Latest news with #civilUnrest
RNZ News
9 hours ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
French court postpones release of Kanak leader following appeal
Christian Téin Photo: LNC A Parisian appellate court has delayed the release of New Caledonia's Kanak pro-independence leader, Christian Téin, from custody following an appeal by prosecutors. Téin, 57, is the head of a Field Action Coordinating Cell (CCAT), a group created late 2023 by New Caledonia's largest and oldest pro-independence party Union Calédonienne. From October 2023 onward, the CCAT organised a series of marches and demonstrations that later degenerated (starting 13 May 2024) into months of civil unrest, arson and looting, causing 14 dead and an estimated €2.2 billion in material damage, mainly in the Greater Nouméa area. Since his arrest in June 2024 and his transfer (with others) by plane from New Caledonia to mainland France, Téin has been jailed in Mulhouse (north-eastern France). Late August 2024, Téin, from his Mulhouse jail, was also nominated, in absentia, president of the pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), of which the Union Calédonienne party is a dominant member. In January 2025, the case, initially investigated out of Nouméa, was removed from the former investigating judges in Nouméa and transferred to a panel of three Paris judges. Téin's lawyers said they welcomed the "new approach" by the Paris judges. In a ruling last week, three magistrates found that following Téin's latest hearing, on 27 May 2025, found no sufficient grounds to keep him in custody. They decided that the Kanak leader should be released from jail, but that he should be kept under judicial supervision and prevented from returning to New Caledonia or interfering with persons related to the case. In response, the prosecution immediately appealed the ruling. The Parisian Appellate Court will now hear the case on 12 June. Nicolas Metzdorf Photo: LNC Reacting to the latest ruling to postpone hearings until 12 June, one prominent and anti-independence leader in New Caledonia, Nicolas Metzdorf (who is also an MP for New Caledonia at the French National Assembly), said he was concerned that Téin's "untimely" release could "upset the balances" of political talks currently underway to find a consensus between all political parties regarding New Caledonia's future. "I think what we need above all is serenity, calm and people who are willing to build," Metzdorf told public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie La Première on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron Photo: AFP / POOL / JEANNE ACCORSINI The talks between all New Caledonia's political groupings, both pro-France and pro-independence, resumed early 2025, fostered by French minister for overseas Emmanuel Valls. Even though Valls managed to bring back all sides to the same political table, the talks once again stalled on 8 May, after an attempted "conclave" in New Caledonia. This was mainly because prominent anti-independence parties strongly objected to Valls' proposal to introduce a "sovereignty with France", including the transfer of key powers from Paris to Nouméa, a dual Kanak/French citizenship and an international standing. Since then, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced his intention to convene all parties once again, this time in Paris in early July, for fresh talks. On 30 May, one of the pro-independence leaders who was also transferred to France last year, could return home to New Caledonia. Frédérique Muliava , a former Congress staffer, was part of a group of six who were charged in relation to the May 2024 riots. Under her new judicial requirements, set out by the judge in charge of the case, Muliava, once she returns to New Caledonia, is allowed to return to work, but is not to make any contact with other individuals related to her case and not to take part in any public demonstration.
