Colonial past haunts latest New Caledonia crisis

Deadly riots erupted in Nouméa, capital of New Caledonia, a French Pacific island territory, on Monday before a vote in the National Assembly, the French lower house of parliament, on a proposed electoral reform. Under the terms of the 1998 Nouméa Accord, only New Caledonia natives and long-term residents have been eligible to vote in provincial elections and local referendums, to preserve the balance between the indigenous Kanak population and new arrivals from mainland France. Tensions have simmered for decades …