation. The Pacific Islands Forum, as the premier regional organisation, must move beyond words and take concrete actions to support the Kanak people.
Biketawa Declaration provides a mechanism
The forum’s Biketawa Declaration provides a mechanism for regional responses to crisis management and conflict resolution. The New Caledonian crisis surely qualifies, although France would be uncomfortable with any forum intervention.
But acting in good faith as a member of the regional family is what Paris signed up to when its territories in the Pacific were granted full forum membership.
Why is a European nation like France still holding on to its colonial possessions in the Pacific? Kanaky New Caledonia, Maohi Nui French Polynesia, and Wallis & Futuna are on the UN list of non-self-governing territories for whom decolonisation is incomplete.
However, in the case of Kanaky, Paris’ determination to hold on is partly due to a desire for global influence and is also, in no small way, linked to the fact that the territory has over 20 percent of the world’s known nickel reserves.
Failing to address the remnants of colonialism will continue to devastate lives and livelihoods across Oceania, as evidenced by the struggles in Bougainville, Māo’hi Nui, West Papua, and Guåhan.
New Zealand should be supportive of an efficient and orderly decolonisation process. We can’t rely on France alone to achieve this, especially as the unrest in New Caledonia is the inevitable result of years of political and social marginalisation of Kanak people.
The struggle of indigenous Kanaks in New Caledonia is part of a broader movement for self-determination and anti-colonialism across the Pacific. By supporting the Kanak people’s self-determination, we honour our shared history and whakapapa connections, advocating for a future where indigenous rights and aspirations are respected and upheld.
Kanaky Au Pouvoir.
Teanau Tuiono is a Green Party MP in Aotearoa New Zealand and its spokesperson for Pasifika peoples. This article was first published by The Press and is republished by Asia Pacific Report with the author’s permission.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Pro-Palestine protesters picketed the offices of Auckland-based electronics manufacturer Rakon today, accusing it of exporting military-capable products for Israel, which is under investigation by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for genocide against the 2 million people of Gaza.
The ICJ, the world’s highest lawcourt, last Friday ordered Israel to stop its military assault on Rafah in the southern half of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Legal commentators have argued that any country assisting Israel could potentially be prosecuted for complicity in Israel’s alleged war crimes.
Former Shortland Street actor Will Alexander — who is in his 10th day of a hunger strike in protest over Israel’s war on Gaza war — also spoke at the Rakon rally.
A statement by Rakon claimed it was “not aware” of any of its products being used in weapons that were supplied to Israel.
“Rakon does not design or manufacture weapons. We do not supply products to Israel for weapons, and we are not aware of our products being incorporated into weapons which are provided to Israel,” the statement said.
However, Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) has written to the government asking it to suspend military-capable exports from Rakon pending an independent investigation into their use in Israel’s “genocidal attacks on Gaza”.
Rakon makes crystal oscillators used in the guidance systems of smart bombs, PSNA national chair John Minto said in a statement published today by The Daily Blog.
Company’s ‘military objective’
“Their 2005 business plan says the company’s objective was to dominate ‘the lucrative and expanding guided munitions and military positioning market’ within five years,” he said.
“Rakon sends these ‘smart bomb’ parts to US arms manufacturers which build the bombs which inevitably end up in Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza.
“Already the United Nations Human Rights Council has passed a resolution calling for a halt to all arms sales to Israel and last Friday the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its attacks on Rafah because of Israel’s indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinians.”
Minto added that the New Zealand government had been “muddying the water” by saying New Zealand did not export arms to Israel.
“Exporting parts for guided munitions and JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munitions) bombs which end up in the killing fields of Gaza means we are actively supporting Israel’s genocide”, Minto said.
“It is highly likely the bombs used in these mass killing events (43 civilians killed — 19 children, 14 women and 10 men) have parts manufactured in Rakon’s Mt Wellington factory,” Minto said.
The UN Genocide Convention requires all 153 signatory countries, including New Zealand, to take action to prevent genocide.
French President Emmanuel Macron has announced the 12-day state of emergency imposed in New Caledonia on May 15 would not be extended “for the time being”.
The decision not to renew the state of emergency was mainly designed to “allow the components of the pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) to hold meetings and to be able to go to the roadblocks and ask for them to be lifted”, Macron said in a media release late yesterday.
The state of emergency officially ended at 5am today (Nouméa time).
Pro-independence parties feared the opening of conditions of eligibility would significantly weaken the indigenous Kanak population’s political representation.
During a 17-hour visit to New Caledonia on Thursday last week, Macron set the lifting of blockades as the precondition to the resumption of “concrete and serious” political talks regarding New Caledonia’s long-term political future.
The talks were needed in order to find a successor agreement, including all parties (pro-independence and “loyalists” or pro-France), to the Nouméa Accord signed in 1998.
Attempts to hold these talks, over the past two-and-a-half years, have so far failed.
House arrests lifted
Not renewing the state of emergency would also put an end to restriction on movements and a number of house arrests placed on several pro-independence radical leaders — including Christian Téin, the leader of a so-called CCAT (Field Action Coordination Committee), close to the more radical fringe of FLNKS.
The CCAT is regarded as the main organiser of the protests which led to ongoing unrest.
In a speech published on social networks on Friday after Macron’s visit, Téin called for the easing of security measures to allow him to speak to militants, but in the same breath he assured supporters the intention was to “remain mobilised and maintain resistance”.
Since they broke out on May 13, the riots have caused seven deaths, hundreds of injuries and estimated damage of almost 1 billion euros (NZ$1.8 billion) to the local economy. Up to 500 companies, business and retail stores had also been looted or destroyed by arson.
Following Macron’s visit last week, a “mission” consisting of three high-level public servants has remained in New Caledonia to foster a resumption of political dialogue between leaders of all parties.
French President Emmanuel Macron . . . “this violence cannot pretend to represent a legitimate political action”. Image: Caledonia TV screenshot RNZ
More reinforcements In the same announcement, the French presidential office said a fresh contingent of “seven additional gendarme mobile forces units, for a total of 480” would be flown to New Caledonia “within the coming hours”.
Macron said this would bring the number of security forces in New Caledonia to 3500.
He once again condemned the blockades and looting, saying “this violence cannot pretend to represent a legitimate political action”.
In parallel to the lifting of the state of emergency, a dusk-to-dawn curfew remained in force.
On the ground, mainly in Nouméa and its outskirts, security operations were ongoing, with several neighbourhoods and main access roads still blocked and controlled by pockets of rioters.
At the weekend, intrusions from groups of rioters forced French forces to evacuate some 30 residents (mostly of European descent) some of whose houses had been set on fire.
La Tontouta airport still closed
Meanwhile, the international Nouméa-La Tontouta airport would remain closed to all commercial flights until June 2, it was announced on Monday. The airport, which remained cut off from the capital Nouméa due to pro-independence roadblocks, has been closed for the past three weeks.
French delegate minister for Overseas Marie Guévenoux, who arrived with Macron last week and has remained in New Caledonia since, assured on Sunday the situation in Nouméa and its outskirts was “improving”.
“Police and gendarmes are slowly regaining ground… The (French) state will regain all of these neighbourhoods,” she told France Television.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The coverage by the New Zealand media over the brutal crackdown in New Caledonia by the French on the indigenous Kanak people as they erupted in protest at France’s naked gerrymandering of electoral law has been depressingly shallow.
To date most mainstream NZ media (with the exception RNZ Pacific, Māori media and the excellent David Robie) have been focused on getting scared Kiwi tourists back home, very few have actually explained what the hell has been going on.
This sudden eruption of protest follows a corrupt new draft law French law allowing French people to vote after only 10 years living there.
A typical NZ media headline during the New Caledonia crisis . . . trapped Kiwis repirted, but not the cause of the independence upheaval. Image: NZ Herald screenshot APR
This law is a direct attack on Kanak sovereignty, it’s a purely gerrymandering response to ensure a democratic majority to prevent any independence referendum.
Pacific civil society and solidarity groups today stepped up their pressure on the French government, accusing it of a “heavy-handed” crackdown on indigenous Kanak protest in New Caledonia, comparing it to Indonesian security forces crushing West Papuan dissent.
A state of emergency was declared last week, at least [seven] people have been killed — [five] of them indigenous Kanaks — and more than 200 people have been arrested after rioting in the capital Nouméa followed independence protests over controversial electoral changes
In Sydney, the Australia West Papua Association declared it was standing in solidarity with the Kanak people in their self-determination struggle against colonialism.
Don’t stand idly by
We should not as a Pacific Island nation be standing idly by while the French are giving the indigenous people the bash.
We need to be asking what the hell has France’s elite troops being doing while no one is watching. The New Zealand government must ask the French Ambassador in and put our concerns to them directly.
Calm must come back but there has to be a commitment to the 1998 Noumea Accord which clearly stipulates that only the Kanak and long-term residents prior to 1998 would be eligible to vote in provincial ballots and local referendums.
To outright vote against this as the French National Assembly did last week is outrageous and will add an extra 25,000 voters into the election dramatically changing the electoral demographics in New Caledonia to the disadvantage of indigenous Kanaks who make up 42 percent of the 270,000 population.
