NICE, France (AP) — Members of a pro-independence movement in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia on Monday demanded the “release and immediate return” of Kanak indigenous leader who was flown to mainland France for pre-trial detention following recent deadly riots.
Christian Teinleader of the movement known as the Field Action Coordination Unit, was transported overnight on Saturday, along with six other activists who French authorities accuse of orchestrating the attack. two weeks of turmoil in May, which left nine dead, caused widespread destruction and led to the French President Emmanuel Macron to make an emergency visit.
“We demand the release and immediate return of our brothers and sisters to face trial in their homeland,” the movement said in a statement. He condemned the arrest of the activists and their transfer into custody 17,000 kilometers (10,500 miles) away and accused Macron’s government of implementing “colonial tactics” in New Caledonia.
The Kanak people have long sought freedom from France, which first seized the Pacific archipelago in 1853 and granted citizenship to all Kanaks in 1957. The latest violence exploded on May 13 in response to attempts by Macron’s government to amend the French Constitution and change voting lists in New Caledonia, which the Kanaks feared would further marginalize them.
France declared a state of emergency two days later, sending 3,500 soldiers to help police quell 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 called on protesters to “maintain all (forms) of resistance” to achieve the main objective of “total independence”.
New Caledonia’s public prosecutor, Yves Dupas, said the transfer of the activists to mainland France will allow the investigation to continue “calmly and without any pressure”.
The prosecutor did not identify the other six activists. Reports in French media suggested they included the pro-independence group’s communications director, Brenda Wanabo, and Frédérique Muliava, chief of staff to the president of the New Caledonian Congress.
Tein’s group called the Kanak activists who were arrested last week “political prisoners” and described the government’s charges against them as “intolerable, unacceptable and above all unfair and unjustified”.
The charges the seven face include complicity in attempted murder, organized robbery with a weapon, organized destruction of private property endangering people and participation in a criminal group with the intent to plan a crime.
Tein’s group also accused French police and army troops of using “disproportionate force” against pro-independence protesters and promised 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 has organized peaceful marches in New Caledonia against French authorities and electoral reform supported by Paris.
With France now immersed in the campaign for early legislative electionsMacron suspended changes to voting rights in New Caledonia.
French Interior and Overseas Territories Minister Gérald Darmanin said last month that Tein’s party was a “small group that calls itself pro-independence but instead commits looting, murder and violence.”
The National Council of Chiefs 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 mobilized more than 100,000 people “of all ages and all backgrounds” in the capital, Nouméa, and elsewhere.
