Little Ima met Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape last Friday during the “haus krai” in Mulitaka, Enga, after the landslide disaster more than a week ago.
His meeting happened when Marape beckoned him to get water from him.
The action of the Prime Minister only moved the boy to be more courageous and in front of about 200 people at the site marked as a haus krai (traditional mourning), Ima did the unthinkable by walking up to the PM and asking him a question.
“Could my friends join me in meeting the Prime Minister?”
Within five minutes of asking, Marape said yes and suddenly the children came from all corners to sit with Marape and his colleagues who had come to see for themselves the devasting impact of the landslide.
Ima had a conversation with the Prime Minister and from the smiles of the PM, Ima had made a good impression on the man who has been faced with a barrage of criticism of late.
Walking into the “haus krai” site Marape choked back tears as he slowly made his way to the front.
Beside him was Minister for Defence Dr Billy Joseph and Enga Provincial Member Sir Peter Ipatas.
Highlighted children’s resilience
His meeting with Ima highlighted the resilience of the children who continue to smile despite the challenges and the changes in their life in the last few days.
Ima and the children have been the centre of attention as those who have come to help have doted on them.
On Thursday, the Queensland Fire Service officers had the children’s attention as the buzz of the drone caught the eye of everyone at Mulitaka.
As an officer with the Queensland fire service brought the drone over to show the children, it was a moment of mad scramble by the children and even adults to see the workings of a drone.
The officer showed Ima and the rest of the children and tried his best to explain what a drone does.
While many are still mourning the loss of loved ones, the smiles on the faces of the children was something a mother said she had not seen in a while.
‘Bringing peace’
In rapid Engan language, she said that “to see her son smile was bringing peace to her”.
Many of the women, girls and children have no clothes, basic necessities, blankets, or a shelter for the night.
Little Ima ended his week smiling after he was granted special access to the PM of this country.
However, for the rest of the children the Mulitaka Health Centre has been assisting providing health care for those who survived the landslide.
Amid the arrival of the Marape, women, girls and children continued to pour in seeking help for minor injuries and sickness.
RNZ Pacific reports that more than 7000 people have been evacuated and the PNG government believes more than 2000 people are buried under a landslip which is still moving, more than a week after the disaster.
Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.
Papua New Guinea’s Police Commissioner David Manning has commended the coordinated efforts between police and defence intelligence units in the lead up to and during the current sitting of Parliament.
Commissioner Manning said claims made over the past five months, particularly on social media, had led to heightened public awareness of safety during significant national events, and the nation’s disciplined forces were working together to ensure security.
“The RPNGC [Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary] and the PNGDF [PNG Defence Force] are working closely to collate and share information on potential criminal activities that might be instigated while Parliament is in session during May and June,” Commissioner Manning said.
“This includes ongoing cooperation between RPNGC specialist units and the PNGDF Long Range Reconnaissance Unit in the analysis of information of law-and-order significance.
“Respecting legislative and constitutional compliance, this engagement in providing for enhanced public safety and security as the nation’s leaders debate matters of policy.
“Ongoing co-operation between police and military units further sends a very clear message to opportunists thinking they can get away with crimes with the misconception that police are distracted during this period.
“These measures, as approved by the National Executive Council and the Governor-General, have served the country well in the lead-up to and during the current sitting of Parliament.”
Collaborative approach
Commissioner Manning said he had briefed NEC on the importance of ensuring a collaborative approach to criminal intelligence to ensure that PNG communities remained safe and secure during events of national significance.
The collaborative approach, approved by NEC, was enabled by the continuing callout of the Defence Force by the Head of State.
“The collaboration of security forces, particularly when it comes to criminal intelligence, supports a secure environment for the democratic process and to protect the community and businesses,” Commissioner Manning said.
“It is essential that while matters of national importance are taking place, be these Parliament sittings, high level visits or even protests, that people can go about their normal business without hindrance.”
Commissioner Manning said the job of the police force was to preserve peace and good order in the country so that PNG communities could go about their daily lives.
“We remain focused on delivering upon this job,” he said.
Republished from the PNG Post-Courier with permission.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters says “calm wise heads” are needed to sort out the crisis in New Caledonia.
A security force of more than 3000 personnel — more than half of them flown in from France — have returned to the capital Nouméa of the French territory to restore a sense of normalcy.
It comes after weeks of deadly unrest during which seven people were shot and killed, and others causing more than 200 million euros (NZ$353m) in damage.
But protests continue in the outskirts of Nouméa against the French government’s move to change New Caledonia’s electoral laws which pro-independent indigenous groups fear will dilute their political power.
Speaking earlier this week as the final evacuation flight for New Zealand citizens and other nationals was about to depart from Nouméa, Peters would not be drawn on New Zealand’s position on Kanak aspirations for decolonisation.
“We think it’s wise for us to join with the Pacific Islands Forum, and have a statement we all agree to, rather than [New Zealand] … speaking out of turn,” Winston Peters said.
Long-term future
Peters said this was especially prudent given the views some members of the forum had been expressing in regard to New Caledonia’s long-term future.
“It’s not being reluctant to say something. But when you’re dealing with a major crisis of law and order and the destruction of property and businesses which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to fix up, we need to keep our mind on that,” he said.
“And then, when we’ve got that under control, look at the long-term pathway forward to a peaceful solution. In the end, you would expect there to be agreed self-determination.”
From May 21-28, seven New Zealand flights helped to evacuate 225 New Zealanders and 145 foreign nationals from New Caledonia.
Peters paid tribute to the hardworking teams behind the joint NZ Defence Force and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) operation which made the assistance possible.
Commercial flights into and out of New Caledonia remain closed until Sunday, June 2, and a nightly curfew is still in effect.
The municipal police officers are not part or the French security forces that have been sent to restore law and order in New Caledonia, RNZ Pacific understands.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Police on the Thai holiday island of Phuket have charged more than 100 people, including 67 Russians, suspected of breaking business laws in a crackdown on the multi-million dollar property sector that has seen a surge in prices since Russians flocked in after their government’s invasion of Ukraine.
The tourism ministry said 767,210 Russians arrived in Thailand in the first four months of the year, a 12.43% increase over last year when 1.61 million Russians visited.
Many of those Russians head to Phuket for its beaches and nightlife and police say nearly 60,000 Russians are living on the island on Thailand’s Indian Ocean coast. Some partsof Phuket feel like a Black Sea resort with Russians soaking up the sun on the beach while nearby signboards in Cyrillic advertise Russian restaurants, bars and other businesses including real estate agencies and tour companies.
But that’s a problem for some Thais, angry with what they see as Russians taking jobs and opportunities without proper work visas and business permits.
Police said that in response to complaints the government called for a crackdown, and they launched their raids last month on nearly 100 companies and property realtors, and came up with a list of 135 people and 100 companies suspected of breaking the law.
“Phuket residents complained to the prime minister about a land and residential grab by foreigners causing hardship, so we ordered the operation,” Police Lt. Gen. Jirapob Puridej, chief of the Central Investigation Bureau, told a press conference at the bureau’s Bangkok headquarters on Friday.
None of the suspects had been detained but they had been summoned to appear in Bangkok to hear charges of breaking business laws, police said.
Police declined to identify most of the suspects, citing privacy protection. Radio Free Asia was not able to track down any of them for comment.