This was avoidable, but the French are purposely trying to screw the scrum and rig the outcome.
We should be very clear that is unacceptable.
Our very narrow media focus on just getting Kiwis out of New Caledonia with no reflection whatsoever on what the French are doing is pathetic.
Indigenous Kanaks in Kanaky (New Caledonia) have sprung into revolt in the last two weeks in response to moves by the colonial power France to undermine moves towards independence in the Pacific territory.
Journalist David Robie from Aotearoa New Zealand spoke to the Green Left Show today about the issues involved.
We acknowledge that this video was produced on stolen Aboriginal land. We express solidarity with ongoing struggles for justice for First Nations people and pay our respects to Elders past and present.
“In the aftermath of the ‘No’ denying an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in Australia, I deeply sympathise with the Kanak people’s frustration, fear, and anger at being outvoted and dismissed,” writes Angelina Hurley.
COMMENTARY:By Angelina Hurley
After the trauma of completing a PhD on decolonising Australian humour, I needed a well-deserved break.
I always avoid places with throngs of patriotic Aussies, so I chose Nouméa, in New Caledonia, over Bali, settling on a small outer island.
One night, a smoke alarm jolted me awake. I went to the balcony and smelled smoke, seeing fires and smoke clouds from the mainland. The next morning, I learned from the only English-speaking news channel that riots had erupted there.
Protests against French control of New Caledonia have resulted in seven dead — five Kanaks, and two police officers (one by accodent) — and a state of emergency
I woke to a fleet of sailboats, houseboats, and catamarans anchoring near the island, ready to offer a quick escape for the rich (funny how the privileged are always the first to leave before things are handed back to them on return).
Travelling from hotel to hotel, I reached a quiet and desolate Nouméa in the late afternoon. Finding transport was difficult, but a kind French taxi driver picked me up, and we bypassed barricaded streets.
At the hotel, an atmosphere of anxiety and confusion lingered among tourists and staff, although I felt safe.
The staff worked tirelessly, maintaining normalcy while locals lined up for food outside supermarkets. With reports of deaths, I constantly scanned the internet for news from both French and Kanak perspectives. As days passed, the Aussie tourist twang grew louder and more restless.
Amusing, strange, disappointing: the reactions of the privileged The airport closed, and flights were cancelled indefinitely, fuelling frustration among Australians (and New Zealanders) who couldn’t access the consulate.
Australian government representatives eventually arrived to update us on the situation, leading to a surge of complaints.
Despite concerns about being stuck, I didn’t feel significantly inconvenienced beyond travel delays and added expenses. We were being well taken care of.
Not everyone agreed. Some found the answers insufficient.
The reactions of the privileged are amusing, strange, and disappointing: while anxiety about the unknown is understandable, some people need to get a grip.
Complaints poured in about the lack of access to information from Australia, despite the State of Emergency. There were debates and demands for updates via text (sorry, Gill Scott Heron, this revolution will be broadcast on WhatsApp).
It was amusing to hear people discussing social media information sharing while claiming lack of access, despite the readily available internet, English news on TV, and information from hotel staff.
As I listened, I humorously observed the gradual rise of White Aussie Privilege.
Their perception of disadvantage was very different to mine: an elderly migaloo woman requested daily personal phone updates to her room, while boomers threw tantrums over not being called on quickly enough.
There’s always the outspoken sheila, interrupting whenever she feels like it, and the experts proclaiming knowledge exceeding that of all the officials.
A rude collective sigh followed a man’s inquiry about the wellbeing of those handling the crisis outside, with someone retorting, ‘It’s their bloody job.’
The highlight was GI Joe informing the French, as if they didn’t know, of the presence of a helicopter pad attached to the hotel, angrily suggesting Chinook helicopters from Townsville should evacuate everyone.
What?! I burst out laughing, but no one seemed to find it as hilarious as I did.
The irony eluded him: the helicopters, named after the Chinook people, a Native American tribe Indigenous to the Pacific Northwest USA, would have First Nations saviours flying in to rescue the Straylians.
Despite the severity of the emergency situation, white travellers still found cause to complain about a lack of WhatsApp updates. Image: NITV
Despite the severity of the emergency situation, white travellers still found cause to complain about a lack of WhatsApp updates.
The Australian consulate rep patiently reminded everyone of the serious State of Emergency, with lives lost and the focus on safety and unblocking roads, making our evacuation less of a priority for the French at that time.
When crises hit, White people often react uncomfortably towards the only Black person in the room (which I was, besides an African couple).
They either look at you suspiciously, avoid eye contact, ignore you, or become overly ally-friendly.
The White Aussie Privilege resembled narcissistic behaviour — the selfishness, lack of empathy, and entitlement was gross.
The First Nations struggle around the world
Sitting safely in the hotel, the juxtaposition as an Indigenous person felt bizarre.
This isn’t my first such travel experience; I’ve been the bystander before in North America, Mexico, Belize, South America, South Africa, and India.
As a First Nations traveller, I’m always aware of the First Nations situation wherever I go.
Recently, the French National Assembly adopted a bill expanding voting rights for newer residents of Kanaky (New Caledonia), primarily French nationals.
It’s a move likely to further disenfranchise the Kanak people, impacting local political representation and future decolonisation discussions.
At least at home, we have representation in the government.
There are currently no representatives from Kanaky New Caledonia sitting in the French National Assembly.
No consultation with the First Nations people took place (sounds familiar).
In 1998, the Nouméa Accord was established between French authorities and the local government to transition towards greater independence and self-governance while respecting Kanak Indigenous rights.
Since 2018, three referendums on independence have been held, with the latest in 2021 boycotted by Indigenous voters due to the covid-19 pandemic’s impact on Kanaks.
With the Accord now lapsed, there is no clear process for continuing the decolonisation efforts.
As stated by Amnesty International (Schuetze, 2024), “The response must be understood through the lens of a stalled decolonisation process, racial inequality, and the longstanding, peacefully expressed demands of the Indigenous Kanak people for self-determination.”
An all-too familiar story
Relaying the story back to mob in Australia, conversations often turn to the behaviour of the colonisers.
We compare our predominantly passive and conciliatory approach as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, offering the hand of reconciliation only to be slapped away.
Despite not promoting violence, we note the irony of colonisers condoning violence as retaliation, considering it was their primary tactic during invasion.
As my cousin aptly put it, “French hypocrisy. So much for a nation that modelled itself on a revolution against an oppressive monarchy, now undermining local democracy and self-determination for First Nations people.”
After the overwhelming “No” vote denying an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in Australia, following decades of tireless campaigning by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, I deeply sympathise with the Kanak people’s frustration, fear, and anger at being outvoted and dismissed.
In French Polynesia, there are both movements for and against decolonisation.
As I sit amid this beautiful place, observing locals on the beaches and tourists enjoying their luxuries, I know things will return to the settler norm of control — and First Nations people are told they should be grateful.
Angelina Hurley is a Gooreng Gooreng, Mununjali, Birriah, and Gamilaraay writer from Meanjin Brisbane, a Fulbright Scholar and recent PhD graduate from Griffith University’s Film School. This article was first published by NITV (National Indigenous Television).
A Danish court has thrown out a case brought by a woman who claimed her rights were violated after a hospital did not offer adequate vegan options during her pregnancy.
Despite one district court recognising veganism as a protected belief earlier this year, another has gone the opposite way, ruling against a woman who claimed she was discriminated against by a hospital that failed to provide her with enough plant-based food options while she was pregnant.
Mette Rasmussen was twice hospitalised in Hvidovre (just north of Copenhagen) in 2020 – once for acute pain, and the second time in connection with her pregnancy – and was offered food categorised as “side dishes” on the hospital’s menu, since they were the only vegan options available. This meant she was given items like rice, root vegetables and apple juice as her meals, prompting concerns about her nutrition.
Worried that she may not be able to breastfeed properly, Rasmussen left the hospital early during the second hospitalisation. In fact, the hospital suggested she bring a packed lunch when she returned for childbirth.
The Danish Vegetarian Association (DVF) filed a suit against the administrative unit responsible for hospitals in Copenhagen and its surroundings on Rasmussen’s behalf, arguing that her dietary choice was protected by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (which contends with the right to freedom of thought, belief, and religion).
In February 2020, the Danish Ministry of Justice acknowledged in a reply to the parliament that vegetarians and vegans were protected by the convention, and in some situations, probably have the right to be served vegetarian and/or vegan meals in public institutions. But on Thursday, a court acquitted the Capital Region, ruling that the patient wasn’t prevented from being vegan as she could eat the side dishes, and “had the opportunity to bring food herself or to have it delivered via relatives or others” to the hospital, or even buy food at 7-Eleven.
“It is very surprising that the court believes that what I was offered is considered adequate as vegan food, both in terms of nutrition and taste. Dry white rice, baked carrots, celery and boiled potatoes,” said Rasmussen. “And then I’m just happy that I didn’t have to be hospitalised longer than I actually was, because then I would have become decidedly underweight from malnutrition and a lack of calories.”
