Thousands of students across Aotearoa New Zealand protested in a nationwide rally at seven universities across the country in a global day of solidarity with Palestine, calling on their universities to divest all partnerships with Israel.
A combined group of students and academic staff from the country’s two largest universities chanted “AUT take a stand” at their rally in the Hikuwai Plaza in the heart of Auckland University of Technology (AUT).
Students from the neighbouring University of Auckland (UOA) also took part.
The students carried placards such as “Educators against genocide”, “Stand for students. Stand for justice. Stand with Palestine”, “Maite Te Awa Ki Te Moana” – te reo for “From the river to the sea – Free Palestine”.
Another sign said, “No universities left in Gaza”, referring to Israeli military forces having destroyed all 12 universities in the besieged enclave during the war now in its eighth month.
“Let’s hold our institutions accountable, demanding they meet our calls for action and adhere to the guidelines of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
‘Gross injustices’
“Together, we can push for change and recognise Israel’s violations for what they are — gross injustices against humanity.
“Stand with us in this global movement of solidarity with Palestine.”
“No universities left in Gaza” . . . because Israel bombed or destroyed all 12. Image: David Robie/APR
The rally was in support of thousands of students around the world demonstrating against the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Their aim with their universities:
* Declare and recognise Palestine as an independent and sovereign state;
* Disclose and divest all partnerships with Israel; and
* Denounce antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of discrimination.
Ali, the “voice of Free Palestine”. Video: Café Pacific
A declaration said that the nationwide protest expressed “our unapologetic solidarity with Palestinians and our commitment to the Palestinian struggle for liberation “.
“We refuse to be silent or complicit in genocide, and we reject all forms of cooperation between our institutions and the Israeli state.
“End the genocide” . . . a watermelon protest. Image: David Robie/APR
Protest leaders told a media conference at the University of Melbourne that had agreed to end the protest after the institution had agreed to disclose research partnerships with weapons manufacturers.
“After months of campaigning, rallies, petitions, meetings and in recent weeks, the encampment, the University of Melbourne has finally agreed to meet an important demand of our campaign,” a spokesperson later told the ABC.
“This is a major win.”
Some of the protesting students at AUT University’s Hikuwai Plaza today. Image: David Robie/APR
French President Emmanuel Macron landed in Nouméa today under heavy security after pro-independence protests by indigenous Kanaks followed by rioting in the Pacific territory of New Caledonia.
Speaking to a pool of journalists, he set as his top priority the return to peace with New Caledonia still in the grip of violent unrest after 10 days of roadblocks, rioting, burning and looting.
The riots, related to New Caledonia’s independence issue, started on May 13, as the French National Assembly in Paris voted in favour of a controversial constitutional amendment which would significantly modify the rules of eligibility for local elections.
The pro-independence movement FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) objected to the text, saying this, by allowing people to vote locally after 10 years of uninterrupted residence, would have a significant impact on their future representation.
The amendment remains to be ratified by a meeting of the Congress in Versailles (a joint sitting of both Upper and Lower Houses) before it would take effect.
Earlier, Macron said he intended to call this joint sitting sometime before the end of June.
New Caledonia’s pro-independence parties, as well as some pro-France parties, agree the current situation is not conducive to such a vote.
Call to postpone key vote
They are calling for the Versailles Congress joint sitting to be at least postponed or even that the controversial text be withdrawn altogether by the French government.
During his trip, Macron is also accompanied by Home Affairs and Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin (who has been dealing with New Caledonia since 2022); Darmanin’s deputy (“delegate” minister for overseas) Marie Guévenoux; and Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu (who was in charge of the French overseas portfolio before Darmanin).
The CCAT resistance “field cells” have reinforced their northern mobilisation. Image: Caledonia TV screenshot APR
He also brought with him several high-level public servants who would form a “dialogue mission” tasked to restore contacts with New Caledonia’s political stakeholders.
The “mission” will stay in New Caledonia “as long as it takes” and its goal will be to have a “local political dialogue with the view of arriving at a comprehensive political agreement” regarding New Caledonia’s long-term future.
Along with the presidential Airbus, a military A-400 also landed in New Caledonia, bringing more law and order reinforcements.
Macron plans to meet political, economic, custom (traditional) and civil society representatives.
Doubts remain on whether all of the local parties would accept to meet the French Head of State.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Nouméa . . . seeking dialogue to find solutions to New Caledonian unrest. Image: NC 1ère TV screenshot APR
Normal ‘health care, food supply’ aim
Talking to the media, Macron said a return to “peace, calm and security” was “the priority of all priorities”.
This would also imply restoring normal “health care, goods and food supply” which have been gravely affected for the past 10 days.
“I am aware the population is suffering from a great crisis situation. We will also talk about economic reconstruction. For the political questions, the most sensitive ones, I came to talk about New Caledonia’s future,” he said.
“At the end of today, decisions and announcements will be made. I have come here with a sense of determination. And with a sense of respect and humility.”
Since May 13, the riots have caused the death of six people, destroyed an estimated 400 businesses for a total estimated cost, experts say, is now bordering 1 billion euros (NZ$1.8 billion).
Asked by journalists if all this could be achieved in a matter of just a few hours, Macron replied: “We shall see. I have no set limit” (on his New Caledonia stay).
Macron’s schedule with a visit initially set to last not more than 24 hours, remains sketchy.
Visit extended to 48 hours
It appears to have been extended to 48 hours.
In many parts of New Caledonia, French law enforcement (police, gendarmes) were today still struggling to regain control of several strategic access roads, as well as several districts of the capital Nouméa.
Macron said the state of emergency, which was imposed Wednesday last week for an initial period of 12 days, “should not be extended”, but that security forces currently deployed “will stay as long as necessary, even during the Paris 2024 Olympics”.
He also urged all stakeholders to “call for the roadblocks to be lifted”.
