Information wars raging in New Caledonia

Analysis - There's been a flurry of statements, counter-statements, denials, affirmations from left, right and centre in New Caledonia where violent and deadly riots have been ongoing since 13 May with no resolution in sight.

In what increasingly looks like a struggle to garner international sympathy, New Caledonia's key players (France, local pro-independence and anti-independence parties) are also engaged in an intensifying war of communiqués.

As the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Summit starts in Nuku'alofa, this also reveals how crucial regional and international support is.

Only last week, several controversies illustrated the intensity of the communication wars.

They left local and international audiences alike puzzled and perplexed.

The aborted Forum troika fact-finding mission

Throughout last week, debate was rife in New Caledonia regarding the controversial postponement of a Pacific Islands Forum high-level mission.

It was supposed to visit the troubled French Pacific entity with the aim of getting a first-hand opinion on the ongoing insurrectional situation that has already caused eleven deaths (nine civilians and two French gendarmes), an estimated €2.2 billion in material damage, the destruction at various levels of some eight hundred businesses, close to twenty thousand job losses and a local economy described as now being on its knees.

The PIF confirmed on 21 August that the mission would not take place at the initially scheduled date (20-24 August), before the PIF leaders annual meeting this week.

The mission was supposed to be led by a "troika" of three PIF-member States heads of governments.

This was in response to an initial request from New Caledonia's government pro-independence President Louis Mapou.

"However, the New Caledonia Government has identified a number of issues regarding due process and protocol that will need to be addressed prior to a Troika visit", the PIF release read.

"In order to allow additional time to resolve the concerns of our fellow Forum Member, the Forum Troika has decided to postpone their mission until after the Forum Leaders meeting in Tonga. The situation in New Caledonia will be discussed at the Leaders meeting, which will provide further guidance on the way forward to support the situation", the release went on.

What transpired throughout last week in New Caledonia is that Mapou's U-turn on the PIF troika mission was mainly caused by differences with France, New Caledonia's administering power, on how to go about in terms of protocol to prepare for and welcome the PIF mission.

Especially, since New Caledonia and France are supposed to "share" powers in terms of international relations.

Mapou was said to have decided to withdraw his invitation to the Forum because Paris wanted to have a say in what the expected outcomes of the troika mission would have been.

The French stance was that it expected the troika mission to issue a statement mainly condemning the violence in New Caledonia since the unrest began in May.

A few days earlier, on Saturday 17 August, French President Emmanuel Macron said in yet another release that he had spoken to Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and that France remained open to the notion of the troika fact-finding visit, for the sake of maintaining dialogue.

War of words between pro-independence factions

On matters related to the unrest and riots, within the pro-independence camp, another serious and open war of words has just erupted between the PALIKA and more radical members of the pro-independence movement.

Since late 2023, with a backdrop of a growing rift between the radical components of the movement's umbrella (mostly the Union Calédonienne, UC), the FLNKS, and its more moderate parties (such as the PALIKA [Kanak Liberation Party] and the UPM [Union Progressiste en Mélanésie], many releases have been sent internationally and for some of those, have used the official Kanaky FLNKS flag to induce confusion.

The radical UC, at the time, also revived its CCAT (field action coordination cell) which later on presented itself as the instrument of mobilisation for demonstrations which eventually degenerated into riots mid-May.

Rare words from Néaoutyine

In a rare release on 24 August, a prominent figure of the pro-independence movement, New Caledonia's Northern Province President Paul Néaoutyine, lashed out and for the first time, was openly critical towards the CCAT.

Néaoutyine is also the Mayor of Poindimié and the leader of moderate pro-independence PALIKA party.

In a release, the CCAT was calling on the population of Poindimié to demonstrate on 26 August in homage to a young Kanak who died in Thio on 15 August as a result of clashes between rioters and French security forces.

"The death of this young man is the responsibility of the local CCAT cells concerned and their order-givers who are covering themselves with the Kanaky flag and are using the FLNKS logo as part of a 'strategy of chaos' decided by only one component of the FLNKS", the pro-independence leader wrote.

"I denounce this operation that was decided unilaterally, against the aspirations of our population and I urge the (French) State services to clear any blockade that may be erected to allow freedom of circulation, including for school transport", he added.

The confrontation comes as part of growing tensions between the pro-independence's radical (mainly UC) and moderates (PALIKA, UPM).

It also comes amidst fresh attempts to hold a FLNKS Congress scheduled to take place starting on 31 August.