ABC News
13-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
New Caledonians stockpile firearms as gun culture takes 'distressing' turn amid tensions
When hunter Murray Thomas ventured to New Caledonia more than 40 years ago, it was not sun, sea and sand in his sights. "New Caledonia traditionally grows the biggest rusa deer in the world, so the antlers are well sought after," he said. It was the first of many trips to the French territory for Mr Thomas, who spent 37 years leading guided hunting tours through New Caledonia's rural terrain. He felt at home among Indigenous Kanak people, who like him, loved to hunt and used it to make a living. But in recent decades, the much-beloved pastime has had an unintended consequence. Firearms have multiplied quickly, with some estimates placing New Caledonia second to the US in gun ownership per household. Experts have long feared the oversupply was not being driven just by hunting, but by civil unrest between Indigenous Kanak people seeking independence from France, and New Caledonians of European descent. The fears grew urgent a year ago when deadly riots, sparked by voting reforms, claimed 13 lives and caused about 13,000 people to flee the territory. Guns have long been a way of life in New Caledonia. Wild rusa deer are an easy source of venison, and they need to be culled regularly to preserve native plants and vegetation. However, since firearm reforms more than a decade ago, many New Caledonians have been stockpiling hunting rifles and shotguns. Restrictions were lifted in 2011, letting people purchase an unlimited number of weapons to make hunting easier. Sales tripled. According to 2022 data from the High Commission of New Caledonia, there were 64,000 registered privately-owned weapons and somewhere between 64,000 and 128,000 additional unregistered weapons. A 2016 study from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime cited similar figures, showing there could be as many as between 100,000 and 150,000 privately-owned guns in the territory. That works out to be an average rate of 48 per 100 people, and makes New Caledonia the most armed place in the Pacific by a country mile. Figures by comparison showed Papua New Guinea only contained 71,000 firearms — a modest sum considering its population of about 10 million. In a 2013 petition to the French government, the Caledonia-based think tank Centre for a Common Destiny said: "If New Caledonia were a sovereign state, it would be the second most armed country in the world behind the US." More worryingly, the 2016 study cites anecdotal reports which attribute the stockpiling to concerns over civil unrest. Patrick Laubreaux witnessed as much during last year's deadly riots in Noumea, where gunshots could be heard just outside his home. Mr Laubreaux is a lawyer who lives just outside the capital Nouméa. Having hunted in his younger years, he knows a hunting rifle when he sees one. However, he said some of the weapons being used in New Caledonia's riots last year were not designed to hunt animals. "They were specially prepared for this sort of activity and that is distressing," he told the ABC. According to Anna Powles, a senior lecturer at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at New Zealand's Massey University, the threat of conflict has been one of the key drivers of gun ownership in New Caledonia. "Weapons certainly contributed to the violence in 2024 and were responsible for a number of deaths," she said. Historical accounts also suggest stockpiling has occurred in Indigenous and non-Indigenous sections of the community. Adrian Muckle, a senior lecturer and New Caledonia historian at Victoria University of Wellington, said large rates of stockpiling took place among French descendant communities in urban areas during the civil war period in the 1980s. "Some of the worst acts of violence during that period involved the use of weapons by descendants of French settlers against Kanak people," he said. A 2021 survey from the Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies of New Caledonia backs up that claim, saying concerns about safety and political insecurity were highest in Nouméa, where non-Kanak residents made up the majority of the population. "We saw during the insurrection last year that it was a urban phenomenon," Mr Muckle said. "I think that fear exists on both sides but it is especially evident in the settler communities." Meanwhile the French government, which holds overarching authority over firearms legislation in New Caledonia, has not been able to put a lid on the issue. New Caledonia's local administration also plays a role in firearm regulation, according to Adjunct Associate Professor Philip Alpers, a gun expert from the University of Sydney. The ABC approached the New Caledonian government for comment. This week marks 12 months since the riots began after voting reforms were proposed aiming to give voting rights to French settlers who had lived in New Caledonia for 10 years. The reforms angered pro-independence groups, fearing they would dilute the votes of Kanaks who made up about 40 per cent of the population. Reforms were later suspended, but the damage had been done, with president of the New Caledonia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, David Guyenne, saying economic conditions one year on from the riots were worse than during the COVID-19 pandemic. "We lost 12,000 jobs and 13,000 people left the country, so the economic system is shaken in every part of its model," he said. Among the hundreds of businesses lost was Mr Guyenne's shopping centre, which was burnt down on the second day of the riots. Like many business owners, he is still waiting for insurance to fund a rebuild. "We are trying to change that mindset because we cannot stay in this state forever." However, the road to a crucial new agreement between pro-independence and anti-independence parties remains unclear. Last week, formal negotiations to forge a new political agreement around New Caledonia's future fell apart. France's Overseas Minister Manuel Valls had been holding preliminary roundtable talks with pro- and anti-dependence groups since February, but said no agreement could be reached. The issue of electoral reforms remains unresolved. With another local election set for November, Mr Muckle said the political and social conditions that sparked the riots 12 months ago remained. "The level of insecurity and instability is probably as high as ever and there's some big question marks not over what happens over the next few months," he said.