Col. Krit Woratat, a senior officer at the Economic Crime Suppression Division, who organized the raids, told RFA that the investigation had revealed a Thai accountant in league with a Russian to set up joint ventures without legal requirements, and getting work permits through those bogus companies. Jobs in services sectors are almost exclusively reserved for Thais.
Thailand’s Foreign Business Act 1999 sets out jail of up to three years and a fine of 2 million baht (US$54,500) for those convicted of violations.
Property and business laws are restrictive in Thailand and any foreigner hoping to start a business or find a job usually has to go through a tortuous application process.
Foreigners can buy flats but can not own land. They can set up a joint venture with a Thai partner but are not allowed to hold more than a 49% stake.
In 2023, more than 1,600 Russian-linked companies were registered in Phuket compared with an average of 30 in each of the previous seven years, police said.
Scaring off investment?
According to the Real Estate Information Center, land prices in Phuket have risen up to 40% this year, much higher than the national average, and house and condominium sales to the tune of 31.5 billion baht (US$859 million) are expected.
Police seized deeds for land and condominiums worth 1.2 billion baht (US$33 million) in their raids, along with 318 million baht (US$8.7 million) in cash deposits and 108 work permits, which were being checked. Bank accounts suspected of being used to defraud Thai customers with investment scams were frozen, police said.
One disgruntled Phuket native, who asked that he be identified as Chai, welcomed the police action.
“It’s as if they own the country,” Chai said of Phuket’s Russian visitors.
“They’ve bought up so much land, pushed up property prices, and some unruly Russians cause social disorder,” said Chai, who owns a small retail business. “The government has to purge all illegal activities.”
But some Thais are worried that the raids could scare off foreign investment.
Maetapong Upatising, president of the Phuket Real Estate Association, said Russians were the top investors in Phuket’s real estate this year, followed by Chinese and French, and the authorities should not ruin the “investment sentiment”.
“Amid competition, land prices rise and so do shady businessmen,” Maetapong told RFA. “Actually, our association has called for a government investigation into fraud but it should not put off foreign investment.”
Maetapong said some rich Russians had been investing at the top end of the market, buying luxury villas that range in price from around 25 million baht ($730,000) and up. The well-off can secure long-term resident visas that let them stay for years through an “elite visas” scheme, he said.
Before COVID-19, Thailand welcomed a record 40 million tourists, with Chinese accounting for more than a quarter. The sector has been recovering – there were more than 28 million visitors last year – but not as quickly as many would hope with Chinese tourists yet to flock back.
Since November, Thailand has included Russians tourists in avisa exemption scheme in a bid to boost arrivals. The scheme has been extended to July.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape visited Wabag, the capital of Enga province, to meet authorities before flying to the site of last week’s landslide disaster to inspect the damage up close.
Tribal violence between two clans in Tambitanis is still active, reportedly leading to 12 deaths since Saturday last week, reports said.
Provincial Administrator Sandis Tsaka said that after 14 days the affected area would be quarantined with restricted access to prevent the spread of infection, and those who remained undiscovered would be officially declared missing persons.
According to the UN International Organisation for Migration, 217 people with minor injuries had received treatment, while 17 individuals who had major and minor injuries were treated at the Wabag General Hospital (as of 30 May).
The IOM said some patients with major injuries remained in the hospital
Earlier, PNG police chief inspector Martin Kelei told RNZ Pacific people on the ground want the bodies of their loved ones to be retrieved as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, a geotechnical expert from New Zealand, who arrived on Thursday, is conducting a ground assessment as the landslip is still moving.
ABC News reports that uncertainty surrounds the final death toll from the landslide with a local official saying he believed 162 people had been killed in the natural disaster — far fewer than estimated by the United Nations or the country’s government.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A judge in Canada this week ruled that a student protest encampment could remain standing at the University of Toronto until at least mid-June, when a top court will decide on an injunction filed by the school requesting the police to clear the pro-Palestinian protesters off campus. Students and faculty launched the encampment on May 2 to protest Israel’s war on Gaza. It quickly became one of the largest encampments in North America with 175 tents, hundreds of campers, and a sacred fire led by Indigenous elders. Administrators at the University of Toronto, Canada’s largest university, had wanted to clear the encampment before graduation ceremonies begin in early June. “We know what we’re doing is just. And all of us are willing to stand our ground no matter what happens,” says Mohammad Yassin, a graduating senior, spokesperson for Occupy University of Toronto and a member of the student negotiating team. Yassin is Palestinian with family members currently in Gaza. We also speak with geography professor Deb Cowen, part of the Jewish Faculty Network, who says the encampment is a “precious learning space” bringing students together. “We have maybe never seen our campus be so alive with the spirit of debate, of creative thought, of rigorous conversation and dialogue,” Cowen says.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Dual Power, sometimes referred to as counter-power, is a stage in a revolutionary movement where two competing political frameworks occupy the same space. For anti-state revolutionaries this implies a significant mobilization of people organizing autonomously and outside of and against existing power structures and institutions.
In this episode of A is for Anarchy, we examine the historical origins of dual power and analyze current examples and those throughout history.
French President Emmanuel Macron has announced the 12-day state of emergency imposed in New Caledonia on May 15 would not be extended “for the time being”.
The decision not to renew the state of emergency was mainly designed to “allow the components of the pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) to hold meetings and to be able to go to the roadblocks and ask for them to be lifted”, Macron said in a media release late yesterday.
The state of emergency officially ended at 5am today (Nouméa time).
Pro-independence parties feared the opening of conditions of eligibility would significantly weaken the indigenous Kanak population’s political representation.
During a 17-hour visit to New Caledonia on Thursday last week, Macron set the lifting of blockades as the precondition to the resumption of “concrete and serious” political talks regarding New Caledonia’s long-term political future.
The talks were needed in order to find a successor agreement, including all parties (pro-independence and “loyalists” or pro-France), to the Nouméa Accord signed in 1998.
Attempts to hold these talks, over the past two-and-a-half years, have so far failed.
House arrests lifted
Not renewing the state of emergency would also put an end to restriction on movements and a number of house arrests placed on several pro-independence radical leaders — including Christian Téin, the leader of a so-called CCAT (Field Action Coordination Committee), close to the more radical fringe of FLNKS.
The CCAT is regarded as the main organiser of the protests which led to ongoing unrest.
In a speech published on social networks on Friday after Macron’s visit, Téin called for the easing of security measures to allow him to speak to militants, but in the same breath he assured supporters the intention was to “remain mobilised and maintain resistance”.
Since they broke out on May 13, the riots have caused seven deaths, hundreds of injuries and estimated damage of almost 1 billion euros (NZ$1.8 billion) to the local economy. Up to 500 companies, business and retail stores had also been looted or destroyed by arson.
Following Macron’s visit last week, a “mission” consisting of three high-level public servants has remained in New Caledonia to foster a resumption of political dialogue between leaders of all parties.
French President Emmanuel Macron . . . “this violence cannot pretend to represent a legitimate political action”. Image: Caledonia TV screenshot RNZ
More reinforcements In the same announcement, the French presidential office said a fresh contingent of “seven additional gendarme mobile forces units, for a total of 480” would be flown to New Caledonia “within the coming hours”.
