Prosecution of three high-ranking Syrian officials to be tried in absentia could pave way for president’s case
At midnight on 3 November 2013, five Syrian officials dragged arts and humanities student Patrick Dabbagh from his home in the Mezzeh district of Damascus.
The following day, at the same hour, the same men, including a representative of the Syrian air force’s intelligence unit, returned with a dozen soldiers to arrest the 20-year-old’s father Mazzen.
Today is the 24th anniversary of renegade and failed businessman George Speight’s coup in 2000 Fiji. The elected coalition government headed by Mahendra Chaudhry, the first and only Indo-Fijian prime minister of Fiji, was held hostage at gunpoint for 56 days in the country’s new Parliament by Speight’s rebel gunmen in a putsch that shook the Pacific and the world.
Emerging recently from almost 24 years in prison, former investigative journalist and publisher Josefa Nata — Speight’s “media minder” — is now convinced that the takeover of Fiji’s Parliament on 19 May 2000 was not justified.
He believes that all it did was let the “genie of racism” out of the bottle.
He spoke to Islands Business Fiji correspondent, Joe Yaya on his journey back from the dark.
The Fiji government kept you in jail for 24 years [for your media role in the coup]. That’s a very long time. Are you bitter?
I heard someone saying in Parliament that “life is life”, but they have been releasing other lifers. Ten years was conventionally considered the term of a life sentence. That was the State’s position in our sentencing. The military government extended it to 12 years. I believe it was out of malice, spitefulness and cruelty — no other reason. But to dwell in the past is counterproductive.
If there’s anyone who should be bitter, it should be me. I was released [from prison] in 2013 but was taken back in after two months, ostensibly to normalise my release papers. That government did not release me. I stayed in prison for another 10 years.
To be bitter is to allow those who hurt you to live rent free in your mind. They have moved on, probably still rejoicing in that we have suffered that long. I have forgiven them, so move on I must.
Time is not on my side. I have set myself a timeline and a to-do list for the next five years.
Jo Nata’s journey from the dark, Islands Business, April 2024. Image: IB/Joe Yaya/USP Journalism
What are some of those things?
Since I came out, I have been busy laying the groundwork for a community rehabilitation project for ex-offenders, released prisoners, street kids and at-risk people in the law-and-order space. We are in the process of securing a piece of land, around 40 ha to set up a rehabilitation farm. A half-way house of a sort.
You can’t have it in the city. It would be like having the cat to watch over the fish. There is too much temptation. These are vulnerable people who will just relapse. They’re put in an environment where they are shielded from the lures of the world and be guided to be productive and contributing members of society.
It will be for a period of up to six months; in exceptional cases, 12 months where they will learn living off the land. With largely little education, the best opportunity for these people, and only real hope, is in the land.
Most of these at-risk people are [indigenous] Fijians. Although all native land are held by the mataqali, each family has a patch which is the “kanakana”. We will equip them and settle them in their villages. We will liaise with the family and the village.
Apart from farming, these young men and women will be taught basic life skills, social skills, savings, budgeting. When we settle them in the villages and communities, we will also use the opportunity to create the awareness that crime does not pay, that there is a better life than crime and prison, and that prison is a waste of a potentially productive life.
Are you comfortable with talking about how exactly you got involved with Speight?
The bulk of it will come out in the book that I’m working on, but it was not planned. It was something that happened on the day.
You said that when they saw you, they roped you in?
Yes. But there were communications with me the night prior. I basically said, “piss off”.
So then, what made you go to Parliament eventually? Curiosity?
No. I got a call from Parliament. You see, we were part of the government coalition at that time. We were part of the Fijian Association Party (led by the late Adi Kuini Speed). The Fiji Labour Party was our main coalition partner, and then there was the Christian Alliance. And you may recall or maybe not, there was a split in the Fijian Association [Party] and there were two factions. I was in the faction that thought that we should not go into coalition.
There was an ideological reason for the split [because the party had campaigned on behalf of iTaukei voters] but then again, there were some members who came with us only because they were not given seats in Cabinet.
Because your voters had given you a certain mandate?
A masked gunman waves to journalists to duck during crossfire. Image: IPI Global Journalist/Joe Yaya/USP Journalism
Well, we were campaigning on the [indigenous] Fijian manifesto and to go into the [coalition] complicated things. Mine was more a principled position because we were a [indigenous] Fijian party and all those people went in on [indigenous] Fijian votes. And then, here we are, going into [a coalition with the Fiji Labour Party] and people probably
accused us of being opportunists.
But the Christian Alliance was a coalition partner with Labour before they went into the election in the same way that the People’s Alliance and National Federation Party were coalition partners before they got into [government], whereas with us, it was more like SODELPA (Social Democratic Liberal Party).
So, did you feel that the rights of indigenous Fijians were under threat from the Coalition government of then Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry?
Perhaps if Chaudhry was allowed to carry on, it could have been good for [indigenous] Fijians. I remember the late President and Tui Nayau [Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara] . . . in a few conversations I had with him, he said it [Labour Party] should be allowed to . . . [carry on].
Did you think at that time that the news media gave Chaudhry enough space for him to address the fears of the iTaukei people about what he was trying to do, especially for example, through the Land Use Commission?
I think the Fijians saw what he was doing and that probably exacerbated or heightened the concerns of [indigenous] Fijians and if you remember, he gave Indian cane farmers certain financial privileges.
The F$10,000 grants to move from Labasa, when the ALTA (Agricultural Landlord and Tenants Act) leases expired. Are you talking about that?
I can’t remember the exact details of the financial assistance but when they [Labour Party] were questioned, they said, “No, there were some Fijian farmers too”. There were also iTaukei farmers but if you read in between the lines, there were like 50 Indian farmers and one Fijian farmer.
Was there enough media coverage for the rural population to understand that it was not a one-sided ethnic policy?
Because there were also iTaukei farmers involved. Yes, and I think when you try and pull the wool over other people, that’s when they feel that they have been hoodwinked. But going back to your question of whether Chaudhry was given fair media coverage, I was no longer in the mainstream media at that time. I had moved on.
But the politicians have their views and they’ll feel that they have been done badly by the media. But that’s democracy. That’s the way things worked out.
“The Press and the Putsch”, Asia Pacific Media Educator, No 10, January 2021. Image: APME/Joe Yaya/USP Journalism
Pacific journalism educator, David Robie, in a paper in 2001, made some observations about the way the local media reported the Speight takeover. He said, “In the early weeks of the insurrection, the media enjoyed an unusually close relationship with Speight and the hostage takers.”
He went on to say that at times, there was “strong sympathy among some journalists for the cause, even among senior editorial executives”.
David Robie is an incisive and perceptive old-school journalist who has a proper understanding of issues and I do not take issue with his opinion. And I think there is some validity. But you see, I was on the other [Speight’s] side. And it was part of my job at that time to swing that perception from the media.
Did you identify with “the cause” and did you think it was legitimate?
Let me tell you in hindsight, that the coup was not justified
and that is after a lot of reflection. It was not justified and
could never be justified.
When did you come to that conclusion?
It was after the period in Parliament and after things were resolved and then Parliament was vacated, I took a drive around town and I saw the devastation in Suva. This was a couple of months later. I didn’t realise the extent of the damage and I remember telling myself, “Oh my god, what have we done? What have we done?”
And I realised that we probably have let the genie out of the bottle and it scared me [that] it only takes a small thing like this to unleash this pentup emotion that is in the people. Of course, a lot of looting was [by] opportunists because at that time, the people who
were supporting the cause were all in Parliament. They had all marched to Parliament.
So, who did the looting in town? I’m not excusing that. I’m just trying to put some perspective. And of course, we saw pictures, which was really, very sad . . . of mothers, women, carrying trolleys [of loot] up the hill, past the [Colonial War Memorial] hospital.
So, what was Speight’s primary motivation?
Well, George will, I’m sure, have the opportunity at some point to tell the world what his position was. But he was never the main player. He was ditched with the baby on his laps.
So, there were people So, there were people behind him. He was the man of the moment. He was the one facing the cameras.
Given your education, training, experience in journalism, what kind of lens were you viewing this whole thing from?
Well, let’s put it this way. I got a call from Parliament. I said, “No, I’m not coming down.” And then they called again.
Basically, they did not know where they were going. I think what was supposed to have happened didn’t happen. So, I got another call, I got about three or four calls, maybe five. And then eventually, after two o’clock I went down to Parliament, because the person who called was a friend of mine and somebody who had shared our fortunes and misfortunes.
So, did you get swept away? What was going on inside your head?
George Speight’s forces hold Fiji government members hostage at the parliamentary complex in Suva. Image: IPI Global Journalist/Brian Cassey/Associated Press
I joined because at that point, I realised that these people needed help. I was not so much as for the cause, although there was this thing about what Chaudhry was doing. I also took that into account. But primarily because the call came [and] so I went.
And when I was finally called into the meeting, I walked in and I saw faces that I’d never seen before. And I started asking the questions, “Have you done this? Have you done that?”
And as I asked the questions, I was also suggesting solutions and then I just got dragged into it. The more I asked questions, the more I found out how much things were in disarray.
I just thought I’d do my bit [because] they were people who had taken over Parliament and they did not know where to go from there.
But you were driven by some nationalistic sentiments?
I am a [indigenous] Fijian. And everything that goes with that. I’m not infallible. But then again, I do not want to blow that trumpet.
Did the group see themselves as freedom fighters of some sort when you went into prison?
I’m not a freedom fighter. If they want to be called freedom fighters, that’s for them and I think some of them even portrayed themselves [that way]. But not me. I’m just an idiot who got sidetracked.
This personal journey that you’ve embarked on, what brought that about?
When I was in prison, I thought about this a lot. Because for me to come out of the bad place I was in — not physically, that I was in prison, but where my mind was — was to first accept the situation I was in and take responsibility. That’s when the healing started to take place.
And then I thought that I should write to people that I’ve hurt. I wrote about 200 letters from prison to anybody I thought I had hurt or harmed or betrayed. Groups, individuals, institutions, and families. I was surprised at the magnanimity of the people who received my letters.
I do not know where they all are now. I just sent it out. I was touched by a lot of the responses and I got a letter from the late [historian] Dr Brij Lal. l was so encouraged and I was so emotional when I read the letter. [It was] a very short letter and the kindness in the man to say that, “We will continue to talk when you come out of prison.”
There were also the mockers, the detractors, certain persons who said unkind things that, you know, “He’s been in prison and all of a sudden, he’s . . . “. That’s fine, I accepted all that as part of the package. You take the bad with the good.
I wrote to Mr Chaudhry and I had the opportunity to apologise to him personally when he came to visit in prison. And I want to continue this dialogue with Mr Chaudhry if he would like to.
Because if anything, I am among the reasons Fiji is in this current state of distrust and toxic political environment. If I can assist in bringing the nation together, it would be part of my atonement for my errors. For I have been an unprofitable, misguided individual who would like to do what I believe is my duty to put things right.
And I would work with anyone in the political spectrum, the communal leaders, the vanua and the faith organisations to bring that about.
I also did my traditional apology to my chiefly household of Vatuwaqa and the people of the vanua of Lau. I had invited the Lau Provincial Council to have its meeting at the Corrections Academy in Naboro. By that time, the arrangements had been confirmed for the Police Academy.
But the Roko gave us the farewell church service. I got my dear late sister, Pijila to organise the family. I presented the matanigasau to the then-Council Chairman, Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba (Roko Ului). It was a special moment, in front of all the delegates to the council meeting, the chiefly clan of the Vuanirewa, and Lauans who filled the two buses and
countless vehicles that made it to Naboro.
Our matanivanua (herald) was to make the tabua presentation. But I took it off him because I wanted Roko Ului and the people of Lau to hear my remorse from my mouth. It was very, very emotional. Very liberating. Cathartic.
Late last year, the Coalition government passed a motion in Parliament for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Do you support that?
Oh yes, I think everything I’ve been saying so far points that way.
Do you think it’ll help those that are still incarcerated to come out and speak about what happened in 2000?
Well, not only that but the important thing is [addressing] the general [racial] divide. If that’s where we should start, then we should start there. That’s how I’m looking at it — the bigger picture.
It’s not trying to manage the problems or issues of the last 24 years. People are still hurting from [the coups of] 1987. And what happened in 2006 — nothing has divided this country so much. Anybody who’s thought about this would want this to go beyond just solving the problem of 2000, excusing, and accusing and after that, there’s forgiveness and pardon.
That’s a small part. That too if it needs to happen. But after all that, I don’t want anybody to go to prison because of their participation or involvement in anything from 1987 to 2000. If they cooked the books later, while they were in government, then that’s a different
matter.
But I saw on TV, the weeping and the very public expression of pain of [the late, former Prime Minister, Laisenia] Qarase’s grandchildren when he was convicted and taken away [to prison]. It brought tears to my eyes. There is always a lump in my throat at the memory of my Heilala’s (elder of two daughters) last visit to [me in] Nukulau.
Hardly a word was spoken as we held each other, sobbing uncontrollably the whole time, except to say that Tiara (his sister) was not allowed by the officers at the naval base to come to say her goodbye.
That was very painful. I remember thinking that people can be cruel, especially when the girls explained that it was to be their last visit. Then the picture in my mind of Heilala sitting alone under the turret of the navy ship as she tried not to look back. I had asked her not to look back.
I deserved what I got. But not them. I would not wish the same things I went through on anyone else, not even those who were malicious towards me.
It is the family that suffers. The family are always the silent victims. It is the family that stands by you. They may not agree with what you did. Perhaps it is among the great gifts of God, that children forgive parents and love them still despite the betrayal, abandonment, and pain.
For I betrayed the two women I love most in the world. I betrayed ‘Ulukalala [son] who was born the same year I went to prison. I betrayed and brought shame to my family and my village of Waciwaci. I betrayed friends of all ethnicities and those who helped me in my chosen profession and later, in business.
I betrayed the people of Fiji. That betrayal was officially confirmed when the court judgment called me a traitor. I accepted that portrayal and have to live with it. The judges — at least one of them — even opined that I masterminded the whole thing. I have to decline that dubious honour. That belongs elsewhere.
This article by Joe Yaya is republished from last month’s Islands Business magazine cover story with the permission of editor Richard Naidu and Yaya. The photographs are from a 2000 edition of the Commonwealth Press Union’s Global Journalist magazine dedicated to the reporting of The University of the South Pacific’s student journalists. Joe Yaya was a member of the USP team at the time. The archive of the award-winning USP student coverage of the coup is here.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
The global human rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on France to not “misuse” a crackdown in the ongoing unrest in the non-self-governing French Pacific territory of Kanaky New Caledonia in the wake of a controversial vote by the French Parliament to adopt a bill changing the territory’s voting rules.
