The Front particularly wishes to include Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyana and Corsica on the UN list of countries to be decolonized. The creation of the FID comes as Paris denounces Azerbaijani interference in overseas territories.
Twelve independence movements from French overseas territories founded an International Decolonization Front (FID) in Nouméa to lead their “nations” to the “full sovereignty”, according to the constitutive charter of this organization, consulted on Sunday by AFP. “The time has come to stand together to lead our nations to their full sovereignty,” write the signatories of this document adopted on Friday, following a “congress of the last French colonies” in New Caledonia.
Among the members of the FID are the Caledonians of the FLNKS, the Union for the Liberation of Guadeloupe (UPLG), the Movement for Decolonization and Social Emancipation (MDES) of Guyana, the Party for the Liberation of Martinique (Palima) and the Polynesians of Tavini Huiraatira. Outside of French overseas territories, the charter is signed by the Corsicans of Nazione and representatives of two Dutch territories, Bonaire and the southern part of the island of Saint-Martin (Sint Maarten).
The FID intends in particular “obtain the status of observer member of the Non-Aligned Movement, as well as the inclusion of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyana and Corsica on the UN list of countries to be decolonized”.
The Baku Initiative Group (BIG), an organization promoted by Azerbaijan very involved in supporting French independence movements, relayed the event organized in Nouméa on its social networks. Its director, Abbas Abbasov, published a video of virulent support against France, accused of “violation of human rights” and of “brutal repression” during the violence in New Caledonia, which has left 14 dead since May.
-“France is attacked and humiliated by the Baku regime which organizes international summits on its soil and against it,” lamented Caledonian MP Nicolas Metzdorf (Renaissance) on Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot denounced “vain attempts carried out by Azerbaijan in our overseas territories”, calling for them to stop “immediately”, in unison with his Overseas colleague Manuel Valls.
We received support from Barbados, from the Cuban Institute for People's Friendship… And believing that we need a foreign power to revolt against the colonizer that we have in common is for me a mark of contempt and racism.
Francis Carole, president of Palima Martinique.
For months, Paris has accused Baku of'”interference” and manipulation on New Caledonia and more generally on its overseas territories, in a context of tensions between the two capitals due to France's support for Armenia, Azerbaijan's historic rival. Present in Nouméa, the president of Palima Martinique, Francis Carole, told AFP that “FID is an independent organization”.