Macron said this would bring the number of security forces in New Caledonia to 3500.
He once again condemned the blockades and looting, saying “this violence cannot pretend to represent a legitimate political action”.
In parallel to the lifting of the state of emergency, a dusk-to-dawn curfew remained in force.
On the ground, mainly in Nouméa and its outskirts, security operations were ongoing, with several neighbourhoods and main access roads still blocked and controlled by pockets of rioters.
At the weekend, intrusions from groups of rioters forced French forces to evacuate some 30 residents (mostly of European descent) some of whose houses had been set on fire.
La Tontouta airport still closed
Meanwhile, the international Nouméa-La Tontouta airport would remain closed to all commercial flights until June 2, it was announced on Monday. The airport, which remained cut off from the capital Nouméa due to pro-independence roadblocks, has been closed for the past three weeks.
French delegate minister for Overseas Marie Guévenoux, who arrived with Macron last week and has remained in New Caledonia since, assured on Sunday the situation in Nouméa and its outskirts was “improving”.
“Police and gendarmes are slowly regaining ground… The (French) state will regain all of these neighbourhoods,” she told France Television.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
At 4:45 am on May 8, the University of Chicago Police Department arrived at the UChicago Popular University of Gaza, a Gaza solidarity encampment organized by a coalition of student organizations called UChicago United for Palestine, and destroyed it. Within 15 minutes, the most beautiful, abundant, diverse iteration of university life many of us had ever experienced was gone.
Is it just me or is it not more than a little odd that coverage of current events in New Caledonia/Kanaky is dominated by the inconvenience of tourists and rescue flights out of the Pacific paradise.
That the events are described as “disruption” or “riots” without any real reference to the cause of the actions causing inconvenience. The reason is the armed enforcement of “order” is flown into this Oceanic place from Europe.
I guess when you live in a place called “New Zealand” in preference to “Aotearoa” you see these things through fellow colonialist eyes. Especially if you are part of the dominant colonial class.
How different it looks if you are part of an indigenous people in Oceania — part of that “Indigenous Ocean” as Damon Salesa’s recent award-winning book describes it. The Kanaks are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia.
The indigenous movement in Kanaky is engaged in a fight against the political structures imposed on them by France.
Obviously there are those indigenous people who benefit from colonial rule, and those who feel powerless to change it. But increasingly there are those who choose to resist.
Are they disrupters or are they resisting the massive disruption which France has imposed on them?
People who have a lot of resources or power or freedom to express their culture and belonging tend not to “riot”. They don’t need to.
Not simply holiday destinations
The countries of Oceania are not simply holiday destinations, they are not just sources of people or resource exploitation until the natural resources or labour they have are exhausted or no longer needed.
They are not “empty” places to trial bombs. They are not “strategic” assets in a global military chess game.
Each place, and the ocean of which they are part have their own integrity, authenticity, and rights, tangata, whenua and moana. That is only hard to understand if you insist on retaining as your only lens that of the telescope of a 17th or 18th century European sea captain.
The natural alliance and concern we have from these islands, is hardly with the colonial power of France, notwithstanding the apparent keenness of successive recent governments to cuddle up to Nato.
A clue — we are not part of the “North Atlantic”.
We have our own colonial history, far from pristine or admirable in many respects. But we are at the same time fortunate to have a framework in Te Tiriti which provides a base for working together from that history towards a better future.
Those who would debunk that framework or seek to amend it to more clearly favour the colonial classes might think about where that option leads.
And when we see or are inconvenienced by independence or other indigenous rights activism in Oceania we might do well to neither sit on the fence nor join the side which likes to pretend such places are rightfully controlled by France (or the United States, or Australia or New Zealand).
Rob Campbell is chancellor of Auckland University of Technology (AUT), chair of Ara Ake, chair of NZ Rural Land and former chair of Te Whatu Ora. This article was first published by The New Zealand Herald and is republished with the author’s permission.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Abuja, May 20, 2024—Nigerian authorities should swiftly and comprehensively investigate the detention of freelance journalist Jamil Mabai by religious police in northern Katsina State and hold them to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.
Mabai, who was on assignment for the privately owned Trust TV, had been invited to the offices of the Hisbah, which enforces Islamic Sharia law, on May 14 to interview their spokesperson, Nafiu Muazu Akilu, following reports that a wedding guest was shot dead while Hisbah officials were enforcing a ban on DJs playing music, according to the journalist, who spoke with CPJ and posted on X, and mediareports.
When Mabai arrived at the Hisbah offices in the state capital Katsina, officials briefly detained him in a cell, then took his mobile phone, and threatened to beat him, those sources said.
“Nigerian authorities must credibly investigate this harassment of journalist Jamil Mabai, hold those responsible to account, and ensure journalists can do their work without fear of detention,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, from Maputo, Mozambique. “Jamil Mabai’s detention by religious police is part of a pattern of press freedom violations in Nigeria, where journalists are all too often arrested, harassed, and intimidated while trying to carry out their professional duties.”
Sharia was introduced alongside secular law in 12 Muslim-majority northern states in 1999. Hisbah groups combat what they regard as immoral behaviors, by destroying alcohol, removing beggars from the streets, and arresting Muslims eating during the Ramadan fasting period. Critics have accused the religious police of abusing human rights.
In April, Katsina State’s Hisbah Commission issued a directive banning DJing.
Mabai told CPJ and posted on Facebook that the Hisbah’s Community Watch Corps tried to shut down a wedding with a DJ on May 10 and in the process, one guest, Gambo Ibrahim, also known as Gambo Mai Pachi, was shot dead.
Mabai told CPJ that when he and his cameraman arrived at the Hisbah office on May 14, Akilu told him by phone that other officials would direct the journalist to his office.
Instead, Mabai said, five officers led him to a cell and told him they had received “orders from above” to detain him, without further explanation, and did not listen to his explanation that he was a journalist who had been invited for an interview by Akilu.
Mabai told CPJ that his cameraman was allowed to leave, but he was ordered not to phone anyone about his detention.
After a few minutes, Mabai said, the officers took him from the cell to a room where the Commander of the Hisbah Board, Aminu Usman Abu-Ammar, accused the journalist of trying to tarnish the Hisbah’s reputation, but no one could destroy their work. Mabia said one Hisbah official seized his phone while two others holding canes threatened to beat him.
After about 90 minutes, Mabia said, his phone was returned and he was allowed to leave.
Akilu told CPJ that he invited Mabai for an interview but was out when the journalist arrived. Akilu said that when he returned to the office, he found Mabai talking with Abu-Ammar, after which the journalist left. Akilu said he was “shocked” by reports that the journalist had been detained.
“I don’t think that story is true … if it is true I must know,” Akilu said by phone, adding he was certain that Mabai spent less than an hour at the Hisbah office and he had no information about allegations that Hisbah officials seized Mabai’s phone and threatened to hit him.
Akilu said that Mabai had spent months attacking Abu-Ammar’s personality and that “attacking someone’s personality is wrong, professionally.”
New York, May 20, 2024 — The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Tunisian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Houssem Hajlaoui, co-founder and publisher of local independent news website Inkyfada, who was arrested over social media posts from 2020-2023.