“I am here because dialogue is necessary, but I’m calling on everyone’s sense of responsibility.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A New Zealand Kanak woman, Jessie Ounei, says young people in New Caledonia feel a sense of anger and betrayal at the way France is attempting to “snuff out” any prospect of independence for its Pacific territory.
France invaded New Caledonia in 1853 and pushed the Kanak people into reservations, denying them civil and political rights for a century.
In parallel with Nga Tamatoa in Aotearoa, a resistance movement sprang up in the 1960s and 1970s driven by young people, including Jessie Ounei’s late mother Susanna Ounei, and the territory has been on the United Nations decolonisation list since 1986.
Riots broke out last week after the French National Assembly moved to give voting rights to settlers with 10 years residence, which would overwhelm the indigenous vote.
Jessie Ounei told Radio Waatea host Shane Te Pou the independence movement had tried to resist the move peacefully, but once the National Assembly vote happened young people took action.
“It’s a total betrayal. Young people have grown up with a sense of identity and we understand out worth and that’s largely because of the work that was done in the 1960s, 1970s and and 1980s to reclaim our identity so we’re not unaware of our worth or our identity, or how hard done we are being so we were hopeful this was going to be it,” she said.
France ‘pulled the rug’
“But France has totally pulled the rug out.”
Ounei said she had been hearing unconfirmed reports of rightwing settler militias taking vigilante action against the Kanak population.
Asia Pacific Reportsays French officials have cited a death toll of at least six so far — including three Kanaks, one a 17-year-old girl, and two police officers, and 214 people have been arrested in the state of emergency.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Nouméa today in an attempt to create a dialogue to resolve the tensions.
An interview with Jesse Ounei and David Small. Republished from Waatea News, Auckland’s Māori radio broadcaster.
She had just arrived back from Caracas where she represented France at this week’s United Nations seminar on decolonisation.
“As far as the French state is concerned, our door is open, we are welcoming everyone for dialogue, in Paris or in Nouméa. It’s up to everyone to join further dialogue,” Roger-Lacan said.
Roger-Lacan said the unrest had been provoked by very specific parts of the New Caledonian establishment.
She said she made a plea for dialogue at the United Nations decolonisation seminar in light of the deadly protests in New Caledonia.
‘Up to all the parties’
“Well, what I want to say is that the Nouméa agreement has enabled everyone in New Caledonia to have a representation in the French National Assembly and in the Senate,” Roger-Lacan said.
“And it is up to all the parties, including the independantistes, who have some representatives in the National Assembly and in the Senate, to use their political power to convince everyone in the National Assembly and in the Parliament.
“If they don’t manage [this], it is [an] amazingly unacceptable way of voicing their concerns through violence.”
While the French government and anti-independence leaders maintain protest organisers are to blame for the violence, pro-independence parties say they have been holding peaceful protests for months.
They say violence was born from socio-economic disparities and France turning a deaf ear to the territorial government’s call for a controversial proposed constitutional electoral amendment to be scrapped.
Roger-Lacan said while “everyone” was saying this unrest was called for because they were not listened to by the French state, France stands ready for dialogue.
She said just because one group failed to “use their political power to convince the Assembly and the Senate”, it did not justify deadly protests.
Composition questioned A long-time journalist reporting on Pacific issues said the composition of the French President’s delegation to New Caledonia would anger pro-independence leaders.
Islands Business correspondent Nic Maclellan said Macron would be accompanied by the current Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin and Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
“They will no doubt be welcomed by supporters of the French republic, anti-independence politicians who want to stay with France but Lecornu and Darmanin have been responsible for key decisions taken over the last three or four years that have lead to this current crisis,” Maclellan said.
President Macron has said the main objective of the trip is to resume political talks with all stakeholders and find a political solution to the crisis.
United Nations decolonisation This year Véronique Roger-Lacan represented France at the table at a seminar which took place in the lead up to the UN Committee on Decolonisation in New York in June.
The right to self determination is a constitutional principle in the French constitution as much as it is in the UN Charter, Roger-Lacan explained.
The meeting she has just been at in Caracas, “prepares a draft, UN General Assembly resolution, that is being examined in the committee, which is called the C-24,” she said.
Roger-Lacan was appointed to the role of French ambassador to the Pacific in July last year.
Various groups have been calling for the United Nations to head a delegation to New Caledonia to observe the current situation.
Roger-Lacan said the New Caledonia coalition government representative and the FLNKS representative both called for a UN mission at the meeting.
“Then there were five representatives of the loyalists and they all made the case of the fact that a third referenda had been in compliance with the two UN General Assembly resolutions determining the future status of New Caledonia,” she said.
As the representative of the French state, she made the case that France had always been the only administrative power to sit in the C-24 — “and to negotiate and cooperate,” she said.
“The United States, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom never did that,” Roger-Lacan said.
She also welcomed the UN, “whenever they want to visit”, she said.
“That’s the plea that I made on behalf of the French government, a plea for dialogue.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A New Zealand solidarity action group has called on the New Zealand government to back indigenous independence calls in the Pacific and press both France to grant Kanaks sovereignty and Indonesia to end its rule in West Papua.
Catherine Delahunty, a former Green Party MP and spokesperson for West Papua Action Aotearoa, said today it would be good timing to exert pressure on Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron visiting the New Caledonian capital Nouméa this week.
“France is not living up to its commitments under the Noumea Accord and not meeting its responsibilities towards a country listed on the UN Decolonisation Committee,” she said in a statement.
The West Papua Action Aotearoa network was standing in solidarity with the Kanak people who were struggling for independence from French rule, she said.
“The New Zealand government could show support for both the end of French rule in Kanaky and Indonesian rule in West Papua.
“Both these countries should withdraw their military and prepare to hand over executive power to the indigenous citizens of Kanaky and West Papua.”
Nouméa rioting ‘unsurprising’
Delahunty said that the rioting last week against the French authorities in Kanaky New Caledonia was “completely unsurprising” as the threats to an independent future by pushing through a a constitutional electoral bill to include more non-indigenous residents of Kanaky had caused outrage.
