Reports in Papua New Guinea say the governments of Bougainville and PNG have agreed to table the 2019 independence referendum results in Parliament.

While discussions are ongoing, some degree of consensus has been reached during the talks, being held at Burnham Military Camp, just outside of Christchurch in New Zealand’s South Island.

The talks are not open to the media.

A massive 97.7 percent of Bougainvillians voted for independence in 2019.

Former Bougainville president John Momis told delegates in Burnham to “take the bull by the horn” and confront the independence issue without further delay.

Both governments have agreed to present three highly pivotal documents to the PNG National Parliament.

The commitment was formally conveyed by PNG’s Minister of Bougainville Affairs, Manaseh Makiba.

Only sovereignty acceptable
Meanwhile, the ABG President, Ishmael Toroama, said Bougainville would not accept a governance model that did not grant sovereignty.

This comes amid talk of other options, such as self-government in free association.

To achieve membership of the United Nations sovereignty is needed.

Writing in the Post-Courier, journalist Gorethy Kenneth said the Bougainville national leaders, for the “first time have come out in aligning with the Bougainville team in New Zealand”.

She reported that Police Minister and Bougainville regional MP Peter Tsiamalili Jr said he was in a peculiar position but he represented the 97.7 percent who voted for independence and he would go with the wishes of his people.

The ICT Minister, and South Bougainville MP Timothy Masiu also said his one vote in Parliament would be for independence as far as his people were concerned.

The PNG government has spoken previously of fears that independence for Bougainville would encourage other provinces to seek autonomy.

Provinces, such as New Ireland, have made no secret of their dissatisfaction with Port Moresby and desire to control more of their own affairs.

But the Bougainville Minister of Independence Implementation, Ezekiel Massat, said Bougainville’s status was constitutionally “ring-fenced” and could not set a precedent for other provinces.

He said “under the Bougainville Peace Agreement, independence is a compulsory option”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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New Zealand should join others in calling New Caledonia’s third independence referendum invalid, one of the founders of the Kanaky Aotearoa Solidarity Network says.

It follows the 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM10) in Tokyo last week, where New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters called for the Pacific Islands Forum to facilitate mediation in the French territory.

In December 2021, the Kanak population boycotted the referendum to mourn their dead during the covid-19 pandemic, after their calls for the referendum to be delayed was ignored.

As a result, Peters said the referendum saw voter turnout collapse and almost 97 percent of voters who cast a ballot voted “No” to independence.

“Delegitimising the result, in the eyes of pro-independence forces and some neutral observers at least, was the low turnout of only 44 percent.”

Kanaky Aotearoa Solidarity group’s David Small said Peters should have aligned with the Melanesian Spearhead Group which has called for a UN mission to New Caledonia.

‘Referendum delegitimised’
“He said that the third referendum was delegitimised in the eyes of some, and did not include New Zealand in that,” Small said.

“It would have been better if he had because that third referendum was indefensible.”

The group said Peters had mentioned the need for dialogue but failed to provide a clear pathway or goal.

“The Kanaky Aotearoa Solidarity Group is deeply disappointed by Peters’ insufficient support for the Kanak people’s struggle.

“His statement at PALM10 represents a missed opportunity for New Zealand to assert its commitment to justice and self-determination for all Pacific peoples.”

Roger-Lacan spoke to RNZ Pacific from Tokyo following talks with the leaders of Papua New Guinea and Tonga.

She said there was “so much disinformation” surrounding issues in New Caledonia and that Pacific leaders had only heard one side of the story.

“For example, Mark Brown sent a letter to President [Louis] Mapou but he did not try and contact France, kind of ignoring that New Caledonia until further notice is France,” she said.

“We tried to call them, but Mark Brown would not be there to pick up the phone.

“But luckily, the Prime Minister of Tonga, the incoming chair of the PIF and everyone else was there, so that everyone was very happy to hear the information that we were providing.

“We are going to provide full information in writing because it seems that everybody ignores . . . the substance of the matter, and everybody is totally fed by disinformation and propaganda” surrounding issues in New Caledonia.