“CPJ is deeply concerned after Tunisian police arrested journalist Houssem Hajlaoui over old social media posts and condemns President Kais Saied’s government for its continuous targeting of journalists and civil society figures in the country,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Tunisian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Hajlaoui and all detained journalists and allow the press to work freely without fear of arrest.”
On May 14, authorities arrested Hajlaoui at a police station in the capital, Tunis, after he was summoned for questioning regarding his social media posts published from 2020-2023 about police brutality and Tunisian politics, according to newsreports, a radio interview with his lawyer Ayoub Ghadmassi, and a local journalist who is following the case and spoke with CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.
On Friday, May 17, a court ordered his transfer pending trial to Mornaguia prison, 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Tunis, according to those sources.
The journalist following the case told CPJ that Hajlaoui was arrested because of his reporting on social media and his involvement with independent news outlets. Inkyfada is one of the last remaining independent investigative journalism outlets in Tunisia.
Hajlaoui’s arrest comes amid a wave of arrests that began earlier this month, targeting civil society figures, political activists, and the media, including at least 5 journalists. While two have been released, journalists Sonia Dahmani, Borhen Bssais, and Mourad Zghidi remain in detention, the local journalist told CPJ.
CPJ’s email to the Tunisian Ministry of Interior regarding Hajlaoui’s arrest did not receive a response.
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.
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.”
Jean-Marie Tjibaou, a revered Kanak visionary, was inspirational to indigenous Pacific political activists across Oceania, just like Tongan anthropologist and writer Epeli Hao’ofa was to cultural advocates.
Tragically, he was assassinated in 1989 by an opponent within the independence movement during the so-called “les événements” in New Caledonia, the last time the “French” Pacific territory was engulfed in a political upheaval such as experienced this week.
His memory and legacy as poet, cultural icon and peaceful political agitator live on with the impressive Tjibaou Cultural Centre on the outskirts of the capital Nouméa as a benchmark for how far New Caledonia had progressed in the last 35 years.
However, the wave of pro-independence protests that descended into urban rioting this week invoked more than Tjibaou’s memory. Many of the martyrs — such as schoolteacher turned security minister Eloï Machoro, murdered by French snipers during the upheaval of the 1980s — have been remembered and honoured for their exploits over the last few days with countless memes being shared on social media.
Among many memorable quotes by Tjibaou, this one comes to mind:
“White people consider that the Kanaks are part of the fauna, of the local fauna, of the primitive fauna. It’s a bit like rats, ants or mosquitoes,” he once said.
“Non-recognition and absence of cultural dialogue can only lead to suicide or revolt.”
And that is exactly what has come to pass this week in spite of all the warnings in recent years and months. A revolt.
Among the warnings were one by me in December 2021 after a failed third and “final” independence referendum. I wrote at the time about the French betrayal:
“After three decades of frustratingly slow progress but with a measure of quiet optimism over the decolonisation process unfolding under the Nouméa Accord, Kanaky New Caledonia is again poised on the edge of a precipice.”
As Paris once again reacts with a heavy-handed security crackdown, it appears to have not learned from history. It will never stifle the desire for independence by colonised peoples.
New Caledonia was annexed as a colony in 1853 and was a penal colony for convicts and political prisoners — mainly from Algeria — for much of the 19th century before gaining a degree of autonomy in 1946.
“Kanaky Palestine – same combat” solidarity placard. Image: APR screenshot
Here are my five takeaways from this week’s violence and frustration:
1. Global failure of neocolonialism – Palestine, Kanaky and West Papua
Just as we have witnessed a massive outpouring of protest on global streets for justice, self-determination and freedom for the people of Palestine as they struggle for independence after 76 years of Israeli settler colonialism, and also Melanesian West Papuans fighting for 61 years against Indonesian settler colonialism, Kanak independence aspirations are back on the world stage.
Neocolonialism has failed. French President Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to reverse the progress towards decolonisation over the past three decades has backfired in his face.
2. French deafness and loss of social capital
The predictions were already long there. Failure to listen to the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) leadership and to be prepared to be patient and negotiate towards a consensus has meant much of the crosscultural goodwill that been developed in the wake of the Nouméa Accord of 1998 has disappeared in a puff of smoke from the protest fires of the capital.
The immediate problem lies in the way the French government has railroaded the indigenous Kanak people who make up 42 percent pf the 270,000 population into a constitutional bill that “unfreezes” the electoral roll pegging voters to those living in New Caledonia at the time of the 1998 Nouméa Accord. Under the draft bill all those living in the territory for the past 10 years could vote.
Kanak leaders and activists who have been killed . . . Jean-Marie Tjibaou is bottom left, and Eloï Machoro is bottom right. Image: FLNKS/APR
This would add some 25,000 extra French voters in local elections, which would further marginalise Kanaks at a time when they hold the territorial presidency and a majority in the Congress in spite of their demographic disadvantage.
Under the Nouméa Accord, there was provision for three referendums on independence in 2018, 2020 and 2021. The first two recorded narrow (and reducing) votes against independence, but the third was effectively boycotted by Kanaks because they had suffered so severely in the 2021 delta covid pandemic and needed a year to mourn culturally.
The FLNKS and the groups called for a further referendum but the Macron administration and a court refused.
3. Devastating economic and social loss New Caledonia was already struggling economically with the nickel mining industry in crisis – the territory is the world’s third-largest producer. And now four days of rioting and protesting have left a trail of devastation in their wake.
At least five people have died in the rioting — three Kanaks, and two French police, apparently as a result of a barracks accident. A state of emergency was declared for at least 12 days.
But as economists and officials consider the dire consequences of the unrest, it will take many years to recover. According to Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) president David Guyenne, between 80 and 90 percent of the grocery distribution network in Nouméa had been “wiped out”. The chamber estimated damage at about 200 million euros (NZ$350 million).
Twin flags of Kanaky and Palestine flying from a Parisian rooftop. Image: APR
4. A new generation of youth leadership As we have seen with Generation Z in the forefront of stunning pro-Palestinian protests across more than 50 universities in the United States (and in many other countries as well, notably France, Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom), and a youthful generation of journalists in Gaza bearing witness to Israeli atrocities, youth has played a critical role in the Kanaky insurrection.
Australian peace studies professor Dr Nicole George notes that “the highly visible wealth disparities” in the territory “fuel resentment and the profound racial inequalities that deprive Kanak youths of opportunity and contribute to their alienation”.
A feature is the “unpredictability” of the current crisis compared with the 1980s “les événements”.
“In the 1980s, violent campaigns were coordinated by Kanak leaders . . . They were organised. They were controlled.
“In contrast, today it is the youth taking the lead and using violence because they feel they have no other choice. There is no coordination. They are acting through frustration and because they feel they have ‘no other means’ to be recognised.”
According to another academic, Dr Évelyne Barthou, a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Pau, who researched Kanak youth in a field study last year: “Many young people see opportunities slipping away from them to people from mainland France.
“This is just one example of the neocolonial logic to which New Caledonia remains prone today.”
Pan-Pacific independence solidarity . . . “Kanak People Maohi – same combat”. Image: APR screenshot
5. Policy rethink needed by Australia, New Zealand
Ironically, as the turbulence struck across New Caledonia this week, especially the white enclave of Nouméa, a whistlestop four-country New Zealand tour of Melanesia headed by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who also has the foreign affairs portfolio, was underway.