“Much like West Papua the colonial control of resources and government in Kanaky is oppressive and has created sustained resistance,” she said.
“Peace without justice maybe be temporarily restored but our government needs to call on France to do more than dialogue for the resumption of French control.
Liberation “must come” for Kanaky New Caledonia, says one of the few New Zealand journalists who have worked consistently on stories across the French Pacific territories.
Journalist David Robie was arrested at gunpoint by French police in January 1987, and is no stranger to civil unrest in New Caledonia.
Writing his first articles about the Pacific from Paris in 1974 on French nuclear testing when working for Agence France-Presse, Robie became a freelance journalist in the 1980s, working for Radio Australia, Islands Business, The Australian, Pacific Islands Monthly, Radio New Zealand and other media.
The Asia Pacific Report editor, who has been on the case for 50 years now, arrived at his interview with RNZ Pacific with a bag of books packed with images and stories from his days in the field.
“I did get arrested twice [in Kanaky New Caledonia], in fact, but the first time was actually at gunpoint which was slightly unnerving,” Robie explained.
“They accused me of being a spy.”
Dr David Robie standing with Kanak pro-independence activists and two Australian journalists at Touho, northern New Caledonia, while on assignment during the FLNKS boycott of the 1984 New Caledonian elections. (Robie is standing with cameras strung around his back). Image: Wiken Books/Back Cover
Liberation ‘must come’
Robie said liberation “must come” for Kanaky New Caledonia.
“It’s really three decades of hard work by a lot of people to build, sort of like a future for New Caledonia, which is part of the Pacific rather than part of France,” Robie said.
He said France has had three Prime Ministers since 2020 and none of them seem to have any “real affinity” for indigenous issues, particularly in the South Pacific, in contrast to some previous leaders.
“From 2020 onwards, basically, France lost the plot,” after Édouard Philippe was in office, Robie said.
He called the current situation a “real tragedy” and believed New Caledonia was now more polarised than ever before.
“France has betrayed the aspirations of the indigenous Kanak people.”
Robie said the whole spirit of the Nouméa Accord was to lead Kanaky towards self determination.
New Caledonia on UN decolonisation list
New Caledonia is listed under the United Nations as a territory to be decolonised — reinstated on 2 December 1986.
“Progress had been made quite well with the first two votes on self determination, the two referendums on independence, where there’s a slightly higher and reducing opposition.”
In 2018, 43.6 percent voted in favour of independence with an 81 percent voter turnout. Two years later 46.7 percent were in favour with a voter turnout of 85.7 percent, but 96.5 percent voted against independence in 2021, with a voter turnout of just 43.8 percent.
France maintains it was legitimate, despite first insisting on holding the third vote a year earlier than originally scheduled, and in spite of pleas from indigenous Kanak leaders to postpone the vote so they could properly bury and mourn the many members of their communities who died as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.
Robie said France was now taking a deliberate step to “railroad” the indigenous vote in Kanaky New Caledonia.
He said the latest “proposed amendment” to the constitution would give thousands more non-indigenous people voting rights.
“[The new voters would] completely swamp indigenous people,” Robie said.
‘Hope’ and other options Robie said there “was hope yet”, despite France’s betrayal of the Kanaks over self-determination and independence, especially over the past three years.
French President Emmanuel Macron is under increasing pressure to scrap proposed constitutional reform by Pacific leaders which sparked riots in New Caledonia.
Pacific leaders and civil society groups have affirmed their support for New Caledonia’s path to independence.
Robie backed that call. He said there were options, including an indefinite deferment of the final stage, or Macron could use his presidential veto.
“So [I’m] hopeful that something like that will happen. There certainly has to be some kind of charismatic change to sort out the way things are at the moment.”
A masked Kanak militant near La Foa in western Grande Terre island during the 1980s . . . this photo is from the cover of the Swedish edition of David Robie’s 1989 book Blood on their Banner: Nationalist Struggles in the South Pacific. Image: Lydia Lewis/RNZ Pacific
Having Édouard Philippe — who has always said he had grown a strong bond with New Caledonia when he was in office until 2020 — on the mission would be “a very positive move”, said Robie.
“Because what really is needed now is some kind of consensus,” he said.
‘We don’t want to be like the Māori in NZ’ New Caledonia could still have a constructive “partnership” with France, just like the Cook Islands has with New Zealand, Robie said.
“The only problem is that the French government doesn’t want to listen,” New Caledonia presidential spokesperson Charles Wea said.
“You cannot stop the Kanak people from claiming freedom in their own country.”
Despite the calls, Wea said concerns were setting in that Kanak people would “become a minority in their own country”.
“We [Kanak people] are afraid to be like Māori in New Zealand. We are afraid to be like Aboriginal people in Australia.”
He said those fears were why it was so important the controversial constitutional amendments did not go any further.
Robie said while Kanaks were already a minority in their own country, there had been a pretty close parity under the Nouméa Accord.
Vote a ‘retrograde step’
“Bear in mind, a lot of French people who’ve lived in New Caledonia for a long time, believe in independence as well,” he said.
But it was the “constitutional reform” that was the sticking point, something Robie refused to call a “reform”, describing as “a very retrograde step”.
In 1998, there was “goodwill” though the Nouméa accord.
“The only people who could participate in New Caledonian elections, as opposed to the French state as a whole, were indigenous Kanaks and those who had been living in New Caledonia prior to 1998,” something France brought in at the time.
Robie said a comparison can be drawn “much more with Australia”, rather than Aotearoa New Zealand.
“Kanak people resisting French control a century and a half ago were executed by the guillotine,” he said.
To Robie, Aotearoa was probably the better example of what New Caledonia could be.
“But you have to recall that New Caledonia began colonial life just like Australia, a penal colony,” he said.
Robie explained how Algerian fighters were shipped off to New Caledonia, Vietnamese fighters were also sent during the Vietnam War, among other people from other minority groups.
