#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #FRANCE #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) France, UCL AL #321 - International, Kanaky: who throws the Caillou in the pond ? (ca, de, it, fr, pt)[machine translation]

 Within two months of the 3 th referendum that the French State decided to

organize on December 12, the atmosphere on the Rock is the tension between all of
the independence movement calling for its postponement in 2022 and the forces
called "loyalists"demanding its maintenance against the background of a
government position that has remained unchanged for the moment. ---- After
eighteen months of a "covid-free" situation throughout the Kanak Territory at the
cost of very strict measures accepted by all (isolation of Grande Terre and the
islands, restriction of inter-island movement and entry, compulsory fortnight ),
the delta variant of the pandemic was invited to the Territory triggering a
terrible wave of contamination with more than 250 deaths in a few weeks (which
would be equivalent to tens of thousands of deaths for hexagonal France!)
including more than 50 % concerning the Kanak community and more than 25% the
Oceanian community, against a background of fairly widespread comorbidity
(overweight, diabetes, etc.).

Macron, supporter of maintaining in France
Faced with this health disaster affecting the different populations of the
Territory very unequally, the current government led by Louis Mapou, an important
figure in the Uni-Palika trend of the FLNKS has taken measures that are both
reasoned and very strong (barrier gestures, wearing a mask , vaccination
obligation, health pass, confinement) showing the sense of responsibility on the
part of Kanak leaders, and obtaining the almost unanimous agreement of all
political currents, including those opposed to the Congress of New Caledonia.

In addition, the Melanesian and Polynesian communities in pain demonstrate
perfect obedience to the burial restrictions, including by accepting provisional
burials near Nouméa without being able to accompany their relatives to their
mound and / or island of origin, and by renouncing temporarily to respect their
customary long mourning rituals requiring the displacement of entire tribes.

This humanly results in a virtual impossibility of having the head and the energy
to organize a referendum electoral campaign; hence the unanimity of the
independence camp (all the tendencies of the FLNKS, as well as all the other
components - MNSK, PT, USTKE, Dynamic Sud - demanding a postponement of the
referendum in 2022, the deadline provided for by the Nouméa Accords being before
October 2022.

At the same time, the forces attached to the maintenance of the Territory in the
French Republic, gathered in "the Voices of the Non", are braced almost
unanimously on the date envisaged having perfectly understood that, for them, the
campaign is almost done. all by itself with an emphasis on exceptional - and real
! - that the French government is putting in place to deal with the pandemic and
its consequences (massive health reserve coming from mainland France, transfer of
patients, aid to companies and staff) proving in advance all the interest of
staying "in France" for the future.

And some of their leaders add to the need to finally "purge" the Nouméa Accords
which have only lasted too long, just like Senator Pierre Frogier, former
companion of Pierre Maresca, former pro-OAS blackfoot (today 'hui deceased), of
sinister memory at the time of the Lafleur militias, demanding more commitment
from the French State. This same Frogier is one of the proponents of a proposal
to give increased autonomy to the 3 current Provinces in the event of victory of
the No to independence as a pledge given to the separatists, while struggling to
hide the dangerous partition project that would result with a Southern Province
gathering 75% of the population of the Territory (and the largest Kanak
population too) as well as 75% of the local economy !

A new and terrible ordeal for the Kanak people
In terms of discourse, the French government is completely in its so-called
neutrality in the strict application of the Nouméa Accords of 1998. But, in fact,
insidiously, it clearly affirms itself in favor of maintaining in France ("La
France would be less beautiful without New Caledonia!", says Macron) having
produced a document on the"Consequences of Yes and No », Totally unbalanced
between the advantages of the No and the risks of the Yes. And also in the great
Indo-Pacific Axis project dear to Macron since 2017, and recently ridiculed by
the Australian choice of US nuclear submarines, New Caledonia is a centerpiece
against the backdrop of China's advance in number of newly independent Pacific
states.

And Paul Néaoutyne, signatory of the Nouméa Accords, former right-hand man of
Jean-Marie Tjibaou and president of the North Province, is right to invoke
respect for the word given because, in 2019, Edouard Philippe himself had also
made the proposal for a referendum in September 2022, after the presidential and
national legislative deadlines to avoid any interference.

Let us remember the attack on Ouvéa cave in 1988 as part of a Chirac-Mitterrand
standoff between the two presidential rounds ! But the Castex government changed
the situation, preferring to ask its overseas minister, Sébastien Lecornu, to
organize "Léprédour meetings" (named after a Caledonian islet in front of
Boulouparis, owned by the High Commission, nicknamed "Île du Haussaire"), in
isolation with selected guests rather than remaining faithful to the Committees
of regular signatories in Matignon.

Certainly it is the prerogative of the government to fix the date of the
referendum, but, for months and well before the viral wave, the independence camp
has made known its preference for 2022. Today, already 25 separatist
municipalities refuse to organize the December 12 ballot. In addition,
internationalizing the problem, the Ambassador of Papua New Guinea to the UN
solemnly comes, on behalf of the Spearhead group of South Pacific States to ask
the French government for a postponement in the name of the situation. current
exceptional sanitary conditions in the Territory.

Boycott of the referendum
Yes, the old boycotts decided by the Kanaks bring back painful moments! But each
time, did they have a choice in the face of successive betrayals of the word
given and authentically neocolonial projects? The "loyalists" have a nice game to
try to scare the evocation of these boycotts by predicting already dire tomorrow
in the event of results distorted by the Kanak non-participation, even going so
far as to ask for the application of the results of the 2 e referendum due to the
impossibility of holding the 3 rd because of the Kanaks!

So those who risk causing future unrest are those, including the French
government, who refuse to postpone the referendum to 2022, if only out of respect
for the mourning custom of the Kanak people so hard hit by the pandemic (without
forgetting all the anonymous ones, the widow of number two of the FLNKS Yéwéné
Yéwéné, assassinated in 1989 at the same time as Jean-Marie Tjibaou, died as well
as of the founders of the USTKE).

May humanity and reason take precedence over basely political calculations; it is
about the common destiny in the Country! Let us support the Kanak people, even
today in a new and terrible ordeal, in their demand for a sovereign and
independent Kanaky-New Caledonia with respect for all components of its population!

Daniel Guerrier (former co-president of the Association for information and
support for the rights of the Kanak people (AISDPK)

Daniel Guerrier co-chaired AISDPK in the 1980s with Jean Chesneaux, Jean-Jacques
de Felice and Alban Bensa, all three of whom are now deceased. Alban having left
us on October 10, the author wishes to salute his memory here.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Kanaky-qui-jette-la-caillou-dans-la-mare
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