“We will now go through the process of how we will put this into practice. Of course, it will require the support of the government of France for the mission to proceed,” Brown said at a news conference at the PALM10 meeting in Tokyo.

A spokesperson for the New Caledonia President’s office, Charles Wea, has told RNZ Pacific that the high-level group was expected to be made up of the leaders of Fiji, Cook Islands, Tonga and Solomon Islands.

“The decision that has been made by the leaders during the meeting in Japan to send a mission to New Caledonia before the annual meeting over the of PIF around the second or third week of August,” he said.

“The objectives of the mission will be to come and listen and discuss with all parties in New Caledonia in order to [prepare] a report [for] the leaders meeting in Tonga.”

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“The situation has reached an impasse, and one not easily navigated given the violence that broke out — the democratic injuries that have reopened old wounds and created new ones.”

Peters is in Japan representing New Zealand at the 10th Japan-Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM10) hosted by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo.

He delivered a speech titled “Pacific Futures”, pointing to increasing challenges in the Indo-Pacific as context.

The speech was an opportunity to outline New Zealand’s foreign policy shift, and the minister made renewed calls for “more diplomacy, more engagement, more compromise”, particularly in New Caledonia.

Riots and armed clashes between indigenous Kanak pro-independence protesters and security forces in New Caledonia’s capital Nouméa erupted in May following an attempt by the French government to make constitutional amendments which would affect voting rights for 25,000 people.

Peters also raised questions around the legitimacy of the 2021 referendum on independence due to a “vastly reduced, and therefore different, sample of voters” and the “obvious democratic injury”.

Among the reasons
“Those two decisions were among the reasons, alongside growing inequalities and lack of prospects for the indigenous Kanak population, especially their youth, that led to the precarious situation that exploded into unrest in May.”

Though, he also understood the 25,000 potential voters may also feel “democratic injury” due to disenfranchisement.

NZ Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ full speech.   Video: NZ Embassy, Tokyo

“We raise this crisis here because the situation in New Caledonia is a test of the effectiveness of our regional architecture in dealing with crisis response,” he said.

“It also creates a chance for the Pacific Islands Forum to serve as a constructive force, helping to bring the parties together for an essential democratic dialogue and the path forward.

“In this role, the Pacific Islands Forum needs to find an appropriate mechanism and the best person or people to help facilitate dialogue, engagement or mediation as a path forward between the different actors in New Caledonia.”

He pointed to recent discussions between President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on New Caledonia on what role the Forum might play.

“Pacific Islands Forum countries by virtue of our locations and histories understand the large indigenous minority population’s desire for self-determination.

‘Deeply respect France’s role’
“We also deeply respect and appreciate France’s role in the region and understand France’s desire to walk together with New Caledonians towards a prosperous and secure future.”

The discussions come at a time where wider geopolitical implications are affecting the Pacific.

He said “Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine”, the “utter catastrophe still unfolding in Gaza”, and the risk of greater escalation in the Middle East were creating a more destabilised global security situation.

Peters said decision-makers should have their “eyes-wide open” to their country’s challenges, but also be “alert to opportunities that materially advance the prosperity and security of our citizens”.

“The call for renewed and vigorous diplomatic engagement provides the context for New Zealand’s foreign policy reset. The security environment has deteriorated sharply during the three years since last being foreign minister, accentuating an even longer-term deterioration of the rules-based order.”

Peters said New Zealand’s foreign policy reset is a response to “three big shifts underpinning the multi-faceted and complex challenges facing the international order” which he outlines:

• From rules to power, a shift towards a multipolar world that is characterised by more contested rules and where relative power between states assumes a greater role in shaping international affairs;
• From economics to security, a shift in which economic relationships are reassessed in light of increased military competition in a more securitised and less stable world; and
• From efficiency to resilience, a shift in the drivers of economic behaviour, and where building greater resilience and addressing pressing social and sustainability issues become more prominent.

