“I am a political prisoner and the first to be extradited in this way with my comrades”declared the Kanak leader of the Field Action Coordination Unit (CCAT) in New Caledonia, Christian Tein, imprisoned in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), Monday 1is July. This statement was made during a visit by two senators, which was attended by an Agence France Presse correspondent. The discussion, which was supervised, could not focus on the ongoing investigation.
Mr. Tein spoke about his conditions of detention in Mulhouse and his activities, while adding: “At some point, we will have to sit down at the table again to resume discussions. The survival of New Caledonia depends on it.” He explained that he had been put through the long plane journey in handcuffs. “It was difficult. I’m starting to find my bearings.”he continued.
Mr. Tein was charged with complicity in attempted murder and criminal association with a view to preparing a crime, after more than a month of violence against an electoral reform accused by the separatists of marginalizing the indigenous Kanak population. He has always denied calling for violence.
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More than 1,500 people arrested
Since the start of the unrest in New Caledonia linked to the constitutional reform on the thawing of the electoral body criticised by the Kanak independence movement, 1,520 people have been arrested, according to the latest situation report from the State services in the archipelago, published on Friday.
Eleven pro-independence activists were arrested on June 19. Nine of them were placed in pretrial detention, including seven in various prisons in France. The violence, the most serious to have occurred in the archipelago since the 1980s, left nine dead, according to the latest figures from the authorities, and caused considerable material damage (fires, destruction, looting, etc.).
On Saturday, nearly 200 activists from the Kanak Movement in France gathered in Mulhouse in support of Mr. Tein and other independence activists imprisoned in France.
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