In what is increasingly regarded as a takeover attempt, Union Calédonienne said last week, during a press conference, that it intended to have CCAT officially made part of the pro-independence umbrella and that the CCAT leader Christian Théin (currently jailed in mainland France as part of an ongoing investigation for alleged charges of criminal conspiracy) should be the next President of FLNKS.

An earlier attempt to hold an all-FLNKS Congress, in June, was aborted after some two hundred CCAT militants turned up, waiting on the road to be allowed in the debates.

It was resolved at the time that the crucial meeting should be postponed for security reasons.

Pro-France side 'neglected' international communication

In terms of communication, the pro-France parties (loyalists, as they are called locally) openly admit that this area has most often been neglected, especially on the international level.

"I myself am very keen on the international side of things, but I find it's something that that we, the non-independence parties, have neglected", New Caledonia's MP in the French National Assembly Nicolas Metzdorf told pro-France Radio Rythme Bleu on Friday.

"Probably because we are not pro-independence and that we see ourselves as French and therefore we communicate with France.

"But this means in fact that we have left the international communication field to the pro-independence side. So we have to catch up, especially when we can rely on regional allies", he said.

Metzdorf quoted such countries as "Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, not forgetting the United States".

"Basically all the countries that defend democracy. And so we too have to call upon them so they can support us in the international fora", the MP said.

The UN release controversy

On another series of controversial tit-for-tat statements published throughout last week, the war of communiqués was also rife: it started when a release was published on the United Nations office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) website.

The text, titled "UN experts alarmed by situation of Kanak Indigenous Peoples in the Non-Self-Governing Territory of New Caledonia", was authored by four Special Rapporteurs linked to the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council.

"Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent of any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity", the UN clarifies.

In this document, the four experts allege that the French Parliament voting a bill on 14 May 2024 "dismantles one of the cornerstones of the Nouméa Accord by unfreezing the electoral body in New Caledonia, a Non-Self-Governing Territory under French administration in the South Pacific".

The authors further write that "In the absence of dialogue, a violent conflict has been raging since May 2024. The French government deployed military means and excessive use of force, which led to several deaths among the Kanaks, 169 injured, 2235 arrests, including hundreds of arbitrary arrests and detentions, and more than 500 victims of enforced disappearance."

"We are particularly concerned by allegations concerning the existence of heavily armed militias of settlers opposed to independence," the experts said.

"The fact that no measures have been taken by authorities to disband and prosecute these militias raises serious rule of law concerns."

But reaction was swift in New Caledonia, where the French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, French Ambassador for the Pacific Véronique Roger-Lacan and several pro-France parties have in turn issued releases denouncing several inaccuracies contained in the UN document.

Le Franc said last week the document contained "grave allegations that are factually inaccurate and are calling for numerous and serious questioning regarding their basis".

He said on the New Caledonian crisis, "France's priority is on the complete cessation of violence, dialogue between the parties on New Caledonia's shared future within the framework of the Nouméa Accord and reconstructing public and private infrastructure".

Roger-Lacan also retorted in similar terms, saying France was "fully cooperating with the United Nations about New Caledonia as part of the UN General Assembly and Committee on Decolonisation".

The two main "loyalist" (pro-France and therefore anti-independence) parties, Les Loyalistes and Le Rassemblement-LR, in another release, are denouncing a "serious political mistake".

In a relatively new effort to communicate beyond New Caledonia, their release, on August 21, also came with an English language version.

The release accused the "experts" of "political activism" and affirmed that the CCAT, on May 13, "staged a coup d'Etat".

Asked what his take was on the controversial release, Loyalist Metzdorf, alleged the pro-independence movement "have found a few friends, they have prepared a communiqué for them and the others signed it".

"Once again, it shows we are a little bit behind on international matters. So we'll have to catch up".

"Maybe we too should appoint a few people in charge of international issues, international lobbyists if you will, who would do this type of job", he suggested.

'Martyr' document becomes 'Marty project'

Local media, including NC la 1ère, were also swift to point out what seems to be an awkward reference by the experts to a mysterious "Marty Project".

This seemed to make reference to French minister for home affairs and overseas Gérald Darmanin at one stage putting on the table a draft document, so as to provide a basis for discussion among all political stakeholders.

Darmanin, at the time, dubbed this draft a "martyr" document because, in his own words, it had no other purpose than being "martyrised" and amended by politicians and finally incite everyone to take part in talks on New Caledonia's political future.

On the pro-independence side, the release is regarded as "a confirmation of what we have been denouncing for months", a Union Calédonienne-FLNKS and Nationalists communiqué read.

The FLNKS umbrella's political bureau also reacted, saying it wished to "thank the four UN special rapporteurs...who have denounced and alerted the world on the French State's colonial practises against our population".