New Zealand foreign minister calls for ‘more compromise’ on New Caledonia https://t.co/uwLAXokXAd

— Nikkei Asia (@NikkeiAsia) July 19, 2024

Southeast Asian focus
In response, Peters said the New Zealand government was “significantly increasing our focus and resources” to Southeast and North Asia, including Japan.

The government is also renewing engagement with “traditional like-minded partnerships” and supporting new groupings that “advance and defend our interests and capabilities”.

He mentions the IP4 and NATO as examples.

“We also knew we needed to give more energy, more urgency, and a sharper focus to three inter-connected lines of diplomatic effort: investing in our relationships, growing our prosperity, and strengthening our security.”

Peters will return to New Zealand on Saturday.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Cook Islands Prime Minister and Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) chair Mark Brown has written to the president of the government of New Caledonia to offer support in finding a way forward.

Brown said the political situation in the French territory — which is a full member of the PIF — remains deeply concerning to the Forum family.

He said there were a number of mechanisms and processes available to PIF members to help resolve “complex and historical issues” which remain “unsettled”.

He also stressed implementing an agreed way forward “must not be rushed”.

“Our Pacific region is home to independent experts and skilled personnel, that are familiar with this region, its history, its people, and importantly, its context, that can support all parties to move this process forward,” Brown said.

“Pacific Islands Forum [is ready to] to facilitate and provide a supported and neutral space for all parties to come together in the spirit of the Pacific Way, to find an agreed way forward that safeguards the interests of the people of New Caledonia.”

French President Emanuel Macron came and left Nouméa last week without announcing a return to a freeze or scrapping of the controversial constitutional amendment, which indigenous Kanaks and pro-independence groups have been calling for.

Dialogue promised
He promised dialogue would continue, “in view of the current context, we give ourselves a few weeks so as to allow peace to return, dialogue to resume, in view of a comprehensive agreement,” he said.

Indigenous Kanaks have also called for Macron to investigate the death toll, with more young rioters feared dead, and for the proposed constitutional amendments to be withdrawn.

Concerns have also been raised around the Kanak population facing a great deal of inequity and poor health, education and job outcomes.

Vanuatu Climate Minister Ralph Regenvanu told the media at the fourth UN Small Islands Developing States conference that “everyone could see this coming three years ago”.

“France has caused this crisis by its failure to recognise the Kanaks’ call for the third referendum to be deferred,” Regenvanu said.

Regenvanu said Macron’s visit made no difference “because France has to withdraw its legislative change to open the electoral rolls to allow for a resolution through dialogue”.

He said if that did not happen it will push the situation back to the cycle of violence that was prevalent in the 1980s.

“We are calling on France to withdraw the legislative proposals, and come back to the table and set up a new accord with the indépendantistes and the anti-independentists in the territory,” Regenvanu said.

“If France does not withdraw the legislative amendments, the violence will continue.”

‘France’s credibility challenged’
Massey University Defence and Security Studies associate professor Dr Powles said the PIF had produced a “fairly scathing” report on the third and final New Caledonia referendum.

But the French President’s stand on the issue of the third self-determination referendum (held in December 2021 and boycotted by the pro-independence camp) is: “I will not go back on this.”

Dr Powles said there were options for the Forum Secretariat, including using the existing regional crisis mechanism under the Biketawa Declaration.

The declaration has been used on a number of occasions in the Pacific, in Nauru, in Solomon Islands, as well as in several other cases, she said.

“France’s credibility was strongly challenged by virtue of the fact that it is a colonial power in the Pacific,” Dr Powles said.

“A resilient Pacific is a Pacific in which all Pacific peoples are free and independent. And that is really the best type of resilience which will keep the region safe.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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A former New Caledonia-based High Commissioner, Patrice Faure, has been appointed Chief-of-Staff of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Faure is described as an expert on French overseas territories, particularly New Caledonia.

The 56-year-old prefect was France’s representative (High Commissioner) in New Caledonia between 2021 and 2023, a period marked by the covid pandemic, but also the last two of three referendums held over the French Pacific territory’s possible independence.

