New Caledonia's pro-independence alliance names jailed activist as leader
An alliance of pro-independence parties in New Caledonia has nominated the imprisoned activist Christian Tein as head of the prominent opposition FLNKS group. Tein is currently being detained in France over a wave of deadly rioting in the French Pacific territory.
Christian Tein – who considers himself a "political prisoner" – was one of seven pro-independence activists transferred to mainland France in June in a move that sparked renewed violence that has raged across the archipelago and left 11 people dead.
His appointment on Saturday to lead the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) risks complicating efforts to end New Caledonia's political crisis, sparked in May by a Paris plan for voting reforms that indigenous Kanaks say will thwart their ambitions for independence by leaving them a permanent minority.
Laurie Humuni of the RDO party – one of four in the FLNKS alliance – said at the weekend that Tein's nomination was a recognition of his CCAT party's leading role in mobilising the independence movement.
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