“The state of emergency declared by the French government and the deployment of the French army, coupled with a ban on the social media app TikTok, must not be misused to restrict people’s human rights,” Amnesty Pacific researcher Kate Schuetze said.
“The deeply worrying violence and the French authorities’ response must be understood through the lens of a stalled decolonisation process, racial inequality and the longstanding, peacefully expressed demands by the Indigenous Kanak people for self-determination.”
Schuetze said it was a challenging situation for police — “sadly including several fatalities”.
She said it was imperative that French police and gendarmes only used force as “reasonably necessary and prioritise protecting the right to life”.
Banning the TikTok app seemed a “clearly disproportionate measure” that would likely constitute a violation of the right to freedom of expression.
“It may also set a dangerous precedent that could easily serve as a convenient example for France and other governments worldwide to justify shutdowns in reaction to public protests,” she said.
A contingent of about 1,000 police and army reinforcements have left the military air base of Castres (near Marseille) for New Caledonia. https://t.co/oPDI3hVRvH
“French authorities must uphold the rights of the Indigenous Kanak people and the right to peaceful expression and assembly without discrimination.
“People calling for independence should be able to express their views peacefully.”
In a 2023 resolution, following a report by the UN Special Political and Decolonization Committee, the UN General Assembly reiterated calls on “the administering power and all relevant stakeholders in New Caledonia to ensure the peaceful, fair, just and transparent conduct of the next steps of the self-determination process, in accordance with the Nouméa Accord.”
Police have used tear gas and stun grenades on rioters at an airport near Nouméa as the chaos in New Caledonia stretched into its sixth day.
Five people, including two police officers, have died and hundreds of people are injured amid clashes between authorities and pro-independence protesters.
They were sparked by anger at a proposed new law that would allow French residents who have lived in New Caledonia for more than 10 years to vote — which critics say will weaken the indigenous Kanak vote.
Last night, local media reported rioters on the field at Magenta Airport had thrown hammers and stones at police.
Officers responded with tear gas and stun grenades.
Police warned that if that was not enough to control the situation, the military was authorised to use lethal weapons.
Nouméa is under a nightly curfew, with anyone who violates it warned they could face six months in prison or a fine of up to 895,000 French Pacific francs (NZ$13,000).
A New Caledonia government crisis unit spokesperson said there was enough food in the country to last two months.
However, there was a restocking issue, with some roads impassable due to debris.
A 71-year-old woman who missed out on dialysis treatment this week due to the blockages has finally been transported to Nouméa by boat for treatment.
Meanwhile, cars have been set on fire at Dumbéa town hall. Mayor Yohann Lecourieux told the public television station NC La Première he was “worried about the future”.
Gendarme mobile officer Nicolas Molinari, 22 . . . one of two police officers who have died during rioting in New Caledonia. Image: French Gendarmerie Nationale/RNZ
Journalists attacked La Première is strengthening security surrounding its journalists after an incident where a reporting team was attacked by about 20 hooded men.
A reporter said she and a camera operator were attacked yesterday morning near the centre of Nouméa.
The men ordered them to leave, then smashed the windows of their car, the reporter told AFP news agency.
They also snatched the camera operator’s camera from his hands and threatened him with a stone.
The journalists were not injured and were rescued by a passing motorist.
La Première news content director Olivier Gélin told AFP the station’s journalists would be accompanied by security agents until further notice.
“We will now take people to protect the teams during filming, in addition to the classic protections in this type of situation — helmets and bulletproof vests,” he said.
Meanwhile, Coralie Cochin said her husband, a reporter for AFP, was photographing the burnt ruins of a shop when a man started throwing rocks at him.
An intern who had been working with Cochin at the local media outlet, La Première, was also attacked yesterday.
She was also rescued by a passing motorist, but lost her belongings in the ordeal.
END FRENCH SETTLER COLONIALISM IN KANAKY, IN MELANESIA, IN PACIFICA !
‘A complete war zone’ A resident of Portes de Fer, in the centre of Noumea, said it was terrifying to witness the chaos unfold.
Hari Simon told RNZ Pacific that businesses, houses, car companies and factories in the area had all been burnt.
It was “a very frightening scene punctuated by the sound of gunshots that broke the silence of the night,” he said.
There was “a threatening sense of danger looming in the air,” he said.
At night, people roamed the streets with guns, burning down buildings and exchanging fire with police officers.
However, since the arrival of the first batch of military police officers (gendarmes) on Wednesday, the situation had died down a little, he said.
Residents did not expect the violence to escalate so quickly and were caught off guard, he said.
“When we became fully aware of the gravity of the situation that Monday night and, more specifically in the early hours of Tuesday morning, road blocks had already been erected.”
Israel Chemicals LTD (ICL) own Boulby mine in Loftus, North Yorkshire. The very same company is supplying Israel with white phosphorus – which it is using to commit war crimes.
Propping up a genocide
Israel Corporation control ICL who operate in multiple aspects of the Israeli apartheid regime. They are one of the largest Israeli conglomerates.
In the UK, ICL is selling a ‘sustainable fertiliser’ polyhalite – for which there is actually no evidence it has any unique properties.
However, ICL’s UK operations is laying cover for its genocidal and colonial complicity in Palestine. By greenwashing its broader environmentally ruinous operations, it is propping up the Israeli apartheid state. ICL also has many illegal quarries on occupied Palestinian land, namely in the West Bank. The company is complicit in the apartheid Israeli regime.
Critically, ICL is producing white phosphorus at its plant in St Louis, US, which they sell to the US army. They then pass it onto the Israeli army.
Israel white phosphorous: illegal?
White phosphorus is a chemical substance which ignites instantly upon contact with oxygen. It’s incredibly hard to extinguish and sticks to surfaces like clothes and skin. White phosphorus is extremely harmful to people, no matter the route of exposure. It causes deep and severe burns, breathing problems, along with burning the eyes and respiratory tract.
According to the World Health Organisation:
The use of white phosphorus may violate Protocol III (on the use of incendiary weapons) of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCCW) in one specific instance: if it is used, on purpose, as an incendiary weapon directly against humans in a civilian setting.
There is plenty of evidence of Israel’s unlawful use of white phosphorus, and not just in Palestine. Amnesty International reported that the Israeli army fired artillery shells containing white phosphorus along Lebanon’s southern border in October 2023. Amnesty International want it investigating as a war crime because it was:
an indiscriminate attack that injured at least nine civilians.
Human Rights Watch also verified Israels’ use of white phosphorus on two locations along the Israel-Lebanon border and over Gaza City’s port.
According to various sources, ICL has been the sole provider of white phosphorus to the US Army. The US Army uses it to produce projectiles filled with the dangerous substance. In the US, ICL has a chemical manufacturing plant in St. Louis. The US government contracted ICL into producing white phosphorus for the US Army, for “a 5-year, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, fixed-price contract” at $3,342,150.
Amnesty has suggested that the US army may then be providing the projectiles to the Israeli Army – meaning it is complicit in their war crimes as they are used in highly populated areas such as Gaza.
It’s also worth noting, that there were reports of white phosphorus being shipped to Israel from a shipping service in Detroit. Specifically, this is owned by ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. Notably, ZIM’s parent company is also the Israel Corporation.
Roots in settler-colonialism
The state of Israel established ICL in 1968 as a government-owned company. In 1975, it took over other government owned entities including Dead Sea Works.
Dead Sea Works was originally ‘Palestine Potash’ and was founded by Moise Novomeysky, a Russian mining engineer and head of the Siberian Zionist Center. As early as the mid 1700’s the Palestinians had recognised the Dead Sea’s potential and engaged in salt farming on its shores.
However, Israel systematically excluded Palestinians from economic development in the region. Ultimately, this provided the Zionists the political capital they needed to further their settler-colonial aspirations.
Once Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, it quickly took large areas of land to secure the area around the Dead Sea. Israeli authorities manipulated land codes and stole Palestinian land, including the entire dead sea coastline. The Israeli government privatised ICL in 1992
Currently, ICL has 10 illegal quarries in the occupied West Bank, according to a report by the Israeli Ministry of Interior. Notably, ICL is also operating in the occupied Syrian Golan.
The UK is complicit
The Canary contacted ICL for comment, but they did not come back to us by the time of publication.
By allowing ICL to operate a mine in Yorkshire and sell its products in the UK, the country is helping fund the production of white phosphorus, so that Israel can kill and maim Palestinians.
This is only a part of the much bigger picture as ICL operates in 13 different countries across the globe. Each site allows it to build its revenue and ultimately, financially underpin its apartheid and genocide-abetting activities in Gaza and the West Bank.
ICL is also currently getting away with it’s questionable marketing of its polyhalite fertiliser – a prime example of greenwashing.
Jean-Marie Tjibaou, a revered Kanak visionary, was inspirational to indigenous Pacific political activists across Oceania, just like Tongan anthropologist and writer Epeli Hao’ofa was to cultural advocates.
Tragically, he was assassinated in 1989 by an opponent within the independence movement during the so-called “les événements” in New Caledonia, the last time the “French” Pacific territory was engulfed in a political upheaval such as experienced this week.
His memory and legacy as poet, cultural icon and peaceful political agitator live on with the impressive Tjibaou Cultural Centre on the outskirts of the capital Nouméa as a benchmark for how far New Caledonia had progressed in the last 35 years.
However, the wave of pro-independence protests that descended into urban rioting this week invoked more than Tjibaou’s memory. Many of the martyrs — such as schoolteacher turned security minister Eloï Machoro, murdered by French snipers during the upheaval of the 1980s — have been remembered and honoured for their exploits over the last few days with countless memes being shared on social media.
Among many memorable quotes by Tjibaou, this one comes to mind:
“White people consider that the Kanaks are part of the fauna, of the local fauna, of the primitive fauna. It’s a bit like rats, ants or mosquitoes,” he once said.
“Non-recognition and absence of cultural dialogue can only lead to suicide or revolt.”
And that is exactly what has come to pass this week in spite of all the warnings in recent years and months. A revolt.
Among the warnings were one by me in December 2021 after a failed third and “final” independence referendum. I wrote at the time about the French betrayal:
“After three decades of frustratingly slow progress but with a measure of quiet optimism over the decolonisation process unfolding under the Nouméa Accord, Kanaky New Caledonia is again poised on the edge of a precipice.”
As Paris once again reacts with a heavy-handed security crackdown, it appears to have not learned from history. It will never stifle the desire for independence by colonised peoples.
New Caledonia was annexed as a colony in 1853 and was a penal colony for convicts and political prisoners — mainly from Algeria — for much of the 19th century before gaining a degree of autonomy in 1946.
“Kanaky Palestine – same combat” solidarity placard. Image: APR screenshot
Here are my five takeaways from this week’s violence and frustration:
1. Global failure of neocolonialism – Palestine, Kanaky and West Papua
Just as we have witnessed a massive outpouring of protest on global streets for justice, self-determination and freedom for the people of Palestine as they struggle for independence after 76 years of Israeli settler colonialism, and also Melanesian West Papuans fighting for 61 years against Indonesian settler colonialism, Kanak independence aspirations are back on the world stage.
Neocolonialism has failed. French President Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to reverse the progress towards decolonisation over the past three decades has backfired in his face.
2. French deafness and loss of social capital
The predictions were already long there. Failure to listen to the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) leadership and to be prepared to be patient and negotiate towards a consensus has meant much of the crosscultural goodwill that been developed in the wake of the Nouméa Accord of 1998 has disappeared in a puff of smoke from the protest fires of the capital.
The immediate problem lies in the way the French government has railroaded the indigenous Kanak people who make up 42 percent pf the 270,000 population into a constitutional bill that “unfreezes” the electoral roll pegging voters to those living in New Caledonia at the time of the 1998 Nouméa Accord. Under the draft bill all those living in the territory for the past 10 years could vote.
Kanak leaders and activists who have been killed . . . Jean-Marie Tjibaou is bottom left, and Eloï Machoro is bottom right. Image: FLNKS/APR
This would add some 25,000 extra French voters in local elections, which would further marginalise Kanaks at a time when they hold the territorial presidency and a majority in the Congress in spite of their demographic disadvantage.
Under the Nouméa Accord, there was provision for three referendums on independence in 2018, 2020 and 2021. The first two recorded narrow (and reducing) votes against independence, but the third was effectively boycotted by Kanaks because they had suffered so severely in the 2021 delta covid pandemic and needed a year to mourn culturally.
The FLNKS and the groups called for a further referendum but the Macron administration and a court refused.
3. Devastating economic and social loss New Caledonia was already struggling economically with the nickel mining industry in crisis – the territory is the world’s third-largest producer. And now four days of rioting and protesting have left a trail of devastation in their wake.
At least five people have died in the rioting — three Kanaks, and two French police, apparently as a result of a barracks accident. A state of emergency was declared for at least 12 days.
But as economists and officials consider the dire consequences of the unrest, it will take many years to recover. According to Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) president David Guyenne, between 80 and 90 percent of the grocery distribution network in Nouméa had been “wiped out”. The chamber estimated damage at about 200 million euros (NZ$350 million).
Twin flags of Kanaky and Palestine flying from a Parisian rooftop. Image: APR
4. A new generation of youth leadership As we have seen with Generation Z in the forefront of stunning pro-Palestinian protests across more than 50 universities in the United States (and in many other countries as well, notably France, Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom), and a youthful generation of journalists in Gaza bearing witness to Israeli atrocities, youth has played a critical role in the Kanaky insurrection.
Australian peace studies professor Dr Nicole George notes that “the highly visible wealth disparities” in the territory “fuel resentment and the profound racial inequalities that deprive Kanak youths of opportunity and contribute to their alienation”.
A feature is the “unpredictability” of the current crisis compared with the 1980s “les événements”.
“In the 1980s, violent campaigns were coordinated by Kanak leaders . . . They were organised. They were controlled.
“In contrast, today it is the youth taking the lead and using violence because they feel they have no other choice. There is no coordination. They are acting through frustration and because they feel they have ‘no other means’ to be recognised.”
According to another academic, Dr Évelyne Barthou, a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Pau, who researched Kanak youth in a field study last year: “Many young people see opportunities slipping away from them to people from mainland France.
“This is just one example of the neocolonial logic to which New Caledonia remains prone today.”
Pan-Pacific independence solidarity . . . “Kanak People Maohi – same combat”. Image: APR screenshot
5. Policy rethink needed by Australia, New Zealand
Ironically, as the turbulence struck across New Caledonia this week, especially the white enclave of Nouméa, a whistlestop four-country New Zealand tour of Melanesia headed by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who also has the foreign affairs portfolio, was underway.
