That’s why we don’t share NCR and Ton Paulo’s optimism on the issue of “Retourn nou nou Tromelin.”
We never hear about such events ( as shown below) from our powerful Francophile forces including our so-called free and independent media . On the contrary they have been trying to undermine some of the progress we have made “in the use of the mother tongue , the Mauritian Kreol, in teaching ”
From today's issue of "The Guardian "
"๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐๐ฒ๐ฌ ๐
๐ซ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ง ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐๐ฌ."
‘[The French government] did everything they could to isolate me from my country’ Christian Tein Pro-independence leader
Apro-independence leader from the French overseas territory of New Caledonia has accused the French government of deliberately delaying his passport application, preventing him from flying home after his release from prison.
Christian Tein, an Indigenous Kanak leader, was arrested in New Caledonia in June 2024 over allegations that he had instigated the deadly protests that had taken place on the island a month earlier.
He was charged with offences including complicity in attempted murder and organised theft with a weapon, all of which he denied. Tein was then flown to France, 10,600 miles away, on a private chartered plane and incarcerated until June this year. In October, he was cleared to return home by a Paris appeals court after most of the charges against him were dropped.
However, Tein says he is unable to return because French authorities have not reissued him with a passport. “It’s been a while since I submitted my passport application,” Tein said in an interview in Montpellier. “But we can see that [the French government] are deliberately dragging it out.” “A year in solitary confinement, it was very, very hard,” said Tein, who is now living in north- east France. “Psychologically, you never come out of this kind of situation unscathed,” he added. He remains under formal investigation for conspiracy and organised robbery, both of which he denies. New Caledonia, also known by its Indigenous name, Kanaky, is a group of islands in the south-west Pacific Ocean about 750 miles east of Australia.
Ruled from Paris since 1853, it is one of several overseas territories that remain an integral part of France. In May last year, unrest and rioting erupted after Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to change voting laws to allow thousands of mostly white French residents who had lived on the islands for 10 or more years to vote. Kanaks – who make up about 41% of the population – said the proposal would derail any hope for independence. Paris said the measure was needed to improve democracy. Fourteen people – most of them Kanak – were killed in the worst violence on the islands since the pro-independence protests of the 1980s.
The French president responded by declaring a state of emergency, temporarily shutting down the borders and flying in thousands of military police. The prison in the capital, Noumรฉa, was partly burned down, so dozens of incarcerated Kanaks were transferred with little or no notice to the mainland. Tein was the leader of the Field Action Coordination Cell, the proindependence movement, which had led calls for peaceful protests against the electoral law change. His arrest, as well as those of six other Kanak activists, caused protests to flare up again.
Magistrates who questioned Tein concluded there was no proof that Tein was preparing an armed uprising against the New Caledonian government – the same government he was employed by and was forced to resign from because of his imprisonment. “We have forgotten the values of human rights, the values that, when we charge someone, it’s based on evidence, on charges that are well-founded, but they did everything they could to isolate me from my country,” Tein said.
Macron’s voting law change was eventually scrapped and in July he announced an agreement known as the Bougival accord, which granted the territory more sovereignty but kept it under French control. It was signed by some Kanak pro-independence figures. But Tein – who was elected president of the Kanak National and Socialist Liberation Front while in prison – was not among them. “We reject Bougival, but I need to be at the table to discuss the future of the country,” Tein said, alluding to his inability to return home.
Naรฏma Moutchou, France’s overseas territories minister, and Gรฉrald Darmanin, the justice minister, were approached for comment. Asked about his plans if he makes it back to New Caledonia, he said: “I am 57 years old and I don’t think I have the right to pass this problem on to future generations [independence] is our only ambition.”
