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NOUMEA, June 20, 2024 (RNZ PACIFIC) – A month has passed in New Caledonia since violent and deadly clashes broke out on May 13, but Paris has yet to offer a clear path forward as far as the National Liberation Front of Kanak Socialism (FLNKS) is concerned.
On Wednesday, New Caledonian security forces arrested eight people, including Christian Téin, head of the Field Operations Coordination Group (CCAT).
They face multiple charges, including organized destruction of goods and property, incitement to commit crime and murder or attempted murder of a public official, according to the prosecutor’s office.
“All the unrest, all the trouble, is caused by the ignorance of the French government,” said Charles Via, a spokesman for the New Caledonian government.
“We cannot have peace without national independence. Without considering independence, New Caledonia will always be in trouble,” he said.
But in an exclusive interview New Zealand Pacific RadioFrench Ambassador to the Pacific Veronique Roger Lacan said there were many solutions to the current conflict, but first the violence needed to stop.
Roger Lacan said there was a national process to resolve the independence issue – namely through the controversial constitutional changes that sparked the unrest.
Paris also engaged with the UN Committee on Decolonization, or C24, to discuss the option of self-determination through independence or free association with independent states.
Apart from this, Paris also met with the leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) or the Troika by telephone and said talks were underway to either organise a meeting with regional leaders as soon as possible or hold it at the PIF leaders’ meeting in Tonga in August.
Weya stressed that whichever path is chosen, the Kanak Front and the wider independence movement want a robust process towards independence.
More than 3,000 security forces have been deployed and armored vehicles equipped with machine guns have also been sent to French territory.
Roger Lacon said the troops were necessary and rejected suggestions the region was being militarised.
She stressed that the deployment of thousands of special forces was necessary to curb the violence and restore law and order.
Route 1 of the Territory has been blocked by roadblocks set up by rioters, and Roger Lacan asked the question: “How can such roadblocks be removed without the army?”
Pacific civil society groups continue to condemn France’s actions leading to the ongoing unrest and its response to the violence.
They called for the immediate withdrawal of excess troops and a gradual reduction in security measures.
Rev James Bhagwan, General Secretary of the Pacific Churches Federation, told New Zealand Pacific Radio In his view, France’s large-scale deployment of security forces is tantamount to militarization.
“We have seen too many scams like this in the past few weeks to be fooled again,” Bhagwan said.
“We still have armed militias and we still have an increasing number of security forces on the ground. That’s militarization, whether it’s formal militarization or organized in some other way.
“We’re just calling it what it is.
“We also see the way the French government is treating the region, recognizing that this is part of maintaining its colonies in the Indo-Pacific strategy, where France is carrying out a militarization campaign.”
However, Roger Lacan strongly disagrees with this statement and says that people like Bhagavan need to get the facts straight.
She said claims that the French government was militarizing New Caledonia and surrounding areas must be corrected because “it’s not true.”
“First, the violence must stop and public order and law enforcement must be restored,” she said.
“I advise those people (civil society) to pay attention to the houses that have been burned, to listen to the people who are being harassed in their homes, to listen to the people who are afraid of violence.”
She said such comments were biased and stressed that “it needs to be strengthened”.
France’s ambassador to the Pacific said concerns that the death toll from the unrest was far higher than reported were also untrue.
She said the death toll had reached eight, with three members of the national security forces and five civilians also killed.
But some indigenous Kanaks called on Paris to investigate the death toll because they believe more young rioters may have died.
Roger Lacan wants worried parents to know that France has heard their concerns and that concerned parents can call the 24-hour hotline.
“The gendarmerie in New Caledonia knows all the families, all the tribes, in every location,” she stressed.
“It is not true that we do not have proper communication with the population at large.”
Bhagwan believes it is naive to expect the community to simply trust France, given the region’s political history.
There is an undercurrent of “intergenerational trauma,” he said, especially as the Kanaks see the French military presence on their land.
“You can understand why mothers would care about their children,” Bhagwan said. “It is naive for the French high commissioner to ignore the intergenerational trauma of the Kanak people.”
But all parties agree that “force” is not the answer to the current crisis.
“Of course, force is not the answer,” said Roger Lacan, but he added that “sometimes force must be used to restore public order… PACNEWS
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