(17 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris – 16 May 2024
1. Various of gathering at Republique square supporting Kanak protests
2. Close of New Caledonia (Kanaky in Kanak) flag
3. SOUNDBITE (French) Rock Haocas, Leader of USTKE Union of Kanak workers:
“We’re part of various structures and our elders are holding talks locally, so we wish for the situation to calm down, of course, and to see the French government make a strong political statement rather than send troops. That’s not something that will get talks back on track. Starting a conversation would be a strong political statement. Sending the army to another country is not usually to hold talks.”
4. Various of protesters holding New Caledonia (Kanaky in Kanak) flag
STORYLINE:
Leaders of a Kanak Workers Union in Paris appealed for calm and said they were deeply saddened by deaths in their faraway homeland as violence raged across New Caledonia for the third consecutive day Thursday.
France has imposed a state of emergency in the French Pacific territory, boosting security forces’ powers to quell unrest in the archipelago that has long sought independence.
French authorities in New Caledonia and the interior ministry in Paris said five people, including two police officers, were killed after protests over voting reforms pushed by President Emmanuel Macron’s government turned deadly.
At least 60 members of the security forces were injured and 214 people were arrested over clashes with police, arson and looting Thursday, the territory’s top French official, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, said.
He said that in addition to 1,700 security forces troops that have already been deployed to help police, 1,000 more are on the way.
Two members of the island’s Indigenous Kanak community were among the five dead, French Interior and Overseas Territories Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
He said 10 people, all allegedly from the pro-independence movement known as The Field Acton Coordination Unit, were under house arrest.
In April, the group had backed several protests against French authorities on the island.
Leaders of a Kanak Workers Union in Paris appealed for calm and said they were deeply saddened by deaths in their faraway homeland.
“We wish to see the French government make a strong political statement rather than send troops,” Rock Haocas, leader of USTKE Union of Kanak workers, said. “Starting a conversation would be a strong political statement."
New Caledonia became French in 1853 under Emperor Napoleon III, Napoleon’s nephew and heir. It became an overseas territory after World War II, with French citizenship granted to all Kanaks in 1957.
A peace deal between rival factions was reached in 1988. A decade later, France promised to grant New Caledonia political power and broad autonomy, and hold up to three successive referendums on the island’s future.
The referendums were organized between 2018 to 2021 and a majority of voters chose to have New Caledonia remain part of France, instead of backing independence.
The pro-independence Kanak people rejected the results of the last, 2021 referendum, which they had boycotted because it was held at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
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