The experience led her to choose a home birth for her second child.
Hospital admits vegan food it offered is not nutritious enough
Courtesy: Danish Vegetarian Association
In 2015, the Danish national dietary recommendations included concrete proposals to satisfy hot vegan dishes, in which pulses play a key role. Hvidovre Hospital says it has adopted these guidelines in its policy, but of the 20 lunch and dinner meals on its menu, none were vegan. And while several vegetarian dishes on the menu follow these recommendations, employees told the court in Hillerød last month that these could not be made vegan.
The lawyer representing the defendants argued that it was too much to ask the hospital to offer vegan food or adapt vegetarian meals to be made plant-based, suggesting that vegans don’t have the right to demand more than the items listed as side dishes. Two employees reiterated this, but when asked if they thought the vegan food on offer was sufficiently nutritious or met the dietary guidelines, they conceded it didn’t.
The court also heard that there was oatmeal and shortbread in the kitchenette for patients, but this would have required patients to be able to physically move. Meanwhile, soy milk and yoghurt were also present on the kitchenette’s range of available items, but hospital staff weren’t aware of this, and so never ordered them for the department.
“I honestly cannot understand that all hospital kitchens cannot prepare nutritious vegan dishes that can benefit all patients, now that they have an entire menu full of meat dishes. It goes against all recommendations to let sick people live on side dishes for all the others’ meals during their hospitalisations,” said Rasmussen.
“For me, it would be the obvious and easy choice to make a few delicious vegan dishes that everyone can eat. In this case, Hvidovre Hospital does not even follow its own meal policy or dietary guidelines set by the state. I think it’s crazy that they are allowed to do that.”
Hundreds of similar complaints against Danish hospitals
Courtesy: Danish Vegetarian Association
“The plaintiff has not been prevented from eating vegan food in accordance with her beliefs during her otherwise short-term admissions,” the court said after acquitting the Capital Region, basing the judgement on the fact that Rasmussen’s hospitalisations were only one and three days long. But would the outcome have been different if these were longer stays?
This is what the plaintiff is considering as the DVF and prosecutor assess whether the verdict should be appealed to the high court. “The court says that the hospital could offer Mette ‘vegan food’. But there were no full vegan meals to be had, only individual vegan food items. In addition, it states that hospitalised vegans have the option of paying themselves to have food delivered from outside or to buy in the hospital’s kiosk, but this is also clear discrimination, and moreover impossible for many if they do not have family nearby or are bedridden,” said DVF general secretary Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl.
“Having to buy food from outside every day can add up to a large amount. Thus, it becomes a user fee for hospitalised vegans, which is not fair,” he added.
The DVF has received 450 complaints from people who have had problems with accessing vegan food in hospitals, with many having to ask family or friends to bring in food, get ready meals from 7-Eleven, or live on supplements during their hospitalisation. While several hospitals in Denmark offer vegan food, many others don’t, the association said.
“We are surprised that the country’s hospitals do not follow the excellent official recommendations for what vegan hospital food should consist of – and that some of the suggested dishes are not on the menu at all,” Dragsdahl said last month.
“It is paradoxical that by having 20 different meals on the menu, the hospital takes into account many different personal preferences based on taste and pickiness. But when it comes to a conviction protected by the Human Rights Court, no consideration is given. It simply does not make sense, and we hope that the district court comes to the conclusion that it is illegal discrimination,” he added.
In February, a district court in the city of Hjorring protected veganism as a belief under the European Convention, after a school denied a kindergarten student the right to plant-based meals, and refused to allow her to bring a packed lunch as well. The Danish government, meanwhile, became the first to adopt a national action plan to transition towards plant-based food last year.
Pro-Palestinian protesters today condemned Google for sacking protesting staff and demanded that the New Zealand government immediately “cut ties with Israeli genocide”.
Wearing Google logo masks and holding placards saying “Google complicit in genocide” and “Google drop Project Nimbus”, the protesters were targeting the global tech company for sacking more than two dozen employees following protests against its US$1.2 billion cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government.
The workers were terminated earlier this month after a company investigation ruled they had been involved in protests inside the tech giant’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California.
Nine demonstrators were arrested, according to the protest organisers of No Tech for Apartheid.
In Auckland, speakers condemned Google’s crackdown on company dissent and demanded that the New Zealand government take action in the wake of both the UN’s International Court of Justice, or World Court, and separate International Criminal Court rulings last week.
“On Friday, the ICJ made another determination — stop the military assault on Rafah, something that Israel ignores,” Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) secretary Neil Scott said.
Earlier in the week, the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was also seeking arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders.
‘Obvious Israel is committing genocide’
“That brings us to our politicians,” said Scott.
“It is obvious that Israel is committing genocide. We all know that Israel is committing genocide.
“It is obvious that the Israeli leadership is committing crimes against humanity.”
Scott said the New Zealand government — specifically Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters — “must now be under the spotlight in the court of public opinion here in Aotearoa”.
“They have done nothing but mouth platitudes about Israeli behaviour. They have done nothing of substance.
“They could cut ties with genocide.”
Bosnian support for the Palestinian protest rally . . . two days ago the UN General Assembly approved a resolution establishing July 11 as an international day in remembrance for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide. Image: Del Abcede/APR
Two demands of government
Scott said the protests — happening every week in New Zealand now into eight months, but rarely reported on by media — had made a raft of calls, including the blocking of Rakon supplying parts for Israeli “bombs dropped on Gaza” and persuading the Superfund to divest from Israeli companies.
He said that today the protesters were calling for the government to do two things given the Israeli genocide:
End “working holiday” visas for young Israelis visiting Aotearoa, and
Expelling the Israeli ambassador and shut the embassy
A West Papuan independence group has condemned French “modern-day colonialism in action” in Kanaky New Caledonia and urged indigenous leaders to “fight on”.
In a statement to the Kanak pro-independence leadership, exiled United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) president Benny Wenda said the proposed electoral changes being debated in the French Parliament would “fatally damage Kanaky’s right to self-determination”.
He said the ULMWP was following events closely and sent its deepest sympathy and support to the Kanak struggle.
“Never give up. Never surrender. Fight until you are free,” he said.
“Though the journey is long, one day our flags will be raised alongside one another on liberated Melanesian soil, and the people of West Papua and Kanaky will celebrate their independence together.”
“This crisis is one chapter in a long occupation and self-determination struggle going back hundreds of years,” Wenda said in his statement.
‘We are standing with you’
“You are not alone — the people of West Papua, Melanesia and the wider Pacific are standing with you.”
“I have always maintained that the Kanak struggle is the West Papuan struggle, and the West Papuan struggle is the Kanak struggle.
“Our bond is special because we share an experience that most colonised nations have already overcome. Colonialism may have ended in Africa and the Caribbean, but in the Pacific it still exists.”
“We are one Melanesian family, and I hope all Melanesian leaders will make clear statements of support for the FLNKS’ current struggle against France.
“I also hope that our brothers and sisters across the Pacific — Micronesia and Polynesia included — stand up and show solidarity for Kanaky in their time of need.
“The world is watching. Will the Pacific speak out with one unified voice against modern-day colonialism being inflicted on their neighbours?”
Iranian hip-hop artist Toomaj Salehi, Uyghur poet and activist Tahir Hamut Izgil, and Venezuelan pianist and recording artist Gabriela Montero.
On 22 May 2024) The Human Rights Foundation announced the recipients of the 2024 Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent: Iranian hip-hop artist Toomaj Salehi, Uyghur poet and activist Tahir Hamut Izgil, and Venezuelan pianist and recording artist Gabriela Montero.
“Their work stands as a testament to extraordinary bravery and ingenuity,” HRF Founder Thor Halvorssen said. This year’s laureates will be recognized during a ceremony on Tuesday, June 4, at the 2024 Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) in Oslo, Norway. Montero will be performing the European and Scandinavian premiere of “Canaima: A Quintet for Piano and Strings” at the Oslo Konserthus. The Havel Prize ceremony will also be broadcast live at oslofreedomforum.com.
Toomaj Salehi is an Iranian hip-hop artist known for lyrics protesting the Iranian regime and calling for human rights. In September 2022, at the height of the nationwide “Women, Life, Freedom” protests, Salehi released several songs supporting women’s rights. One song, “Divination,” with the lyrics, “Someone’s crime was that her hair was flowing in the wind. Someone’s crime is that he or she was brave and…outspoken,” grew in popularity and was sung throughout the protests. Salehi was first arrested in October 2022 and was released on bail in November 2023 after the Iranian Supreme Court overturned his charges of “corruption on Earth,” “propaganda against the system,” “collaboration with a hostile government,” “inciting people to murder and riot,” and “insulting the leadership.” On November 27, 2023, he posted a YouTube video describing the torture and forced confession he experienced during his detention. Three days later, armed plain-clothes agents abducted Salehi. He was subsequently charged in two trials. On April 24, the Isfahan Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death.
