New Caledonia: Kanak leader Christian Tein calls for a "top-down" exit

"I have always contested all the charges against me," insisted the president of the FLNKS, in his first statement since his release on June 12 from Mulhouse-Lutterbach prison (Haut-Rhin), during a press conference in Montpellier, in the presence of his lawyers.

Mr. Tein, who was then head of the Field Action Coordination Unit (CCAT), is being prosecuted as part of the investigation into the riots that left 14 dead in New Caledonia in May 2024. He remains under investigation for organized theft and criminal conspiracy, said Florian Medico.

He is also placed under assisted witness status for complicity in attempted murder of a person in a position of public authority and direct provocation to an armed group followed by effects.

Returning to his arrest and transfer to mainland France, where he spent "nearly a year in solitary confinement," Mr. Tein modestly spoke of "a difficult time to get through," recalling that he had been taken into custody and then transferred "in handcuffs": "It was not possible, in the 21st century, for a great country of enlightenment such as France," he observed, regarding his "first trip to mainland France."

Looking back on his political struggle, the 57-year-old Kanak leader, wearing a floral shirt, explained that he had always acted within "the framework set by the Noumea Accord" of 1998, which gradually transferred powers to the community and enabled the organization of three self-determination referendums between 2018 and 2021.

But while these three elections saw the victory of the "no" vote to independence, the last one, boycotted by the separatists, remained contested, leading, with the crystallization of divisions between loyalists and separatists around a project to reform the Caledonian electoral body, to the riots of May 2024, which caused two billion euros of damage.

"A beautiful mess"

"It's a real mess," "I'm terribly sad for my country," insisted the Kanak leader, who was elected head of the FLNKS during his detention. "I was, like everyone else, disconcerted," he said, recalling the morning he woke up "to the insurrection in the neighborhoods of Noumea."

But "it was never a question of sacrificing lives," he assured, questioning the "charges" of the police "against the young people": "And then unfortunately after that, it's a bit like what happened in your neighborhoods, it just kept happening."

Asked about his possible participation in the discussions that Emmanuel Macron hopes to organize at the beginning of July at the Élysée Palace with New Caledonian officials, Mr. Tein recalled that "a FLNKS convention is planned for June 28, to decide within what framework the discussions should continue."

"If I'm here, so much the better," he acknowledged, repeating that "he never considered himself irreplaceable." But "we will have to find ways to come out on top. We can't repeat the same thing every 30 years," continued Mr. Tein, eager, "with the French government, to look ahead and (...) set a path toward full sovereignty" for the "rock."

Calling for "de-escalation" and "to restore calm," the pro-independence leader lamented, during this crisis, "the stubbornness of certain members of the government in driving this issue into a wall," without naming names: "The word that France gives has value, but I have the impression that in recent times we have devalued the word of France," he accused.

More directly, Mr. Roux recalled the words of the then Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, now Minister of Justice, who had called Christian Tein and his comrades "mafiosi and thugs": "such insults were totally inappropriate."

One thing is certain, in any case, for the Kanak activist's lawyers: their client's legal case is "empty" and his innocence must be "fully recognized." "There is no need for amnesty. They are innocent," insisted Mr. Roux.