“A lot of people think it’s French and Kanak. It’s not. It’s a lot more mixed than that and a lot more complicated.”
The media and the blame game As Robie explained the history, another issue became apparent: the lack of media interest and know-how to cover such events from Aotearoa New Zealand.
He said he had been disappointed to see many mainstream outlets glossing over history and focusing on the stranded Kiwis and fighting, which he said was significant, but needed context.
He said this lack of built-up knowledge within newsrooms and an apparent issue of “can’t be bothered, or it’s too problematic,” was projecting the indigenous population as the bad guys.
“There’s a projection that basically ‘Oh, well, they’re young people… looting and causing fires and that sort of thing’, they don’t get an appreciation of just how absolutely frustrated young people feel. It’s 50 percent of unemployment as a result of the nickel industry collapse, you know,” Robie explained.
When it came to finger pointing, he believed the field activist movement CCAT did not intend for all of this to happen.
“Once the protests reached a level of anger and frustration, all hell broke loose,” said Robie.
“But they [CCAT] have been made the scapegoats.
“Whereas the real culprits are the French government, and particularly the last three prime ministers in my view.”
A NZ Defence Force plane carrying 50 New Zealanders evacuated from New Caledonia landed at Auckland International Airport last night.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it would be working with France and Australia to ensure the safe departure of several evacuation flights amid civil unrest in the island state.
The efforts came as RNZ Pacific’s French Pacific correspondent Patrick Decloitre reported that President Emmanuel Macron would be flying to New Caledonia within hours to install a “dialogue mission” in the French Pacific dependency in the wake of violent riots for the past eight days.
The first flight took off from the capital of Nouméa after a short turnaround at Magenta local airport at 7pm, and landed in Auckland at about 10pm.
Those arriving to Auckland Airport on the NZ Defence Force plane said they were relieved to be back.
Many reunited with loved ones, while others were sent onto hospital for urgent medical treatment.
Some of the passengers on the special flight out of New Caledonia, after they had landed at Auckland Airport. Image: RNZ/Marika Khabazi
Chris and Mike Riley were arriving back from New Caledonia from what was meant to be a week-long trip.
‘Fireworks and gunfire’
Chris Riley said they heard lots of explosions, fireworks and gunfire from where they were.
“We were in a lovely place actually, it was quite peaceful, but we were trapped because we couldn’t get through because of all the troubles that were there,” she said.
Mike Riley said they were both relieved to be home.
“We’re not in a hurry to go anywhere apart from Kerikeri,” he said.
Carl, who did not provide a last name, was in a tourist area of New Caledonia for the past two weeks, which he said was sheltered from the riots.
He said it felt great to get on the Defence Force flight.
“It was a bit of a different type of trip back to New Zealand, but it was fun.”
Some of the passengers on the special flight out of New Caledonia, after they had landed at Auckland Airport. Image: RNZ/Marika Khabazi
La Tontouta still closed
Noumea’s La Tontouta International Airport remains closed.
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said the New Zealanders on the flight would have had a security escort to the airport.
Pacific Island nations were among those which had sought New Zealand’s help to evacuate citizens, he said.
Peters said there would be more flights over the next few days to get all 250 New Zealanders out of the French Pacific territory, which has been in the grip of riots and political unrest between anti- and pro-independence groups.
He hoped another flight would leave for New Caledonia this morning.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The split opening up in Israel’s “War Cabinet” is not just between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his long-term rival Benny Gantz. It is actually a three-way split, set in motion by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
It was Gallant’s open criticism of Netanyahu that finally flushed Gantz out into the open.
What Gallant wanted from Netanyahu was a plan for how Gaza is to be governed once the fighting ends and an assurance that the Israel Defence Force will not end up being Gaza’s de facto civil administrator.
To that end, Gallant wanted to know what Palestinian entity (presumably the Palestinian Authority) would be part of that future governing arrangement, and on what terms.
To Gallant, that is essential information to ensure that the IDF (for which he is ultimately responsible) will not be bogged down in Gaza for the duration of a forever war. By voicing his concerns out loud, Gallant pushed Gantz into stating publicly what his position is on the same issues.
What Gantz came up with was a set of six strategic “goals” on which Netanyahu has to provide sufficient signs of progress by June 8, or else Gantz will resign from the war Cabinet.
Maybe, perhaps. Gantz could still find wiggle room for himself to stay on, depending on the state of the political/military climate in three weeks time.
The Gantz list
For what they’re worth, Gantz’s six points are:
The return of the hostages from Gaza;
The overthrow of Hamas rule, and de-militarisation in Gaza;
The establishment of a joint US, European, Arab, and Palestinian administration that will manage Gaza’s civilian affairs, and form the basis for a future alternative governing authority;
The repatriation of residents of north Israel who were evacuated from their homes, as well as the rehabilitation of Gaza border communities;
The promotion of normalisation with Saudi Arabia; and
The adoption of an outline for military service for all Israeli citizens. [Gantz has already tabled a bill to end the current exemption of Hadadim (i.e. conservative Jews) from the draft. This issue is a tool to split Netanyahu away from his extremist allies. One of the ironies of the Gaza conflict is that the religious extremists egging it on have ensured that their own sons and daughters aren’t doing any of the fighting.]
Almost instantly, this list drew a harsh response from Netanyahu’s’ office:
“The conditions set by Benny Gantz are laundered words whose meaning is clear: the end of the war and a defeat for Israel, the abandonment of most of the hostages, leaving Hamas-rule intact and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Our soldiers did not fall in vain and certainly not for the sake of replacing Hamastan with Fatahstan,” the PM’s Office added.
In reality, Netanyahu has little or no interest in what a post-war governing arrangement in Gaza might look like. His grip on power — and his immunity from criminal prosecution — depends on a forever war, in which any surviving Palestinians will have no option but to submit to Gaza being re-settled by Israeli extremists. (Editor: ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan has today filed an application for arrest warrants for crimes against humanity by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, along with three Hamas leaders for war crimes.)
