pn939. Riots in New Caledonia

 

Constitutional amendments by the French parliament to allow people who had been resident in New Caledonia to vote have sparked off riots  by pro-independence groups in the capital Noumea. Some 10,000 rioters are involved. four people are dead and the riot leaders have been arrested.  

Last Wednesday, the French National Assembly voted 351 in favour (mostly right-wing parties) and 153 against (mostly left-wing parties) the proposed constitutional amendments that would open the electoral roll and allow those who have been residing in New Caledonia for an uninterrupted ten years to vote in local elections.

Le Monde says "the reform of the territory's electorate has reawakened a near-civil war atmosphere, because major inequalities disadvantaging Kanak people persist, and the government has seemed to be biased in favor of one side."

The rioters claim the French parliamant decision has broken a  20-year accord with the local indigenous Kanaks, and threatened to make the Kanak a minority in their own country.   French troops are being flown into the country, food is in short supply in Noumea, commercial flights are cancelled and the route to the airport is all but closed. Some 300 New Zealanders are currently in the country.

The Pacific Conference of Churches  has called for the UN to lead an impartial and competent dialogue mission to monitor the situation. In a statement on Friday, it said it "stands in deep solidarity with our sisters and brothers of Kanaky", saying the violence is born of frustration and pain. It said after 20 years of consensual management, the breakdown in dialogue between the French government and the independence fighters and the Kanak people is now a reality.

The Pacific Islands Forum and the Melanesian Spearhead Group have always supported the independence of New Caledonia. The Melanesian Spearhead Group and Vanuatu's prime minister Charlot Salwai has called on the French government to withdraw or annul the proposed constitutional amendments that sparked the civil unrest.

French Home Affairs and Overseas minister Gérald Darmanin refuses to accept the Kanak rationale for the riots. He says "This is a Mafia-like body which I do not amalgamate with political pro-independence parties...[it] is a group that claims itself to be pro-independence and commits looting, murders and violence." 

With such an attitude, useful dialogue is unlikely any time soon. Arresting the riot leaders is not the solution.

-- ACW, based mainly on RNZI reports.