France says will quell New Caledonia riots 'whatever the cost' • FRANCE 24 English

I want to bring in Dave Chappelle David Chappelle is a professor of Pacific history the University of Hawaii also author of The canak Awakening the rise of nationalism in new calonia good to talk to you David let's start because a lot of France 24 viewers you we've seen a week of violence reports of what's been going on but actually just a step back Sunday evening so those trying to understand the situation from roote to fruit get a sense of it and you're the perfect person to talk to here just try to give us if you can in brief it's a challenge a potted history of of New Caledonia how it became a a colony and how we got to this point thank you for asking I think that's what's needed as a part of History to understand the current situation which is tragic I agree France annexed New Caledonia in 1853 by decree of Napoleon III and for about a hundred years it was uh rather brutal form of colonialism that was practiced there uh defeating kanak revolts uh taking their lands away confining them on reserve they had no civil rights and then that changed dramatically in 1946 when France gave the canu the right to vote and citizenship and they engaged in electoral politics and they supported a multi-racial progressive party which were actually a achieved autonomy in 1957 so it looked like a model of decolonization and then suddenly when President Charles deal came to power in 1958 he reversed that whole process uh he started taking away the uh self-governing powers of the territory and he also encouraged new immigration into new calonia about 25,000 people came in changing the political scene and making the kanaka minority he did that because of his vision of a greater France nickel was an essential uh resource he felt and there was a nickel boom going on because of the American war in Vietnam um he also started nuclear testing in French Polynesia but these things were done without the consent of any of the indigenous peoples in the Pacific and there's been resentment about that ever since especially having their autonomy taken away once in the 1960s and so we we go from the and let's take us to what they call Leo of the the80s violence those seeking more autonomy Independence the French settlers as well involved uh the clash between the two police as well and then we go to a key moment 1998 a key treaty agreement in which basically stopped the election rights of the French after that period so that the voice of the kxs the indigenous people there wouldn't be diluted eclipsed by those continuing to come the settlers over the decades and it seemed to quell the violence but I guess the issue was that treaty expired and then brings it up to these events of this week yes very good yeah well the taking away of autonomy caused the Nationalist movement and by the 1980s that erupted in a civil war uh trying to push uh kanak Independence because the kanak felt they were being marginalized in their own country so recently uh since the 1998 Numa Accord a kind of peace treaty after the events and it promised an ongoing process of decolonization it restored a kind of autonomy to the territory and it also protected uh The kanak Voice shall we say by restricting uh voting rights to long-term residents in provincial elections now uh some people regard the Numa Court as being void but it isn't because the final provision in the Numa court is even after Independence referendums whatever the result people needed to sit down and negotiate a new Arrangement and that is what has not happened so in general terms you have a number of large number of I think it's about four just over 40% isn't it of indigenous canak a minor minority that's sort of continued to e away about 24 25% of French settlers and a lot of those looking either towards independence or believing that they autonomy is ebbing away and meanwhile just listening to some of the French voices settlers saying that they feel like I heard one particular 27y old saying I feel like I live in a house I have to live in the bedroom cuz I haven't got the right to anywhere else within this particular property so their frustration coming out and if you look at this week the French government saying that those who've been there for 10 years or more French people in uh new calonia have the right to vote I just wonder there's a lot of there's a lot of triggers here aren't there you also got the geopolitics of nickel as you mentioned uh and aaban being accused of being involved in trying to meddle and and meet with the independence movement where do you how do you read the situation now and where do you see this going well uh the French authorities have accused this the young people committing the violence to be um ordered by a mafia to do so which isn't true at all and although the kanak attended a conference an anticolonial conference in um aeran last July with a variety of other Independence parties including Tahiti and they're not having this trouble I think that's another incorrect assumption that this is asan's doing this is strictly a canak thing in new calonia that's happening they're frustrated because the current government in Paris has been unwilling to get everyone to sit down and negotiate an outcome to the Numa Accord and they jumped the gun you might say the French did by introducing this 10 years of residence change in the voting situation without any other surrounding uh negotiation or discussion of further processes that would reassure the kanak that they would still have a voice in the country and so the young people say that they're doing this as a revolt against recolonization which in my view is the second time since uh the 1960s the French government talks about how it's part of the 1998 treaty there were three referenda and each time they voted to stay within France be part of an an overseas territory I wonder your time spent in new calonia whether you have where your sympathies lie at right now and you know how how to explain that to to an outside audience of the complexities of of where that both the canak and the French settlers go from here to resolve this it's difficult to explain except I think the word conundrum might be applied because you have a situation where the largest single ethnic group in the country is kanak and the Europeans are second and then you have Polynesians especially from Wallace and funa and French Polynesia and they have been siding with the kanak and the government on social and economic issues but not the independence issue so it is a complex situation it's a very delicate balance between all of these groups and personally my heart is with the kanak but I don't approve of all of the riots and destruction that that have been going on I think it's unfortunate that they felt they were pushed to that as they say to put more pressure on France to negotiate as they've been asking I think one thing as well just briefly with you David but it's interesting to hear your thought on this just the prevalence of Weaponry we're hearing about just the armed groups shootings particularly in the north of the the main island as well just what's your understanding of just how that has become such a prevalence of of Weaponry in new calonia well it's really surprising to me in a way uh back in the events of the 1980s the kanak were heavily outgunned by settlers as well as the French uh military and police so the largest number of killings were kanak about 70 of them were killed in those events this time I've heard that there are places in mostly kanak towns where there is a lot of gun sales going on as well as in newa so the number of Guns is now estimated to be about one for every four people in the country and that's a really dangerous and tragic situation David Chapelle great to talk to you thank you for coming on front 24 to explain particularly about the the difficult and very concise poted history you managed to to do as well that's Dave Chappelle professor in Hawaii good to talk to you

Channel: FRANCE 24 English

Views: 19,595

Keywords: France, New Caledonia, Reform, constitution, danger, elections, france, france 24, minority, new caledonia, protest, reform, riots, unrest, violence, vote

Id: WT0ZQqB6-vg

Length: 9min 38sec (578 seconds)

Published: Sun May 19 2024