— Int’l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) May 20, 2024
Gantz, no respite Palestinians have no reason to hope a Gantz-led government would offer them any respite. Gantz was the IDF chief of staff during two previous military assaults on Gaza in 2012 and 2014 that triggered accusations of war crimes.
While Gantz may be open to some minor role for the Palestinian Authority (PA) in helping to run Gaza in future, this would require the PA to be willing to duplicate in Gaza the same abjectly compliant security role it currently performs on behalf of Israel on the West Bank.
So far, the PA has shown no enthusiasm for helping to run Gaza, given that any collaborators would be sitting ducks for Palestinian retribution.
In sum, Gantz is a centrist only when compared to the wingnut extremists (e.g. Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich) with whom Netanyahu currently consorts. In any normal democracy, such public dissent by two senior Cabinet Ministers crucial to government stability would have led directly to new elections being called.
Not so in Israel, at least not yet.
Counting the cost in Nouméa A few days ago, the Chamber of commerce in Noumea estimated the economic cost of the ongoing unrest in New Caledonia — both directly and to rebuild the country’s trashed infrastructure — will be in excess of 200 million euros (NZ$356 million).
Fixing the physical infrastructure though, may be the least of it.
The rioting was triggered by the French authorities preparing to sign off on an expansion of the eligibility criteria for taking part in decisive votes on the territory’s future. Among other things, this measure would have diluted the Kanak vote, by extending the franchise to French citizens who had been resident in New Caledonia for ten years.
This thorny issue of voter eligibility has been central to disputes in the territory for at least three decades.
This time around, the voting roll change being mooted came hard on the heels of a third independence referendum in 2021 that had been boycotted by Kanaks, who objected to it being held while the country was still recovering from the covid pandemic.
With good reason, the Kanak parties linked the boycotted 2021 referendum — which delivered a 96 percent vote against independence — to the proposed voting changes. Both are being taken as evidence of a hard rightwards shift by local authorities and their political patrons in France.
An inelegant inégalité On paper, New Caledonia looks like a relatively wealthy country, with an annual per capita income of US$33,000 __ $34,000 estimated for 2024. That’s not all that far behind New Zealand’s $US42,329 figure, and well in excess of neighbours in Oceania like Fiji ($6,143) Vanuatu $3,187) and even French Polynesia ($21,615).
The New Caledonian economy suffers from a lack of productivity gains, insufficient competitiveness and strong income inequalities… Since 2011, economic growth has slowed down due to the fall in nickel prices… The extractive sector developed relatively autonomously with regard to the rest of the economy, absorbing most of the technical capabilities. Apart from nickel, few export activities managed to develop, particularly because of high costs..[associated with] the narrowness of the local market, and with [the territory’s] geographic remoteness.
No doubt, tourism will be hammered by the latest unrest. Yet even before the riots, annual tourism visits to New Caledonia had always lagged well behind the likes of Fiji, and French Polynesia.
Over the past 50 years, the country’s steeply unequal economic base has been directly manipulated by successive French governments, who have been more intent on maintaining the status quo than on establishing a sustainable re-balance of power.
History repeats The violent unrest that broke out between 1976-1989 culminated in the killing by French military forces of several Kanak leaders (including the prominent activist Eloï Machoro) while a hostage-taking incident on Ouvea in 1988 directly resulted in the deaths of 19 Kanaks and two French soldiers.
Tragically in 1989, internal rifts within the Kanak leadership cost the lives of the pre-eminent pro-independence politician Jean-Marie Tjibaou and his deputy.
Eventually, the Matignon Accords that Tjibaou had signed a year before his death ushered in a decade of relative stability. Subsequently, the Noumea Accords a decade later created a blueprint for a 20-year transition to a more equitable outcome for the country’s various racial and political factions.
Of the 270,000 people who comprise the country’s population, some 41 percent belong to the Kanak community.
About 24 percent identify as European. This category includes (a) relatively recent arrivals from mainland France employed in the public service or on private sector contracts, and (b) the politically conservative “caldoches” whose forebears have kept arriving as settlers since the 19th century, including an influx of settlers from Algeria after France lost that colony in 1962, after a war of independence.
A further 7.5 percent identify as “Caledonian” but again, these people are largely of European origin. Some 11.3% of the population are of mixed race. Under the census rules, people can self-identify with multiple ethnic groups.
In sum, the fracture lines of race, culture, economic wealth and deprivation crisscross the country, with the Kanak community being those most in need, and with Kanak youth in particular suffering from limited access to jobs and opportunity.
Restoring whose ‘order’? The riots have been the product of the recent economic downturn, ethnic tensions and widely-held Kanak opposition to French rule. French troops have now been sent into the territory in force, initially to re-open the international airport.
It is still a volatile situation. As Le Monde noted in its coverage of the recent rioting, New Caledonia is known for its very high number of firearms in relation to the size of the population.
If illegal weapons are counted, some 100,000 weapons are said to be circulating in a territory of 270,000 inhabitants.
Even allowing for some people having multiple weapons, New Caledonia has, on average, a gun for every three or four people. France by contrast (according to Franceinfo in 2021) had only 5.4 million weapons within a population of more than 67 million, or one gun for every 12 people.
The restoration of “order” in New Caledonia has the potential for extensive armed violence. After the dust settles, the divisive issue of who should be allowed to vote in New Caledonia, and under what conditions, will remain.
Forging on with the voting reforms regardless, is now surely no longer an option.
Passengers for subsequent flights will be prioritised by consular staff.
“New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days — and bringing them home has been an urgent priority for the government,” Peters said.
“We want to acknowledge the support of relevant authorities, both in Paris and Nouméa, in facilitating this flight.”
Peters said the situation in New Caledonia was “dynamic” and New Zealand officials were working with French counterparts and other partners, like Australia, to learn what was needed to ensure safety of their people there.