The first casualty of this tour was the scheduled visit to New Caledonia and photo ops demonstrating the limited diversity of the political entourage showed how out of depth New Zealand’s Pacific diplomacy had become with the current rightwing coalition government at the helm.
Heading home, Peters thanked the people and governments of Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Tuvalu for “working with New Zealand towards a more secure, more prosperous and more resilient tomorrow”.
The delegation is now heading home
Many thanks to the people and governments of Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu & Tuvalu for their kind hospitality – and for working with New Zealand towards a more secure, more prosperous & more resilient tomorrow.
His tweet came as New Caledonian officials and politicians were coming to terms with at least five deaths and the sheer scale of devastation in the capital which will rock New Caledonia for years to come.
News media in both Australia and New Zealand hardly covered themselves in glory either, with the commercial media either treating the crisis through the prism of threats to tourists and a superficial brush over the issues. Only the public media did a creditable job, New Zealand’s RNZ Pacific and Australia’s ABC Pacific and SBS.
In the case of New Zealand’s largest daily newspaper, The New Zealand Herald, it barely noticed the crisis. On Wednesday, morning there was not a word in the paper.
Thursday was not much better, with an “afterthought” report provided by a partnership with RNZ. As I reported it:
“Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest newspaper, the New Zealand Herald, finally catches up with the Pacific’s biggest news story after three days of crisis — the independence insurrection in #KanakyNewCaledonia.
“But unlike global news services such as Al Jazeera, which have featured it as headline news, the Herald tucked it at the bottom of page 2. Even then it wasn’t its own story, it was relying on a partnership report from RNZ.”
Also, New Zealand media reports largely focused too heavily on the “frustrations and fears” of more than 200 tourists and residents said to be in the territory this week, and provided very slim coverage of the core issues of the upheaval.
With all the warning signs in the Pacific over recent years — a series of riots in New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu — Australia and New Zealand need to wake up to the yawning gap in social indicators between the affluent and the impoverished, and the worsening climate crisis.
These are the real issues of the Pacific, not some fantasy about AUKUS and a perceived China threat in an unconvincing arena called “Indo-Pacific”.
Dr David Robie covered “Les Événements” in New Caledonia in the 1980s and penned the book Blood on their Banner about the turmoil. He also covered the 2018 independence referendum.
Loyalist French rally in New Caledonia . . . “Unfreezing is democracy”. Image: A PR screenshot
They were sparked by anger at a proposed new law that would allow French residents who have lived there for more than 10 years to vote — which critics say will weaken the Kanak vote.
Since then, five people have died, including two police officers, and hundreds have been injured in the French Pacific territory.
Late on Friday there were reports of clashes between police and rioters around a domestic airport near Nouméa, as New Caledonia’s capital entered its fourth night under curfew.
Local media reported rioters on the airfield at Magenta airport threw hammers and stones at police, and police responded with tear gas and stun grenades.
Police warned the military was authorised to use lethal weapons if they could not contain the situation otherwise. A local told RNZ Pacific the Kanaks were not going to back down, and things could get “nasty” in the coming days if the army could not contain the crisis.
New Zealanders feeling marooned Four friends from North Canterbury landed in Nouméa on Monday as part of a “lifetime dream” trip.
Shula and Wolf Guse, and Sarah and William Hughes-Games, were celebrating Shula’s birthday and Sarah and William’s 40th wedding anniversary.
But fresh off their flight, it became clear their celebrations would not be going ahead.
“As we left the airport, there were blocks just everywhere . . . burning tyres, and people stopping us, and lots of big rocks on the road, and branches, and people shouting, waving flags,” Shula Guse said.
They wanted to get out of there, but had barely heard a peep from New Zealand government organisation SafeTravel, Sarah Hughes-Games said.
“All they’ve done is send us a . . . general letter, nothing specific,” she said.
“We’ve contacted the New Zealand Consulate here in Nouméa, and they are closed. This is the one time they should be open and helping people.”
It was not good enough, she said.
“We’ve basically been just abandoned here, so we’re just feeling a little bit fed up about the situation, that we’ve just been left alone, and nobody has contacted us.”
It was unclear when they would be able to leave.
A looted supermarket in Nouméa’s Kenu-In neighbourhood. Image: NC la 1ère TV/RNZ
Struggling to find food
Meanwhile, another person told RNZ they had family stuck in Nouméa who had registered on SafeTravel, but had heard nothing more from the government. They were struggling to find food and were feeling uneasy, they said.
“They don’t know where to go now and there seems to be no help from anywhere.”
“Even when the airport does reopen, Air New Zealand will only operate into Nouméa when we can be assured that the airport is safe and secure, and that there is a safe route for our ground staff and customers to reach the airport,” it said.
MFAT in ‘regular contact’ with impacted New Zealanders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it had activated its emergency crisis system, and consular officials in Nouméa were in regular contact with impacted New Zealanders, New Caledonia authorities, and “international partners”.
The Consulate-General was open, but staff were working remotely because it was hard to get around, it said. Those who needed immediate consular assistance should contact the 24/7 Consular Emergency line on +64 99 20 20 20.
“An in-person meeting was held for a large group of New Zealanders in Nouméa yesterday [Thursday, 16 May 16] and further meetings are taking place today,” a spokesperson said.
“Consular officials are also proactively attempting to contact registered New Zealanders in New Caledonia to check on their situations, and any specific health or welfare concerns.
“Regular SafeTravel messages are also being sent to New Zealanders — we urge New Zealanders to register on SafeTravel to receive direct messages from consular officials.”
The ministry was also speaking regularly with New Caledonian authorities about airport operations and access, and access to critical supplies like food and medicine.
“New Zealanders in New Caledonia should stay in place and avoid all protests, monitor local media for developments, and comply with any instructions and restrictions issued by local authorities.”
There are currently 219 New Zealanders registered on SafeTravel as being in New Caledonia.
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told RNZ Morning Report the government was doing all it could to get New Zealanders home.
That could include using the Air Force, he said.
The Defence Force confirmed there had been discussions with officials.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
On 16 May, EachOther and LUSH launched a national campaign to educate the public on human rights issues and to survey them on perceptions of human rights issues in the UK.
Human rights: Tories eroding our protections
EachOther, the UK’s weekly human rights publication, has partnered with the ethical cosmetic brand LUSH to deliver a message ahead of the upcoming general election: “Don’t make human rights a dirty word”.
In the last five years, the UK has witnessed an increase in threats to minimise, remove or replace human rights laws in the UK – by the government. These are laws that currently protect all of our day-to-day lives and are there as a safety net should we ever need them.
Over the last decade, the UK government has proposed withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – which is now a genuine threat.
In January 2024, Siofra O’Leary, president of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), issued a warning to the prime minister that he would be breaking international human rights law if the government ignored orders from the court not to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Once again, our rights are on the line
However, Rishi Sunak has stated that he will not rule out withdrawing the UK from the ECHR, a move that would put us on a bench with Belarus and Russia. It would be the first time a nation broke away from human rights legislation it helped write.
LUSH and EachOther: reminding the public we do have rights
As we move nearer to a general election, misinformation, damaging rhetoric, and threats to withdraw from the ECHR are ever-present. Now, it is as vital as ever to protect each other’s rights – but to do that we need your support.
That’s why EachOther have teamed up with LUSH to deliver a campaign to educate people on human rights, counter misinformation and survey the public on their perceptions of human rights issues in the UK.
Emma Guy, EachOther’s editor in chief, stated:
The majority of the public (two-thirds) say they have little or no confidence that they have a say on the decisions made by the government – this is a growing concern for decision making on human rights issues in the UK.
Over the past four years, human rights have increasingly been presented in a negative light. The way we talk about certain issues is important because it can be used for political gain, to fuel misinformation or to misrepresent something or someone.
Guy continued:
Today is the start of reminding ourselves that collectively, we can recognise our rights, invoke them and continue to educate each other about them – to protect them for future generations.
Don’t make human rights a dirty word
EachOther and LUSH have created a product, a shower-powder (showder) called ‘Human rights’ which will be available in UK LUSH stores from 16 May-2 June.
‘Human rights’ will be used as a lighthearted way to start conversations with the public about this serious issue and raise funds for EachOther’s vital work, with the sales price of £14 (minus VAT) of each box sold donated to the charity.
Alongside the product launch, EachOthers’s new briefing paper outlines the damaging rhetoric used to make human rights a dirty word in the UK.
A boxed product was chosen as a means to impart important information about the campaign, as well as to invite people to share their views on human rights with EachOther, via a survey that they can access through a QR code on the back of the box (and in-store signage).
The front of the box reads “Essential Human Rights for Everyone” and states that human rights contains “Equality, Compassion, Humanity and Respect” (ECHR), which is exactly what the European Convention on Human Rights, that Sunak is threatening to withdraw us from, is all about.
The box design also forms the basis of the windows that will be appearing in all LUSH stores, with a lightbox featuring the artwork from the front of the box and bubbles around it reading:
Tough on Discrimination, Gentle on humanity, Smells like Freedom, Wash Away Inequality.
People are invited to get involved and “Protect your rights with EachOther.org.uk“
LUSH campaigns manager Andrew Butler stated:
LUSH has a long history of championing human rights around the world, and we feel it is vital to stand up for our rights. In the UK we are faced with a worrying and sustained attack on our essential human rights, from the right to protest to the right to hold the government to account.
These rights exist to protect us all but are especially important to protect those who are already marginalised and therefore more likely to suffer abuse and exploitation. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us, so we stand together with EachOther to demand human rights protections for everyone.
Featured image and additional images via EachOther
Campaigners say move to use the arts to reinforce economic ties with Riyadh may help to launder Gulf state’s human rights record
It was an unusual gig for YolanDa Brown, the saxophonist and composer who this week performed high above the clouds for a UK delegation on a private British Airways plane bound for Saudi Arabia.
The flight was part of a trade offensive for British businesses and institutions in Riyadh, with Brown’s performance part of a new focus for Saudi-UK relations – international arts.
Air New Zealand has confirmed Nouméa’s Tontouta International airport in New Caledonia is closed until Tuesday.
The airline earlier told RNZ it would update customers as soon as it could.
Earlier today, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told RNZ Morning Report government officials had been working on an “hourly basis” to see what could be done to help New Zealanders wanting to leave.
RNZ Pacific said there were food and fuel shortages as well as problems accessing medications and healthcare services.
Biggest concerns Before the closure of the airport, Wellington researcher Barbara Graham — who has been in Nouméa for five weeks — said the main issue was “the road to the airport . . . and I understand it still impassable because of the danger there, the roadblocks and the violent groups of people”.
Airlines were looking to taking bigger planes to get more people out and were working with the airport to ensure the ground crew were also available, Graham said.
She said she was reasonably distant from the violence but had seen the devastation when moving accommodation.
Wellingtonian Emma Royland was staying at the University of New Caledonia and hoped to wait out the civil unrest, if she could procure enough food.
“Ideally the university will step in to take care of us, ideally although we must admit that the university themselves are also under a lot of hardship and they also will be having difficulties sourcing the food.”
The couple of hundred students at the university were provided with instant noodles, chips and biscuits, Royland said.
She went into town to try and find food but there were shortages and long queues, she said.
“It probably is one of my biggest concerns is actually being able to get into the city, as I stand here I can see the smoke obscuring the city from last night’s riots and it is a very big concern of being able to get that food, that would be the only reason that I would have to leave New Caledonia.”
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.
Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai — who is also Chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Group — has reaffirmed MSG’s support of the pro-independence umbrella group Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) stance opposing the French government’s constitutional bill “unfreezing” the New Caledonia Electoral Roll.
It is also opposed to the proposed changes to the citizens’ electorate and the changes to the distribution of seats in Congress, reports the Vanuatu Daily Post.
In a statement yesterday, he expressed “sadness” over the “unfortunate happenings that have befallen New Caledonia over the last few days”, referring to the riots sparked by protests over the French law changes.
Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai . . . support for the FLNKS independence movement. Image: Loop Vanuatu
Salwai expressed support for the FLNKS call for calm, and shared the FLNKS’s condemnation of the violence.
The MSG Chair said in the statement that the indiscriminate destruction of property would affect New Caledonia’s economy in a “very big way” and that would have a “debilitating cascading effect on the welfare and lives of all New Caledonians, including the Kanaks”.
Consistent with the support recorded during the MSG Senior Officials Meeting and the MSG Foreign Ministers Meeting in March this year, Salwai reaffirmed that the French government “must withdraw or annul the Constitutional Bill that has precipitated these regrettable events in New Caledonia”.
“These events could have been avoided if the French government had listened and not proceeded to press forward with the Constitutional Bill aimed at unfreezing the electoral roll, modifying the citizen’s electorate, and changing the distribution of seats in Congress,” the statement said.
“There is [a] need for the French government to return to the spirit of the Noumea Accord in its dealings relating to New Caledonia,” Salwai said.
The MSG Chair added that there was an urgent need now for France to agree to the proposal by the FLNKS to establish a dialogue and mediation mission to discuss a way forward so that normalcy could be restored quickly and an enduring peace could prevail in New Caledonia.
The statement was signed by Salwai and Vanuatu’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Matai Seremaiah.
Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai — who is also Chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Group — has reaffirmed MSG’s support of the pro-independence umbrella group Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) stance opposing the French government’s constitutional bill “unfreezing” the New Caledonia Electoral Roll.
It is also opposed to the proposed changes to the citizens’ electorate and the changes to the distribution of seats in Congress, reports the Vanuatu Daily Post.
In a statement yesterday, he expressed “sadness” over the “unfortunate happenings that have befallen New Caledonia over the last few days”, referring to the riots sparked by protests over the French law changes.
Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai . . . support for the FLNKS independence movement. Image: Loop Vanuatu
Salwai expressed support for the FLNKS call for calm, and shared the FLNKS’s condemnation of the violence.
The MSG Chair said in the statement that the indiscriminate destruction of property would affect New Caledonia’s economy in a “very big way” and that would have a “debilitating cascading effect on the welfare and lives of all New Caledonians, including the Kanaks”.
Consistent with the support recorded during the MSG Senior Officials Meeting and the MSG Foreign Ministers Meeting in March this year, Salwai reaffirmed that the French government “must withdraw or annul the Constitutional Bill that has precipitated these regrettable events in New Caledonia”.
“These events could have been avoided if the French government had listened and not proceeded to press forward with the Constitutional Bill aimed at unfreezing the electoral roll, modifying the citizen’s electorate, and changing the distribution of seats in Congress,” the statement said.
“There is [a] need for the French government to return to the spirit of the Noumea Accord in its dealings relating to New Caledonia,” Salwai said.
