Page 39 - November 2021 IB FINAL

New Caledonia New Caledonia

post after public outcry from women’s groups, political lead- “In my opinion, all this reflects the desire to show off
ers and churches in Noumea. His successor is Gendarmerie French power,” he said. “Maybe they need this show to indi-
Colonel Fabrice Spinetti. cate that France is not small, but a great power in the Indo-
Pacific. Maybe they’re sending a message to Australia and New
Police and military deploy Zealand, that even if you don’t want to buy our submarines,
On 16 October, 250 new gendarmes arrived in New Cale- we still have a role and the Indo-Pacific axis promoted by
donia, the first unit of a contingent of 1,400 gendarmerie President Macron will be maintained.”
personnel to be deployed before December. These new forces
include 100 police specialists and 15 squadrons of mobile Kanak memories of violence
gendarmes, amounting to 1,100 officers, supported by a small As the FLNKS launched an active boycott of 1984 elections,
contingent of military personnel on attachment to the police. there were widespread clashes between independence activ-
Paris will dispatch 130 vehicles, including 30 armoured cars, ists, armed settlers and French police. During this troubled
to support this deployment. era, known as Les évènements (the troubles), France de-
At a press conference on 22 October, Colonel Spinetti said ployed elite tactical units like the Groupe d’intervention de
the objective of this build-up was “to maintain a reinforced la Gendarmerie nationale (GIGN). Police sharpshooters from
security deployment around the polling booths, in order to the GIGN shot and killed Kanak independence leader Eloi
ensure the smooth running of the voting operations and to Machoro in 1985.
limit as much as possible and breaches of public order before, After the election of French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac
during and after the vote.” in 1986, his new government deployed troops and police to
New Caledonia’s referendum is largely invisible in the inter- every island and most villages, in a program dubbed ‘nomadi-
national media. But echoing US paranoia about foreign inter- sation.’ Chirac’s provocative policy led to clashes during an
ference in elections, France will mobilise a specialist cyber- FLNKS boycott of the 1987 referendum on a new political sta-
unit “to monitor false information from foreign countries that tus. The use of commandos and elite police during the Ouvea
could destabilise the electoral process.” Dubbed Operation hostage crisis of May 1988 left two soldiers and 19 indepen-
Viginum, the New Caledonia referendum will be used as a trial dence activists dead.
run for this 70-strong cyber unit, based with the Secrétariat For Victor Tutugoro, president of the independence party
général de la Défense et de la Sécurité nationale (SGDSN) in Union progressiste mélanésienne (UPM), today’s police deploy-
France. Beyond foreign interference, the police are already ments have echoes of this tragic past.
monitoring social media for messages attacking political lead- “This is what we went through in 1986 and 1987, the period
ers says Police General Christophe Marietti, and “this unit known as nomadisation where the military and gendarmes
will aim to identify the authors of hate, insulting messages or mobile were deployed with numbers never seen before,” he
death threats.” said. “It seems we’re about to live through a similar period –
we’ve never seen so many military and police in the country.
Military force The French High Commissioner told me that they were being
To supplement existing military forces deployed in New deployed for general security, to stop thefts or road accidents
Caledonia, another 250 soldiers and aircrew will be sent from and to support the referendum. But they’ve been told to be
France, together with two Puma helicopters and a CASA trans- visible rather than remain in their barracks.”
port aircraft. The landing ship Bougainville will be deployed There is little love lost between the police and many young
from Tahiti to support operations (the Noumea-based naval Kanak, who face petty harassment and racism from French
vessel D’Entrecasteaux is out of action after a fire). officers. In turn, many conservative New Caledonians are fear-
Brigadier General Putz said that the military forces will de- ful and angry about vandalism, stone throwing and theft by
ploy around the referendum to “support the internal security unemployed, disenchanted youth, and urge stronger “law and
forces and allow them to fulfill their public order mission, order” campaigns by the police. In 2018, Right-wing parties
while continuing to maintain the FANC missions of support to like Les Républicains calédoniens used the referendum cam-
the population and guaranteeing France’s sovereignty.” paign to promote a law and order agenda, chastising “Kanak
For the independence movement, the deployment of so- delinquency” and calling on the French High Commission to
called “forces of sovereignty” is directed to an international launch a police crackdown. Despite this, provincial and na-
as well as local audience. New Caledonia serves as a pivot for tional authorities were reluctant to use heavy handed tactics
France’s Indo-Pacific policy and the “India-Australia-France just days before the referendum.
axis” announced by President Macron in May 2018. However The scale of the current deployment is larger than for
the recent announcement of the AUKUS partnership between previous referendums held in November 2018 and October
Australia, the United Kingdom and United States has upended 2020. However this year, the official position of the FLNKS is
this policy. to call for “non-participation” in the referendum, rather than
Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro, Secretary General of Union Calé- an “active boycott” that could lead to disruption at town hall
donienne, told Islands Business that Canberra’s abrupt axing polling booths. FLNKS spokesperson Daniel Goa has called on
of a $90 billion submarine contract with France has disrupted all Yes voters to stay at home on 12 December, and “to stay
the strategic partnership with Australia. away from the polling booths to avoid any confrontation with

Islands Business, November 2021 39