By Esra Taskin
PARIS (AA) - The youth in the French Pacific territory New Caledonia are leading a fight for “national liberation,” a unionist of the indigenous Kanak people said.
The archipelago in the Pacific has been tormented by civil unrest since May 13 when the French parliament adopted a bill to reform electoral rules, granting voting rights to French residents who have lived in the territory for 10 years.
Locals, however, are concerned that the changes will dilute the indigenous Kanak population's vote.
Vice-president of the Union of Kanak and Exploited Workers (USTKE) Rock Haocas told Anadolu that the youth in France’s overseas territory was leading a fight for “national liberation,” and the initial reason for the unrest was the approbation of the results of the third independence referendum held in 2021.
Kanaks criticized the French government for organizing the referendum amid the COVID-19 crisis and boycotted it.
“We did not have the opportunity to lead a normal campaign,” Haocas said, adding that the French state approved the referendum with 96% of yes, without the participation of the colonized population.
He stressed that the parliament’s reform plan to change the electoral body would help supporters of France and almost recolonize New Caledonia.
As per the 1998 Noumea Accord, those who came to the island after that year were not eligible to vote in the local elections to choose members of the congress.
Haocas recalled that New Caledonia was listed in the 1986 UN list as a non-self-governing territory under French administration, which also means a territory to be decolonized. “The pressure was too heavy. We need international solidarity,” he said.
Wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh around his neck, he also expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people “until Palestine is free.”