He was also tasked to organise the first attempts to bring together pro-France and pro-independence political parties to talk and make suggestions on New Caledonia’s political and institutional future.

Faure was replaced in Nouméa by Louis Le Franc in early 2023.

French daily Le Monde suggests that Faure’s appointment would enable French President Macron to have a close adviser on New Caledonia’s developments in the coming months.

While French Home Affairs and Overseas minister Gérald Darmanin has travelled half a dozen times to New Caledonia throughout 2023, France’s efforts to foster bipartisan and simultaneous talks have not yet come to fruition.

UC refuses to join talks
One political party wjich is a member of the pro-independence umbrella (FLNKS) — the Union Calédonienne (UC) — is still refusing to join those talks.

French PM Elisabeth Borne gave New Caledonia’s political parties until 1 July 2024 to come up with collective suggestions on the sensitive subject.

Borne also announced over Christmas that her government would table a Constitutional amendment to “unfreeze” New Caledonia’s electoral roll and enable French citizen residing there for over 10 years to vote in local elections.

While Darmanin is scheduled to come back to New Caledonia early in the year, Finance Minister Bruno Lemaire will also visit again to supervise a far-reaching reform plan to solve New Caledonia’s “critical” situation in the nickel mining industry.

In February 2024, Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti will also travel there to provide more details about the construction of a new French-funded prison at an estimated cost of €498 million (NZ$873 million).

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Caledonia’s Kanak national liberation movement has told the UN Decolonisation Committee that France has “robbed” the indigenous people of their independence and has appealed for help.

Magalie Tingal-Lémé, the permanent representative of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) at the UN, told a session of the Committee of 24 (C24) — as the special decolonisation body is known — that the French authorities had failed to honour the 1998 Noumea Accord self-determination aspirations, especially by pressing ahead with the third independence referendum in December 2021 in defiance of Kanak opposition.

More than half the eligible voting population boycotted the third ballot after the previous two referendums in 2018 and 2020 recorded narrowing defeats for independence.

The pro-independence Kanak groups wanted the referendum delayed due to the devastating impact that the covid-19 pandemic had had on the indigenous population.

Tingal-Lémé told the UN session that speaking as an indigenous Kanak woman, she represented the FLNKS and “every time we speak before your institution, we carry the voice of the colonised people”.

“When we speak of colonisation, we are necessarily speaking of the people who have suffered the damage, the stigma and the consequences,” she said in her passionate speech.

“On September 24, my country will have been under colonial rule for 170 years.”

Accords brought peace
Tingal-Lémé said two political accords with France had brought peace to New Caledonia after the turbulent 1980s, “the second of which — the Nouméa Accord — [was taking] the country on the way for full emancipation”.

“And it is in a spirit of dialogue and consensus that the indepéndentists have kept their word, despite, and in the name, of spilled blood.”

In 2018, the first of three scheduled votes on sovereignty, 56.4 percent rejected independence with an 81 percent turnout of the 174,995 voters eligible to vote.

Two years later, independence was again rejected, but this time with an increased support to almost 47 percent. Turnout also slightly grew to 85.69 percent.

However, in December 2021 the turnout dropped by about half with most Kanaks boycotting the referendum due to the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, this time the “yes” vote dropped to a mere 3.5 percent.

“Since December 12, 2021, when France maintained the third and final referendum — even though we had requested its postponement due to the human trauma of covid-19 — we have never ceased to contest its holding and its results,” Tingal-Lémé said.

Nearly 57 percent of voters had not turned out on the day due to the covid boycott.

‘We’ll never accept this outcome’
“We believe that through this illegitimate referendum, the French state has robbed us of our independence. We will never accept this outcome!

“And so, unable to contest the results under French internal law, we are turning to the international community for an impartial institution to indicate how to resume a process that complies with international rules on decolonisation.

“Through the Nouméa Accord, France has committed itself and the populations concerned to an original decolonisation process, which should lead to the full emancipation of Kanaky.