Tahir Hamut Izgil is a prominent Uyghur poet, filmmaker, and activist. He is known for his avant-garde poetry, written in Uyghur and influenced by Uyghur life. Originally from Kashgar, Izgil led the 1989 student movement at the Central Nationalities Institute in Beijing. In the late 1990s, he was arrested on charges related to the possession of sensitive literature, leading to a three-year sentence in forced labor camps. He is among the few Uyghur intellectuals who successfully escaped the region in 2017.Izgil’s new memoir, “Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide,” documents his journey living in and escaping the Uyghur Region, sharing a rare testimony of the Uyghur genocide with the broader world. His book has been listed as one of the “50 notable works of nonfiction” by The Washington Post and as one of the “10 0 Must-Read Books of 2023” by Time Magazine
Gabriela Montero is a Grammy Award-winning Venezuelan pianist and recording artist. Celebrated for her exceptional musicality and ability to improvise, Montero has garnered critical acclaim and a devoted following on the world stage. Montero’s recent highlights include her first orchestral composition, “Ex Patria,” a tone poem that grew from the human rights struggle in Montero’s native Venezuela. The piece powerfully illustrates and protests Venezuela’s descent into lawlessness, corruption, and violence, winning her first Latin Grammy® for Best Classical Album.Montero is a committed human rights advocate, using her gifts of composition and improvisation as tools of creative dissent. In 2015, she was named an Honorary Consul by Amnesty International. Montero was awarded the 2012 Rockefeller Award for her contribution to the arts and was a featured performer at Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Inauguration. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2018/10/15/venezuelan-pianist-gabriela-montero-wins-the-2018-beethoven-prize/]
By a Kanak from Aotearoa New Zealand in Kanaky New Caledonia
I’ve been trying to feel cool and nice on this beautiful sunny day in Kanaky. But it has already been spoiled by President Emmanuel Macron’s flashy day-long visit on Thursday.
Currently special French military forces are trying to take full control of the territory. Very ambitously.
They’re clearing all the existing barricades around the capital Nouméa, both the northern and southern highways, and towards the northern province.
Today, May 25, after 171 years of French occupation, we are seeing the “Lebanonisation” of our country which, after only 10 days of revolt, saw many young Kanaks killed by bullets. Example: 15 bodies reportedly found in the sea, including four girls.
[Editor: There have been persistent unconfirmed rumours of a higher death rate than has been reported, but the official death toll is currently seven — four of them Kanak, including a 17-year-old girl, and two gendarmes, one by accident. Lebanonisation is a negative political term referring to how a prosperous, developed, and politically stable country descends into a civil war or becomes a failed state — as happened with Lebanon during the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War.]
One of the bodies was even dragged by a car. Several were caught, beaten, burned, and tortured by the police, the BAC and the militia, one of whose leaders was none other than a loyalist elected official.
With the destruction and looting of many businesses, supermarkets, ATMs, neighbourhood grocery stores, bakeries . . . we see that the CCAT has been infiltrated by a criminal organisation which chooses very specific economic targets to burn.
Leaders trying to discredit our youth
At the same time, the leaders organise the looting, supply alcohol and drugs (amphetamines) in order to “criminalise” and discredit our youth.
A dividing line has been created between the northern and southern districts of Greater Nouméa in order to starve our populations. As a result, we have a rise in prices by the colonial counters in these dormitory towns where an impoverished Kanak population lives.
President Macron came with a dialogue mission team made up of ministers from the “young leaders” group, whose representative in the management of high risks in the Pacific is none other than a former CIA officer.
The presence of DGSE agents [the secret service involved in the bombing of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in 1985] and their mercenaries also gives us an idea of what we are going to endure again and again for a month.
The state has already chosen its interlocutors who have been much the same for 40 years. The same ones that led us into the current situation.
Therefore, we firmly reaffirm our call for the intervention of the BRICS, the Pacific Islands Forum members, and the Melanesian Spearhead group (MSG) to put an end to the violence perpetrated against the children of the indigenous clans because the Kanak people are one of the oldest elder peoples that this land has had.
There are only 160,000 individuals left today in a country full of wealth.
New Caledonia police kill Kanak protester https://t.co/7fnNPlx5W8
A day after president Macron’s visit..
Food and medical aid needed
Each death represents a big loss and it means a lot to the person’s clan. More than ever, we need to initiate the decolonisation process and hold serious discussions so that we can achieve our sovereignty very quickly.
Today we are asking for the intervention of international aid for:
The protection of our population;
food aid; and
medical support, because we no longer trust the medical staff of Médipôle (Nouméa hospital) and the liberals who make sarcastic judgments towards our injured and our people.
This open letter was written by a long-standing Kanak resident of New Zealand who has been visiting New Caledonia and wanted to share his dismay at the current crisis with friends back here and with Asia Pacific Report. His name is being withheld for his security.
Israel’s seizure of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt has sparked anger from the Egyptian government, which has warned that Israel is endangering the landmark 1978 Camp David Accords that normalized relations between the two countries. Despite the increasingly critical tone about Israel’s war on Gaza, however, Egyptian authorities have closely coordinated with Israel in decisions around…
Pro-Palestinian protesters dressed in blue “press” vests tonight staged a vigil calling on New Zealand journalists to show solidarity with the media of Gaza who have suffered the highest death toll in any war.
They staged the vigil at the Viaduct venue of NZ’s annual Voyager Media Awards.
Organised by Palestinian Youth Aotearoa (PYA) and People for Palestine (P4P), supporters were making a stand for the journalists of Gaza, who were awarded the 2024 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize earlier this month.
Fathi Hassneiah of PYA condemned the systematic killing, targeting and silencing of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) throughout the war on Gaza that is now in its eighth month.
Often the families of journalists have been martyred alongside them, Hassneiah said.
A media spokesperson, Leondra Roberts, said PYA and P4P were calling on “all journalists in Aotearoa to stand in solidarity with the courageous journalists of the Gaza Strip who continue to report on what the International Court of Justice has called a plausible genocide”.
Maori journalists commended
She commended Kawea Te Rongo (Māori Journalists Association) for their support for their Palestinian colleagues in November 2023 with co-chair Mani Dunlop saying: “Journalists and the media are integral to ensuring the world and its leaders are accurately informed during this conflict …
“Daily we are seeing stories of journalists who face extreme brutality . . . including the unconscionable worry of their families’ safety while they themselves risk their lives.
“It is a deadly trade-off, every day they put on their press vest and helmet to do their job selflessly for their people and the rest of the world.”
PYA spokesperson and musician Rose Freeborn appealed to journalists reporting from Aotearoa to critically examine Israel’s treatment of their peers in Gaza and called on “storytellers of all mediums to engage with Palestinian voices”.
“We unequivocally condemn the mass murder of 105 journalists in Gaza by the IDF since October 7, as well as Israel’s longstanding history of targeting journalists across the region — from Shireen Abu Akleh to Issam Abdallah — in an attempt to smother the truth and dictate history,” she said.
She criticised the “substandard conduct” of some journalists in New Zealand.
Media industry ‘failed’
Broadcaster, singer and journalist Moana Maniapoto . . . speaking to the Palestinian protesters tonight. Image: PYA/P4P
“At times, the media industry in this country has failed not only the Palestinian community but New Zealand society at large by reporting factual inaccuracies and displaying a clear bias for the Israeli narrative.
“This has led to people no longer trusting mainstream media outlets to give them the full story, so they have turned to each other and the journalists on the ground in Gaza via social media.
“The storytellers of Gaza, with their resilience and extraordinary courage, have provided a blueprint for journalists across the globe to stand in defence of truth, accuracy and objectivity.”
A Palestinian New Zealander and P4P spokesperson, Yasmine Serhan, said: “While it is my people being subjected to mass murder and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, it is the peers of New Zealand journalists who are being systematically targeted and murdered by Israel in an attempt to stop the truth being reported.”
RNZ News reports that RNZ won two major honours tonight at the annual Voyager Media Awards, which recognise New Zealand’s best journalism, with categories for reporting, photography, digital and video.
RNZ was awarded the Best Innovation in Digital Storytelling for their series The Interview and longform journalist te ao Māori Ella Stewart took out the prize for Best Up and Coming Journalist.
Le Mana Pacific award went to Indira Stewart of 1News, and Mihingarangi Forbes (Aotearoa Media Collective) and Moana Maniapoto (Whakaata Māori) were joint winners of the Te Tohu Kairangi Award.
Some of the Palestine protesters taking part in the vigil in support of Gazan journalists at NZ’s Voyager Media Awards tonight. Image: ER
Ahmad Farhad was pushed into vehicle hours after posting about threats from country’s spy agency, says Syeda Urooj Zainab
The wife of a Pakistani poet and journalist who was abducted from outside his house last week has accused the country’s spy agency of responsibility, saying it acted because of his activism.
Ahmad Farhad was pushed into a vehicle after returning from a dinner in the early hours of Wednesday 15 May and driven away.
“Only the struggle counts . . . death is nothing.” Éloi Machoro — “the Che Guevara of the Pacific” — said this shortly before he was gunned down by a French sniper on 12 January 1985.