The first casualty of this tour was the scheduled visit to New Caledonia and photo ops demonstrating the limited diversity of the political entourage showed how out of depth New Zealand’s Pacific diplomacy had become with the current rightwing coalition government at the helm.
Heading home, Peters thanked the people and governments of Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Tuvalu for “working with New Zealand towards a more secure, more prosperous and more resilient tomorrow”.
The delegation is now heading home
Many thanks to the people and governments of Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu & Tuvalu for their kind hospitality – and for working with New Zealand towards a more secure, more prosperous & more resilient tomorrow.
His tweet came as New Caledonian officials and politicians were coming to terms with at least five deaths and the sheer scale of devastation in the capital which will rock New Caledonia for years to come.
News media in both Australia and New Zealand hardly covered themselves in glory either, with the commercial media either treating the crisis through the prism of threats to tourists and a superficial brush over the issues. Only the public media did a creditable job, New Zealand’s RNZ Pacific and Australia’s ABC Pacific and SBS.
In the case of New Zealand’s largest daily newspaper, The New Zealand Herald, it barely noticed the crisis. On Wednesday, morning there was not a word in the paper.
Thursday was not much better, with an “afterthought” report provided by a partnership with RNZ. As I reported it:
“Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest newspaper, the New Zealand Herald, finally catches up with the Pacific’s biggest news story after three days of crisis — the independence insurrection in #KanakyNewCaledonia.
“But unlike global news services such as Al Jazeera, which have featured it as headline news, the Herald tucked it at the bottom of page 2. Even then it wasn’t its own story, it was relying on a partnership report from RNZ.”
Also, New Zealand media reports largely focused too heavily on the “frustrations and fears” of more than 200 tourists and residents said to be in the territory this week, and provided very slim coverage of the core issues of the upheaval.
With all the warning signs in the Pacific over recent years — a series of riots in New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu — Australia and New Zealand need to wake up to the yawning gap in social indicators between the affluent and the impoverished, and the worsening climate crisis.
These are the real issues of the Pacific, not some fantasy about AUKUS and a perceived China threat in an unconvincing arena called “Indo-Pacific”.
Dr David Robie covered “Les Événements” in New Caledonia in the 1980s and penned the book Blood on their Banner about the turmoil. He also covered the 2018 independence referendum.
Loyalist French rally in New Caledonia . . . “Unfreezing is democracy”. Image: A PR screenshot
They were sparked by anger at a proposed new law that would allow French residents who have lived there for more than 10 years to vote — which critics say will weaken the Kanak vote.
Since then, five people have died, including two police officers, and hundreds have been injured in the French Pacific territory.
Late on Friday there were reports of clashes between police and rioters around a domestic airport near Nouméa, as New Caledonia’s capital entered its fourth night under curfew.
Local media reported rioters on the airfield at Magenta airport threw hammers and stones at police, and police responded with tear gas and stun grenades.
Police warned the military was authorised to use lethal weapons if they could not contain the situation otherwise. A local told RNZ Pacific the Kanaks were not going to back down, and things could get “nasty” in the coming days if the army could not contain the crisis.
New Zealanders feeling marooned Four friends from North Canterbury landed in Nouméa on Monday as part of a “lifetime dream” trip.
Shula and Wolf Guse, and Sarah and William Hughes-Games, were celebrating Shula’s birthday and Sarah and William’s 40th wedding anniversary.
But fresh off their flight, it became clear their celebrations would not be going ahead.
“As we left the airport, there were blocks just everywhere . . . burning tyres, and people stopping us, and lots of big rocks on the road, and branches, and people shouting, waving flags,” Shula Guse said.
They wanted to get out of there, but had barely heard a peep from New Zealand government organisation SafeTravel, Sarah Hughes-Games said.
“All they’ve done is send us a . . . general letter, nothing specific,” she said.
“We’ve contacted the New Zealand Consulate here in Nouméa, and they are closed. This is the one time they should be open and helping people.”
It was not good enough, she said.
“We’ve basically been just abandoned here, so we’re just feeling a little bit fed up about the situation, that we’ve just been left alone, and nobody has contacted us.”
It was unclear when they would be able to leave.
A looted supermarket in Nouméa’s Kenu-In neighbourhood. Image: NC la 1ère TV/RNZ
Struggling to find food
Meanwhile, another person told RNZ they had family stuck in Nouméa who had registered on SafeTravel, but had heard nothing more from the government. They were struggling to find food and were feeling uneasy, they said.
“They don’t know where to go now and there seems to be no help from anywhere.”
“Even when the airport does reopen, Air New Zealand will only operate into Nouméa when we can be assured that the airport is safe and secure, and that there is a safe route for our ground staff and customers to reach the airport,” it said.
MFAT in ‘regular contact’ with impacted New Zealanders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it had activated its emergency crisis system, and consular officials in Nouméa were in regular contact with impacted New Zealanders, New Caledonia authorities, and “international partners”.
The Consulate-General was open, but staff were working remotely because it was hard to get around, it said. Those who needed immediate consular assistance should contact the 24/7 Consular Emergency line on +64 99 20 20 20.
“An in-person meeting was held for a large group of New Zealanders in Nouméa yesterday [Thursday, 16 May 16] and further meetings are taking place today,” a spokesperson said.
“Consular officials are also proactively attempting to contact registered New Zealanders in New Caledonia to check on their situations, and any specific health or welfare concerns.
“Regular SafeTravel messages are also being sent to New Zealanders — we urge New Zealanders to register on SafeTravel to receive direct messages from consular officials.”
The ministry was also speaking regularly with New Caledonian authorities about airport operations and access, and access to critical supplies like food and medicine.
“New Zealanders in New Caledonia should stay in place and avoid all protests, monitor local media for developments, and comply with any instructions and restrictions issued by local authorities.”
There are currently 219 New Zealanders registered on SafeTravel as being in New Caledonia.
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told RNZ Morning Report the government was doing all it could to get New Zealanders home.
That could include using the Air Force, he said.
The Defence Force confirmed there had been discussions with officials.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
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.
Democratic Taiwan has stepped up security protections for five prominent political pundits sanctioned by China for spreading “false information,” criticizing the move as a violation of the island’s democracy ahead of the inauguration of President-Elect Lai Ching-te, Beijing’s least-favored candidate in January’s elections.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday said it would “punish” Wang I-chuan, who holds a high-ranking position in the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, Taoyuan city councilor Yu Pei-chen, New Taipei city council election candidate Lee Zheng-hao, TV talk show host Liu Bao-jie and political commentator Edward Huang.
Chinese officials accused the five, all of whom make regular appearances in Taiwanese media, of “spreading falsehoods and negative information” about China and creating division, but without giving specific examples of their alleged comments.
The move signals that tensions in the region are unlikely to abate with the inauguration of Lai, whose platform is highly similar to that of outgoing Democratic Progressive Party President Tsai Ing-wen.
The commentators’ remarks had “deceived some people on the island, incited hostility and confrontation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, and hurt the feelings of compatriots on both sides,” Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Chen Binhua told a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.
While the threatened sanctions — which will likely mean entry bans for the pundits and their families and bans on doing business with any company associated with them — are largely symbolic, Chen also took aim at Lai, calling on him to choose between peace with China or “the evil path of provocation and confrontation.”