The MSG Chair added that there was an urgent need now for France to agree to the proposal by the FLNKS to establish a dialogue and mediation mission to discuss a way forward so that normalcy could be restored quickly and an enduring peace could prevail in New Caledonia.
The statement was signed by Salwai and Vanuatu’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Matai Seremaiah.
The suspected ringleaders of the unrest in New Caledonia have been placed in home detention and the social network TikTok has been banned as French security forces struggle to restore law and order.
The death toll has been revised today to five people after officials confirmed the death of a second police officer. However, RNZ Pacific understands it was an accidental killing which occurred as troops were preparing to leave barracks.
A newly introduced state of emergency has enabled suspected ringleaders to be placed in home detention, as well as a ban on Tiktok to be put in place.
French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said Nouméa remained the “hottest spot” with some 3000-4000 rioters still in action on the streets of the capital Nouméa and another 5000 in the Greater Nouméa area.
Wea told RNZ Pacific the demonstrators “were very angry when their friends and families had been killed”.
‘Shops still closed’
“Shops are still closed. Many houses have been burnt. The international airport is closed, only military planes are allowed to land from Paris.”
Reports RNZ Pacific are receiving from the capital paint a dire picture. Shops are running out of food and hospitals are calling for blood donations.
Enforcing the state of emergency in New Caledonia. Video: [in French] Caledonia TV
“This morning [Thursday] a few shops have been opened so people can buy some food to eat,” Wea said.
RNZ Pacific former news editor Walter Zweifel, who has been covering the French Pacific territory for over three decades, said New Caledonia had not seen unrest like this since the 1980s.
The number of guns circulating in the community was a major problem as people continued to carry firearms despite a government ban, he said.
“There are so many firearms in circulation, attempts to limit the number of weapons have been made over the years unsuccessfully.
“We are talking about roughly 100,000 arms or rifles in circulation in New Caledonia with a population of less than 300,000.”
French armed forces started to arrive in Nouméa yesterday in the wake of the rioting. Image: NC la 1ère screenshot APR
More details about fatalities One of the four people earlier reported dead was a French gendarme, who was reported to have been shot in the head.
“The other three are all Melanesians,” Le Franc said.
One was a 36-year-old Kanak man, another a 20-year-old man and the third was a 17-year-old girl.
The deaths occurred during a clash with one of the newly formed “civil defence” groups, who were carrying guns, Le Franc said.
“Those who have committed these crimes are assassins. They are individuals who have used firearms.
“Maintaining law and order is a matter for professionals, police and gendarmes.”
Le Franc added: “We will look for them and we will find them anyway, so I’m calling them to surrender right now . .. so that justice can take its course.”
‘Mafia-like, violent organisation’ French Home Affairs and Overseas minister Gérald Darmanin told public TV channel France 2 he had placed 10 leaders of the CCAT (an organisation linked to the pro-independence FLNKS movement and who Darmanin believed to be the main organiser of the riots) under home detention.
“This is a Mafia-like body which I do not amalgamate with political pro-independence parties . . . [CCAT] is a group that claims itself to be pro-independence and commits looting, murders and violence,” he said.
Similar measures would be taken against other presumed leaders over the course of the day [Thursday French time].
“I have numerous elements which show this is a Mafia-like, violent organisation that loots stores and shoots real bullets at [French] gendarmes, sets businesses on fire and attacks even pro-independence institutions,” Darmanin told France 2.
Massive reinforcements were to arrive shortly and the French state would “totally regain control”, he said.
The number of police and gendarmes on the ground would rise from 1700 to 2700 by Friday night.
Darmanin also said he would request that all legitimate political party leaders across the local spectrum be placed under the protection of police or special intervention group members.
Pointing fingers Earlier on Thursday, speaking in Nouméa, Le Franc targeted the CCAT, saying there was no communication between the French State and CCAT, but that “we are currently trying to locate them”.
“This is a group of hooligans who wish to kill police, gendarmes. This has nothing to do with FLNKS political formations which are perfectly legitimate.
“But this CCAT structure is no longer relevant. Those who are at the helm of this cell are all responsible. They will have to answer to the courts,” he said.
Burnt out cars in New Caledonia during the civil unrest. Image: Twitter/@ncla1ere
However, CCAT has said it had called for calm.
Wea said the CCAT “did not tell the people to steal or break”.
The problem was that the French government “did not want to listen”, he said.
“The FLNKS has said for months not to go through with this bill.
France ‘not recognising responsibility’
“It is easy to say the CCAT are responsible, but the French government does not want to recognise their responsibility.”
Wea said he was hopeful for a peaceful resolution.
The FLNKS had always said that the next discussion with the French government would need to be around the continued management and organisation of the country for the next five years, he said.
The FLNKS also wanted to talk about the process of decolonisation.
“It is important to note that the [Pacific Islands Forum] and also the Melanesian Spearhead Group have always supported the independence of New Caledonia because independence is in the agenda of the United Nation.”
The Melanesian Spearhead Group and Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Charlot Salwai called on the French government to withdraw or annul the proposed constitutional amendments that sparked the civil unrest.
French President Emmanuel Macron said from Paris, where a meeting of a national defence council was now taking place every day, that he wished to hold a video conference with all of New Caledonia’s political leaders in order to assess the current situation.
A looted supermarket in Nouméa’s Kenu-In neighbourhood. Image: NC la 1ère TV/RNZ
But Wea said the problem was that “the French government don’t want to listen”.
“You cannot stop the Kanak people claiming freedom in their own country.”
He said concerns were mounting that Kanak people would “become a minority in their own country”.
That was why it was so important that the controversial constitutional amendments did not go any further, he said.
Economic impact In the face of massive damage caused to the local economy, Southern Province President Sonia Backès has pleaded with French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal for a “special reconstruction fund” to be set up for New Caledonia’s businesses.
“The local Chamber of Commerce estimates that initial damage to our economy amounts to some 150 million euros [NZ$267 million],” she wrote.
All commercial flights in and out of Nouméa-La Tontouta International Airport remain cancelled.
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.
New Caledonia’s capital city, Nouméa, has endured widespread violent rioting over the past three days. This crisis intensified rapidly, taking local authorities by surprise.
Peaceful protests had been occurring across the country in the preceding weeks as the French National Assembly in Paris deliberated on a constitutional amendment that would increase the territory’s electoral roll.
As the date for the vote — last Tuesday — grew closer, however, protests became more obstructive and by Monday night had spiralled into uncontrolled violence.
Since then, countless public buildings, business locations and private dwellings have been subjected to arson. Blockades erected by protesters prevent movement around greater Nouméa.
Four people have died. Security reinforcements have been deployed, the city is under nightly curfew, and a state of emergency has been declared. Citizens in many areas of Nouméa are now also establishing their own neighbourhood protection militias.
To understand how this situation has spiralled so quickly, it’s important to consider the complex currents of political and socioeconomic alienation at play.
The political dispute At one level, the crisis is political, reflecting contention over a constitutional vote taken in Paris that will expand citizens’ voting rights. The change adds roughly 25,000 voters to the electoral role in New Caledonia by extending voting rights to French people who have lived on the island for 10 years.
This reform makes clear the political power that France continues to exercise over the territory.
The death toll has now increased to four.
The current changes have proven divisive because they undo provisions in the 1998 Noumea Accord, particularly the restriction of voting rights. The accord was designed to “rebalance” political inequalities so the interests of Indigenous Kanaks and the descendants of French settlers would be equally recognised.
This helped to consolidate peace between these groups after a long period of conflict in the 1980s, known locally as “les événements”.
A loyalist group of elected representatives in New Caledonia’s Parliament reject the contemporary significance of “rebalancing” (in French “rééquilibrage”) with regard to the electoral status of Kanak people. They argue after three referendums on the question of New Caledonian independence — held between 2018 and 2021 — all of which produced a majority no vote, the time for electoral reform is well overdue.
This position is made clear by Nicolas Metzdorf. A key rightwing loyalist, he defined the constitutional amendment, which was passed by the National Assembly in Paris on Tuesday, as a vote for democracy and “universalism”.
Yet this view is roundly rejected by Kanak pro-independence leaders who say these amendments undermine the political status of Indigenous Kanak people, who constitute a minority of the voting population. These leaders also refuse to accept that the decolonisation agenda has been concluded, as loyalists assert.
Instead, they dispute the outcome of the final 2021 referendum which, they argue, was forced on the territory by French authorities too soon after the outbreak of the covid pandemic. This disregarded the fact that Kanak communities bore disproportionate impacts of the pandemic and were unable to fully mobilise before the vote.
Demands that the referendum be delayed were rejected, and many Kanak people abstained as a result.
In this context, the disputed electoral reforms decided in Paris this week are seen by pro-independence camps as yet another political prescription imposed on Kanak people. A leading figure of one Indigenous Kanak women’s organisation described the vote to me as a solution that pushes “Kanak people into the gutter”, one that would have “us living on our knees”.
#NewCaledonia: At least four have been killed during riots in the French territory of New Caledonia after #France introduced new constitutional reforms. The reforms allow French residents of the island voting rights after 10 years of residence, with indigenous Kanak people… pic.twitter.com/QVG7fLFybp
Beyond the politics Many political commentators are likening the violence observed in recent days to the political violence of les événementsof the 1980s, which exacted a heavy toll on the country. Yet this is disputed by local women leaders with whom I am in conversation, who have encouraged me to look beyond the central political factors in analysing this crisis.
Some female leaders reject the view this violence is simply an echo of past political grievances. They point to the highly visible wealth disparities in the country.
These fuel resentment and the profound racial inequalities that deprive Kanak youths of opportunity and contribute to their alienation.
Women have also told me they are concerned about the unpredictability of the current situation. In the 1980s, violent campaigns were coordinated by Kanak leaders, they tell me. They were organised. They were controlled.
In contrast, today it is the youth taking the lead and using violence because they feel they have no other choice. There is no coordination. They are acting through frustration and because they feel they have “no other means” to be recognised.
There is also frustration with political leaders on all sides. Late on Wednesday, Kanak pro-independence political leaders held a press conference. They echoed their loyalist political opponents in condemning the violence and issuing calls for dialogue.
The leaders made specific calls to the “youths” engaged in the violence to respect the importance of a political process and warned against a logic of vengeance.
The women civil society leaders I have been speaking to were frustrated by the weakness of this messaging. The women say political leaders on all sides have failed to address the realities faced by Kanak youths.
They argue if dialogue remains simply focused on the political roots of the dispute, and only involves the same elites that have dominated the debate so far, little will be understood and little will be resolved.
Likewise, they lament the heaviness of the current “command and control” state security response. It contradicts the calls for dialogue and makes little room for civil society participation of any sort.
These approaches put a lid on grievances, but they do not resolve them. Women leaders observing the current situation are anguished and heartbroken for their country and its people. They say if the crisis is to be resolved sustainably, the solutions cannot be imposed and the words cannot be empty.
Instead, they call for the space to be heard and to contribute to a resolution. Until that time they live with anxiety and uncertainty, waiting for the fires to subside, and the smoke currently hanging over a wounded Nouméa to clear.
Human rights defenders and civil society are the voices of our communities. These voices must be at the heart of decision and policy making at all levels. Yet, some States and non-states actors feel those voices are too loud. Cao Shunli, Chinese human rights defender, victim of reprisals who died in detention 10 years ago. Around the world, inspiring voices echo Cao’s ambition, on different issues and in different contexts, but with the same aspiration: promoting and protecting human rights. In so doing, many have engaged with the United Nations to share evidence of abuses with experts and States. Regrettably, some are facing the same form of reprisals as Cao, and are now arbitrarily detained.
These include Trang in Viet Nam, Irfan and Khurram in India and Abdulhadi in Bahrain.
It’s time to take a stand. Join us in our campaign to #EndReprisals and call for the release of Trang, Abdulhadi, Khurram and Irfan. Let’s ensure that no one else faces Cao’s fate. Their voices deserve to be heard, and their freedom and lives must be protected.
Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja
Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja is a Bahraini-Danish advocate known for his unwavering commitment to freedom and democracy. An outspoken human rights defender he serves as a source of inspiration for activists in Bahrain and globally. Abdulhadi has protested Bahrain’s unlawful detention and torture of several civilians since he was a student. He received political asylum in Denmark with his family where he continued his advocacy work, documenting human rights violations in Bahrain.
Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja was included for five times in the Secretary-General report on reprisals, noting “allegations of arbitrary arrest, torture and lengthy sentence following his engagement with United Nations human rights mechanisms.” In 2012, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found the detention of Abdulhadi arbitrary.
Pham Doan Trang is an author, blogger, journalist and pro-democracy activist from Viet Nam. She is a well-known advocate for human rights and has written on a wide range of human rights topics, including LGBTQI+ rights, women’s rights, environmental issues and on the suppression of activists.
She is considered among the most influential and respected human rights defenders in Viet Nam today. She has always been a major source of inspiration and mentorship for Vietnamese civil society and the next generation of human rights defenders.
Trang was prosecuted for her articles and reports on the human rights situation in Viet Nam, including an analysis of a 2016 report on the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Plant environmental disaster that was shared with the United Nations. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/pham-doan-trang/
Trang was the subject of several communications by special procedures mandate holders and an Opinion by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2021, which found her deprivation of liberty arbitrary. On 2 November 2022, experts addressed Trang’s detention, including restriction of her right to family visits and her deteriorating health status.
Irfan Mehraj and Khurram Parvez
Khurram Parvez and Irfan Mehraj are two Kashmiri human rights defenders. They have conducted ground-breaking and extensive human rights documentation in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, including through their work within the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) – Khurram as founder and programme coordinator, and Irfan as a researcher.
On 22 November 2021, Khurram was arrested again by the Indian Government, this time by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other laws, reportedly on allegations of “terrorism funding, being a member of a terrorist organisation, criminal conspiracy, and waging war against the state.” He remains in arbitrary detention to this day.
Meanwhile, on 20 March 2023, Irfan was summoned for questioning and arbitrarily detained by the NIA in Srinagar also under provisions of the UAPA and other laws. The NIA targeted Irfan for being ‘a close associate of Khurram Parvez.’ Both Khurram and Irfan are presently in pre-trial detention in the maximum-security Rohini prison in New Delhi, India. If convicted, Khurram and Irfan could face life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
Khurram’s situation has been included in the Secretary-General’s report on reprisals since 2017 and Irfan’s case was included in the 2023 report.
In June 2023, United Nations experts expressed serious concerns regarding the charges against and arrest of Irfan and Khurram, stating that their continued detention is ‘designed to delegitimise their human rights work and obstruct monitoring of the human rights situation in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.’ The United Nation Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) published an opinion in the same year, finding Khurram’s detention arbitrary.