“In cooperation with France and Australia, we are working on subsequent flights in coming days.”
Update SafeTravel details
Peters said New Zealanders in New Caledonia were urged to make sure their details on SafeTravel were up to date.
This would allow officials to be in touch with further advice.
Meanwhile, a New Zealander desperate to return home said it was heartening to know that a flight was on its way.
Barbara Graham, who was due to fly home from a research trip in New Caledonia on Monday, had been on holiday there with her husband and six-year-old son last month.
She said she was desperate to get home to them, but knew others were in greater need.
“It’s really really heartening to hear that the flights have started and I’m extremely pleased they’re prioritising the people that really really need to get home, you know parents and children.
“I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like if my son had still been here in this situation.”
A nearby bakery was selling rationed bread to residents and visitors, Graham said.
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.
A New Zealand author, journalist and media educator who has covered the Asia-Pacific region since the 1970s says liberation “must come” for Kanaky/New Caledonia.
Professor David Robie sailed on board Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior until it was bombed by French secret agents in New Zealand in July 1985 and wrote the book Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior.
New Caledonia’s Tontouta International Airport remains closed, and Air New Zealand’s next scheduled flight is on Saturday — although it is not ruling out adding extra services.
Air NZ’s Captain David Morgan said on Monday evening flights would only resume when they were assured of the security of the airport and safe access for passengers and staff.
Later, the airline said its “next scheduled service is Saturday, May 25. However, we will continue to review this and may add capacity when the airport reopens”.
AirCalin said tonight Tontouta airport would be closed until May 23.
The capital descended into chaos last Monday, after riots protesting against a controversial new bill that would allow French residents who have lived there for more than 10 years to vote — which critics say will weaken the indigenous Kanak vote.
At least six people have been killed, and more than 230 people have been arrested.
A NZ Defence Force Hercules is on standby to bring 250 Kiwis home, but it is awaiting clearance from French authorities.
Clearing roadblocks
Hundreds of armed French police have been using armoured vehicles to clear protesters and roadblocks between the international airport and Nouméa.
The risky route — which stretches for about 50 km north of the capital — is the key reason why the airport remains closed.
Emma Roylands, a Kiwi studying at the University of New Caledonia, said the nights on campus had been stressful.
“We’ve set up a sense of a roster, or a shift, that watches over the night time for the university, and this high-strung suspicion from every noise, every bang, that is that someone coming to the university,” she said.
Roylands said she was not sure if the French police would be able to successfully clear the main road to the airport.
“Clearing the road for an hour north seems like an impossible task with these rioters,” she said.
Shula Guse from Canterbury, who was on holiday with her partner and friends, said many shops were running low on stock.
‘Nothing on the shelves’
“The shops are closed or if they’re open they have empty shelves, the local corner dairy has nothing on the shelves,” she said.
Guse said she managed to buy some flour and yeast from a local pizza shop and had started making her own bread.
She said her group had flights rebooked for tomorrow — but there had been no confirmation from Air New Zealand on whether it would go ahead.
Guse, whose friends were running low on heart medication, said they would have to make other plans if it fell through.
“When today is finished, and we haven’t heard any news, then we might start tomorrow looking for more medication, more food, just to make sure we have enough.”
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) said the NZDF Hercules was ready, as soon as French authorities gave permission.
When asked whether the Navy would be deployed, MFAT said its focus was on flight repatriation.
RNZ asked whether New Zealand would consider helping evacuate people from other Pacific countries who were stranded in New Caledonia. MFAT said it had been engaging with Pacific partners about the crisis.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters said he was unable to put a timeframe on how soon New Zealanders could return.
He said they were continuing to explore possible options, including working alongside Australia and other partners to help get New Zealanders home.
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.
Young people on the streets in New Caledonia are saying they will “never give up” pushing back against France’s hold on the Pacific territory, a Kanak journalist in Nouméa says.
Pro-independence Radio Djiido’s Andre Qaeze told RNZ Pacific young people had said that “Paris must respect us” and what had been decided by Jacques Lafleur and Jean-Marie Tjibaou, who were instrumental in putting an end to the tragic events of the 1980s and restoring civil peace in the French territory.
In 1988, Tjibaou signed the Matignon Accords with the anti-independence leader Lafleur, ending years of unrest and ushering in a peaceful decolonisation process.
Qaeze — speaking to RNZ Pacific today as the week-old crisis continued — said the political problem, the electoral roll, was the visible part of the iceberg, but the real problem was the economic part.
He said they had decided to discuss the constitutional amendments to the electoral roll but wanted to know what were the contents of the discussions.
They also wanted to know the future of managing the wealth, including the lucrative mining, and all the resources of New Caledonia.
“Because those young people on the road, plenty of them don’t have any training, they go out from school with no job. They see all the richness going out of the country and they say we cannot be a spectator,” he said.
‘Rich become richer, poor become poorer’
“The rich become richer and the poor become poorer, and they say no, we have to change this economic model of sharing.
“I think this is the main problem,” he added.
Qaeze said the old pro-independence generation used to say to the young generation: “You go and stop”.
“Then we are trying to negotiate for us but negotiate for ‘us’. The word ‘us’ means only the local government is responsible not everybody.
“And now, for 30 years the young generation have seen this kind of [political] game, and for them we cannot continue like this.”
He believed it was important for the local pro-independence leaders to take care of the content of the future statutes not only political statutes.
According to French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, almost 240 rioters had been detained following the violent unrest as of Monday.
Qaeze said every year about 400 indigenous young people left school without any diploma or any career and these were the young people on the streets.
He added there was plenty of inequality, especially in Nouméa, that needed to change.
“Our people can do things, can propose also our Oceanian way of running and managing [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.
A New Zealander studying at the University of New Caledonia says students have been taught to use fire extinguishers as firefighters are unlikely to come help if there is an emergency.