He said the sanctions would be similar to those applied to Taiwan’s premier, foreign minister and parliamentary speaker in 2021.
While Beijing has never ruled out a military invasion to enforce its territorial claim on Taiwan, it has more recently vowed to achieve “peaceful unification” with the island through propaganda and economic pressures.
Last week, it emerged that Taiwanese artists working in China – a highly lucrative market for actors, celebrities and musicians fluent in Mandarin – are routinely required to sign agreements pledging not to oppose China’s claim on the island if they want their work to be publicly accessible.
Taiwan has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, nor formed part of the 74-year-old People’s Republic of China, and most of its 23 million people have no wish to give up their sovereignty or democratic way of life to be ruled by China, according to multiple public opinion polls in recent years.
“[Taiwan] is a democratic country where people’s freedom of expression is clearly protected by the Constitution, and China has no right to interfere in that,” Olivia Lin, spokesperson for the Presidential Office, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
Lin said the Chinese Communist Party has always dealt with disagreement by using “threats and suppression.”
“They’re now trying to extend that to Taiwan in violation of our democracy and freedoms, naming and threatening media commentators and their families,” Lin said, adding that the move would only fuel distrust of China among Taiwan’s 23 million people.
“The government will make every effort to ensure the safety of everyone concerned,” Lin said. Interior Minister Lin Yu-chang said in a Facebook post that he had instructed the National Police Agency to ensure the safety of the five media personalities and their families, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said freedom of speech is protected in Taiwan, and challenged Beijing to deal more confidently with the island’s “free, democratic and diverse society.”
‘Highest medal of honor’
Lee Cheng-hao laughed off the sanctions at the start of his show on Wednesday, saying, “My phone exploded with messages when I was on my way into the studio this morning. This is unbelievable!”
Meanwhile, Yu described China’s sanctions in a Facebook post as “the highest medal of honor.”
“The ‘commie’ Taiwan Affairs Office finally put me on its blacklist!” he wrote, thanking the “enemy forces” for the validation, and vowing to continue to “fight communism and love Taiwan forever.”
China’s sanctions come after the Mainland Affairs Council warned Taiwanese to reconsider non-essential travel to China in the wake of a slew of national security legislation that it said could put them at risk of detention, interrogation and imprisonment.
“Taiwanese citizens are constantly at high risk of mainland Chinese authorities determining that they have crossed a national security red line,” it said in a May 9 statement on its website.
“There have been several instances in recent years in which Taiwanese citizens were falsely accused of offenses against national security during their visits to China,” the statement warned. “They were subsequently tried, imprisoned, and some of them were even sentenced to ‘deprivation of political rights,’ a punishment that prevents Taiwanese citizens from returning to Taiwan despite the completion of their prison sentence.”
Since amendments to the Counter-Espionage Law took effect last July, some Taiwanese citizens traveling to China for religious, academic or business purposes have “experienced prolonged interrogations or inspections of their electronic devices such as cellphones and computers at the airport; some of them were subjected to detention or interrogation after entering mainland China,” the statement said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Joshua Lipes.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Huang Chun-mei for RFA Mandarin.
Candace Leslie was leaving church when she got the call she will never forget.
“All I heard was his girlfriend yelling in the phone, and she was like, ‘Cameron! Cameron! … He won’t get up. He won’t get up!’ ”
Someone shot Leslie’s son four times that Sunday evening in September 2021 outside his new apartment on Indianapolis’ northeast side.
Cameron Brown was 19. He was working at FedEx. He loved fishing with his grandfather and was trying to follow his footsteps into the U.S. Army.
Brown died at the scene.
“I just felt numb. I felt kind of disoriented,” Leslie said, remembering the chaos, the yellow police tape and officers scouring the scene.
Police recovered at least one gun. It was a Glock pistol. Unbeknownst to investigators at the time, the gun once served as a law enforcement duty weapon, carried by a sheriff’s deputy more than 2,000 miles away in California.
According to data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Glock was one of at least 52,529 police guns that have turned up at crime scenes since 2006, the earliest year provided. While that tally includes guns lost by or stolen from police, many of the firearms were released back into the market by the very law enforcement agencies sworn to protect the public.
Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, in partnership with The Trace and CBS News, reviewed records from hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the United States and found that many had routinely resold or traded in their used duty weapons – a practice that has sent thousands of guns into the hands of criminals.
Law enforcement resold guns to firearms dealers for discounts on new equipment and, in some cases, directly to their own officers, records show. Some of the guns were later involved in shootings, domestic violence incidents and other violent crimes.
A Kentucky State Police pistol sold to a retiring detective ended up in Buffalo, New York, where federal agents executing a search warrant on a suspect in a murder investigation in 2019 found the gun in a backpack alongside heroin and a bulletproof vest. In another case in Indianapolis in 2021, police seized a former Iowa State Patrol pistol from a man while arresting him for allegedly choking a woman. The gun was fully loaded with a round in the chamber.
Reporters surveyed state and local law enforcement agencies and found that at least 145 of them had resold guns on at least one occasion between 2006 and 2024. That’s about 90% of the more than 160 agencies that responded.
A box holds seized pistols from a 2013 case at the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office in Evansville, Indiana. The sheriff was exploring legal ways to sell the weapons to help fund officer training. Police departments across the country often sell their old service weapons as well. Credit: Darrin Phegley/Evansville Courier & Press via Associated Press
Records from 67 agencies showed they had collectively resold more than 87,000 firearms over the past two decades. That figure is likely a significant undercount, however, because many agencies’ records were incomplete or heavily redacted.
Scot Thomasson, a former ATF division chief who is now a consultant for SafeGunLock, a Washington, D.C.-based company, believes police departments that resell weapons are violating their obligation to protect the public. “Taxpayers are buying firearms that are then resold for pennies on the dollar and ultimately ending up in criminals’ hands,” Thomasson said. “It is absolutely ridiculous.”
Many police departments resold their weapons while holding buyback events, which they say are important to pull guns off the street.
The Philadelphia City Council boasts on its website of having collected 825 guns in buybacks since 2021. But records show that Philadelphia police resold at least 886 guns over the past two decades, including 85 firearms between 2021 and 2022.
In some cases, departments added more guns to the marketplace than they removed.
The Newark Police Department in New Jersey staged a buyback in 2021, offering the public up to $250 for each firearm turned over. The event netted 146 guns. “Without question, 146 fewer firearms on our streets means less gun violence, fewer gun violence victims, and less risk of suicide or death,” the city’s public safety director said in a YouTube post celebrating the haul.
But five years earlier, Newark police resold more than five times that number of guns – nearly 1,000. One of those weapons surfaced in Pittsburgh, where police seized it from a convicted felon after he allegedly squeezed off more than a dozen shots in a neighborhood and then led officers on a foot chase.
A Newark police spokesperson said that the guns had been traded in as a cost-saving measure under a previous administration and that the department currently “has no plans to upgrade its service weapons.”
The Glock pistol involved in the killing of Cameron Brown in Indianapolis was one of more than 600 guns resold by the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office in Modesto, California, between March 2019 and August 2023, records show. Another weapon from the same agency found its way to Texas, where San Antonio police recovered it in connection with the shooting of a 15-year-old in 2020.
