FORMER Prime Minister Sir Francis Billy Hilly has expressed disappointment in regional leaders keeping silent over what is happening in Noumea, New Caledonia.
“Every day you turn on the TV, the rioting, burning and unrest there is worse than the day before,” Sir Francis told Solomon Star.
A state of emergency with a nationwide 6am-6pm curfew has been declared. French troops have also been flown in from Paris to help quell the situation. Local business group estimate the cost of damage to be more than USD $325 million.
Australia has used two military aircraft to evacuate it nationals caught in the continuing trouble, according to published reports. Fiji too has evacuated its own citizens using commercial flights via Brisbane.
“Why is everyone so quiet about what is happening in New Caledonia? It is the indigenous people of New Caledonia that are suffering,” Sir Francis said.
“Where is the Melanesian solidarity in all this? I am quite surprised and indeed disappointed there is complete silence by Pacific leaders on the matter. The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) should be saying something, otherwise there is no point in maintaining the bloc, whose membership includes Fiji, PNG and New Caledonia,” Sir Francis said.
New Caledonia is currently in a state of emergency, with a nationwide curfew in place between 6pm and 6am. Its international airport is closed, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Australia’s Smart Traveller website has issued “Reconsider your need to travel” advice for the territory.
People are protesting in New Caledonia because the French government wants to grant residents who have lived in the territory for at least 10 years the right to vote in provincial elections.
Some local leaders fear this will dilute the vote of the Indigenous Kanak, the ABC report said.
“The changes aren’t law yet, but French President Emmanuel Macron says an agreement must be reached by June. A local business group estimated the damage caused by the riots concentrated around Noumea at €200 million ($325m).
Voting in provincial elections is currently restricted to people who lived in New Caledonia before 1998, and their children.
“This rule was brought in under the 1998 Nouméa Accord and was aimed at giving more representation to the Kanaks.”
New Caledonia is about 1,500 kilometers east of Queensland. It takes about two hours to fly to the territory from Brisbane.
Technically, it’s a French overseas territory. So that means New Caledonians are French citizens, an Australian Department of Foreign Affairs fact sheet says,” the ABC said.
But France’s President Emmanuel Macron isn’t the president of the territory — he’s head of state and is represented in New Caledonia by a high commissioner.
New Caledonia was annexed by France in 1853 and officially became a French overseas territory in 1946. The territory does have its own president, Louis Mapou.
But the United Nations (UN) classes New Caledonia as a Non-Self-Governing Territory.
The UN defines areas in this category as “territories whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government”.
New Caledonia is one of 17 territories on the agenda of the UN’s Special Committee on Decolonization.
The territory has had three referendums to vote on its independence, with the result of all three being to remain as a French territory.
However, the result of the most recent vote, held in 2021, is contentious.
That’s because it was boycotted by pro-independence parties due to the coronavirus pandemic — with a low voter turnout of just 43.9 per cent.
To put that into context, the voter turnout in 2018 was about 81 per cent and nearly 86 per cent in 2020, the ABC said.
By Alfred Sasako