“Today, the FLNKS believes that the administering power has not fulfilled its obligations.”

Tingal-Lémé said the “latest evidence” of this failure was a New Caledonian decolonisation audit, whose report had just been made public.

She said this audit report had been requested by the FLNKS for the past five years so that it would be available — along with the assessment of the Nouméa Accord — before the three referendums to “enlighten voters”.

“The pro-independence movement found itself alone in raising public awareness of the positive stakes of self-determination, and had to campaign against a state that sided with the anti-independence groups.”

Magalie Tingal-Lémé’s speech to the UN Decolonisation Committee. Video: MTL

Entrusted to a ‘market’ firm
Also, the French government had “entrusted” this work to a firm specialising in market analysis strategies, she said.

“This shows how much consideration the administering power has given to this exercise and to its international obligations regarding the decolonisation.

“Frankly, who can believe in the objectivity of an audit commissioned by a government to which the leader of New Caledonia’s non-independence movement belongs?” Tingal-Lémé asked.

“It is already clear that, once again, France does not wish to achieve a decolonisation in the Pacific.

“This is why the FLNKS is petitioning the C24 to support our initiative to the United Nations, with the aim of getting an advisory opinion to the International Court of Justice.

“The objectives of this initiative is to request the ICJ to rule on our [indigenous] rights, those of the colonised people of New Caledonia, which we believe were violated on December 12, 2021.”

Advisory opinion
The FLNKS wanted the ICJ to make an advisory opinion on the way France “has conducted the decolonisation process, in particular by holding a referendum without the participation of the Kanak people.”

Tingal-Lémé pleaded: “We sincerely hope that you will heed our call.”

According to New Caledonia’s 2019 census, the indigenous Kanaks comprise a 41 percent share of the 271,000 multiethnic population. Europeans make up 24 percent, Wallisians and Futunans 8 percent, and a mix of Indonesians, ni-Vanuatu, Tahitians and Vietnamese are among the rest.

Earlier today, RNZ Pacific reported that a New Caledonian politician had claimed at the UN that the territory was “no longer a colony” and should be withdrawn from the UN decolonisation list.

The anti-independence member of the Territorial Congress and Vice-President of the Southern Province, Gil Brial, said he was a descendant of French people deported to New Caledonia 160 years ago, who had been “blended with others, including the indigenous Kanaks”.

He said the only colonisation left today was the “colonisation of the minds of young people by a few separatist leaders who mixed racism, hatred and threats”, reports RNZ Pacific.

Dr David Robie is editor of Asia Pacific Report.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Caledonia’s Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) say they will tell the French Prime Minister of the Kanak people’s “sense of humiliation” over the last independence referendum.

The pro-independence alliance is set to talk to the French state from April 7-15.

The secretary-general of the Caledonian Union, Pascal Sawa, told La Premiere television they need to discuss what happened in the referendum vote in 2021, which was boycotted by the indigenous Kanak people due to the effects of the covid-19 pandemic.

“The first thing to discuss is the conflict in relation to December 12, 2021,” he said.

“We cannot ignore what happened then. The state says there is a right for independence and that the accord is now past.

“We don’t believe it has finished because we feel still feel a sense of humiliation.”

In Paris, the alliance is set to meet French Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne.

In a statement, the FLNKS said they would discuss crucial topics such as the restricted electoral roll based on the Noumea Accord of 1998 which allows only people with 18 years presence in the territory to vote.

“The FLNKS reaffirms that the electoral citizens body is irreversible from the Noumea Accord, and that its modification could break the social peace in the country.”

They will also choose the next phase in order to progress the Noumea Accord, which in the eyes of the FLNKS remains unfinished.

“The next phase is how we will come out constructively of the Noumea Accord to rebuild something that resembles us and that brings the people of New Caledonia together,” the statement said.

The FLNKS statement affirms that all future discussions about the future of the country will be decided and acted in New Caledonia not France.