What do we want? It’s simple. We want Irfan, Khurram, Trang and Abduhadi to be freed so they can continue their work without fear of further reprisals, and we want accountability for Cao.
How do we achieve this?
We mobilise diplomatic missions, encouraging them to speak out and raise individual cases of reprisals against defenders at the UN and in other spaces and hold their peers to account. We convince the UN Secretary General and his team to acknowledge and document ALL cases of reprisal and intimidation by including them in his annual report on reprisals and intimidation against defenders engaging or seeking to engage with the UN and its human rights mechanisms. We push the UN system to establish clearer protocols on how to consistently and effectively prevent, respond and follow up on cases of reprisals. We encourage governments, activists, and concerned individuals to stand in solidarity with human rights defenders and organisations who are subjected to reprisals and intimidations.
What can you do?
To achieve our goals, we are drawing attention to some of the most emblematic cases of reprisals that illustrate how human rights defenders are prevented from or punished for engaging with the UN. Here are impactful actions you can take:
In order to assist stakeholders with research, analysis and action on cases of reprisals and intimidation, ISHR launched an online database compiling cases or situations of intimidation and reprisals documented by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General between 2010 and 2020.
878 Cases of intimidation and reprisals against human rights defenders engaging with the UN reported by the UN Secretary General between 2010 and 2020.
81 Countries were cases of reprisals were documented by the UN Secretary-General between 2010 and 2020.
13 Reports published by the UN Secretary General on intimidation and reprisals.
Red Cross officials are to hold talks with the UK over a Foreign Office plan to visit Palestinian detainees held by Israel. Critics say this bypasses a duty on Israel under the Geneva conventions to give the Red Cross access to detainees.
Israel has suspended the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from access to Palestinian detainees since the Hamas attack on 7 October, and says it will not rescind the policy until Hamas grants access to Israeli hostages.
Mozilla is highlighting each year the work of 25 digital leaders using technology to amplify voices, effect change, and build new technologies globally through its Rise 25 Awards. On 13 May 2024 was the turn of Raphael Mimoun, a builder dedicated to making tools that empower journalists and human rights defenders. Aron Yohannes talked with Raphael about the launch of his app, Tella, combatting misinformation online, the future of social media platforms and more.
Raphael Mimoun: So I never worked in tech per se and only developed a passion for technology as I was working in human rights. It was really a time when, basically, the power of technology to support movements and to head movements around the world was kind of getting fully understood. You had the Arab Spring, you had Occupy Wall Street, you had all of these movements for social justice, for democracy, for human rights, that were very much kind of spread through technology, right? Technology played a very, very important role. But just after that, it was kind of like a hangover where we all realized, “OK, it’s not just all good and fine.” You also have the flip side, which is government spying on the citizens, identifying citizens through social media, through hacking, and so on and so forth — harassing them, repressing them online, but translating into offline violence, repression, and so on. And so I think that was the moment where I was like, “OK, there is something that needs to be done around technology,” specifically for those people who are on the front lines because if we just treat it as a tool — one of those neutral tools — we end up getting very vulnerable to violence, and it can be from the state, it can also be from online mobs, armed groups, all sort of things.
There’s so much misinformation out there now that it’s so much harder to tell the difference between what’s real and fake news. Twitter was such a reliable tool of information before, but that’s changed. Do you think that any of these other platforms can be able to help make up for so much of the misinformation that is out there?
I think we all feel the weight of that loss of losing Twitter. Twitter was always a large corporation, partially owned by a billionaire. It was never kind of a community tool, but there was still an ethos, right? Like a philosophy, or the values of the platform were still very much like community-oriented, right? It was that place for activists and human rights defenders and journalists and communities in general to voice their opinions. So I think that loss was very hard on all of us.
I see a lot of misinformation on Instagram as well. There is very little moderation there. It’s also all visual, so if you want traction, you’re going to try to put something that is very spectacular that is very eye catchy, and so I think that leads to even more misinformation.
I am pretty optimistic about some of the alternatives that have popped up since Twitter’s downfall. Mastodon actually blew up after Twitter, but it’s much older — I think it’s 10 years old by now. And there’s Bluesky. So I think those two are building up, and they offer spaces that are much more decentralized with much more autonomy and agency to users. You are more likely to be able to customize your feeds. You are more likely to have tools for your own safety online, right? All of those different things that I feel like you could never get on Threads, on Instagram or on Twitter, or anything like that. I’m hoping it’s actually going to be able to recreate the community that is very much what Twitter was. It’s never going to be exactly the same thing, but I’m hoping we will get there. And I think the fact that it is decentralized, open source and with very much a philosophy of agency and autonomy is going to lead us to a place where these social networks can’t actually be taken over by a power hungry billionaire.
What do you think is the biggest challenge that we face in the world this year on and offline, and then how do you think we can combat it?
I don’t know if that’s the biggest challenge, but one of the really big challenges that we’re seeing is how the digital is meeting real life and how people who are active online or on the phone on the computer are getting repressed for that work in real life. So we developed an app called Tella, which encrypts and hides files on your phone, right? So you take a photo or a video of a demonstration or police violence, or whatever it is, and then if the police tries to catch you and grab your phone to delete it, they won’t be able to find it, or at least it will be much more difficult to find it. Or it would be uploaded already. And things like that, I think is one of the big things that we’re seeing again. I don’t know if that the biggest challenge online at the moment, but one of the big things we’re seeing is just that it’s becoming completely normalized to grab someone’s phone or check someone’s computer at the airport, or at the border, in the street and go through it without any form of accountability. People have no idea what the regulations are, what the rules are, what’s allowed, what’s not allowed. And when they abuse those powers, is there any recourse? Most places in the world, at least, where we are working, there is definitely no recourse. And so I think that connection between thinking you’re just taking a photo for social media but actually the repercussion is so real because you’re going to have someone take your phone, and maybe they’re going to delete the photo, or maybe they’re going to detain you. Or maybe they’re going to beat you up — like all of those different things. I think this is one of the big challenges that we’re seeing at the moment, and something that isn’t traditionally thought of as an internet issue or an online digital rights issue because it’s someone taking a physical device and looking through it. It often gets overlooked, and then we don’t have much kind of advocacy around it, or anything like that.
What do you think is one action everybody can take to make the world and our lives online a little bit better?
I think social media has a lot of negative consequences for everyone’s mental health and many other things, but for people who are active and who want to be active, consider social networks that are open source, privacy-friendly and decentralized. Bluesky, the Fediverse —including Mastodon — are examples because I think it’s our responsibility to kind of build up a community there, so we can move away from those social media platforms that are owned by either billionaires or massive corporations, who only want to extract value from us and who spy on us and who censor us. And I feel like if everyone committed to being active on those social media platforms — one way of doing that is just having an account, and whatever you post on one, you just post on the other — I feel like that’s one thing that can make a big difference in the long run.
We started Rise25 to celebrate Mozilla’s 25th anniversary. What do you hope that people are celebrating in the next 25 years?
I was talking a little bit earlier about how we are building a culture that is more privacy-centric, like people are becoming aware, becoming wary about all these things happening to the data, the identity, and so on. And I do think we are at a turning point in terms of the technology that’s available to us, the practices and what we need as users to maintain our privacy and our security. I feel like in honestly not even 25, I think in 10 years, if things go well — which it’s hard to know in this field — and if we keep on building what we already are building, I can see how we will have an internet that is a lot more privacy-centric where communications are by default are private. Where end-to-end encryption is ubiquitous in our communication, in our emailing. Where social media isn’t extractive and people have actual ownership and agency in the social network networks they use. Where data mining is no longer a thing. I feel like overall, I can see how the infrastructure is now getting built, and that in 10,15 or 25 years, we will be in a place where we can use the internet without having to constantly watch over our shoulder to see if someone is spying on us or seeing who has access and all of those things.
Lastly, what gives you hope about the future of our world?
That people are not getting complacent and that it is always people who are standing up to fight back. We’re seeing it at. We saw it at Google with people standing up as part of No Tech for Apartheid coalition and people losing the jobs. We’re seeing it on university campuses around the country. We’re seeing it on the streets. People fight back. That’s where any change has ever come from: the bottom up. I think now, more than ever, people are willing to put something on the line to make sure that they defend their rights. So I think that really gives me hope.
Nikole Yanez is a computer scientist by training, and a human rights defender from Honduras. She is passionate about feminism, the impact of the internet and protecting activists. She was first drawn to human rights through her work as a reporter with a local community radio station. After surviving the coup d’état in Honduras in 2009, Nikole broadened her approach to focus her activism on technology. When she applied for the Digital Forensics Fellowship with the Amnesty Tech Security Lab in 2022, she was looking to learn more about cybersecurity and apply what she learnt with the organizations and collectives she works with regularly.
She highlighted her commitment to fostering a network of tech-savvy communities across Latin America in an interview with Elina Castillo, Amnesty Tech’s Advocacy and Policy Advisor:
I grew up in Honduras, where I lived through the coup d’état, which took place in 2009. It was a difficult time where rights were non-existent, and people were constantly afraid. I thought it was something you only read about in history books, but it was happening in front of my eyes. I felt myself just trying to survive, but as time went by it made me stronger and want to fight for justice. Despite the difficulties, people in my community remained hopeful and we created a community radio station, which broadcast stories about everyday people and their lives with the aim of informing people about their human rights. I was a reporter, developing stories about individual people and their fight for their rights. From there, I found a passion for working with technology and it inspired me to train to become a computer scientist.
I am always looking for ways to connect technology with activism, and specifically to support women and Indigenous people in their struggles. As much as technology presents risks for human rights defenders, it also offers opportunities for us to better protect ourselves and strengthen our movements. Technology can bring more visibility to our movements, and it can empower our work by allowing us to connect with other people and learn new strategies.
Is there one moment where you realized how to connect what you’ve been doing with feminism with technology?
In my work, my perspective as a feminist helps me centre the experiences and needs of marginalised people for trainings and outreach. It is important for me to publicly identify as an Afrofeminist in a society where there is impunity for gendered and racist violence that occurs every day. In Honduras we need to put our energy into supporting these communities whose rights are most violated, and whose stories are invisible.
For example, in 2006, I was working with a Union to install the Ubuntu operating system (an open-source operating system) on their computers. We realized that the unionists didn’t know how to use a computer, so we created a space for digital literacy and learning about how to use a computer at the same time. This became not just a teaching exercise, but an exercise for me to figure out how to connect these tools to what people are interested in. Something clicked for me in this moment, and this experience helped solidify my approach to working on technology and human rights.
There are not many women working in technology and human rights. I don’t want to be one of the only women, so my goal is to see more women colleagues working on technical issues. I want to make it possible for women to work in this field. I also want to motivate more women to create change within the intersection of technology and human rights. Using a feminist perspective and approach, we ask big questions about how we are doing the work, what our approach needs to be, and who we need to work with. Nikole Yanez Honduras Human Rights Defender
For me, building a feminist internet means building an internet for everyone. This means creating a space where we do not reproduce sexist violence, where we find a community that responds to the people, to the groups, and to the organizations that fight for human rights. This includes involving women and marginalised people in building the infrastructure, in the configuration of servers, and in the development of protocols for how we use all these tools.
In Honduras, there aren’t many people trained in digital forensics analysis, yet there are organizations that are always seeking me out to help check their phones. The fellowship helped me learn about forensic analysis on phones and computers and tied the learning to what I’m actually doing in my area with different organizations and women’s rights defenders. The fellowship was practical and rooted in the experience of civil society organizations.
How do you explain the importance of digital forensics? Well first, it’s incredibly relevant for women rights defenders. Everyone wants to know if their phone has been hacked. That’s the first thing they ask:, “Can you actually know whether your phone has been hacked?” and “How do I know? Can you do it for me? How?” Those are the things that come up in my trainings and conversations.
I like to help people to think about protection as a process, something ongoing, because we use technology all day long. There are organizations and people that take years to understand that. So, it’s not something that can be achieved in a single conversation. Sometimes a lot of things need to happen, including bad things, before people really take this topic seriously…
I try to use very basic tools when I’m doing digital security support, to say you can do this on whatever device you’re on, this is a prevention tool. It’s not just applying technical knowledge, it’s also a process of explaining, training, showing how this work is not just for hackers or people who know a lot about computers.
One of the challenges is to spread awareness about cybersecurity among Indigenous and grassroots organizations, which aren’t hyper-connected and don’t think that digital forensics work is relevant to them. Sometimes what we do is completely disconnected from their lives, and they ask us: “But what are you doing?” So, our job is to understand their questions and where they are coming from and ground our knowledge-sharing in what people are actually doing.
To someone reading this piece and saying, oh, this kind of resonates with me, where do I start, what would your recommendation be?
If you are a human rights defender, I would recommend that you share your knowledge with your collective. You can teach them the importance of knowing about them, practicing them, as well as encouraging training to prevent digital attacks, because, in the end, forensic analysis is a reaction to something that has happened.
We can take a lot of preventive measures to ensure the smallest possible impact. That’s the best way to start. And it’s crucial to stay informed, to keep reading, to stay up to date with the news and build community.
If there are girls or gender non-conforming people reading this who are interested in technical issues, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a degree or a formal education, as long as you like it. Most hackers I’ve met become hackers because they dive into a subject, they like it and they’re passionate about it.Nikole Yanez Honduras Human Rights Defender
An open letter to The New Zealand Herald has challenged a full page Zionist advertisement this week for failing to acknowledge the “terrible injustices” suffered by the Palestinian people in Israel’s seven-month genocidal war on Gaza.
In the latest of several international reports that have condemned genocide against the people of Gaza while the International Court of Justice continues to investigate Israel for a plausible case for genocide, a human rights legal network of US universities has concluded that “Israel has committed genocidal acts of killing” and sought to “bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza”.
The University Network for Human Rights, along with the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law, the International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School, the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, and the Lowenstein Human Rights Project at Yale Law School, conducted a legal analysis and the 100-page damning report,“Genocide in Gaza: Analysis of International Law and its Application to Israel’s Military Actions since October 7, 2023.”
The Israeli military have killed more than 35,000 people — mostly women and children — and more than 78,000 people and the UN General Assembly voted by an overwhelming 134-9 votes to back Palestinian statehood on May 11.
The full page Zionist advertisement in The New Zealand Herald this week, 14 May 2024. Image: NZH screenshot APR
In the full page Zionist advertisement in The New Zealand Herald on Tuesday, senior pastor Nigel Woodley of the Flaxmere Christian Fellowship Church in Hastings claimed “the current painful war is another episode in Israel’s history for survival” with no acknowledgement of the massive human cost on Palestinians.