Machoro, one of the leaders of the newly-formed FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) — today the main umbrella movement for New Caledonia’s indigenous Kanak people — slowly bled to death as the gendarmes moved in.
The assassination is an apt metaphor for what France is doing to the Kanak people of New Caledonia and has been doing to them for 150 years.
As the New Zealand and Australian media fussed and bothered over tourists stranded in New Caledonia over the past week, the Kanaks have been gripped in an existential struggle with a heavyweight European power determined to keep the archipelago firmly under the control of Paris. We need better, deeper reporting from our media — one that provides history and context.
According to René Guiart, a pro-independence writer, moments before the sniper’s bullets struck, Machoro had emerged from the farmhouse where he and his comrades were surrounded. I translate:
“I want to speak to the Sous-Prefet! [French administrator],” Machoro shouted. “You don’t have the right to arrest us. Do you hear? Call the Sous-Prefet!”
The answer came in two bullets. Once dead, Machoro’s comrades inside the house emerged to receive a beating from the gendarmes. Standing over Machoro’s body, a member of the elite mobile tactical unit said: “He wanted war, he got it!”
Weeks earlier, New Zealand journalist David Robie had photographed Machoro shortly before he smashed open a ballot box with an axe and burned the ballots inside. “It was,” says Robie, “symbolic of the contempt Kanaks had for what they saw as the French’s manipulated voting system.”
Every year on January 12, the anniversary of Machoro’s killing, people gather at his grave. Engraved in stone are the words: “On tue le révolutionnaire mais on ne tue pas ses idées.”You can kill the revolutionary but you can’t kill his ideas. Why don’t most Australians and New Zealanders even know his name?
Decades after his death and 17,000 km away, the French are at it again. Their National Assembly has shattered the peace this month with a unilateral move to change voting rights to enfranchise tens of thousands of more recent French settlers and put an end to both consensus building and the indigenous Kanak people’s struggle for self-determination and independence.
Thanks to French immigration policies, Kanaks now number about 40 percent of the registered voters. New Zealand and Australia look the other way — New Caledonia is France’s “zone of interest”.
But what’s not to like about extending voting rights? Shouldn’t all people who live in the territory enjoy voting rights?
“They have voting rights,” says David Robie, now editor of Asia Pacific Report, “back in France.” And France, not the Kanaks, control who can enter and stay in the territory.
Back in 1972, French Prime Minister Pierre Messmer argued in a since-leaked memo that if France wanted to maintain control, flooding the territory with white settlers was the only long-term solution to the independence issue.
Robie says the French machinations in Paris — changing the boundaries of citizenship and voting rights – and the ensuing violent reaction, is effectively a return to the 1980s — or worse.
The violence of the 1980s, which included massacres, led to the Matignon Accords of 1988 and the Nouméa Accords of 1998 which restricted the voting to only those who had lived in Kanaky prior to 1998 and their descendents. Pro-independence supporters include many young whites who see their future in the Pacific, not as a white settler colonial outpost of France.
Most whites, however, fear and oppose independence and the loss of privileges it would bring.
After decades of calm and progress, albeit modest, things started to change from 2020 onwards. It was clear to Robie and others that French calculations now saw New Caledonia as too important to lose; it is a kind of giant aircraft carrier in the Pacific from which to project French power. It is also home to the world’s third-largest nickel reserves.
How have the Kanaks benefitted from being a French colony? Kanaks were given citizenship in their own country only after WWII, a century after Paris imposed French rule. According to historian David Chappell:
“In practice, French colonisation was one of the most extreme cases of native denigration, incarceration and dispossession in Oceania. A frontier of cattle ranches, convict camps, mines and coffee farms moved across the main island of Grande Terre, conquering indigenous resisters and confining them to reserves that amounted to less than 10 percent of the land.”
It was a pattern of behaviour similar to France’s colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Little wonder the people of Niger have recently become the latest to expel them.
Deprived of education — the first Kanak to qualify for university entrance was in the 1960s — socially and economically marginalised, subjected to what historians describe as among the most brutal colonial overlordships in the Pacific, the Kanaks have fought to maintain their languages, their cultures and their identities whilst the whites enjoy some of the highest standards of living in the world.
“There was no consultation — except with the anti-independence groups. Any new constitutional arrangement needs to be based around consensus. France has now polarised the situation so much that it will be virtually impossible to get consensus.”
Author Dr David Robie . . . warned for years that France is pushing New Caledonia down a slippery slope. Image: Alyson Young/PMC
Macron also pushed ahead with a 2021 referendum on independence versus remaining a French territory. This was in the face of pleas from the Kanak community to hold off until the covid pandemic that had killed thousands of Kanaks had passed and the traditional mourning period was over.
Having created the problem with actions like the disputed referendum and the current law changes, Macron now condemns today’s violence in New Caledonia. Éloi Machoro rebukes him from the grave: “Where is the violence, with us or with them?” he asked weeks before his killing. “The aim of the [law changes] is to destroy the Kanak people in their own country.” That was 1985; as the French say: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same thing.
Kanaky and Palestine . . . “the same struggle” against settler colonialism. Image: Solidarity/APR
Young people are at the forefront of opposing Paris’s latest machinations. Hundreds have been arrested. Several killed. The White City, as Nouméa is called by the marginalised Melanesians, is lit by arson fires each night. Thousands of French security forces have been rushed in.
Leaders who have had nothing to do with the violence have been arrested; an old colonial manoeuvre.
“What happened was clearly avoidable,” Robie says “ The thing that really stands out for me is: what happens now? It is going to be really extremely difficult to rebuild trust — and trust is needed to move forward. There has to be a consensus otherwise the only option is civil war.”
Nadia Abu-Shanab, an activist and member of the Wellington Palestinian community, sees familiar behaviour and extends her solidarity to the people of Kanaky.
“We Palestinians know what it is for people to choose to ignore the context that leads to our struggle. Indigenous and native people have always been right to challenge colonisation. We are fighting for a world free from the racism and the theft of resources and land that have hurt and harmed too many indigenous peoples and our planet.”
Eugene Doyle is a Wellington-based writer and community activist who publishes the Solidaritywebsite. His first demonstration was at the age of 12 against the Vietnam War. This article was first published at Solidarity under the title “The French are at it again: New Caledonia is kicking off”. For more about Éloi Machoro, read Dr David Robie’s 1985 piece “Éloi Machoro knew his days were numbered”.
French President Emmanuel Macron has ended a meeting-packed whirlwind day in New Caledonia with back-to-back sessions including opposing leaders in the French Pacific territory.
Macron left New Caledonia this morning, leaving some members of his entourage to deal with details in the still-inflamed situation.
Macron held meeting after meeting first with economic stakeholders, as New Caledonia’s economy faced the bleakest situation in its history, after 11 days of rioting, burning and looting.
He also held meetings with elected members of the local Congress, the territorial assembly, as well as the mayors.
Later in the day, Macron met police and gendarmes and expressed his gratitude and condolences for the loss of two gendarmes killed during the riots.
He confirmed that some 3000 security force officers were stationed in New Caledonia and would stay “as long as it takes” to fully restore law and order.
By the end of Thursday, Macron managed to listen to opposing views from the antagonistic camps, with sometimes divisions seen even within each of the blocks.
Urgent economic measures Paris will set up a special “solidarity fund” to assist economic recovery, in the face of “colossal” damage caused by more than a week of burning and looting of businesses — about 400 destroyed for an estimated cost bordering 1 billion euros (NZ$1.7 billion).
This would include measures such as emergency assistance to pay salaries, to delay payments and debts, to get insurers to move quickly and for banks to grant zero-interest loans for reconstruction.
Socio-economic roots to disorder Macron also met groups of young New Caledonians who expressed distress at the lack of perspective they faced regarding their future.
Recognising that the violent unrest and rioting were still ongoing in Nouméa, its outskirts and other parts of New Caledonia, Macron labelled them “multifactor” and “in part, political”.
“They rely on delinquents who have sometimes overwhelmed their order-givers. Then there is this opportunistic delinquency that has aggregated. This has crystallised a political disagreement — and, let’s face it, this question of the electoral roll that was taken separately from everything else.”
As one of the major causes of New Caledonia’s current situation, the French president singled out social inequalities that “have continued to increase . . . They are in part fuelling the uninhibited racism that has re-emerged over the past 11 days”.
Macron said those politicians, who had recently radicalised their talks and actions, bore an “immense” responsibility.
Distressed youth “The question now is to restore confidence between all stakeholders, political forces, economic forces … and regain confidence in the future,” he said.
“We are not starting from a blank page. Our foundations are those on which the Nouméa and Matignon Accords [1988 and 1998] have been built.
“But one has to admit that still, today, vision for a common destiny . . . and the re-balancing has not achieved its goal of reducing economic and social inequalities. On the contrary, they have increased,” Macron said.
“Today, I have met youths of all walks of life and what struck me was that they felt discouraged, afraid, sometimes angry and that they need a vision for the future,” Macron told media.
“Really, it’s now the responsibility of all those in charge to build this path.”
