Olympic torch crossing in New Caledonia canceled due to deadly violence

The crossing of the Olympic flame scheduled for June 11 in New Caledonia was canceled because the priority was to restore order in the French overseas territory where several people were killed in violent unrest, the sports minister said.

“I think everyone understands that, given the context, priority must be given to consolidating a return to public order and then to pacification,” Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera told the press at the World Cup in St. Louis. Mor-de-Fosse, near Paris.

“The priority is the safety of the inhabitants, the priority of restoring calm and the priority of political improvement of the situation,” the French minister said as violence related to unrest in New Caledonia, a French archipelago in the South Pacific, continues today. According to authorities, this is the sixth death in six days, and the situation, according to the mayor of Noumea, is “far from returning to calm.”

On Friday, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced the cancellation of the Olympic torch crossing through the archipelago at a meeting with MPs in Matignon, according to several concurring sources cited by French news agency AFP.

The Olympic flame arrived with great pomp and circumstance on May 8th in Marseilles on board the ship Belen and was to cross all French territory, passing through French overseas territories, until it ended its journey on the banks of the Seine, on the banks of the Seine. May 26, July, where he will light the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the third Olympic Games in the French capital after the 1900 and 1924 games.

“Everyone understands, we would like to be able to share this moment,” although “by June 11 there may be some favorable developments” in New Caledonia, said Amelie Oudea-Castera, in charge of preparations for the Paris Olympics, citing difficulties associated with logistics and security.

“Be ready on June 11 [para a passagem da chama olímpica na Nova Caledónia], there is a whole countdown and search, verification and testing work to be done. And the security forces and the military are now busy restoring calm, establishing order,” said the French Minister of Sports.

The unrest, the worst recorded in New Caledonia since the 1980s, was sparked by an electoral reform promoted by Paris that changes the census to reduce the weight of indigenous peoples, angering independence supporters.

There has been tension in the archipelago for decades between the indigenous Kanaks, who want independence, and the descendants of the colonialists, who want to remain part of France.

On Wednesday, the National Assembly approved a bill that, among other changes, would allow New Caledonians to vote in provincial elections for ten years.

Opponents say the move will benefit pro-French politicians in New Caledonia and further marginalize the indigenous Kanak population, which has been subject to policies of strict segregation and widespread discrimination in the past.

Situated east of Australia and ten time zones from Paris, the vast archipelago, now home to some 270,000 inhabitants, became French in 1853 under the command of Emperor Napoleon III, Napoleon’s nephew and heir.

After World War II it became a French overseas territory and in 1957 all Kanaks were granted French citizenship.

In 1988, a peace agreement was reached between the rival factions. Ten years later, France promised to give New Caledonia political power and broad autonomy, and to organize up to three referendums in a row.

Three referendums were held between 2018 and 2021, with a majority of voters choosing to remain part of France rather than support independence.

Pro-independence Kanaks have rejected the results of the latest referendum in 2021, which they boycotted because it was held in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.