New Caledonia activist says France is impeding journey house after jail launch | New Caledonia

A professional-independence chief from the French abroad territory of New Caledonia has accused the French authorities of “deliberately dragging out” his passport software, stopping him from flying house after his launch from jail.

Christian Tein, an Indigenous Kanak chief, was arrested in New Caledonia in June 2024 over allegations that he had instigated the lethal pro-independence protests that had taken place on the island a month earlier.

He was charged with varied offences, together with complicity in tried homicide and organised theft with a weapon, all of which he denied.

Tein was then flown to France, 10,600 miles away, on a personal chartered aircraft and incarcerated till June of this yr. In October, he was cleared to return house by a Paris appeals courtroom after many of the prices towards him had been dropped.

However, Tein says he’s unable to return as a result of French authorities haven’t re-issued him with a passport.

“It’s been a while since I submitted my passport application,” Tein mentioned 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,” Tein mentioned of his stint in jail. “Psychologically, you never come out of this kind of situation unscathed,” added Tein, who’s now dwelling in Alsace in north-east France. He stays below formal investigation for conspiracy and organised theft, each of which he denies.

New Caledonia, additionally identified by its Indigenous identify, Kanaky, is a bunch of islands within the south-west Pacific Ocean about 750 miles east of Australia. Ruled from Paris since 1853, it’s one in all a number of abroad territories that stay an integral a part of France.

In May final yr, unrest and rioting erupted after Emmanuel Macron’s try to vary voting legal guidelines to permit 1000’s of principally white French residents who had lived on the islands for 10 or extra years to vote. Kanaks – who make up about 41% of the population – mentioned the proposal would completely derail any hope for independence. Paris mentioned the measure was wanted to enhance democracy.

Fourteen individuals – most of them Kanak – had been killed within the worst violence on the islands for the reason that pro-independence protests of the Nineteen Eighties.

The French president responded by declaring a state of emergency, quickly shutting down the borders and flying in thousands of army police. The jail within the capital, Nouméa, was partly burned down, so dozens of incarcerated Kanaks had been transferred with little or no discover to the mainland.

At the time, Tein was the chief of the Field Action Coordination Cell, the pro-independence motion which had led requires peaceable protests towards the electoral regulation change. His arrest, in addition to these of six different Kanak activists, brought about protests to flare up again.

“Many in New Caledonia saw it as a ‘deportation’, like that of so many others in colonial history,” mentioned Johann Bihr, of the International Prison Observatory.

Magistrates who questioned Tein concluded there was no proof that he was making ready an armed rebellion towards the New Caledonian authorities – the identical authorities Tein was employed by and was pressured to resign from due to 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 mentioned. “I hope that [the French justice system] will find the ways and means to clear us of this injustice that we have suffered.”

Macron’s deliberate voting regulation change was ultimately scrapped and in July he introduced an settlement often known as the Bougival accord, which granted the territory extra sovereignty however saved it below French management.

It was signed by some Kanak pro-independence figures. But Tein – who was elected president of the Kanak National and Socialist Liberation Front whereas in jail – was not amongst them. “We reject Bougival, but I need to be at the table to discuss the future of the country,” Tein mentioned, alluding to his incapability to return house.

Concerns have additionally been raised concerning the alleged mistreatment of different Kanak independence figures and activists.

Among the six Kanak activists flown on the personal chartered aircraft to France with Tein in June 2024 was 31-year-old Guillaume Vama, a Kanak agroforestry professional who spent a yr in a French jail in Bourges.

Vama mentioned of his arrest that he initially thought he was being kidnapped by loyalists who wished to stay a part of France. A person armed with a machine gun ordered him to lift his fingers, whereas one other pointed a rifle at him and positioned a hood over his head. “I thought my life was going to end,” he mentioned.

He added that after being instructed by a choose that he was being transferred to France, he was handcuffed for 96 hours and struck on the knee by gendarmes, and didn’t obtain any remedy for the harm whereas in jail.

“I felt completely dehumanised, treated like an animal,” Vama mentioned of his flight to France. “To me, it was a clear message that the [French] state had no limits.”

Naïma Moutchou, France’s abroad territories minister, and Gérald Darmanin, the justice minister, have been approached for remark.

Urko Aiartza, a co-president of the European Association of Lawyers for Democracy & World Human Rights, mentioned the delay to the issuing of Tein’s passport “may amount to an unlawful restriction on his right to freedom of movement”.

Tein’s authorized staff mentioned the identical administration that quickly issued him with a brief passport earlier than being ordered to jail in France was now delaying the issuing of a brand new passport.

Until his imprisonment, Tein had by no means travelled to mainland France. “I always refused because I said I would come when my country was independent,” he mentioned, laughing.

Asked about his plans if he makes it again to New Caledonia, he mentioned: “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.”