It comes as days of unrest followed a controversial proposed constitutional amendment which would allow more French residents of New Caledonia to vote — a move that pro-independence protesters say would weaken the indigenous Kanak vote.
Six people have been confirmed dead so far in the state of emergency and there are reports of hundreds of people injured, numerous fires and looting in New Caledonia’s capital Nouméa.
Emma Royland is one of several international students at the university in Nouméa and said everyone was getting a bit “high-strung”.
“There’s this high-strung suspicion from every noise, every bang that ‘is that somebody coming to the university?’”
Royland said a roster had been set up so that someone was constantly up overnight, looking over the university campus.
Nights had become more quiet, but there was still unrest, she said.
Concern over technology
The vice-president of the university had visited yesterday to bring students some cooking oil and expressed the concern the university had for its expensive technology, Royland said.
“They are very worried that people come and they burn things just as a middle finger to the state.
Smoke wafts over the harbour near Nouméa. Image: Emma Royland/RNZ
“We’ve been told that ‘if you see a fire, it’s unlikely that the firefighters will come so we will try and manage it ourselves’.”
Royland said water to the part of Nouméa she was in had not been affected but food was becoming an issue.
The university was providing food when it could but even it was struggling to get access to it — snacks such as oreos had been provided.
But the closest supermarket that was open had “queues down the block” that could last three or four hours, Royland said.
Seeing ‘absolutely crazy things’
She was seeing “absolutely crazy things that I’ve never seen in my life”.
Food supplies are delivered to the University of Caledonia campus. Image: Emma Royland/RNZ
That included people holding guns.
“It is quite scary to know just 20 seconds down from the university there are guys with guns blocking the road.”
“Ever since the security situation in New Caledonia deteriorated earlier this week, the safety of New Zealanders there has been an urgent priority for us,” Peters wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“NZ authorities have now completed preparations for flights using NZDF aircraft to bring home New Zealanders in New Caledonia while commercial services are not operating.
‘Ready to fly’
“We are ready to fly, and await approval from French authorities as to when our flights are safe to proceed.”
Businesses and facilities have been torched by rioters. Image: Emma Royland/RNZ
Royland praised the response from New Zealand, saying other countries had not been so quick to help its citizens.
She said she had received both a call and email from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade asking her if she was in immediate danger and if she needed assistance straight away.
Everyone she had spoken to at the university seemed impressed with how New Zealand was responding, she said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A new report has uncovered the disgusting pipeline between the Pentagon and defense contractors – where the Pentagon sends TRILLIONS of dollars worth of contracts to these companies in exchange for getting lucrative jobs for themselves. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. […]
With New Caledonia about to enter its second week of deadly riots, French authorities have mounted a massive law enforcement operation to regain control of the main roads in and around the capital Nouméa.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal — after a 12-day presidential state of emergency was declared mid-week — is now chairing daily meetings of an “inter-ministerial crisis cell”, also involving Home Affairs and Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin, his deputy Marie Guévenoux, Army Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti.
Attal also hosted a parliamentary “liaison committee” on the crisis in New Caledonia meeting on Friday. The meeting involved parliamentary representatives of New Caledonia and parliamentary groups specialising in the French Pacific archipelago.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal hosts a parliamentary liaison committee on the crisis in New Caledonia. Image: RNZ/Le Monde
A ‘dialogue mission’ for New Caledonia
It emerged after the conference that a “dialogue mission” was now very likely to be set up and to travel to New Caledonia in order to restore dialogue and trust between Paris and its South Pacific dependency.
The notion of the mission, which would have to be “impartial” and “bipartisan”, had been called by several key players within the French political scene.
This high-level dialogue mission could involve Senate President Gérard Larcher or National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet.
Also mentioned have been former prime ministers such as Lionel Jospin (who signed the Nouméa Accord in 1998 on behalf of France) or Edouard Philippe, who has always said he had grown a strong bond with New Caledonia when he was in office (until 2020).
The constitutional amendment was endorsed by the French Senate on April 2 and the National Assembly on May 14.
However, a joint sitting of both upper and lower houses of the French parliament, which President Emmanuel Macron intended to convene before the end of June to endorse the amendment, was “unlikely to take place within this timeframe”, Braun-Pivet and Larcher told French media on Friday.
French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc speaks at a press conference today . . . trust broken between indigenous Kanaks and the French State. Image: French Highcom/Facebook
Feeling of ‘disrespect’ Several high-level experts and officials said that the spirit of the Matignon Accords — an agreement between loyalists and pro-independence groups which was signed in 1988, a decade before the Nouméa Accord — had been lost along the way. The breach of that consensus had led to a loss of trust and growing defiance between New Caledonian pro-independence players and the French State.
They also said the Kanak people felt “disrespect” when a request to delay the third independence referendum at the end of 2021 was ignored. That ended in a boycott of the final consultation on New Caledonia’s self-determination.
They also resented the fact that at one stage, Loyalist Party leader Sonia Backès had been appointed the French government’s Secretary of State (associate minister) for citizenship.
She was forced to resign in September 2023 after losing her bid for a seat at the senatorial elections.
More recently, tensions arose when another prominent pro-France leader, Nicolas Metzdorf, was appointed rapporteur for the the debates on the proposed constitutional amendment at the National Assembly.
Since the beginning of the unrest, there have been calls for the issue to be transferred back to the Prime Minister’s Office, as had been an unwritten rule since peace was restored back in the 1980s through negotiations with then-prime minister Michel Rocard.
Experts said this “special bond” was broken in 2020, after French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was replaced by Jean Castex and the Overseas portfolio was transferred to Sébastien Lecornu, who is now France’s minister of armed forces.
Attal was also tasked to set a date for talks to be held in Paris with New Caledonian politicians for inclusive talks on the territory’s political future, but several players have refused, saying the time was not appropriate as yet.’We have pierced all the roadblocks’
‘We have broken through all the roadblocks’
Tonight, an operation involving about 600 security personnel was launched in the outskirts of the capital to regain control of the highway between Nouméa and Tontouta International Airport, French High Commissioner Louis Le France said.