CCAT’s ‘public enemy number one’
On the sensitive political chapter, Macron spent a significant part of his visit to try and bring together political parties for talks.
He managed only in so far as he did meet with pro-independence leaders, even accepting that the controversial CCAT (“field action coordination committee” set up late in 2023 by the Union Calédonienne, one of the main components of the pro-independence FLNKS), be allowed to attend the meeting.
CCAT leader Christian Téin, despite being under house arrest, and regarded by critics as “public enemy number one”, was brought to the meeting — much to the surprise of observers.
Behind closed doors, at the French High Commission in downtown Nouméa, Macron also met pro-France (Loyalist) leaders, but because of their divisions, he had to arrange two separate meetings: one with Le Rassemblement and Les Loyalistes, and another one for Calédonie Ensemble.
New Caledonia’s President Louis Mapou (left) and Congress President Roch Wamytan (centre) with Emmanuel Macron. Image: RNZ/Pool
But a meeting of all parties together remained elusive and did not take place.
Well into the evening, Macron held a press conference to announce the contents of his exchanges with a wide range of political, but also economic and civil society stakeholders.
Controversial electoral amendment delayed, not withdrawn Elaborating on the outcomes of the talks he had with political leaders, Macron stressed that he had “made a very clear commitment to ensure that the controversial reform is not rushed by force and that in view of the current context, we give ourselves a few weeks so as to allow peace to return, dialogue to resume, in view of a comprehensive agreement”.
No going back on the third referendum “I told them the state will be in its role of impartiality,” Macron said, but added that on the third self-determination referendum (held in December 2021 and boycotted by the pro-independence camp): “I will not go back on this.”
On the basis of the third referendum which was part of three consultations — held in 1998, 2020 and 2021 and that all resulted in a majority rejecting independence for New Caledonia — Macron has consistently considered that New Caledonia has chosen to remain French.
But under the 1998 (now almost expired) Nouméa Accord, after those three referenda have been held local political actors have yet to meet to consider “the situation thus created”.
The Accord’s terms were encouraging talks that would produce the much-referred to “local agreement” which would be the basis of the successor pact to the 1998 Accord.
“The political dialogue must resume immediately. I have decided to install a mediating and working mission and in one month, an update will be made,” Macron said, referring to a “comprehensive agreement” from all local parties regarding the future of New Caledonia.
Macron reiterated that he wanted a deal to be reached, which would become part of the French Constitution and automatically replace the controversial constitutional amendment focusing on New Caledonia’s electoral roll changes.
For the local agreement to emerge, Macron also appointed a team of negotiators tasked to assist.
Renewed call for local, comprehensive agreement “The objective is to reach this comprehensive agreement and that it should cover at least the question of the electoral roll, but also the organisation of power . . . citizenship, the self-determination vote issue, a new social pact and the way of dealing with inequalities,” he told reporters.
Other short to long-term pressing economic issues such as diversification of the nickel industry, which is undergoing its worst crisis due to the collapse of world nickel prices (-45 percent over the past 12 months), should also be the subject of political talks and be included in the new deal.
“My wish is also that this [local] agreement should be endorsed by the vote of New Caledonians.”
The controversial text still needs to be ratified by the French Parliament’s Congress (the National Assembly and the Senate, in a joint sitting with a required majority of two-thirds). This electoral change is perceived to be one of the main causes of the riots hitting New Caledonia.
Under the amendment there are two sections:
“Unfreezing” New Caledonia’s eligibility conditions for provincial local elections, to allow everyone residing there for an uninterrupted 10 years to cast their vote, and
However, it stipulates that if a comprehensive and wider agreement is produced by all politicians, then the whole amendment is deemed null and void, and that the new locally-produced text becomes law and will replace it.
The inclusive agreement has been sought by the French government for the past three years but to date, local parties have not been able to reach such a consensus.
Talks have been held, sometimes between pro-independent and Loyalist (pro-France) parties, but never has it been possible to bring everyone to the same table at the same time, mainly because of internal divisions within each camp.
But while evoking New Caledonia’s future political prospects, Macron stressed the immediate need was for all political stakeholders to “explicitly call for all roadblocks to be lifted in the coming hours”.
“As soon as those withdrawals are effective and observed, then the state of emergency will be lifted too,” he said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Three top officers close to Bashar al-Assad are on trial in absentia over the deaths of a student and his father
Witnesses have told a Paris court how children and elderly people considered enemies of the ruling Syrian regime were tortured in a notorious military prison, at the trial of three high-ranking officers close to the country’s leader, Bashar al-Assad.
The three are being tried in absentia for crimes against humanity and war crimes in connection with the deaths of two French-Syrian dual nationals, Patrick Dabbagh, a 20-year-old student, and his father, 48.
Prisoners held at an Israeli detention camp in the Negev desert are being subjected to widespread physical and mental abuses, with at least one reported case of a man having his limb amputated as a result of injuries sustained from constant handcuffing, according to two whistleblowers who worked at the site.
The sources described harrowing treatment of detainees at the Israeli Sde Teiman camp, which holds Palestinians from Gaza and suspected Hamas militants, including inmates regularly being kept shackled to hospital beds, blindfolded and forced to wear nappies.
Prisoners held at an Israeli detention camp in the Negev desert are being subjected to widespread physical and mental abuses, with at least one reported case of a man having his limb amputated as a result of injuries sustained from constant handcuffing, according to two whistleblowers who worked at the site.
The sources described harrowing treatment of detainees at the Israeli Sde Teiman camp, which holds Palestinians from Gaza and suspected Hamas militants, including inmates regularly being kept shackled to hospital beds, blindfolded and forced to wear nappies.
Is it just me or is it not more than a little odd that coverage of current events in New Caledonia/Kanaky is dominated by the inconvenience of tourists and rescue flights out of the Pacific paradise.
That the events are described as “disruption” or “riots” without any real reference to the cause of the actions causing inconvenience. The reason is the armed enforcement of “order” is flown into this Oceanic place from Europe.
I guess when you live in a place called “New Zealand” in preference to “Aotearoa” you see these things through fellow colonialist eyes. Especially if you are part of the dominant colonial class.
How different it looks if you are part of an indigenous people in Oceania — part of that “Indigenous Ocean” as Damon Salesa’s recent award-winning book describes it. The Kanaks are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia.
The indigenous movement in Kanaky is engaged in a fight against the political structures imposed on them by France.
Obviously there are those indigenous people who benefit from colonial rule, and those who feel powerless to change it. But increasingly there are those who choose to resist.
Are they disrupters or are they resisting the massive disruption which France has imposed on them?
People who have a lot of resources or power or freedom to express their culture and belonging tend not to “riot”. They don’t need to.
Not simply holiday destinations
The countries of Oceania are not simply holiday destinations, they are not just sources of people or resource exploitation until the natural resources or labour they have are exhausted or no longer needed.
They are not “empty” places to trial bombs. They are not “strategic” assets in a global military chess game.
Each place, and the ocean of which they are part have their own integrity, authenticity, and rights, tangata, whenua and moana. That is only hard to understand if you insist on retaining as your only lens that of the telescope of a 17th or 18th century European sea captain.
The natural alliance and concern we have from these islands, is hardly with the colonial power of France, notwithstanding the apparent keenness of successive recent governments to cuddle up to Nato.
A clue — we are not part of the “North Atlantic”.
We have our own colonial history, far from pristine or admirable in many respects. But we are at the same time fortunate to have a framework in Te Tiriti which provides a base for working together from that history towards a better future.
Those who would debunk that framework or seek to amend it to more clearly favour the colonial classes might think about where that option leads.
And when we see or are inconvenienced by independence or other indigenous rights activism in Oceania we might do well to neither sit on the fence nor join the side which likes to pretend such places are rightfully controlled by France (or the United States, or Australia or New Zealand).
Rob Campbell is chancellor of Auckland University of Technology (AUT), chair of Ara Ake, chair of NZ Rural Land and former chair of Te Whatu Ora. This article was first published by The New Zealand Herald and is republished with the author’s permission.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Thousands of students across Aotearoa New Zealand protested in a nationwide rally at seven universities across the country in a global day of solidarity with Palestine, calling on their universities to divest all partnerships with Israel.
A combined group of students and academic staff from the country’s two largest universities chanted “AUT take a stand” at their rally in the Hikuwai Plaza in the heart of Auckland University of Technology (AUT).
Students from the neighbouring University of Auckland (UOA) also took part.
The students carried placards such as “Educators against genocide”, “Stand for students. Stand for justice. Stand with Palestine”, “Maite Te Awa Ki Te Moana” – te reo for “From the river to the sea – Free Palestine”.
Another sign said, “No universities left in Gaza”, referring to Israeli military forces having destroyed all 12 universities in the besieged enclave during the war now in its eighth month.
“Let’s hold our institutions accountable, demanding they meet our calls for action and adhere to the guidelines of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
‘Gross injustices’
“Together, we can push for change and recognise Israel’s violations for what they are — gross injustices against humanity.
“Stand with us in this global movement of solidarity with Palestine.”
