The third and final independence referendum in the French colony of New Caledonia has descended into controversy, with Indigenous Kanak leaders and Pacific Island nations calling for a delay or boycott.
France says the vote is legitimate and can go ahead on Sunday, despite a year-long mourning period for the dead from COVID-19 and restrictions impacting campaigning.
It is the culmination of a 30-year peace process in the Pacific island territory, which is 17,000km from Paris but only 1,500km from Australia.
“Politically it’s binary, and it’s one way or the other, and how do you unify the whole country when it’s one way or the other, and that’s when it suddenly becomes an issue,” said Frederic Folliard, a New Caledonian citizen living in Brisbane.
He supports self-determination but is worried after all these years the process will fail.
New Caledonia was colonised 170 years ago and has been on the United Nations decolonisation list since 1986.
New Caledonian Frederic Folliard in Brisbane. Source: Stefan Armbruster/SBS News
Deadly clashes in the 1980s between disenfranchised Kanaks and the French resulted in the Noumea Peace Accord and referendums.
Two previous independence referenda in the last three years with a voter participation rate of about 80 per cent were both very narrowly defeated.
France brought forward the third referendum, originally due late next year, to precede French presidential elections in April, but COVID-19 restrictions in place until mid-December have severely limited campaigning.
COVID-19 finally reached New Caledonia in September this year, with a death toll of 300 predominantly Kanaks in a population of 270,000.
Now in customary mourning, the Kanaks want the vote delayed, which France has rejected.
The largely Kanak pro-independence movement has called for a voter boycott.
“If the rate of participation does not come at the same rate as the last two, this consultation is illegitimate because the Indigenous people didn’t participate,” said congresswoman Patricia Goa from the pro-independence Union Nationale Pour l’Indépendance party.
Patricia Goa from the pro-independence Union Nationale Pour l’Indépendance party. Source: Supplied
“We have to bury our dead. Everything has been postponed until next year. That’s what we have tried to explain, but it has not been taken into account.
“It’s really a matter of (French) strategy, up to now, more than ever, there was a chance of independence.”
Former president and member of the loyalist Rassemblement party, Thierry Santa, has said holding the referendum on Sunday is “the right decision” and “the health conditions are favourable”.
“It would be strange for the government to postpone. It’s good the referendum will be held on December 12, so we can move on to the next step,” he told France 24.
Under French law, voting is not compulsory and a low turnout will not invalidate the referendum.
Former New Caledonian president Thierry Santa and member of the loyalist Rassemblement party. Source: Supplied
The decision to proceed has also been criticised abroad, including by the Melanesian Spearhead Group of Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Fiji.
“The COVID-19 pandemic does not present a conducive environment for a fair, just, credible and peaceful conduct of the self-determination referendum,” Max Rai, PNG's ambassador to the UN, said in an address on behalf of the MSG in New York.
French overseas territories minister Sébastien Lecornu is due in the capital Noumea next week for post-referendum talks which pro-independence groups say they will not attend.
Paris has deployed 2,000 heavily armed police to New Caledonia after pushing ahead with the final vote.
Posters in the New Caledonian capital Noumea urging a 'no' vote in Sunday's independence referendum. Source: ABACAPRESS.COM/Thomas Decros
“It’s a very surprising, disappointing and consequential decision for France,” said Denise Fisher, a former Australian consul general in New Caledonia and fellow at the Australian National University.
She added: “It behoves us all to remember why those first peace agreements were negotiated and it would be very deleterious to not only to the stability of New Caledonia, but to the wider region, if we were to return to such a situation again”.
The referendum comes as France reasserts its presence in the Pacific in the wake of a diplomatic stoush with Australia over the cancellation of its lucrative submarine contract.
Delegations from the UN and Pacific Islands Forum will observe the referendum and report on its outcome.