‘We will not reproduce the Accords’
New Caledonia’s High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said that France would not reproduce the Noumea Accords.

Seven months after taking his role in Noumea, the commissioner said he was optimistic about future trilateral discussions.

He said it was a shame the last meeting did not involve the anti-independence side.

“We are in a period, post-Noumea Accord, we will not reproduce the accords and we will hopefully find an intelligent solution for the sake of future generations.

“The French Minister of the Interior and French Overseas Minister only have one voice, therefore the framework put down is very hard to be respected.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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The local administration in the New Caledonian township of Canala stayed shut on Monday to mark the first anniversary of the last referendum on independence from France.

A year ago, more than 96 percent voted against full sovereignty but the pro-independence parties had advised their supporters to abstain, which lowered turnout to 43 percent.

The boycott was in protest at France’s refusal to postpone the vote because of the impact of the pandemic on the indigenous Kanak people.

The town hall in Canala (population 4000) had a banner across its entrance, which declared “December 12 — a day of humiliation of the Kanak people”.

Canala has a history as a stronghold of Kanak independence activism and protest.

The main pro-independence parties will hold a congress in early 2023 to prepare for bilateral talks with the French government in the hope of getting Paris to agree to a timetable to attain independence.

The anti-independence parties want Paris to enact the referendum result and draw up a statute for a New Caledonia within the French Republic.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Caledonia’s largest pro-independence party says it will not give up on the gains made in terms of decolonisation from France under the 1998 Noumea Accord.

Party president Daniel Goa made the statement in an address at the party congress in the north of the main island Grande Terre at the weekend, outlining its key points ahead of negotiations with Paris about the territory’s institutional future.

Last December, more than 96 percent voted against independence from France in the third and last referendum provided under the Noumea Accord.

However, the plebiscite was boycotted by the pro-independence side after it had unsuccessfully asked Paris to postpone the vote because of the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on mainly the indigenous Kanak population.

The pro-independence parties said they would not recognise the result, describing it as illegitimate and one not reflecting the will of the people to be decolonised.

Anti-independence parties as well as the French government welcomed the result, with President Emmanuel Macron saying France was “more beautiful” because New Caledonia decided to remain part of it.

Right after the vote, the French Overseas Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Paris planned to hold another referendum in June next year about a new statute for a New Caledonia within France.

‘Only emancipation’
However, Goa reiterated at the weekend the pro-independence camp’s stance was that it would not join discussions about re-integrating New Caledonia into France.

He told delegates that “the Caledonian Union had nothing to negotiate except to listen and discuss the process of emancipation that will irreversibly lead to sovereignty”.

Pro-independence parties, united under the umbrella of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), said after the December referendum that they would have no negotiations with France until after this year’s presidential election.

Last month, at the congress of another pro-independence party, Palika, its spokesperson Charles Washetine suggested holding another independence referendum by 2024 to complete the decolonisation process, but this time with the participation of the Kanak people.

Washetine added that the vote should be run by the United Nations, and not by France any longer.

Goa accused France of having failed to be neutral at the last referendum, which was meant to conclude the Noumea Accord process with the Kanak people’s emancipation.

However, he said it turned out that France tried to hide behind a “neo-colonial putsch”.

Gradual transfer of power
Under the Noumea Accord, there has been a gradual transfer of power, which is enshrined in the French constitution and which Goa insisted was an irreversible achievement.

He stressed that there could be no consideration to open the electoral rolls which restrict voting rights to indigenous people and long-term residents in provincial elections and in referendums.

About 41,000 French residents are excluded from such voting.

Goa said freezing the electoral body with the Noumea Accord put an end to the French settlement policy, which French Prime Minister Pierre Messmer still encouraged in 1972.

He said the signatories of the accord wanted to lay the foundation for a citizenship of New Caledonia, allowing the indigenous people to be joined by long term settlers to forge their common destiny.

Goa said that since the December referendum, the French state intended to bring these 41,000 French people back into the electoral body, which he said would destabilise the still very fragile political balances.

