NICE, France (AP) — Members of a pro-independence movement in the French Pacific region of New Caledonia on Monday demanded the “release and immediate return” of the indigenous Kanak leader who was flown to mainland France for pretrial detention after recent deadly unrest detention .
Christian Tein, a leader of the movement known as The Field Action Coordination Unit, was flown out on Saturday night along with six other activists accused by French authorities of orchestrating the two weeks of unrest in May that killed nine people died, caused widespread destruction and led the French president Emmanuel Macron to make an emergency visit.
“We demand the release and immediate return of our brothers and sisters to face justice in their homelands,” the movement said in a statement. She condemned the arrest of the activists and their transfer to custody 17,000 kilometers away and accused Macron’s government of deploying “colonial tactics” in New Caledonia.
The Kanak people have long tried to break away from France, which first seized the Pacific archipelago in 1853 and granted citizenship to all Kanaks in 1957. The latest violence flared on May 13 in response to attempts by Macron’s government to amend and change the French constitution. voting lists in New Caledonia, which Kanaks feared would further marginalize them.
France declared a state of emergency two days later and sent in 3,500 troops to help police quell the clashes, looting and arson.
Tein and nine other pro-independence leaders were placed under house arrest when the violence began. Tein was among the pro-independence leaders who met Macron during his visit to New Caledonia last month. After the meeting, the Kanak leader appealed to protesters to “maintain all forms of resistance” to achieve the main goal of “complete independence.”
New Caledonia’s public prosecutor, Yves Dupas, said the transfer of the activists to mainland France will allow the investigation to continue “in a calm manner and without any pressure.”
The prosecutor did not name the other six activists. French media reports suggested that they would include the pro-independence group’s communications director, Brenda Wanabo, and Frédérique Muliava, chief of staff to the president of the Congress of New Caledonia.
Tein’s group called the Kanak activists arrested last week “political prisoners” and described the government’s charges against them as “intolerable, unacceptable and above all unjust and unwarranted.”
The charges the seven face include complicity to attempted murder, organized robbery with a weapon, organized destruction of private property while endangering people and participation in a criminal group with intent to plan a crime.
Tein’s group also accused French police and army troops of using “disproportionate force” against pro-independence protesters and vowed that “the Kanak people will never give up their desire for independence through peaceful means.”
Over the past seven months, the Field Action Coordination Unit in New Caledonia has organized peaceful marches against French authorities and the Paris-backed voting reform.
With France now immersed in the campaign for early parliamentary elections, Macron has suspended changes to voting rights in New Caledonia.
French Interior and Overseas Territories Minister Gérald Darmanin said last month that Tein’s party is a “small group that calls itself pro-independence, but instead commits looting, murder and violence.”
The National Council of Leaders of the Kanak Indigenous People rejected allegations that the party was involved in the deadly violence. Grand Chief Hippolyte Sinewami-Htamumu expressed full support for the group, which has mobilized more than 100,000 people “of all ages and all backgrounds” in the capital Nouméa and elsewhere.
