New Caledonia's symbolic date passes largely peacefully

Analysis - In an atmosphere of uneasy calm, the highly symbolic day of 24 September was marked by events throughout New Caledonia.

Initially, 24 September was the day when, in 1853, France "took possession" of New Caledonia.

From the pro-independence side's point of view, the day has, for many years, been referred to as "a day of mourning".

More recently, in 2004, local government member Déwé Gorodey re-named the day "Citizenship Day", in an attempt to foster more inclusiveness between indigenous Kanaks and the many other communities (European, Vietnamese, Indonesians, Algerians, Japanese, and others, for the sake of a "common destiny" and "shared future").

But in the face of ongoing riots that broke out on 13 May, following protests against a controversial Constitutional Bill to modify the rules of eligibility at local elections, the sense of togetherness and "common destiny" seemed more elusive than ever.

"Day of mourning" against "celebration of the attachment to France", on Tuesday, translated very clearly into mostly separate events - and all this under very strict curfew and high security conditions maintained by a contingent of some 6000 police, gendarmes and firemen stationed around the French Pacific territory.

'Show their colours'

For the pro-independence side, parties had been calling on sympathisers to "show their colours" with flags and small meetings (even though all meetings and gatherings had been prohibited in the capital Nouméa and its outskirts).

In those places, pro-independence Kanaky flags were there and raised in numbers.

In the rural towns of Thio and on Lifou island (north-east of the main island), there were marches and commemorations with several hundred people in a peaceful atmosphere, local media reported.

Many of the pro-independence events were coordinated by local antennas of the CCAT (Field Actions Coordinating Cell), an entity established in 2023 by the radical Union Calédonienne party.

The CCAT, since last year, also organised marches.

The protests, initially peaceful, degenerated and culminated in the 13 May riots that have caused the death of 13 people in total (two gendarmes and eleven civilians), the burning and looting of over 800 businesses, an estimated 20,000 job losses and a total of some €2.2 billion Euros in material damage.

For the pro-France side, the call was also to show their colours, the French flag, "on balconies, on gates, on cars".

The pro-French call was followed by many and in some areas of Nouméa, the French tricolour was raised in memory of the French arrival, 171 years ago, the "day of our attachment to France".

There were also calls from both sides for their respective supporters to mark the event in music.

On the pro-French side, one of the most noticeable initiatives came from the coordinator of a federation of "neighbourhood vigilant groups" (recently renamed "Federation of Citizen Resistance Committees or CRC), the former mayor of Païta (near Nouméa) Willy Gatuhau.

With the support of pro-French Radio Rythme Bleu, he called on listeners to join him in a "communion" on Wednesday at midday, by singing the French anthem during a broadcast of the "Marseillaise".

He also called on anyone, "wherever they are at that time", to join in the singing, as he also did live.

In a clearly tense situation, the lyrics of the French national anthem sounded slightly surreal, as they have always been perceived as very violent and an open call to take arms.

Gatuhau said the idea of a French anthem broadcast came because all meetings were banned.

He denied any intention to provoke anyone.

"This is only to remind everyone that a majority of New Caledonians do not approve what's been happening since the 13 May (riots)," he said.

"We are clearly now in resistance... If I had a message to those on the other side, it would be to say that 'we are here, we exist, you're not the only ones'," he told pro-France radio RRB on Monday.

"We are a collective but I want to insist: we're not a militia."

Minor incidents reported

On the ground, in Nouméa and other parts of New Caledonia, several bushfires and urban blazes broke out over the past three days, but were swiftly extinguished by the massive numbers of security forces, including fire brigades.

Security forces have not reported any riot or unrest.

Since 21 September, stricter rules had been maintained for the whole of New Caledonia, including a ban of the possession, sale or transportation of guns, ammunition and alcohol and a tighter 6am-6pm curfew.

Those conditions are to be reviewed, maintained or relaxed on Wednesday, the French High Commission said.