The open letter by Reverend Chris Sullivan in response — dated the same day but not published by The Herald — says:
An advertisement in the Herald supports the creation of the State of Israel.
For the same reasons we should also support the creation of a Palestinian state; don’t Palestinians also deserve their own nation state?
Just as we decry Hitler’s Holocaust, so too must we raise our voices against the killing of 35,000 people in Gaza (most of them innocent civilians), the destruction of 70 percent of the housing, and imminent famine.
It is disingenuous to focus solely on the Arab invasions of Israel, without looking at their cause — the killing and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians which accompanied the creation of the modern state of Israel.
It is never too late for both sides to turn away from violence and war and build a lasting peace, based on mutual respect and a just solution to the terrible injustices the Palestinian people have suffered.
Worried New Caledonian expats in Aotearoa admit they are “terrified” for friends and family amid ongoing violence and civil unrest in the French Pacific territory.
The death toll remained at four tonight, and hundreds have been injured after electoral changes sparked widespread rioting by pro-independence supporters in the capital of Nouméa.
French President Emmanuel Macron has declared a 12-day state of emergency and about 1200 police enforcements are due to arrive from France.
Many worried locals have been confined to their homes.
New Zealand-based New Caledonians have explained how the situation in their homeland has left them on edge.
Pascale Desrumaux and her family have been in Auckland for two years.
With parts of the country in turmoil, she said she was scared for her family and friends back home in Nouméa.
“I’m terrified and I’m very stressed,” Desrumaux said.
“[My family] are afraid for their lives.”
‘Locked in’
The precarious situation is illustrated by the fact her family cannot leave their homes and neighbouring stores have been ransacked then torched by protesters.
“They are locked in at the moment, so they can’t move — so they feel anxiety of course,” Desrumaux said.
“On top of that, shortly they will run out of food.
“The situation is complex.”
Cars on fire in Nouméa during the latest political unrest. Image: @ncla1ere
Desrumaux is checking in with family members every few hours for updates.
Amid the current climate, she said she had mixed emotions about being abroad.
“This shared feeling of being relieved to be here in New Zealand and grateful because my kids and husband are not in danger,” she said.
“At the same time I feel so bad for my friends and family over there.”
‘A beautiful place’
She stressed her home country remained “a beautiful place” and hoped the crisis could be resolved peacefully.
Fellow Auckland-based New Caledonian Anais Bride said she had been left distraught by what was unfolding.
In the past 48 hours, her parents have vacated their Nouméa home to stay with Bride’s sister as tensions escalated.
Based on her conversations with loved ones, she said that international news coverage had not fully conveyed the fluid crisis facing citizens on the ground.
“It took my mother a little while for her to accept the fact that it was time to leave, because she wanted to stay where she lives.
“My sisters’ just told her ‘at the end of the day, it’s just your house, it’s material’.
“It’s been hard for my parents.”
One supermarket standing
She said there was only one supermarket left standing in Nouméa, with many markets destroyed by fire.
Kevin, who did not want his surname to be published, is another New Caledonian living in New Zealand.
While his family has not seen much unrest first hand, explosions and smoke were constant where they were, he said.
He said it was hard to predict how the unrest could be straightened out.
“It’s hard to tell,” he said.
“The most tragic thing of course is the four deaths, and many businesses have been burned down so many people will lose their job.
“The main thing is how people rebuild connections, peace and of course the economy.”
‘Timely exit’ from Nouméa
Christchurch woman Viki Moore spent a week in New Caledonia before making a “timely exit” out of Nouméa on Monday as civil tension intensified.
Some of the strong law enforcement presence at the airport in Nouméa on Monday. Image: Viki Moore/RNZ
“There was a heavy police presence out at the airport with two [armoured vehicles] at the entrance and heavily armed military police roaming around.
“Once we got into the airport we were relieved to be there in this sort of peaceful oasis.
“We didn’t really have a sense of what was still to come.”
She admitted that she did not fully comprehend the seriousness of it until she had left the territory.
An armoured vehicle on the road amid unrest in New Caledonia, on Monday. Image: Viki Moore/RNZ
Warnings for travellers Flights through Nouméa are currently grounded.
Air New Zealand said it was monitoring the situation in New Caledonia, with its next flight NZ932 from Auckland to Nouméa still scheduled for Saturday morning.
Chief Operational Integrity and Safety Officer Captain David Morgan said this “could be subject to change”.
“The safety of our passengers, crew, and airport staff is our top priority and we will not operate flights unless their safety can be guaranteed,” he said.
“We will keep passengers updated on our services and advise customers currently in Nouméa to follow the advice of local authorities and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
French President Emmanuel Macron has declared a state of emergency in New Caledonia after several days of civil unrest in the capital.
Four people are dead due to the unrest and violence in the capital, Nouméa.
France TV reports that a 22-year-old gendarme who had been seriously wounded has become the fourth death. The other three were reportedly Kanaks killed by vigilantes.
Macron posted on X, formerly Twitter, a message saying the nation was thinking of the gendarme’s family.
Hundreds of others have been injured with more casualties expected as French security forces struggle to restore law and order in Nouméa amid reports of clashes between rioters and “militia” groups being formed by city residents.
According to local media, the state of emergency was announced following a defence and national security council meeting in Paris between the Head of State and several government members, including the Prime Minister and ministers of the Armed Forces, the Interior, the Economy and Justice.
In a press conference last evening in Nouméa, France’s High Commissioner to New Caledonia, Louis Le Franc, told reporters he would call on the military forces if necessary and that reinforcements would be sent today.
Local leaders called for state of emergency The state of emergency declaration came after the deteriorating crisis on Wednesday prompted Southern Province President Sonia Backès to call on President Macron to declare an emergency to allow the army to back up the police.
“Houses and businesses are being burnt down and looted — organised gangs are terrorising the population and putting at risk the life of inhabitants,” Backes said.
French High Commissioner to New Caledonia Louis Le Franc . . . 12-day state of emergency declared. Image: RNZ
“Law enforcement agents are certainly doing a great job but are obviously overwhelmed by the magnitude of this insurrection . . . Night and day, hastily formed citizen militias find themselves confronted with rioters fuelled by hate and the desire for violence.
“In the next few hours, without a massive and urgent intervention from France, we will lose control of New Caledonia,” Sonia Backès wrote.
She added: “We are now in a state of civil war.”
Backès was later joined by elected MPs for New Caledonia’s constituency, MP Nicolas Metzdorf and Senator Georges Naturel, who also appealed to the French President to declare a state of emergency.
“Mr President, we are at a critical moment and you alone can save New Caledonia,” they wrote.
More than 1700 law enforcement officers deployed During a press conference on Wednesday evening, French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said two persons had died from gunshot wounds and another two were seriously injured during a clash between rioters and a local “civil defence group”.
He said the gunshot came from one member of the civil defence group who “was trying to defend himself”.
Other reliable sources later confirmed to RNZ the death toll from the same clash was at least three people.
High Commissioner Le Franc said that in the face of an escalating situation, the total number of law enforcement personnel deployed on the ground, mainly in Nouméa, was now about 1000 gendarmes, seven hundred police, as well as members of SWAT intervention groups from gendarmerie (GIGN) and police (RAID).
Le Franc said that a dusk-to-dawn curfew had been extended for another 24 hours.
“People have to respect the curfew, not go to confrontations with weapons, not to burn businesses, shops, pharmacies, schools.”
Police reinforcements have arrived in New Caledonia where three days of violent unrest has hit the capital Nouméa. Image: FB/info Route NC et Coup de Gueule Route
Armed groups formed on both sides All commercial flights to and from the Nouméa-La Tontouta international airport remained cancelled for today, affecting an estimated 2500 passengers to and from Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane, Nadi, Papeete, Tokyo and Singapore.
The situation on the ground is being described by local leaders as “guerrilla warfare” bordering on a “civil war”, as more civilian clashes were reported yesterday on the outskirts of Nouméa, with opposing groups armed with weapons such as hunting rifles.
“We have now entered a dangerous spiral, a deadly spiral . . . There are armed groups on both sides and if they don’t heed calls for calms — there will be more deaths,” French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc warned.
“I sense dark hours coming in New Caledonia . . . The current situation is not meant to take this terrible twist, a form of civil war.”
Le Franc said if needed, he would call on “military” reinforcements.
Also yesterday, a group of armed rioters heading towards Nouméa’s industrial zone of Ducos, prompted an intervention from a RAID police squad.
As Nouméa residents woke up today the situation in Noumea remained volatile as, over the past 24 hours, pro-France citizens have started to set up “civil defence groups”, barricades and roadblocks to protect themselves.
Some of them have started to call themselves “militia” groups.
Political leaders call for calm
On the political front, there have been more calls for calm and appeasement from all quarters.
After New Caledonian territorial President Louis Mapou appealed on Tuesday for a “return to reason”, the umbrella body for pro-independence political parties, the FLNKS, yesterday also issued a release appealing for “calm and appeasement” and the lifting of blockades.
While “regretting” and “deploring” the latest developments, the pro-independence umbrella group recalled it had called for the French government’s proposed amendment on New Caledonia’s electoral changes to be withdrawn to “preserve the conditions to reach a comprehensive political agreement between all parties and the French State”.
“However, this situation cannot justify putting at risk peace and all that has been implemented towards a lasting ‘living together’ and exit the colonisation system,” the FLNKS statement said.
The FLNKS also noted that for the order to be validated, the controversial amendment still needed to be put to the vote of the French Congress (combined meeting of the Assembly and the Senate) and that French President Macron had indicated he would not convene the gathering of both Houses of the French Parliament immediately “to give a chance for dialogue and consensus”.
“This is an opportunity FLNKS wishes to seize so that everyone’s claims, including those engaged in demonstrations, can be heard and taken into account,” the statement said.
The President of the Loyalty Islands province, Jacques Lalié (pro-independence) on Wednesday called for “appeasement” and for “our youths to respect the values symbolised by our flag and maintain dignity in their engagement without succumbing to provocations”.
“Absolute priority must be given to dialogue and the search for intelligence to reach a consensus,” he said.
Paris vote which sparked unrest
Overnight in Paris, the French National Assembly voted 351 in favour (mostly right-wing parties) and 153 against (mostly left-wing parties) the proposed constitutional amendments that sparked the ill-fated protests in Noumea on Monday.
French National Assembly in session . . . controversial draft New Caledonia constitutional electoral change adopted by a 351-153 vote. Image: Assemblée Nationale
This followed hours of heated debate about the relevance of such a text, which New Caledonia’s pro-independence parties strongly oppose because, they say, it poses a serious risk and could shrink their political representation in local institutions (New Caledonia has three provincial assemblies as well as the local parliament, called its Congress).
New Caledonia’s pro-independence parties had been calling for the government to withdraw the text and instead, to send a high-level “dialogue mission” to the French Pacific archipelago.
The text, which is designed to open the restricted list of voters to those who have been residing in New Caledonia for an uninterrupted 10 years, has not completed its legislative path.
After its endorsement by the Senate (on 2 April 2024, with amendments) and the National Assembly (15 May 2024), it still needs to be put to the vote of the French Congress (a joint sitting of France’s both Houses of Parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate) and obtain a required majority of 60 percent.
The result of Tuesday’s controversial New Caledonia vote in the French National Assembly . . . 351 votes for the wider electoral roll with 153 against. Image: Assemblée Nationale
The bigger picture The proposed constitutional amendments were tabled by the French Minister for Home Affairs and Overseas, Gérald Darmanin.
Darmanin has defended his bill by saying the original restrictions to New Caledonia’s electoral roll put in place under temporary measures prescribed by the 1998 Nouméa Accord needed to be readjusted to restore “a minimum of democracy” in line with universal suffrage and France’s Constitution.
The previous restrictions had been a pathway to decolonisation for New Caledonia inscribed in the French Constitution, which only allowed people who had been living in New Caledonia before 1998 to vote in local elections.
Those principles were at the centre of the heated discussions during the two days of debate in the National Assembly, where strong words were often exchanged between both sides.
More than 25 years after its implementation, the Accord– a kind of de facto embryonic Constitution for New Caledonia — is now deemed by France to have reached its expiry date after three self-determination referendums were held in 2018, 2020 and 2021, all resulting in a rejection of independence, although the last vote was highly controversial.
The third and final referendum — although conducted legally — was boycotted by a majority of the pro-independence Kanak political groups and their supporters resulting in an overwhelming “no” vote to Independence from France, a stark contrast to the earlier referendum results.
Results of New Caledonia referenda
2018: 56.67 percent voted against independence and 43.33 percent in favour.
2020: 53.26 percent voted against independence and 46.74 percent in favour.
2021: 96.5 percent voted against independence and 3.5 percent in favour. (However, However, the third and final vote in 2021 — during the height of the covid pandemic — under the Nouméa Accord was boycotted by the pro-indigenous Kanak population. In that vote, 96 percent of the people voted against independence — with a 44 percent turnout.)
Since the third referendum was held, numerous attempts have been made to convene all local political parties around the table to come up with a successor pact to the Nouméa Accord.
This would have to be the result of inclusive and bipartisan talks, but those meetings have not yet taken place, mainly because of differences between — and within — both pro-independence and pro-France parties.
Darmanin’s attempts to bring these talks to reality have so far failed, even though he has travelled to New Caledonia seven times over the past two years.
From the pro-independence parties’ point of view, Darmanin is now regarded as not the right person anymore and has been blamed by critics for the talks stalling.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
On 08 May 2024 the OHCHR published the address by Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to the 2024 Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions Annual Conference:
…The role that National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) can play in this era of global crises is more crucial than ever. An era of deepening divisions between our human family, where inequalities are widening, where poverty is at levels not witnessed in a generation.
…It implies that everyone can – and must – be a partner in the human rights movement. Including the private sector. This conference will address some of the big questions on the impacts – both negative and positive – that business can have on human rights.
On climate change, how can business avoid and avert harm, and instead innovate and adapt to be part of the solution?
On civic space, particularly in the online world, how can business live up to their responsibilities to enable and nourish freedom of expression and at the same time protect the human rights defenders bravely demanding change? More broadly, how can regulatory and policy measures on human rights work best for business, and how can we guarantee the necessary protection and support for affected individuals and communities?
And of course, ultimately, how can NHRIs leverage their unique mandate to guide and support businesses in addressing these issues?
The private sector is a key piece of the architecture needed to rebuild trust, and to restore faith in the unifying power of human rights. The landmark Edinburgh Declaration provides a robust framework to help NHRIs in these efforts.
And NHRIs are also playing a crucial role in ensuring governments live up to their responsibilities to implement effective remedies for the individuals and communities harmed by business-related activities.
