Dozens of pro-independence activists have defied the High Commissioner’s ban on demonstrations in small groups to commemorate, flags in hand, September 24, officially Citizenship Day in New Caledonia, but above all, they believe. “Day of mourning for the Kanak people”.
The 6,000 gendarmes, police and soldiers deployed to prevent any excesses on this sensitive day let it happen. At most, they confiscated shopping carts filled with stones in front of a supermarket on the outskirts of Noumea.
In front of Saint-Louis, a stronghold of independence where two men were killed on Thursday 19 September during a gendarmerie operation, the demonstration was peaceful, as in the vast majority of the territory. At the microphone, Ephraïm Chamoinri, a teacher from the Bélep Islands, at the northern end of the archipelago, enumerated the persistent inequalities, which he said were a sign of the indelible consequences of colonisation: “Unemployment is predominantly Kanak and Oceanic, school failure is predominantly Kanak and Oceanic. Even prison is predominantly Kanak and Oceanic. This means that there are things that are not done or are done badly. And we experience this as a form of racism.”
“We were late payers”says Ysmaël Pidjot, with the flag of independence over his shoulders. They call us terrorists. And we are forbidden to celebrate September 24, which also marks the 40th anniversary of the FLNKS this year. [Front de libération kanak et socialiste]. But on July 14th it did happen, although we were in a much more complicated situation.”, believes the activist, who considers “a provocation” Loyalist demonstrations planned for the same day. “If La Marseillaise is also played, it is an insult.”
“We are French, that’s all”
At 12pm sharp on the airwaves of Radio Rythme Bleu, the Caledonians were invited to sing the national anthem in honour of the “accession of New Caledonia to France”in 1853, a term preferred by non-independence supporters who avoid colonization, to the official of “taking possession”. At the microphone, Willy Gatuhau sings a song. The former mayor of Païta, convicted of vote-buying, was promoted a few weeks ago to leader of the citizen resistance groups, non-separatist neighbourhood organisations, created at the start of the uprisings to protect themselves from possible attacks. His dams were decorated with blue, white and red flags, as were the surrounding streets.
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