Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

162 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
from Paris led to disillusionment. Frustrated by the French government’s
failure to reform the system, pro-independence parties, under the banner
of the Kanak Socialist Front for National Liberation (FLNKS) refused
to take part in the 1984 elections and established “The Provisional
Government of Kanaky.” Over the next four-year period, violence involving
factions of the FLNKS, the loyalist RPCR, and French troops resulted in a
wave of assassinations and reprisals.
To stop the unrest, the French prime minister and the territory’s political
leaders signed the Matignon Accord on 26 June 1988. The agreement
called for a referendum on independence to be held in 1998. Because
Kanaks made up just 45 percent of the population at this time, a key
Kanak demand was that only voters meeting strict criteria (10-year
residence, among others) would be eligible to vote in the referendum and
in provincial assembly elections.
As 1998 approached, the signing parties considered it likely that the
independence referendum would fail, and negotiated to produce the 1998
Nouméa Accord. The agreement established New Caledonian citizenship,
granted the Territory greater autonomy, and postponed the independence
vote until sometime between 2014 and 2018. It also acknowledged Kanak
traditional, or “customary” rights and identity, the legitimate presence of
European and other ethnic communities, and recognized the need for a
more equitable economic balance between the wealthy Southern Province
and the majority Kanak Northern and Island Provinces.
Today, the Kanaks participate in the government and enjoy in principle the
same rights as the rest of the population. The Customary Senate, which
consists of traditional leaders named by their respective communities,
is recognized in the French Constitution and has an advisory role. Their
economic and social situation, however, remains precarious and a
constant influx of immigrants—especially from France—exacerbates the
demographic as well as the electoral imbalance.
Mineral Exploitation
For the Kanak people, the main events in recent years relate primarily
to mining on the one hand, and access to land on the other. In mineral
exploration and the mining industry, as in other areas, the rights of
indigenous peoples are still flouted by the dominant society, either through
ignorance of these rights or through a desire to maintain the colonial
heritage.