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AN INDEPENDENCE leader in New Caledonia has warned supporters to “remain mobilised” to defeat electoral reforms imposed from Paris on the Pacific territory.
Christian Tein of the pro-independence Field Action Co-ordination Unit addressed insurgent forces in a video message on Saturday, two days after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron, who urged protesters to dismantle barricades blocking roads on the archipelago.
Mr Tein asked those on the barricades to allow fuel, food and medicine through to prevent communities getting cut off, but not to stand down until Mr Macron drops a controversial voting reform and withdraws arrest warrants for protest leaders.
He urged them to “see [this] through [and] achieve our goals... our main objective is for our country to obtain full sovereignty.”
The reform would give the vote to more French nationals, which the indigenous Kanak community fears would marginalise it.
Paris has declared a state of emergency with curfews, restrictions on the sale of alcohol and weapons and even a TikTok ban, while rushing troops to the colony.