As you well know, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights were developed to protect against human rights abuse by business activity. The gold standard to ensure that business is held accountable. That business keeps on enhancing and adapting their practices to put human rights front and centre. And that victims of abuse have access to remedy.
Over the past thirty years, my Office has worked closely with Member States and their NHRIs to better promote and protect all human rights at the national level. A growing interest from countries in not only establishing NHRIs, but ensuring that they are independent, and that they are effective…
To date, 120 NHRIs have been accredited by the Global Alliance in an internationally legitimate process serviced by my Office. Eighty-eight of those have received ‘A’ status for their full compliance with the Paris Principles, the standards which all NHRIs must meet.
At the international level, too, my Office has supported NHRIs and their regional and global networks to engage with the UN human rights mechanisms, including the treaty bodies and the Human Rights Council, its Universal Periodic Review and the Special Procedures…
New Zealand has upgraded its SafeTravel alert for parts of New Caledonia.
All commercial flights to and from the Nouméa-La Tontouta international airport have been cancelled and many holiday makers have been stuck in Nouméa.
Aucklander Mike Lightfoot is one of those people. He arrived in Nouméa in Monday and described the scenes in the city for RNZ Morning Report.
Lightfoot said that as he and his wife started to make their way to their hotel they saw protesters, some with machetes, but they were not too worried.
‘Intersections on fire’
“It was very peaceful, we thought at the time, but as we got closer into town we could certainly see there was unrest.
“There was intersections on fire . . . as we came into the town itself there were the Gendarmerie in full gear . . . we thought this was getting serious.”
Burning cars at a Nouméa protest barricade today. Image: NC 1ère TV screenshot APR
Lightfoot said his wife needed a doctor for a chest condition and as they were in the doctor’s surgery “we heard explosions and gunshots very close to us”.
“They were rioting right through town, the town was on fire. Fortunately our taxi driver pulled down a side street, stopped for a second, got himself together. There were people running around our car and carrying on and he took off.
“We climbed up in through the suburbs and as we came down to try and get back to our hotel we came to a roundabout and they had the roundabout completely blocked off, there would have been, we estimate, around 150 of them there protesting.
“The whole roundabout was on fire, they had big blocks in the middle of the road.
“As we edged through, the smoke was so black we couldn’t really see the road. One of them whacked the car as we went through but yeah, it was pretty unsettling . . . ”
‘Be prepared to evacuate’
His hotel, Chateau Royal have asked people staying there not to step foot outside of the complex and “they’ve asked us to be prepared, that we may need to evacuate”.
About 51 New Zealanders were staying at the hotel, he said.
“We’re sort of feeling that people in New Zealand are really not understanding how serious this is and it’s quite unsettling for us all here, in fact we want out of here very quickly to be fair.”
Lightfoot said the airlines were keeping them informed.
“As soon as we are able to get to the airport they’ve [one airline] said that we are definitely on one of those planes. Air New Zealand at this point are planning to have a flight here on Saturday, if that goes ahead they also have us listed on that flight to get us out.”
Supplies in the issue were a problem and staff were living on site for their own safety, he said.
RNZ Pacific’s Koroi Hawkins said some Kanak leaders have told him they seem to have lost control of the youth.
Other residents in the city of Nouméa, some of them pro-French, have began to arm themselves as vigilantes.
Unrest a concern – Sepuloni Labour Party’s deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni told RNZ’s First Up the growing unrest in New Caledonia was a concern.
Sepuloni said it was a worry, but she was not sure whether New Zealand would have any involvement in trying to bring the situation in the French territory under control.
At last year’s Pacific Leaders Forum, French Polynesian representatives were already expressing concern about how some policies from the French government might affect its inidgenous population, she said.
Glimmer of hope, says former envoy A former Australian consul-general for New Caledonia Denise Fisher said measures in the French territory could hopefully fix the immediate security problem, but this was not the core issue.
“The key issue that set off the situation was about representation, who can vote in local elections.
“And it seems such an esoteric issue but it’s a critical issue, especially for the independence supporters.”
Fisher said 40 years ago, when peace agreements were reached after four years of violence, the key issue for the Kanak independence leaders was to constrain voting to only those with long term residence in New Caledonia.
“So it’s a core issue with the breaking down and the expiry of these agreements. We’re now in a political kind of a vacuum and talks about this haven’t got very far.”
She said there was a glimmer of hope on Wednesday.
“Some independence parties and some loyalist parties issued a joint communiqué calling for peace
“They’ve been having, as they have at the end of last year, informal talks, that they think they can talk and come to some sort of agreement to put to the French in the next couple of weeks.”
Denise Fisher, a visiting fellow at Australian National University, gives her assessment on New Caledonia in detail in this Asia Pacific Report article.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Zhang Zhan, jailed for reporting on Covid in Wuhan, has made no contact with outside world
Concerns are growing about the wellbeing of one of China’s most prominent citizen journalists who has failed to make contact with the outside world after she was supposed to have been released from prison.
Zhang Zhan, 40, a lawyer turned citizen journalist, was detained in May 2020 after she travelled to Wuhan to report on the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her videos and social media posts drew attention to the government’s stifling of information about the spread of the disease and the harsh lockdowns that were being imposed.
A court in Aberystwyth, Wales has ruled against the Welsh language campaigner Toni Schiavone and has allowed parking company One Parking Solution to claim costs in an extended legal dispute over an English-only parking notice. However, Toni Schiavone said he will continue to refuse to pay until he receives a copy of the notice from the parking company in Welsh.
Welsh language is not really protected by law
According to the judge, there was no legal basis to force the parking company to provide a Welsh language service. Language campaigners insist that this demonstrates a “serious flaw” in the legislation that protects the rights of Welsh speakers.
Toni Schiavone received the original charge in September 2020 for parking in a private car park in Llangrannog, but refused to pay as he did not receive the charge in Welsh or bilingually, despite sending the company two letters as well as calling them.
The first two cases were thrown out over technical issues, but at a hearing on 26 January this year, One Parking Solution won an appeal to continue to prosecute Mr Schiavone, after the judge ruled that there were no grounds to throw out the first two cases of the court.
Speaking during today’s court proceedings, Welsh language campaigner Toni Schiavone said:
The Welsh language is an official and equal language in Wales and we as Welsh speakers have rights according to the law, and in principle, that should be respected. The request for a Parking Charge Notice in Welsh or bilingually is reasonable and practical. It would have cost around £60 to translate.
This case could have been resolved very easily and very quickly by providing a Welsh or bilingual Parking Charge Notice. Does not doing so show prejudice against the Welsh language? In my opinion, it does.
Mr Schiavone told the court that the claimant had behaved threateningly, sending him a letter claiming £10,156.70 in legal expenses a day before his hearing in January as well as another letter with additional costs of over £4,000 two days before today’s case. According to research by Cymdeithas yr Iaith, translating the fine into Welsh would have cost only £60.
Wales: the government must act
The judge Lowri Williams said that Toni had behaved in an “honest, principled” manner during the case, and had shown an “unwavering dedication to the Welsh language and the cause for the language”.
However, she said during her verdict that there was nothing in the 1967 Welsh Language Act, the 1993 Welsh Language Act, or the 2011 Welsh Language Measure to compel the parking company to provide a Welsh language service.
She therefore ordered that Toni pay the £100 charge, as well as £70 for administrative costs, £11.90 interest and £85 for the court fee within 21 days.
After explaining her ruling and order, Toni Schiavone said “I understand, but I refuse to pay.” His statement was met by applause from his supporters in the public gallery.
Following the case, Siân Howys, Chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith‘s Rights Group, said:
Today’s judgment shows that – despite the Welsh Government’s claim – the Welsh language does not have equal status in Wales. The judge has done her work thoroughly and found that there is nothing in the legislation that ensures that Toni’s right to use his own language in his own country is respected.
It is clear, therefore, that the Welsh Government needs to correct the serious flaw in the legislation in order to ensure that the people of Wales can use the Welsh language in all aspects of their lives.
Welsh language version
Dyfarnodd llys yn Aberystwyth yn erbyn yr ymgyrchydd iaith Toni Schiavone heddiw (13 Mai) a chaniatau i gwmni parcio One Parking Solution hawlio costau mewn ffrae gyfreithiol estynedig dros rybudd parcio uniaith Saesneg. Er hynny, bydd Toni Schiavone yn parhau i wrthod talu nes iddo dderbyn copi o’r rhybudd gan y cwmni parcio yn Gymraeg.
Nid yw’r Gymraeg mewn gwirionedd wedi’i diogelu gan y gyfraith
Yn ôl y farnwraig, nid oedd unrhyw sail cyfreithiol i orfodi’r cwmni i ddarparu gwasanaeth Cymraeg. Mae ymgyrchwyr iaith yn mynnu bod hyn yn dangos bod “diffyg difrifol” yn y ddeddfwriaeth sy’n amddiffyn hawliau siaradwyr Cymraeg..
Derbyniodd Toni Schiavone y rhybudd gwreiddiol ym Medi 2020 am barcio mewn maes parcio preifat yn Llangrannog, ond gwrthododd dalu gan na dderbyniodd y rhybudd yn Gymraeg neu’n ddwyieithog, er iddo anfon dau lythyr at y cwmni yn ogystal â’u ffonio.
Taflwyd y ddau achos cyntaf o’r llys dros faterion technegol, ond mewn gwrandawiad ar 26 Ionawr eleni, enillodd One Parking Solution apêl i barhau i erlyn Mr Schiavone, wedi i’r barnwr ddyfarnu nad oedd sail i daflu’r ddau achos cyntaf o’r llys.
Yn siarad yn yr achos llys heddiw, dywedodd Toni Schiavone:
Mae’r Gymraeg yn Iaith swyddogol a chyfartal yng Nghymru ac mae gennym ni fel siaradwyr Cymraeg hawliau yn ôl y gyfraith, ac mewn egwyddor, dylid parchu hynny. Mae’r cais am Daleb Cosb Parcio yn y Gymraeg neu’n ddwyieithog yn rhesymol ac yn ymarferol. Byddai wedi costio tua £60 i gyfieithu.
Gallai’r achos yma fod wedi cael ei ddatrys yn hawdd iawn ac yn gyflym iawn trwy ddarparu Taleb Cosb Parcio yn y Gymraeg neu yn ddwyieithog. Ydy peidio gwneud hynny yn dangos rhagfarn yn erbyn y Gymraeg? Yn fy marn i, yndi.
Cymru: rhaid i’r llywodraeth weithredu
Dywedodd Toni bod yr hawlydd wedi ymddwyn yn fygythiol, gan anfon llythyrau yn hawlio £10,156.70 o gostau cyfreithiol ddiwrnod cyn ei wrandawiad fis Ionawr yn ogystal â llythyr arall gyda chostau ychwanegol o dros £4,000 ddeuddydd cyn yr achos heddiw. Yn ôl gwaith ymchwil Cymdeithas yr Iaith, byddai cyfieithu’r ddirwy i’r Gymraeg wedi costio dim ond £60.
Dywedodd y farnwraig Lowri Williams bod Toni wedi ymddwyn yn “onest, egwyddorol”, ac wedi dangos “ymroddiad di-wyro i’r Gymraeg a’r achos dros yr iaith.”
Er hynny, dywedodd yn ystod ei dyfarniad nad oes unrhywbeth yn Neddf Iaith 1967, Deddf Iaith 1993, na Mesur yr Iaith Gymraeg 2011 i orfodi’r cwmni parcio i ddarparu gwasanaeth Gymraeg.
Gorchmynodd felly bod Toni yn talu’r rhybudd o £100, yn ogystal a £70 ar gyfer costau gweinyddol, £11.90 o log a £85 ar gyfer ffi y llys o fewn 21 diwrnod.
Wedi egluro’i dyfarniad a’i gorchymyn, dywedodd Toni Schiavone “Dwi’n deall, ond dwi’n gwrthod talu.”
Yn dilyn yr achos llys, dywedodd Siân Howys, Cadeirydd Grŵp Hawl Cymdeithas yr Iaith:
Mae’r ddyfarniad heddiw yn dangos – er gwaethaf honiad Llywodraeth Cymru – nad oes gan y Gymraeg statws cyfartal yng Nghymru. Mae’r farnwraig wedi gwneud ei gwaith yn drylwyr a chanfod nad oes unrhywbeth yn y ddeddfwriaeth sy’n mynnu bod hawl Toni i ddefnyddio’i iaith ei hun yn ei wlad ei hun yn cael ei barchu.
Beth sy’n amlwg felly yw bod angen i Lywodraeth Cymru gywiro’r diffyg difrifol sy’n y ddeddfwriaeth er mwyn sicrhau bod pobl Cymru yn gallu defnyddio’r Gymraeg ym mhob agwedd o’u bywydau.
As Israel drives the Palestinians deeper into another Nakba in Gaza with its assault on Rafah, the Palestine Youth Aotearoa (PYA) and solidarity supporters in Aotearoa New Zealand tonight commemorated the original Nakba — “the Catastrophe” — of 1948.
The 1948 Nakba . . . more than 750,000 Palestinians were forced to leave their homeland and become exiles in neighbouring states. Many dream of their UN-recognised right to return. Image: Wikipedia
This was when Israeli militias slaughtered more than 15,000 people, perpetrated more than 70 massacres and occupied more than three quarters of Palestine, with 750,000 of the Palestinian population forced into becoming refugees from their own land.
The Nakba was a massive campaign of ethnic cleansing followed by the destruction of hundreds of villages, to prevent the return of the refugees — similar to what is being wrought now in Gaza.
The Nakba lies at the heart of 76 years of injustice for the Palestinians — and for the latest injustice, the seven-month long war on Gaza.
Participants told through their stories, poetry and songs by candlelight, they would not forget 1948 — “and we will not forget the genocide under way in Gaza.”
Photographs: David Robie
Nakba Day vigil in Tāmaki Makaurau in Aotearoa 2024
1 of 12
Nakba 1: Recalling the original Nakba in Palestine in 1948. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 2: Photos of the original 1948 Nakba and the atrocities that followed. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 3: A photographic timeline from 1948 until 2024. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 4: Blindfolded Palestinian captive. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 5: “Generation after generation until total liberation.” Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 6: Palestinian Kiwi children with miniature watermelons. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 7: Palestinian keys – symbolic of the Right To Return. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 10: A montage of Israeli settler colonial cruelty. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 11: Palestinian children sing about their homeland during the Nakba rally in Auckland’s Aotea Square on Sunday, 12 May 2024. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
Nakba 12: A giant “key of return” during the Queen Street Nakba march on Sunday, 12 May 2024. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
In the last couple of months alone, Israel has deported foreign nationals, arrested and tortured Palestinian activists, and expelled Israeli activists from the West Bank in an attempt to have full control of the information exiting Palestine and to cover up its crimes.