The 24 September commemorations come five days after a French security force nightly intervention in the village of Saint Louis (near Nouméa) resulted in the death of two young Kanaks, who were shot by French forces who said they were retaliating after being targeted by gunshots.

The deaths have since fuelled more tension and anger in Saint Louis, and more widely in the indigenous Kanak community.

Rare harmonious atmosphere in Poindimié

One of the rare exceptions to this conflictual pattern was the small rural town of Poindimié (on the east cost of the main island), home to one of the pro-independence movement's most senior figures, Paul Néaoutyine, who also leads the moderate PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party).

There, the day was marked by events and celebrations focusing on sharing cultural values between indigenous Kanaks and the other communities, in the spirit of the 1998 autonomy-loaded Nouméa Accord and its key notion of "shared destiny".

To celebrate Citizenship Day, there was sharing of traditional food, including the famous "bougna" (meat and root crops wrapped in banana leaves, cooked in hot stones), cultural workshops, and French petanque tournaments, to "reassure" the population, local authorities told public broadcaster NC la 1ère.

Declaration of sovereignty

As for what shape the 24 September could take, a recurrent and omnipresent topic in New Caledonia for the past few weeks has been focused on thinly-veiled threats from Union Calédonienne leaders that the day would be marked by a pro-independence political "unilateral" declaration of sovereignty.

It did eventuate, but not from political parties.

It was the newly-created Great Council of Chiefs, the Inaat ne Kanaky, led by a former member of the Customary Senate, which chose the island of Maré (Loyalty Islands group, off the main island) to officially proclaim their respective clans' sovereignty on the whole of New Caledonia archipelago.

During a three-day "assembly of the Kanak people" held at the small village of Gureshaba-La Roche, a large gathering of traditional chiefs had also invited figures from the UN, France, New Caledonia, Fiji, New Zealand (Maori) and Vanuatu.

The main purpose of the peaceful meeting was to put in place an "autonomy of governance on Kanak identity affairs", as well as support to the indigenous Kanak people emancipation, and a future role of traditional leaders in future talks on New Caledonia's political and institutional future.

The call relied on the notion that when France "took possession" of New Caledonia, the only organised structure they met was the chiefly architecture of Kanak society.

The call was also referring to the 24 September 1853 which, the text says, marked the beginning of a long period of "denial" and ignorance" of the chiefs' role.

As to how this "governance autonomy" is supposed to become real, organisers, including former Customary Senate member Hippolyte Sinewami, said workshops were being held this week to discuss the matter.

Sinewami recently resigned from the chiefly Senate, openly criticising its lack of action on indigenous issues.

The Great Council of Chiefs Sinewami has since set up is regarded as a direct challenge to the chiefly Senate.

40th anniversary of FLNKS

Yet another meaning of this 24 September date was the 40th anniversary of the pro-independence umbrella, the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), which was born at the height of a quasi civil war in New Caledonia during the second half of the 1980s.

The first FLNKS leader was charismatic figure Jean-Marie Tjibaou, who signed in 1988 a political deal (the Matignon-Oudinot Accords) with French Prime minister Michel Rocard and pro-France RPCR leader Jacques Lafleur, to end the half-a-decade-long unrest that had claimed almost 100 deaths.

The Accords paved the way for more autonomy for New Caledonia and were followed by a new pact, the Nouméa Accord, in 1998.

In the meantime, in 1989, Tjibaou was assassinated by a radical pro-independence militant.

Over the past 23 years, however, rifts have surfaced within the pro-independence umbrella, whose members, some radical (Union Calédonienne or UC), some moderate parties (PALIKA and UPM) have held diverging views on how to achieve independence.

In recent months, especially since 2023, UC's creation of its CCAT - and the recent FLNKS Congress at the end of August 2024 that opened the door to new components such as CCAT, Labour party, USTKE union and others - triggered a non-attendance from PALIKA and UPM.

Both moderate parties have since clarified that they would not take part in the umbrella's new format until they hold their own congress and take a more definitive stance.

They have also made it clear that in the meantime, any decision taken by a meeting under the FLNKS label would in no way commit them.