Groups of pro-independence and anti-independence parties from Kanaky (New Caledonia) have their voices heard by the United Nations’ Fourth Committee on Decolonisation.
The meeting held today heard statements by representatives and petitioners on non-self-governing territories under agenda item 58, the “implementation of the declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples”.
The list of territories included American Samoa, the British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar, Guam, New Caledonia, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the US Virgin Islands and Western Sahara.
On December 2, 1986, UN General Assembly reinstated New Caledonia on the list of non-self-governing-territories.
Overview of the damage
Claude Gambey, the chief of staff to the president of the government of New Caledonia summarised the impacts of this year’s uprising, of which the small country is “gradually recovering from”.
He acknowledged the riots broke out after the announcement of electoral reform, which resulted in fear of the dilution of the Kanak population in voting terms.
The riots echoed Les Événements (the Events) of the 1984 - 1988 period where there were conflicts between the French government and Kanak independence movement, Gambey said.
Since May 11 Kanak civilians and two gendarmes died, with 3000 Kanak arrested and 120 imprisoned.
The country took a 20 per cent GDP loss estimated hit and the overall cost was $2 billion euros - half of the losses were private and half public.
Gambey said he hoped for constructive dialogue between all stakeholders for their common destiny.
France’s permanent representative, Nicolas de Rivière, said the French state had been committed to restoring the peace and provided financial aid to help restore the economy within five years.
De Rivière said there would be a visiting mission from the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate to ensure New Caledonia could find a path forward for a collective future on the basis of the Nouméa Accord. The prime minister would arrive in due time as well as Pacific Island Leaders Forum officials.
He said France had always worked hand in hand with the UN and kept it informed on the emancipation process and noted during the four referendums on self-determination, the UN didn’t say there were any irregularities.
“No other country has done as much as France,” de Rivière said
Call for justice and sovereignty
Viro Xulue, the deputy secretary-general of the Customary Senate spoke first for the pro-independence side.
“Since 1853 we’ve been considered as an inferior race whose land can be pillaged,” he said and went on to describe what his people had gone through from slavery, segregation, racism to systemic discrimination.
He said their ancestors were put in human zoos in Paris and they survived attempts at their annihilation.
While the loyalists focused on the violence of the recent riots, Xulue said before this thousands of peaceful Kanak demonstrators had been arbitrarily arrested.
“The lack of restraint in the use of force against the Kanak demonstrators but, above all, the exclusively repressive and judicial handling of a conflict whose object is the claim by an indigenous people to its right to self-determination, is not only anti-democratic but also deeply worrying for the rule of law,” UN experts said in the statement Xulue referenced.
Xulue asked that the committee recommend the occupying force to put end to its military and a new referendum on full sovereignty held. He also said the administering powers must be called upon to respect the principle of irreversibility.
Decolonisation within the French Republic?
Among the loyalist petitioners was a mixed-race Kanak-New Caledonian who said they had already voted three times against independence and expressed their will to remain French.
She said the pro-independence “radicals” shattered their vision with violence and New Caledonia would not be able to rebuild, she said, if it “wallows in lies and denies reality”.
She said the radicals’ first obstacle was family and clans that didn’t believe they could succeed and that French universalist values offered emancipation for Kanaks.
One loyalist man said they were victims of racism and hatred because they weren’t Melanesian in origin.
“Many generations of my family are Caledonian, my ancestors are of this land,” he said.
He said the radical pro-independence actions had jeopardised the future for New Caledonian children and it was only thanks to the financial support from France that the country was able to survive.
Loyalist Sonia Backè, the president of the southern province said the pro-independence groups positioned themselves as victims when they had burned down schools. Backè claimed it was a fight against anti-white racism.
“It’s difficult today to forgive those who don’t know what peace and fraternity are,” she said.
“We will defend universalism in the face of isolationism.”
Nevertheless, in July Backès called for apartheid methods as she wanted to formalise the separation of Kanaks and Europeans on the island.
Backès told the committee today it was decided decolonisation of New Caledonia was to be done within the French Republic and the committee should respect the free and democratic choice.
Colonialism eradicated, not strengthened
Following Backes, a speaker from Guadeloupe in the Caribbean argued the Kanak people had always expressed their desire to live in peace with all people. He said the French had violated democracy in their third referendum on independence as Kanaks were in mourning during the pandemic and unable to participate.
He went on to say the electoral reform was the continuation of colonisation and a “secret agenda” of making Kanak people a minority group on their own land.
He noted that it was the UN’s fourth international decade for the eradication of colonialism, which he said was a priority and prerequisite for a peaceful world for harmonious development and peaceful co-existence.
“Colonialism must be eliminated, not strengthened,” he said.
It was suggested by a petitioner that the fourth committee inquire into human rights violations. and recommend a transitional justice process that responded to human rights violations through something like political reforms or judicial redress.
He reminded the committee of the principle of irreversibility outlined in the Nouméa Accord, which defined the gradual and irreversible transfer of power from France to New Caledonia, which he said should be applied in good faith.