“No universities left in Gaza” . . . because Israel bombed or destroyed all 12. Image: David Robie/APR
The rally was in support of thousands of students around the world demonstrating against the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Their aim with their universities:
* Declare and recognise Palestine as an independent and sovereign state;
* Disclose and divest all partnerships with Israel; and
* Denounce antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of discrimination.
Ali, the “voice of Free Palestine”. Video: Café Pacific
A declaration said that the nationwide protest expressed “our unapologetic solidarity with Palestinians and our commitment to the Palestinian struggle for liberation “.
“We refuse to be silent or complicit in genocide, and we reject all forms of cooperation between our institutions and the Israeli state.
“End the genocide” . . . a watermelon protest. Image: David Robie/APR
Protest leaders told a media conference at the University of Melbourne that had agreed to end the protest after the institution had agreed to disclose research partnerships with weapons manufacturers.
“After months of campaigning, rallies, petitions, meetings and in recent weeks, the encampment, the University of Melbourne has finally agreed to meet an important demand of our campaign,” a spokesperson later told the ABC.
“This is a major win.”
Some of the protesting students at AUT University’s Hikuwai Plaza today. Image: David Robie/APR
French President Emmanuel Macron landed in Nouméa today under heavy security after pro-independence protests by indigenous Kanaks followed by rioting in the Pacific territory of New Caledonia.
Speaking to a pool of journalists, he set as his top priority the return to peace with New Caledonia still in the grip of violent unrest after 10 days of roadblocks, rioting, burning and looting.
The riots, related to New Caledonia’s independence issue, started on May 13, as the French National Assembly in Paris voted in favour of a controversial constitutional amendment which would significantly modify the rules of eligibility for local elections.
The pro-independence movement FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) objected to the text, saying this, by allowing people to vote locally after 10 years of uninterrupted residence, would have a significant impact on their future representation.
The amendment remains to be ratified by a meeting of the Congress in Versailles (a joint sitting of both Upper and Lower Houses) before it would take effect.
Earlier, Macron said he intended to call this joint sitting sometime before the end of June.
New Caledonia’s pro-independence parties, as well as some pro-France parties, agree the current situation is not conducive to such a vote.
Call to postpone key vote
They are calling for the Versailles Congress joint sitting to be at least postponed or even that the controversial text be withdrawn altogether by the French government.
During his trip, Macron is also accompanied by Home Affairs and Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin (who has been dealing with New Caledonia since 2022); Darmanin’s deputy (“delegate” minister for overseas) Marie Guévenoux; and Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu (who was in charge of the French overseas portfolio before Darmanin).
The CCAT resistance “field cells” have reinforced their northern mobilisation. Image: Caledonia TV screenshot APR
He also brought with him several high-level public servants who would form a “dialogue mission” tasked to restore contacts with New Caledonia’s political stakeholders.
The “mission” will stay in New Caledonia “as long as it takes” and its goal will be to have a “local political dialogue with the view of arriving at a comprehensive political agreement” regarding New Caledonia’s long-term future.
Along with the presidential Airbus, a military A-400 also landed in New Caledonia, bringing more law and order reinforcements.
Macron plans to meet political, economic, custom (traditional) and civil society representatives.
Doubts remain on whether all of the local parties would accept to meet the French Head of State.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Nouméa . . . seeking dialogue to find solutions to New Caledonian unrest. Image: NC 1ère TV screenshot APR
Normal ‘health care, food supply’ aim
Talking to the media, Macron said a return to “peace, calm and security” was “the priority of all priorities”.
This would also imply restoring normal “health care, goods and food supply” which have been gravely affected for the past 10 days.
“I am aware the population is suffering from a great crisis situation. We will also talk about economic reconstruction. For the political questions, the most sensitive ones, I came to talk about New Caledonia’s future,” he said.
“At the end of today, decisions and announcements will be made. I have come here with a sense of determination. And with a sense of respect and humility.”
Since May 13, the riots have caused the death of six people, destroyed an estimated 400 businesses for a total estimated cost, experts say, is now bordering 1 billion euros (NZ$1.8 billion).
Asked by journalists if all this could be achieved in a matter of just a few hours, Macron replied: “We shall see. I have no set limit” (on his New Caledonia stay).
Macron’s schedule with a visit initially set to last not more than 24 hours, remains sketchy.
Visit extended to 48 hours
It appears to have been extended to 48 hours.
In many parts of New Caledonia, French law enforcement (police, gendarmes) were today still struggling to regain control of several strategic access roads, as well as several districts of the capital Nouméa.
Macron said the state of emergency, which was imposed Wednesday last week for an initial period of 12 days, “should not be extended”, but that security forces currently deployed “will stay as long as necessary, even during the Paris 2024 Olympics”.
He also urged all stakeholders to “call for the roadblocks to be lifted”.
“I am here because dialogue is necessary, but I’m calling on everyone’s sense of responsibility.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A New Zealand Kanak woman, Jessie Ounei, says young people in New Caledonia feel a sense of anger and betrayal at the way France is attempting to “snuff out” any prospect of independence for its Pacific territory.
France invaded New Caledonia in 1853 and pushed the Kanak people into reservations, denying them civil and political rights for a century.
In parallel with Nga Tamatoa in Aotearoa, a resistance movement sprang up in the 1960s and 1970s driven by young people, including Jessie Ounei’s late mother Susanna Ounei, and the territory has been on the United Nations decolonisation list since 1986.
Riots broke out last week after the French National Assembly moved to give voting rights to settlers with 10 years residence, which would overwhelm the indigenous vote.
Jessie Ounei told Radio Waatea host Shane Te Pou the independence movement had tried to resist the move peacefully, but once the National Assembly vote happened young people took action.
“It’s a total betrayal. Young people have grown up with a sense of identity and we understand out worth and that’s largely because of the work that was done in the 1960s, 1970s and and 1980s to reclaim our identity so we’re not unaware of our worth or our identity, or how hard done we are being so we were hopeful this was going to be it,” she said.
France ‘pulled the rug’
“But France has totally pulled the rug out.”
Ounei said she had been hearing unconfirmed reports of rightwing settler militias taking vigilante action against the Kanak population.
Asia Pacific Reportsays French officials have cited a death toll of at least six so far — including three Kanaks, one a 17-year-old girl, and two police officers, and 214 people have been arrested in the state of emergency.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Nouméa today in an attempt to create a dialogue to resolve the tensions.
An interview with Jesse Ounei and David Small. Republished from Waatea News, Auckland’s Māori radio broadcaster.
Updated: Husain Ali Muhana was a 21-year-old Bahraini student when Bahraini authorities arrested him without presenting an arrest warrant at his friend’s house on 14 December 2017. During his detention, he was subjected to torture, isolation, solitary confinement, enforced disappearance, denial of access to his lawyer during interrogation, unfair trials, and medical negligence. He is currently serving his life sentence in Jau Prison.
Husain has been targeted by Bahraini officials since 2016. While he was out of the country undergoing eye surgery, officers from the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) raided his family’s house and searched his computers. Four months later, Husain returned to the country, and Bahraini officers again raided the house, but he was not present at the time. The officers did not present a warrant or provide an explanation for the raid but told Husain’s parents that he had to turn himself in. After learning of this, Husain went into hiding for a year, during which several homes of family members were raided. Husain was shot by the authorities but was able to avoid arrest at the time.
On 14 December 2017, officers and helicopters belonging to the Special Security Force Command (SSFC) of the Ministry of Interior (MOI), along with officers from the CID, surrounded the town of Al Bilad Al Qadeem, chased Husain, and arrested him at his friend’s house. The officers did not present a warrant nor did they give a reason for the arrest. Officers transferred Husain to the CID, where they held him for 40 days. While at the CID, officers insulted, beat, and tortured Husain, coercing him to confess to crimes he did not commit. His lawyer was prevented from attending the interrogations.
In 2017, Husain was sentenced to 10 years in prison for assault, but his prison sentence was reduced after appeal to five years. Subsequently, on 22 July 2018, he was transferred to Jau Prison. On 26 September 2018, the court sentenced him to one year in prison for attempting to evade arrest. Both trials were also conducted on the basis of confessions made by Husain under duress and without any evidence.
On 16 April 2019, Husain was sentenced to life imprisonment, revocation of his Bahraini citizenship, and a fine of 10,000 dinars in a mass trial along with 168 other defendants in the “Bahraini Hezbollah” case. He was one of 69 individuals sentenced to life in prison. Husain’s sentence was upheld on 30 June 2019, but his nationality was reinstated on 20 April 2019 byRoyal Order.
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) filed a complaint with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention involving Husain and eight others sentenced in the Bahraini Hezbollah case. The Working Group issued anopinionon 18 September 2020, in which it considered that all nine prisoners had been unlawfully convicted and arbitrarily detained.