Israel: criminalising dissent to protect its propaganda
On 28 April, Bassem Tamimi’s administrative detention was extended for another six months. Bassem, a prominent Palestinian activist and protest leader from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh north of Ramallah, was detained and arrested at the Allenby Bridge, the border with Jordan, on 28 October 2023.
He was issued an administrative detention order on 6 November 2023, ordering a six-month prison term from the day of his arrest. Administrative detention is based on secret evidence and is a practice that the Israeli occupation has arbitrarily used against Palestinians, including children, incarcerating them indefinitely without showing any evidence of their alleged crimes.
Artists also are not spared from the occupation’s criminalisation.
Attacking the arts
Monday 13 May marked six months since Mustafa Sheta, the producer of the Freedom Theatre, was taken by the Israeli forces. The Freedom Theatre is a cultural place in Jenin refugee camp, a space of respite for the community and the youths which fights for Palestinian justice through art and culture.
Mustafa was taken at gunpoint during a raid of the camp and of the theatre on 13 December 2023, has been held in Israeli prison without trial or charge, and denied any contact except from one meeting with his lawyer.
“Israel has presented no evidence against Mustafa but suggested they do not want him outside the prison because he writes articles criticising Israel.” – the Freedom Theatre on IG.
Human rights defenders under fire
Israel’s oppression also falls on human rights defenders who stand with Palestinians in their struggle for liberation. According to ynet, six foreign nationals human rights defenders were deported from the occupied West Bank in the past three months. In the first week of April, two international activists present in the South Hebron Hills area of the West Bank were arrested and deported by Israeli authorities.
The two activists were accompanying a Palestinian shepherd in an area known for regular illegal settler attacks and harassment when settler-soldiers detained and arrested them on spurious grounds. They were then deported from the country; the whole process was conducted under fabricated testimonies, and the activists were deported without charge or conviction.
Israel: brutally controlling the narrative
This has come as the Israeli occupation held a Knesset hearing on 12 March demonising human rights activists in the West Bank, which led to the escalation of oppression against activists in the area. Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has since formed a special police force to deal with activists in the West Bank, whose legality is debated.
The Israeli apartheid has continued to try to control the information coming out from Palestine by repressing and abusing any voice which contrast its propaganda.
This has meant attacks on not only activists and journalists, but also aid workers, medical staff, artists, and anyone speaking out against the genocide in Gaza and the brutal occupation of Palestine.
The latest move has been the shut down of Al Jazeera in the country, after a law was passed on 1 April which allows Israel to shut down foreign media if they are considered a threat to security.
Featured image via International Solidarity Movement
Sorry Palestinian women and children. It seems Australia’s leading women’s media company has more pressing issues to cover than the seemingly endless human rights atrocities committed against you.
It’s been seven months of almost complete silence from Mamamia and their most popular writers and podcast hosts.
I’ve respected and appreciated their work in the past, which is why it’s truly disheartening to see.
Mamamia Out Loud has found time and scope to speak about me personally in two recent episodes (both sadly devoid of context and riddled with inaccuracies) yet can’t seem to find the words to report on or reflect on the man made famine in Gaza.
The murdered and orphaned children. The women having c-sections with no anaesthesia. The haunting screams from mothers hugging their lifeless babies bodies for the last time.
Faux feminism? Or is it all still “too complex”? I can’t answer that, except to say it’s dispiriting and disappointing to witness given Mamamia’s tagline.
What we’re talking about
Because Gaza is what millions of Australian women “are actually talking about”. It’s what’s waking countless Australian women up at night. It’s what’s making Australian women tremble in tears watching children’s body parts dug out from beneath the rubble.
Mamamia’s audience is being let down, they deserve better.
As for the innocent women and girls of Palestine — tragically “let down” doesn’t even begin to describe it. They deserve so much more.
I’m utterly heartbroken witnessing such disregard for their lives.
So I fixed the Mamamia headline in the above photo.
Antoinette Lattouf is an Australian-Lebanese journalist, host, author and diversity advocate. She has worked with a range of mainstream media, and as a social commentator for various online and broadcast publications. This commentary was first published on her Facebook page.
In the three decades since I became a lawyer, human rights – once understood as an uncomplicated good, a tool for securing dignity for the vulnerable against abuses by the powerful – have increasingly come under assault. Perhaps never more so than in the current moment: we are constantly talking about human rights, but often in a highly sceptical way. When Liz Truss loudly proclaims “We’ve got to leave the ECHR, abolish the supreme court and abolish the Human Rights Act,” she’s not the fringe voice she might have been in the 1990s. She represents a dangerous current of opinion, as prevalent on parts of the radical left as on the populist right of politics. It seems to be gaining momentum.
As an idealistic youngster, I would have been shocked to know that in 2024 it would be necessary to return to the back-to-basics case, to justify the need for fundamental rights and freedoms. But in a world where facts are made fluid, what were once thought of as core values have become hard to distil and defend. In an atmosphere of intense polarisation, human rights are trashed along all parts of the political spectrum – either as a framework to protect markets, or as a form of undercover socialism. What stands out for me is that the most trenchant critics share a profound nationalism. Nationalists believe that universal human rights – the clue’s in the name – undermine the ability of states to agitate for their narrower interests.
Given that so many of our problems can only be tackled with an international approach, a robust rights framework is more important than ever
It’s no coincidence that the governments keenest on turning inwards – Viktor Orbán’s in Hungary, that of former president Bolsonaro in Brazil – have been least keen on common standards that protect minorities in their own territories and hold them to high standards in the international arena. At a time of insecurity, these leaders leverage fear to maximise their appeal. The prospect of a second Trump administration in the US demonstrates that this trend shows no sign of abating. In that context, it’s vital to make the case for human rights anew.
It boils down to this: given that so many of our problems – in an age of climate change, global disorder and artificial intelligence – can only be tackled with an international approach, a robust rights framework is more important than ever. There are parallels with the postwar period in which human rights were most fully articulated, a time when it was obvious to everybody that cooperation and global standards were the best way to shore up our common humanity after a period of catastrophic conflict and genocide.
Of course everyone believes in some rights – normally their own and those of friends, family and people they identify with. It is “other people’s” freedoms that are more problematic. The greater the divisions between us, the greater this controversy. And yet, it is precisely these extreme disparities in health, wealth, power and opinion that make rights, rather than temporary privileges given and taken away by governments, so essential. They provide a framework for negotiating disputes and providing redress for abuses without recourse to violence.
New technologies, and AI in particular, require more not less international regulation. As people spend more time online, they become vulnerable to degrading treatment, unfairness and discrimination, breaches of privacy, censorship and other threats. The so-called “black boxes” behind the technology we use make ever more crucial decisions about our daily lives, from banking to education, employment, policing and border control. Anyone who flirts with the notion of computer infallibility should never forget the postmasters and other such abuses, perpetrated and then concealed.
Our shrinking, burning planet is the ultimate reason why nationalism does not work in the interests of humankind
Perhaps most important of all is the growing contribution of human rights litigation to the struggle against climate catastrophe. A whole generation of lawyers and environmentalists is taking notes from earlier struggles, just as suffragists once learned from slavery abolitionists. This is despite the machinations of fossil fuel corporations versed in a thousand lobbying, jurisdictional and other delaying tactics.
Our shrinking, burning planet is the ultimate reason why nationalism does not work in the interests of humankind. Today’s global empires, sailing under logos rather than flags, need to be more directly accountable under human rights treaties. Our existing mechanisms, whether local and national governments, domestic and international courts, or some of the more notoriously tortuous UN institutions, may be imperfect and in need of reform. Yet, like all structures of civilisation, they are easier to casually denigrate than to invest in and adapt to be more effective.
While I have been writing this, I have been voting in the House of Lords on amendments to the so-called safety of Rwanda bill. It is the most regressive anti-human rights measure of recent times, and intended to be that way. It will not stop the boats of desperate people fleeing persecution, but is designed to stop the courts. British judges will be prevented from ensuring refugees’ fair treatment before they are rendered human freight and transported to a place about whose “safety” our supreme court was not satisfied. Rishi Sunak will be able to use this situation as excuse for an election pledge to repudiate the European convention on human rights.
If he gets his way, rights will be removed not just from those arriving by boat, but from every man, woman and child in the UK. By contrast, the golden thread of human rights is equal treatment: protecting others as we would wish to be protected ourselves, if that unhappy day ever came. It’s a thread we must never let go of.
Right Livelihood Laureates illuminated the struggles and triumphs facing youth activists in a panel discussion organised by its Geneva office in March 2024. With speakers including Laureates from Belarus, Cambodia, and Egypt, as well as the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, the event painted a vivid picture of the evolving landscape of youth activism.
Natallia Satsunkevich, representing Belarusian Laureate organisation Human Rights Center “Viasna”, shared her journey, beginning as a civil rights summer school attendee to becoming an activist with Viasna to shed light on the abuses of Belarus’s repressive regime.
“I realised that I have this power to monitor and control the government,” she said. “This is obviously the aim of civil society in each country.”
She has faced backlash for her work: her apartment was searched and her mother was questioned by authorities. Eventually, Satsunkevich had to flee Belarus to avoid criminal prosecution. Five of her Viasna colleagues, including founder and Right Livelihood Laureate Ales Bialiatski, are imprisoned for their work.
“Nevertheless, I think the decision to become a human right activist and joining Viasna was one the best decisions of my life,” she said, pointing to the close friendships and working relationships she has developed. “The most important point is that I feel like I am doing the right thing, I know that I am making this world better.”
She called on young people around the world to “check your rights”: keep an eye on leaders and make sure that all human rights are respected.
Ratha Sun, from the Laureate organisation Mother Nature Cambodia, highlighted the innovative approaches of young activists. Despite facing legal challenges and imprisonment, the group’s viral campaigns and grassroots mobilisation have sparked significant environmental advocacy.
“For all our videos and campaigns, we … think about creativity and technical ideas to get more involvement from young people,” Sun said. “We also work closely with the local community that is being affected by the project [we’re fighting].”
The group’s activism has stopped damaging construction and extraction projects such as a hydropower dam and sand mining.
Their successes have resulted in more attention from the Cambodian public and, at the same time, also drew the ire of the government.
“Between 2015 and now, 11 members of Mother Nature Cambodia have been in jail, and now, six of us still have charges against us from the court,” Sun said, noting that the charges include insulting the king and plotting against the government. Sometimes, they are also accused of being members of the CIA.
“Even though we are facing 10 years in prison, our activists, who are young, are still standing to fight the government,” Sun said.
2016 Laureate Mozn Hassan, the founder of Nazra for Feminist Studies and the Doria Feminist Fund, talked about the double bind of being a young female activist in the Global South. Battling stereotypes and systemic challenges, Hassan emphasised the importance of expressing feminism and fighting gender-based discrimination creatively.
“Being a woman in these contexts is so problematic and has all these barriers from the private and the public – and all of them are affecting us,” Hassan said. “Especially if they are young: … it is also about resources, accessibility and acceptance.”
She noted that in the Middle East and North Africa region, the stigma for young feminist activists working on gender issues has been increasing, and they are targeted more often.
“For example, in Iraq, it’s not allowed to name any of the activity as something relating to gender,” she said, noting that this was especially the case for young activists expressing their femininity or sexuality in non-traditional ways.
When it comes to the tools young activists are using, in many countries, such as Egypt, they are being targeted and imprisoned for social media posts.
Having just finished a report on youth and child human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, provided a global perspective. She highlighted the unique contributions of youth and child activists, drawing attention to their innovative use of social media, decentralisation, and creativity in campaigning.
“Young people face the same challenges as all other human rights defenders, and they often use the same approaches as other human rights defenders,” Lawlor said. “But where they differ is that they are very creative, and they have novel tools and methods.”
She noted their “extremely clever use of social media” that can garner attention.
However, she also pointed out the challenges they face, including exclusion from formal decision-making.
“Ageism is a frequent barrier to young and child activism: Young defenders feel they are not being heard, not being taken seriously, and their views are not being taken into account,” Lawlor said. “Even when their participation in public and political decision-making has been increased, it’s usually a tokenistic box-ticking exercise.”
Outgoing Secretary-General Henry Puna of the Pacific Islands Forum is “not surprised” with the violent unrest in New Caledonia which has shut down the French Pacific territory.
New Caledonia’s territorial President, pro-independence leader Louis Mapou, has condemned violent actions, saying “anger cannot justify harming or destroying public property, production tools, all of which this country has taken decades to build”.
Secretary-General Puna told journalists in his final news conference as the region’s top diplomat from Rarotonga that “to see the collapse [and], protesting is very unfortunate” — but it was predictable.
He said the issue “has been boiling” since the 2021 independence referendum in the French territory, the third and final vote under the Nouméa Accord, which was boycotted by the pro-indigenous Kanak population.
He said he was there in December 2021 to monitor the independence referendum when it was taken and “it was unfortunate that it was allowed to go ahead during that time”.
‘In middle of covid pandemic’
“We were in the middle of the covid pandemic and the Kanak custom is that when somebody passes, they mourn for one year. So they weren’t allowed that freedom.
“As a result, they didn’t want to take part in the referendum because they couldn’t go against their tradition and go campaigning or do other work. That’s disrespectful for the custom.”
Puna said the Nouméa Accord — all the processes, and the steps leading to that referendum, had been set and agreed to by all parties and if that had been followed right through, the referendum would not have been held then but in September 2022.
“To see the collapse and protesting is very unfortunate because it does raise some issues that need to be resolved. But I think it can be resolved in the wisdom of our leaders at this time.
“That’s something that we really need to talk about openly and honestly. What the causes of the problem are, and what the solutions could be.
Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Henry Puna . . . the New Caledonia unrest is “unfortunate”. Image: PIF Secretariat
‘Recognise greater autonomy’ – Mark Brown The outgoing chair of the Forum and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown said greater autonomy for the indigenous Kanak population was needed.
Brown said Pacific peoples valued sovereignty and the protests were in response to that.
He said many forum members were former colonies.
“If there’s one thing that specific countries value, it is the sovereignty and independence. To be able to have control over the destiny of your own country,” he said.
New Caledonia, French Polynesia were new entrants into the Forum and this was in recognition of their calls they had made for greater autonomy coming from their people.
“My initial view of the unrest that’s occurring in Caledonia, it is a call to recognise greater autonomy and greater independence from the people on those islands,” he said.
“As a member of the Forum now, we will be able to provide support assistance to these member countries as to the best way forward without trying to avoid any escalation of conflict.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