He likened attempts to change the rolls to “re-colonisation”.

For sake of ‘handful of French’
He wondered why France would question the achievement of the Noumea Accord for the sake of “a handful of French people” who left their country to settle in New Caledonia.

Goa said France was ready to sacrifice a political process and its word given in front of the international community for what he described as a “handful of adventurers”.

Anti-independence parties, however, expressed support for the push to have the restrictions abolished.

A local interest group, One Heart One Vote, said it would lobby the French Supreme Court, the European Human Rights Court and the United Nations to quash the existing provisions, describing them as discriminatory.

With the first round of the French presidential election due on April 12, the Republicans’ candidate Valerie Pecresse said the eligibility question must be readdressed as to give a full place to those who had been building New Caledonia for years while having no right to vote.

In his address, Goa also alluded to the war in Ukraine and what he called France’s “omnipresent imperialism” in part because of its continued occupation of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean.

The Comoros partitioned
The Comoros, which is between Mozambique and Madagascar, was partitioned after independence in 1975 because France refused to let Mayotte go as its residents had voted to stay with France.

The United Nations asked France to return Mayotte, but Paris integrated the island to become a French department in 2011 and part of the Eurozone three years later.

France will follow the presidential elections this month with National Assembly elections in June.

Proper discussions on how the December referendum outcome will be implemented will have to wait.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

There have been mixed opinions from New Caledonia’s communities after the third and final referendum returned a 96 percent vote against independence.

While anti-independence parties welcomed the victory, the pro-independence Kanak side refuse to recognise the result.

The turnout of potential voters was especially low among the Kanak community because most Kanaks abstained from the voting process.

In the two previous referendums before the boycott — in 2018 and 2020 — the result was very close with the pro-independence vote rising.

Turnout at this year’s referendum was estimated at only 43.87 percent of the eligible electorate, compared to 85.69 percent in the 2020 plebiscite.

Aile Tikoure, an activist from the pro-independence Palika Party, says many Kanaks boycotted the referendum because France refused to postpone it until next year, despite the covid pandemic.

“No, no I haven’t voted. Instructions were clear from the party, I didn’t vote,” he says.

“I don’t consider this as an act of war. The government didn’t speak to the Kanaks — that is no respect for our fight.

“They still haven’t understood us after 30 years of dialogue that this country would be nothing without us. They want to do this without us. It’s an insult. We feel left out from any political discussion.”

Boycott was ‘a victory’
Another pro-independence activist, Florenda Nirikani, says the boycott was a victory.

“I would say it’s a victory from the performance of our Kanak community and a good performance — the word has been followed at 56 percent,” she says.

“Now that victory is over we are at a stage where people are asking what do we do now?

“We are at a stage of questioning. Two days after the referendum there a lot of people that ask me well what do we do now. We were prepared for the 97 percent that said no.

“We are here to say we Kanaks are proud that the level of absence in the referendum was a good victory.”

Florenda Nirikani does not expect to see violence as a result of the referendum result.

However, pro-independence activists have made it clear that there will be no negotiating with the current Macron government. The French presidential elections are due in April.

No talking to French officials
“No, things have stayed calm and I don’t think we will see violence. However, in the days or the weeks to come there will be some questioning from the activists.

“There has been a word out not to talk to a single French government official so negotiations will not happen between Kanaks and the current French government.

“[French Overseas Minister Sebastien] Lecornu [has been] here in New Caledonia last week. The customary Senate has refused to meet with him and some customary officials have boycotted meetings.

“The position expressed is that no Kanak represententatives will meet with the current government,” Nirikani says.

Negotiations between the Kanaks and French state are not expected to resume before next year’s French presidential election.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A pro-independence delegation from New Caledonia has left for New York to raise its opposition to the independence referendum due this Sunday with the United Nations.

New Caledonia has been on the UN decolonisation list since 1986.

Because of the pandemic, the pro-independence parties say they will neither take part in the vote, nor recognise its result.

France has refused to postpone the vote despite repeated pleas by pro-independence parties to defer it.