In an interview with CBS News, Stanislaus County Sheriff Jeff Dirkse defended the practice of reselling weapons as necessary to reduce the cost of new equipment. “You’re talking several hundred thousand dollars every few years, and that’s all taxpayer money,” he said. “It’s just a cost benefit to the department.”
Dirkse expressed sympathy to Brown’s family but said his agency was not responsible for the teenager’s killing. “Whoever did this, if he didn’t acquire that gun, he’s probably going to go acquire another one,” Dirkse said. “My organization had nothing to do with it.”
A family album holds photos of Cameron Brown, who was shot and killed in Indianapolis in 2021. Credit: Lee Klafczynski for The Trace
When a reporter told Brown’s family members that the gun involved in his death once belonged to a sheriff’s office, they were at first in disbelief and then angry.
“One more gun on the street actually changed our lives forever,” said Brown’s grandmother, Maria Leslie, a pastor. “We’re missing a piece of our puzzle.”
Now the family wants police to stop selling their weapons.
“I’m losing trust in the people who’re supposed to protect and serve us,” said Leslie, Brown’s mother. “There’s no reason for police firearms to be in the hands of young teenagers.”
Indianapolis Police Chief Christopher Bailey told CBS News that his agency has historically traded in its weapons, but he would consider changing that policy in light of Brown’s death. “I don’t want any weapon that we owned to end up being used violently against another person,” he said.
Brown’s killing remains unsolved.
A Rift in Law Enforcement
For decades, the ATF has worked on behalf of state and local law enforcement to trace recovered crime guns to their original owners, providing fresh leads to investigators and insights into firearms trafficking.
ATF data obtained by Reveal shows that between 2006 and 2021, the number of crime guns traced to law enforcement agencies each year more than doubled, from about 2,200 to more than 4,500. On average, more than 3,200 duty weapons were recovered at crime scenes annually over that 16-year period.
Records detailing some of the traces conducted between 2013 and 2017 indicate that the guns previously belonged to more than 800 different agencies, ranging from rural sheriff’s offices to police departments in the country’s largest cities.
Even more granular trace information used to be publicly available, making it easier for reporters to hold police accountable for their resale practices. The Washington Post in 1999 analyzed ATF data and identified 107 crimes linked to former District of Columbia police guns. That same year, a similar investigation by CBS News revealed more than 3,000 police guns had been connected to crimes – including nearly 300 homicides – since 1990.
The Tiahrt Amendment, passed by Congress in 2003 and named after the lawmaker who introduced it, now bars the ATF from disclosing most trace information to the public. In 2017, Reveal sued the ATF for refusing to respond to a public records request for statistical data on recovered police guns. The agency pushed back, citing Tiahrt. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided in favor of Reveal in 2020, ruling that the request fit within an exception to Tiahrt that allows the ATF to release statistical information.
Federal law enforcement agencies are legally required to destroy their used guns, but there’s no similar mandate for state and local agencies. As a result, decisions about what to do with old guns are left up to state and local leaders and police chiefs, who’ve taken a variety of stances.
Public safety concerns prompted Seattle police to stop trading in handguns around 2016. “If we’re selling them out, we just don’t know where those guns could end up,” said Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz. “We don’t want to contribute to the problem.”
When CBS News Minnesota showed our findings to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, he said his agency would stop reselling its guns.
“I don’t want us to be in a position where a weapon that was once in service for the police department here is then winding up used in a crime, or in an act of violence against a person, or even to shoot a police officer,” O’Hara said. “So going forward, we’re not going to be selling any weapons at all.”
Law enforcement agencies often trade their used weapons to a gun dealer for credit toward their next purchase, similar to how cellphone companies offer discounts on new phones in exchange for previous models.
William Brooks, a board member for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said resales are essential for many departments to afford weapons upgrades. “Decisions about trading in old police service weapons should be left to individual communities and their police chiefs,” he said. “We believe that, should a community decide to destroy old weapons when new ones are purchased, they should commit just as fervently to fully funding new firearm purchases when their police chiefs call for them.”
Once sold by a department, weapons enter a secondary market where they can be resold to members of the public or other dealers. By the time they turn up at crime scenes, the guns may have been stolen, traded or resold multiple times with little documentation. They sometimes still have the department’s name stamped on the side.
Michael Sierra-Arévalo, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin and author of “The Danger Imperative: Violence, Death, and the Soul of Policing,” said trade-ins allow police to avoid public scrutiny, as they can purchase new guns without having to obtain budgetary approval from city leaders.
“There are certainly other mechanisms to acquire weapons. You can get a line item in the budget with the city, but that could come with all kinds of political hurdles to jump through,” Sierra-Arévalo said. “So I’m not surprised that when someone shows up and says they can help the police skip all of that, the police go with that.”
The Baltimore Police Department weathered public criticism in 2008 after one of its traded-in service weapons was used to kill two children as they walked home from a slumber party in Oklahoma.
At a news conference in April, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said officers are given the opportunity to purchase their duty weapons for personal use before the guns are traded in for credit. If an officer buys a gun and wants to resell it later on, they must first offer it back to the department.
“We know that there are some issues around the country,” Scott said. “For BPD, we’re extremely diligent about what happens when we have weapons retire.”
The police department for Baltimore County – which is separate from the Baltimore city police department – takes a different approach. In 2013, it traded in its old guns to a firearms dealer, but under the terms of the agreement, key parts of the guns were destroyed, a spokesperson said.
“I felt throughout my entire career that police departments should not be in the business of putting more guns back out into our society,” said James Johnson, who served as Baltimore County police chief from 2007 to 2017.
In 2023, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a requirement that the Sheriff’s Department destroy firearms it no longer needed. Board Supervisor Janice Hahn said she hopes the decision can serve as a model for the rest of the country. “Those of us at the local level should do what we can to keep guns out of the hands of criminals,” she said. “We all can wait all day long for Congress to pass common-sense gun violence prevention laws.”
Police departments should not be in the business of putting more guns back out into our society.
James Johnson, Baltimore county police chief, 2007-2017
Some police departments argued that because they were reselling to gun stores and other federally licensed gun dealers, they were not technically purveying firearms directly to members of the public.
In an email, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Police Department, Buddy Calzada, said it would be “inaccurate” to report that the agency resells guns to the public.
He then went on to explain how the department resells guns: “In rare cases, the department has traded small quantities of firearms back to the dealer the department purchased them from and received credit for newer weapons,” Calazada wrote. “It is important to note, any guns sold by a dealer are sold only to qualified buyers who have passed the Federal background checks.”
Internal records show that the department resold more than 1,000 guns to two dealers in the past 10 years. The department declined an interview request.
Appealing to Gun Buyers
Using sales records obtained by CBS News from dozens of police departments, reporters identified nearly 50 gun dealers whose business includes buying and reselling retired police weapons. Many are self-styled police-supply companies that also sell flashlights, handcuffs and other tools of the law enforcement trade.
Police-supply companies that buy and sell firearms have to hold a federal gun dealer’s license, which allows them to sell guns to members of the public. The license opens them up to inspections by the ATF, but internal records show that the agency has long been toothless and conciliatory, mostly issuing warnings instead of serious punishment when its inspectors find dealers breaking the law.
