Pacific Churches stand with New Caledonia’s Kanaks, urge France to work towards independence
Three people have died and hundreds have been injured in recent clashes between police and pro-independence protesters in the French Overseas Territory. For the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC), “It cannot be ignored that eruption of violence is the manifestation of the pain, trauma and frustration of a community who have consistently had their indigenous and political rights undermined.”
Nouméa (AsiaNews) - “The Pacific Conference of Churches stands in deep solidarity with our sisters and brothers of Kanaky in this time of political crisis that has led to the eruptions of violence these past few days and nights,” reads a statement signed by PCC General Secretary, Rev James Bhagwan.
The press release follows recent clashes in New Caledonia, in particular the capital Noumea, where the PCC held its 12th General Assembly only six months ago. Protests broke out after the French Senate passed a bill granting people who have lived in the territory for more than 10 years the right to vote in provincial elections (scheduled for 2025), thus reducing the political weight of indigenous Kanaks, who are highly socially and economically marginalised.
“The violence that the country is currently experiencing are (sic) once again endangering the dignity of the life of every human being in the territory,” the statement reads.
The latter notes that situation is a direct consequence of the actions of the French state, which “began to squeeze tighter on the throats of the Kanak people as they continue to cry from the depths of their hears for their own experience of liberty, equity (sic) and fraternity.”
Based on reports from colleagues on the ground, “we are heading for civil war if peace is not restored quickly,” writes Rev Bhagwan to Pacific Church leaders.
So far, three people have died and hundreds have been injured, while Paris has announced that it is sending reinforcements to the gendarmerie.
Unlike in the past, clashes are taking place mainly in urban areas and the southern provinces, dominated by anti-independence political parties.
“It cannot be ignored that eruption of violence is the manifestation of the pain, trauma and frustration of a community who have consistently had their indigenous and political rights undermines,” the PCC statement says.
The French government has failed to “take responsibility for the emancipation of the Kanak people and the communities present in the territory and for its common destiny”; it has also failed to honour its pledge of “neutrality with regard to the decolonisation process”.
New Caledonia is a French Overseas Territory. Although under French sovereignty, it has its own government, but the pro-independence movement, led by the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, is seeking full independence, and has done so for years.
On 2 April, the French Senate voted to open the electoral list, which had been restricted to residents present in the territory at the time of the 1998 Nouméa Accord, “pretending to ignore one of the weapons of those who want to kill the Nouméa Accord and bury the question of full sovereignty,” the PCC statement goes on to say
So far, three independence referendums have been held (in 2018, 2020 and 2022), all won by the No camp, but, as the Conference of Churches noted, the pro-independence movement called for the vote to be postponed in 2022 “to allow the Kanak and Caledonian families bereaved by Covid 19 to mourn. The French colonial state decided to maintain the 3rd referendum consultation, which led to a call for the non-participation of the living forces in favour of independence so as not take part in the plot hatched by French colonialism.”
According to the agreement between Paris and its former colony, three referendums with a no victory would end the quest for independence, while a yes victory in a single referendum would have been enough for the creation of an independent state.
“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. And the close collaboration between the French government and the local right-wing (pro-French) is in the open”.
At the 12th PCC General Assembly held in November in the capital, the Protestant Church “proposed ‘DoKamo,” a concept that “invites us to a process of humanisation and transformation. Introducing the idea of a humanity in permanent evolution, the concept of DoKamo underlines the profound multidimensional connection of human beings with their land and the nature that makes it up and defines them, with their ancestors and their intangible heritage, with the members of their community and with others. This extraordinarily rich interconnection should lead us towards a more conscious, higher existence.
“While the concept of the human being as a permanent work in progress involves a perpetual search for being and becoming, one direction is clearly defined, that of the dignity of life.” This process presents itself as "a challenge for the people of Kanaky New Caledonia” for which it is necessary to “engage in a great palaver once again”.
The PCC therefore calls on local churches to appeal to prayer and submit a pastoral statement of solidarity to the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation.
Equally, it urges France to "honour its impartial role in the decolonisation process by immediately withdrawing the constitutional bill to unfreeze the electorate and to immediately initiate an equitable dialogue process, facilitated by a neutral third party”.
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