New Caledonia’s public broadcaster said the Congress President, Roch Wamytan, left Noumea at the weekend after the pro-independence parties said they would not respect the referendum outcome.

Wamytan was a signatory for a pro-independence party of the 1998 Noumea Accord which provided for three referendums by 2022.

The pro-independence parties wanted the third referendum to be held next year, but Paris decided to hold it this month.

In last year’s second referendum, just over 53 percent voted against independence.

Can still be called off, says Melenchon
French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon says it is not too late to postpone the December 12 referendum.

Melenchon said that by refusing to defer it to next year, President Emmanuel Macron risks breaking New Caledonia’s equilibrium and recreating the conditions of its conflict now kept in check with the Noumea Accord.

He said endangering the peace in New Caledonia could be an election strategy for Macron to appear as a law-and-order candidate.

Melenchon has urged him to put postponing the referendum on Wednesday’s government agenda.

France, which deems the pandemic to be under control, has flown in almost 2000 extra police, including riot squads, to provide security for the referendum.

The call to postpone the vote is being backed by civil society figures internationally.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

France has detailed an unprecedented security set-up for New Caledonia’s third and final independence referendum on December 12.

The French authorities made the announcement as the pro-independence FLNKS called on its supporters to boycott the vote after France refused to delay it until next year.

If the call is heeded, the anti-independence side is all but certain to again have a majority as it did in the 2018 and 2020 referendums.

To ensure a safe voting process in December, French High Commissioner Patrice Faure said 1400 armed police will be flown in from France, including 15 mobile units.

Just over a week ago, a contingent of 250 armed police arrived in Noumea as first reinforcements for the referendum.

In coming weeks, an additional 100 members of the national police and 250 members of the armed forces are expected.

Elite tactical response unit
The police’s elite tactical response unit will also be reinforced to deal with any situation that may arise.

One hundred and sixty vehicles, 30 armoured carriers, two helicopters and a transport aircraft are due in the next weeks.

Sixty investigators will be flown in to stay for as long as needed.

There will also be a cyber unit dedicated to respond to hate speech and calls for violence on social media.

General Christophe Marietti, who oversees the security operation, said the deployment — which is twice the size of the one at the 2018 referendum — is meant to be “reassuring, dissuasive and reactive”.

After the 2018 plebiscite, rioting south of Noumea closed the main road, which police managed to reopen after two days.

Both the French High Commissioner and Overseas Minister Sebastien Lecornu have said the vote would go ahead as announced in June despite the calls to defer it because of the covid-19 pandemic and the devastating impact on the indigenous Kanak people.

Elections held on time
Lecornu said in democracies votes were held on time and only an out-of-control pandemic could make a date change possible.

More than 10,000 people caught covid-19 since the start of the latest community outbreak in early September and more than 260 people — mainly indigenous Kanaks — have died.

The FLNKS said its campaign was being hampered because covid-19 measures restrict meetings.

It also argues that the Kanak people are in mourning, and therefore the referendum should be postponed until September next year.

The wish to delay the vote is also being supported by the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

The anti-independence camp has meanwhile resumed its referendum campaign, dismissing the rivals’ concerns by pointing out that the issue at stake has been debated for the past three years.

It also said that it was the pro-independence politicians who in April wanted a third referendum when others were against holding another one.

Final referendum held early
Lecornu has said 18 months after the December 2020 referendum, another vote would be held on the next status of New Caledonia.

Paris outlined in a paper in July what the consequences would be of either a yes or a no vote.

A no vote would open the way for an arrangement of partial reintegration into France while a yes vote would, after a transition phase, usher in a sharp rupture.

An FLNKS politician, Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro, said that amid the current debate, two important historic aspects emanating from the 1983 roundtable in Nainville-les-Roches remained.

He said the French state had recognised the innate and active right to independence of the colonised Kanak people.

He also said the Kanak people accepted to include in any future decolonisation process all the various communities that had settled in New Caledonia as part of France’s colonisation.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz