Page 13 - IB May 2024

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THE TRAGEDY

OF NEW CALEDONIA

By Nic Maclellan

On the night of Monday 13 May, Noumea exploded.
Across many parts of New Caledonia’s capital, young people took to the streets,
stoning French riot police, looting and burning shops, car yards and factories. The
next day, French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc declared a 6pm to 6am curfew
for Noumea and outlying suburbs, and banned the carrying of weapons – yet the
riots continued over following nights.
Sonia Backès, leader of the anti-independence party Les Loyalistes and President
of the Southern Province wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron, declaring
“we are in a state of civil war.” She called on the French State to declare a state of
emergency and deploy the French army alongside gendarmes and CRS riot police.
Macron soon declared a state of emergency, only the second time in New
Caledonia’s history that French authorities have taken this extraordinary step (the
previous one was announced in December 1984, at the start of four years of armed
conflict known as Les évènements).
Within days, as hundreds more police were flown from Paris and Tahiti to stop
the escalating clashes, France’s Overseas Minister, Gérald Darmanin announced
the house arrest of so-called “radical and violent” Kanak leaders from the activist
network CCAT. The overnight curfew was soon extended beyond Noumea to the
whole territory.
For months, the CCAT has been organising peaceful protests and rallies, backed
by members of the main independence coalition Front de Libération Nationale
Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS), trade union and Kanak customary leaders. They
called on the French government to withdraw a constitutional amendment that
will change the residency requirements that define New Caledonia citizenship,
first created by the 1998 Noumea Accord. Reducing the residency requirement to
just 10 years, could open the way for more than 25,000 new voters to be added
to electoral rolls for New Caledonia’s three provincial assemblies and national
Congress, an increase of 14.5% new voters in a country of just 270,000 people.
For the last few years, many leaders of the independence movement have
accepted the need for electoral reform, especially to give voting rights to locally
born New Caledonians. However, they have always argued that any compromise on
voting rights—which will clearly benefit anti-independence parties—must be part of
a broader negotiated agreement that includes a clear pathway to a new political
status and political independence.
Talks over the last two years remain deadlocked, despite some private
agreement over issues of common concern. But to the anger of FLNKS leaders,
French President Emmanuel Macron has proceeded with the changes to voting
rights, without forging a final consensus between supporters and opponents of
independence in New Caledonia. The approval of legislation by the French Senate
in Paris on 2 April and the National Assembly on 13 May was the final straw that

Photo: Delphine Mayeur/AFP
Islands Business, May 2024 13