The main objective was to “restore republican order”, he said, adding that he now had sufficient numbers of law enforcement officers after reinforcements had arrived from France.
“We have broken through all the roadblocks . . . Now to restore normal traffic, we have to clean the debris,” he said.
Overnight, French special forces would “carry out harassment operations” throughout the greater Nouméa area, he said.
All schools would remain closed this week from tomorrow, New Caledonia’s government said in a release.
A roadblock at Tamoa close to Tontouta International Airport. Image: APR screenshot from “X”
“This time will be used to work on the best scenarios to prepare the resumption and integrate all of the material, security, human and psychological implications.”
Nouméa’s archbishop Michel-Marie Calvert, speaking at the Catholic Sunday mass for Pentecost, said the community had “betrayed our faith, our baptism and Jesus” through its divisions.
“Our island, once known as ‘closest to paradise’, has now become closest to hell. So many political voices are disqualified. They are no longer audible or credible.
“Let’s sound a strong signal to say ‘no’ to violence. Let’s call for a stop to violence, let’s demand from our elected leaders an obligation of results for a shared peaceful future, of lost and found fraternity.”
More buildings were destroyed by fire on Saturday night in Nouméa, including a media centre in Rivière Salée.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Pacific civil society and solidarity groups today stepped up their pressure on the French government, accusing it of a “heavy-handed” crackdown on indigenous Kanak protest in New Caledonia, comparing it to Indonesian security forces crushing West Papuan dissent.
A state of emergency was declared last week, at least people have been killed — four of them indigenous Kanaks — and more than 200 people have been arrested after rioting in the capital Nouméa followed independence protests over controversial electoral changes
In Sydney, the Australia West Papua Association declared it was standing in solidarity with the Kanak people in their self-determination struggle against colonialism.
“Like all colonial powers anywhere in the world, the first response to what started as peaceful protests is to send in more troops, declare a state of emergency and of course accuse a foreign power of fermenting unrest,” Collins said.
He was referring to the south Caucasus republic of Azerbaijan, which Paris has accused of distributing “anti-France propaganda” on social media about the riots, a claim denied by the Azeri government.
“In fact, the unrest is being caused by France itself,” Collins added.
France ‘should listen’
He said France should listen to the Kanak people.
In Port Vila, the international office of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) issued a statement saying that West Papuans supported the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) in “opposing the French colonial project”.
“Your tireless pursuit of self-determination for Kanaky people sets a profound example for West Papua,” said the statement signed by executive secretary Markus Haluk.
Part of the PRNGO statement on the Kanaky New Caledonia protests . . . call for UN and Pacific intervention. Image: APR screenshot
In Suva, the Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGOs) called for “calm and peace” blaming the unrest on the French government’s insistence on proceeding with proposed constitutional changes “expressly rejected by pro-independence groups”.
The alliance also reaffirmed its solidarity with the people of Kanaky New Caledonia in their ongoing peaceful quest for self-determination and condemned President Emmanuel Macron’ government for its “poorly hidden agenda of prolonging colonial control” over the Pacific territory.
“Growing frustration, especially among Kanak youth, at what is seen locally as yet another French betrayal of the Kanaky people and other local communities seeking peaceful transition, has since erupted in riots and violence in Noumea and other regions,” the PRNGOs statement said.
The alliance called on the United Nations and Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders to send a neutral mission to oversee and mediate dialogue over the Nouméa Accords of 1998 and political process.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, Kia Mua declared it was “watching with grave concern” the Macron government’s attempts to “derail the process for decolonisation and usurp the Nouméa Accords”.
It also called for the “de-escalation of the militarised French response to Kanak dissent and an end to the state of emergency”.
‘Devastating nuclearism, militarism’
For more than 300 years, “Te Moananui a Kiwa [Pacific Ocean] has been subjected to European colonialism, the criminality of which is obscured and hidden by Western presumptions of righteousness and legitimacy.”
The devastating effects of “nuclearism, militarism, extraction and economic globalisation on Indigenous culture and fragile ecosystems in the Pacific are an extension of that colonialism and must be halted”.
The Oceanian Independence Movement (OIM) demanded an immediate investigation “to provide full transparency into the deaths linked to the uprising in recent days”.
It called on indigenous people to be “extra vigilant” in the face of the state of emergency and and to record examples of “behaviour that harm your physical and moral integrity”.
The MOI said it supported the pro-independence CCAT (activist field groups) and blamed the upheaval on the “racist, colonialist, provocative and humiliating remarks” towards Kanaks by rightwing French politicians such as Southern provincial president Sonia Backés and Générations NC deputy in the National Assembly Nicolas Metzdorf.
Constitutional rules
The French National Assembly last week passed a bill changing the constutional rules for local provincial elections in New Caledonia, allowing French residents who have lived there for 10 years to vote.
This change to the electoral reform is against the terms of the 1998 Noumea Accord. That pact had agreed that only the indigenous Kanak people and long-term residents prior to 1998 would be eligible to vote in provincial ballots and local referendums.
The bill has yet to be ratified by Congress, a combined sitting of the Senate and National Assembly. The change would add an additional 25,000 non-indigenous voters to take part in local elections, dramatically changing the electoral demographics in New Caledonia to the disadvantage of indigenous Kanaks who make up 42 percent of the 270,000 population.
Yesterday, in the far north of Kanaky New Caledonia’s main island of Grande Terre, a group gathered to honour 10 Kanaks who were executed by guillotine on 18 May 1868. They had resisted the harsh colonial regime of Governor Guillan.
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.”
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.
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.
America’s Lawyer E98: A new report has revealed how the Pentagon has spent decades sending top military brass to work at the top defense companies in America – while also sending them TRILLIONS of dollars worth of contracts. Senator Bob Menendez is currently on trial on multiple felony charges, and his plan to get out […]
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.
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.