To encourage better practices among suppliers competing for lucrative public contracts, some California cities have passed measures to prevent local law enforcement from doing business with gun dealers that have been cited for serious violations during inspections. But in most of the country, there is no requirement for law enforcement to consider a dealer’s compliance history when awarding contracts.
Lindsay Nichols, policy director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said police have a moral and ethical responsibility to do business only with gun dealers that follow best practices. “There are plenty of conditions that an agency could put on a gun store as a condition of receiving their weapons,” she said. “There are lots of gun stores out there. You don’t have to sell to any one particular business.”
ATF inspection records show that one of the most prolific buyers of used police guns has a long history of violating federal regulations.
LC Action Police Supply, based in San Jose, California, bought more than 3,000 guns from 11 different law enforcement agencies between 2005 and 2023, including the gun involved in Cameron Brown’s homicide, according to records obtained by CBS News.
Over that same period, the ATF cited LC Action for 30 violations of federal firearms laws, including failing to conduct background checks and report suspicious gun sales, records show. One ATF inspector pushed for revoking LC Action’s license to sell guns after the company was cited for six violations in 2005, but the recommendation was overruled by agency higher-ups.
The ATF inspected LC Action four more times between 2009 and 2019, uncovering many of the same violations. The agency allowed the company to keep its license to sell firearms.
LC Action did not respond to multiple requests for comment via phone and email. When a reporter and a photographer from CBS News Los Angeles visited the company’s retail store and asked to speak with a representative, they were told to leave.
An ATF spokesperson said the agency does not comment on specific cases, but as a general matter, the outcome of any licensing action involving a gun dealer is dependent on the underlying facts and circumstances. The spokesperson added that the ATF’s policies and procedures were designed to maximize public safety by ensuring federal law is fairly and consistently administered.
Used police guns are popular among gun buyers because they’re relatively inexpensive and often in good condition. They also typically have high ammunition capacities and are designed to hold large- to medium-caliber rounds.
Larry Brown Jr., a firearms instructor and president of the Bass Reeves Gun Club in Atlanta, said he bought a used police gun because it was already equipped with glow-in-the-dark sights and a special trigger that made it easier to shoot, saving him money on upgrades.
“The price is on point,” Brown said. “Police trade-ins are typically better equipped and better souped-up than what I would buy new. That’s what made me buy the one I have.”
The demand for decommissioned police weapons has created a thriving market, with gun dealers snapping them up en masse.
Mark Major owns 2-Swords Tactical & Defense, a gun store in Lithonia, Ga. Credit: Alyssa Pointer for The Trace
“Every now and then, I’ll get a call from my reps saying, ‘Hey, we got a bunch of police Glock 22 trade-ins for a great price. They’re all in good shape if you’re interested,’ ” said Mark Major, the owner of 2-Swords Tactical & Defense, a gun dealer in Lithonia, Georgia. “Usually, police trade-ins are kept up by the armorer in the department. They do have some scratches and rubs on them from being in a holster, but they work.”
Online forums and blogs promoting the benefits of used police guns are common, and there are dozens of YouTube videos featuring gun dealers and enthusiasts showing off large shipments of the weapons to entice potential buyers.
In a video posted last month by AimSurplus, a gun dealer in Monroe, Ohio, one of the store’s employees shows off a rolling cart piled high with assault weapons, as well as several boxes of pistols and shotguns – all former police guns to be resold on its website.
“You guys love our police trade-ins,” the employee says. “And why shouldn’t you? They’re awesome. We just got a whole truckload in.”
New York, May 15, 2024 — Tunisian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalists Sonia Dahmani, Borhen Bssais, and Mourad Zghidi, drop all charges against them, and stop preventing reporters from doing their jobs, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
Between May 11 and 13, Tunisian police arrested and released two additional journalists amid a new wave of arrests targeting several civil society figures, political activists, and the media.
“Tunisian police’s arrest of five journalists in one week is a clear indication of how President Kais Saied’s government is determined to undermine press freedom and independent journalism,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Tunisian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalists Sonia Dahmani, Borhen Bssais, and Mourad Zghidi, drop all charges against them, and cease harassing reporters doing their job.”
On Saturday, May 11, masked police officers raided the bar association headquarters in the capital, Tunis, and arrested Dahmani, a lawyer and political affairs commentator for local independent radio station IFM and television channel Carthage Plus, according to newsreports and a local journalist following the case, who spoke with CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.
A court on Monday transferred Dahmani to prison on charges of spreading false news that undermines public safety and inciting hate speech. Dahmani’s arrest comes after she did not respond to a May 10 summons for questioning regarding her May 8 comments on Carthage Plus, where she criticized Tunisia’s living conditions and discussed immigration issues.
Police stopped French broadcaster France 24’s live coverage of the raid and Dahmani’s arrest by forcibly removing the camera from the tripod and arresting their camera operator, Hamdi Tlili, then breaking his camera, according to a report by France 24 and the local journalist who spoke with CPJ. Tlili was released later that day; he is not currently facing charges but can be summoned for questioning.
Separately, on May 11, in Tunis, police arrested Bssais and Zghidi, both IFM radio journalists who present a morning show, “L’emmission Impossible,” where they provide political commentary on current political affairs, according to a report by Reuters news agency and the local journalist. On Wednesday, a Tunis court ordered the journalists’ detention on charges of “publishing news that includes personal data and false news aimed at defamation” until their trial, which is expected at the end of the month.
The journalists’ lawyers told France 24 that Zghidi’s arrest stems from his social media posts in solidarity with the imprisoned journalist Mohamed Boughaleb, and Bssais’ arrest was in connection to his television and radio commentary critical of President Saied.
Police arrested Boughaleb, a reporter with Carthage Plus and local independent radio station Cap FM, in Tunis, over social media posts on March 22; on April 17, a Tunis court sentenced him to six months in prison on defamation charges.
In another incident on Monday, police arrested freelance photojournalist Yassin Mahjoub, who was covering the arrest of lawyer Mehdi Zargouba during a second police raid of the bar association headquarters. Police deleted all of Mahjoub’s pictures and released him without charge the same day.
On Tuesday, the European Union issued a statement expressing concern over the recent wave of arrests of civil society figures and journalists in Tunisia.
CPJ’s email to the Tunisian Ministry of Interior did not receive a response.
Students and workers at the City University of New York held a peaceful occupation Tuesday of the school’s Graduate Center in solidarity with Palestine and renamed its library “The Al Aqsa University Library,” after Gaza’s oldest public university, which was destroyed by Israel’s bombardment. This comes as over 500 faculty and staff at CUNY have signed a letter demanding the charges be dropped against at least 173 people arrested in April when NYPD violently raided a peaceful Gaza solidarity encampment on the City College campus. “This is really the most egregious example we’ve seen of violent repression of pro-Palestinian organizing,” says pro-Palestine activist and CUNY alumni Musabika Nabiha, who says the crackdown wasn’t in response to the tents, rallies or free food, but because the “encampment’s demands themselves proved a threat to the constant accumulation of profit and profiting off of genocide that CUNY is engaged in.” Alex Vitale, coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at CUNY’s Brooklyn College, criticizes the school administration for being relatively harsh on student activists. ”CUNY is spending millions of dollars for a security apparatus that fails to address the real security needs of students and is really there in moments like this to be a tool, a kind of private army, for the administration to suppress student dissent.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