On 10 August 2022, Husain was one of 14 prisoners transferred to the isolation building after alleged charges of attempting to escape from prison. There, they were subjected to numerous abuses, such as beatings, torture, and denial of contact with their families. On 6 September 2022, a delegation from the Ombudsman visited the isolated prisoners in Jau Prison to investigate complaints of violations. However, the fourteen prisoners remained in isolation, and no results emerged from the visit. On 21 September 2022, an entity affiliated with the CID escalated the malicious violations against those in isolation after they announced a hunger strike to protest the violations against them. The punishment of solitary confinement was imposed against the fourteen prisoners, who were divided into two batches: seven prisoners were held in solitary confinement for seven days, followed by the second batch after the first was released.
In October 2022, the prison administrationsummonedHusain for a quick interrogation, and the next day, he was transferred to the CID. After returning to Jau Prison, he was deprived of personal hygiene items for six days. Throughout this period, the 14 prisoners were subjected to enforced disappearance and denied contact with the outside world, leaving their families unaware of their fate, condition, or reason for their disappearance. After a series of demands and actions by Husain’s father, he was allowed to make a censored phone call to ensure he did not reveal details about his detention conditions. More than 50 days later, the family was allowed to visit Husain. His father confirmed that Husain had been tortured and stated that prisoners were handcuffed for a week, depriving them of their normal lives.
On 22 November 2022, 10 political prisoners, including Husain, out of 14 werereferredto the High Criminal Court on fabricated charges of attempting to smuggle convicts from the Reform and Rehabilitation Center. They were specifically accused of developing a terrorist plot to target the Reform and Rehabilitation Center with firearms to smuggle a number of prisoners sentenced for terrorist crimes and to life imprisonment.
On 3 January 2023, an officer and several police officers, namely Officer Ahmed AlEmadi, Policeman Hasan Juma’a, Hamid Farraj, and Husain AlFasouli,transferredthe 14 prisoners from their cell to another cell that did not contain beds, televisions, or cleaning materials. When the prisoners refused and said, “We are not animals to sleep on the floor”, they were beaten and tortured. Officers stomped on their necks, pepper-sprayed them, and stripped one prisoner naked. They also confiscated their personal belongings. The officers refused to film the incident at the request of one of the prisoners. The prisoners have beenisolatedever since.
During their transfer to solitary confinement, Husain approached one of the officers and asked him to command the other officer to stop beating the prisoners. However, another officer attempted to punch him. Husain’s testimony about this incident was published through anaudio recording. The audio recording in this post was read by another inmate at the Jau Prison, Husain Ghazwan, who was placed in solitary confinement on 8 January 2023, after delivering the testimony in a phone call to Husain’s father.
On 31 January 2023, Husain was sentenced to an additional seven years in prison for an attempted escape, and in March 2023, the Court of Appeals confirmed the verdict. In July 2023, the Public Prosecution Office (PPO) referred Husain to trial after charging him with insulting a police officer. In August 2023, he wassentenced to one month in prison, despite denying the charges and insisting that he did not know the officer and had never seen him before. Thus, the total sentences in the malicious cases for which he was convicted reached 13 years and one month, in addition to his previous life sentence.
These prisoners continue to face violations as their hands are constantly shackled to restrict their movement when going to the outdoor yard. Calls and visits are strictly monitored, and they are intermittently deprived of their rights to communicate with their families. For example, they went 45 days without being able to contact their families.
Husain’s father stated that communication with his son was cut off five times: from 10 to 30 August 2022, from 3 to 12 January 2023, from 13 to 21 February 2023, from 9 to 18 February 2023, and from 23 to 28 March 2023. On 23 March 2023, Husain was placed in solitary confinement before the communication was cut off. He contacted his family on 28 March 2023 and informed them that he was no longer in solitary confinement.
Husain’s father, activist and teacher Ali Muhana, filed several complaints regarding the situation of his son and fellow inmates in isolation. He also submitted a complaint to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) on 11 January 2022 but received no follow-ups or responses to the complaints he filed. On 5 February 2023, Husain’s fatherstated that the Ombudsman acknowledged their presence in isolation when he met with the Secretary-General, yet no action was taken.
On 15 February 2023, Mr. Ali, Husain’s father,submitted two additional complaints to the Ombudsman and the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) to allow him to communicate with his son. On 2 March 2023, Mr. Alicontacted the SIU to follow up on the complaint, and they responded that it was still under investigation. On 8 March 2023, Mr. Aliposted that he had been trying to contact the SIU to follow up on the complaint, but they did not answer his calls.
In April 2024, communication with Husain was cut off once again, and this violation remains in place as of the date this file was last updated.
His father contacted various state institutions, including the MoI, the Prime Minister’s office, and the Jau Prison administration, demanding to reconnect with his son. Initially, they were unresponsive to his inquiries, but now they are punishing him with repeated summonses and imprisonment. Husain’s father also reached out to the NIHR and the Ombudsman multiple times, receiving promises that have yet to be fulfilled.
Husain suffered multiple wounds in prison due to being shot with birdshot pellets in his legs and knees. Despite his requests, he was denied access to a doctor. His family repeatedly contacted relevant institutions, such as the Ombudsman and the NIHR. However, each time, he was only permitted a single visit to the prison clinic, where the doctor asked him several questions without providing genuine medical treatment.
Husain’s warrantless arrest, torture aimed at extracting coerced confessions, denial of access to legal counsel during interrogation, unfair trials, solitary confinement, enforced disappearance, and medical neglect all constitute clear violations of the Convention against Torture and Other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment (CAT), as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) calls on the Bahraini authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Husain. ADHRB also urges the Bahraini government to investigate allegations of arbitrary arrest, torture, denial of access to legal counsel during the interrogation period, solitary confinement, enforced disappearance, and medical neglect. ADHRB further calls on the Bahraini government to provide compensation for the injuries that Husain has suffered due to his arrest and torture, or at the very least, to ensure a fair retrial leading to his release.
She had just arrived back from Caracas where she represented France at this week’s United Nations seminar on decolonisation.
“As far as the French state is concerned, our door is open, we are welcoming everyone for dialogue, in Paris or in Nouméa. It’s up to everyone to join further dialogue,” Roger-Lacan said.
Roger-Lacan said the unrest had been provoked by very specific parts of the New Caledonian establishment.
She said she made a plea for dialogue at the United Nations decolonisation seminar in light of the deadly protests in New Caledonia.
‘Up to all the parties’
“Well, what I want to say is that the Nouméa agreement has enabled everyone in New Caledonia to have a representation in the French National Assembly and in the Senate,” Roger-Lacan said.
“And it is up to all the parties, including the independantistes, who have some representatives in the National Assembly and in the Senate, to use their political power to convince everyone in the National Assembly and in the Parliament.
“If they don’t manage [this], it is [an] amazingly unacceptable way of voicing their concerns through violence.”
While the French government and anti-independence leaders maintain protest organisers are to blame for the violence, pro-independence parties say they have been holding peaceful protests for months.
They say violence was born from socio-economic disparities and France turning a deaf ear to the territorial government’s call for a controversial proposed constitutional electoral amendment to be scrapped.
Roger-Lacan said while “everyone” was saying this unrest was called for because they were not listened to by the French state, France stands ready for dialogue.
She said just because one group failed to “use their political power to convince the Assembly and the Senate”, it did not justify deadly protests.
Composition questioned A long-time journalist reporting on Pacific issues said the composition of the French President’s delegation to New Caledonia would anger pro-independence leaders.
Islands Business correspondent Nic Maclellan said Macron would be accompanied by the current Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin and Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
“They will no doubt be welcomed by supporters of the French republic, anti-independence politicians who want to stay with France but Lecornu and Darmanin have been responsible for key decisions taken over the last three or four years that have lead to this current crisis,” Maclellan said.
President Macron has said the main objective of the trip is to resume political talks with all stakeholders and find a political solution to the crisis.
United Nations decolonisation This year Véronique Roger-Lacan represented France at the table at a seminar which took place in the lead up to the UN Committee on Decolonisation in New York in June.
The right to self determination is a constitutional principle in the French constitution as much as it is in the UN Charter, Roger-Lacan explained.
The meeting she has just been at in Caracas, “prepares a draft, UN General Assembly resolution, that is being examined in the committee, which is called the C-24,” she said.
Roger-Lacan was appointed to the role of French ambassador to the Pacific in July last year.
Various groups have been calling for the United Nations to head a delegation to New Caledonia to observe the current situation.
Roger-Lacan said the New Caledonia coalition government representative and the FLNKS representative both called for a UN mission at the meeting.
“Then there were five representatives of the loyalists and they all made the case of the fact that a third referenda had been in compliance with the two UN General Assembly resolutions determining the future status of New Caledonia,” she said.
As the representative of the French state, she made the case that France had always been the only administrative power to sit in the C-24 — “and to negotiate and cooperate,” she said.
“The United States, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom never did that,” Roger-Lacan said.
She also welcomed the UN, “whenever they want to visit”, she said.
“That’s the plea that I made on behalf of the French government, a plea for dialogue.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
![Macron [right] with New Caledonia’s President Louis Mapou [left] and Congress President Roch Wamytan [centre]](https://media.rnztools.nz/rnz/image/upload/s--Prc5Jjbe--/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050/v1716489883/4KPOX9G_Macron_1_jpg)
