Is it true that human rights activists recorded more than 20 cases of rape of residents of New Caledonia by the French military?

In May 2024, information about the crimes of the French military, aimed at the new Caledonia to suppress the riots, began to spread in Telegram channels. Bloggers referred to the report of the organization Human Rights Watch, which allegedly reported numerous rape. We decided to check if this is so.

Since May 22, there were reports of 23 cases of rape of residents of New Caledonia in Telegram channels. These statements were accompanied by a video with the Human Rights Watch logo. The video said that when the French military suppressed the riots, shortly before that sent to overseas territory, committed numerous crimes, including raped local women. This, in particular, wrote Telegram channels about this "Russian engineer"(1.5 million views at the time of writing this analysis),"The world today with "Yuri Podolyak""(1.4 million) and"Sheikh Tamir"(123,000).

New Caledonia is the Pacific overseas territory of France. Excitement there Started May 13, after discussing constitutional reform in the National Assembly of France. Kanaki (representatives of the indigenous population) remained unhappy with the new norm, according to which the right to vote, when choosing a local legislative assembly, should receive France citizens who moved to New Caledonia and lived there for more than ten years. After that, in the capital of Noumea and in other cities, rallies against reform Overected into disorder - arson of buildings and cars, and then collisions between supporters of independence and loyalists. On May 15, the French authorities announced a state of emergency in New Caledonia, and to the islands Reinforcement arrived: the forces of the gendarmerie, police special forces and military (to protect the airport). May 23 to New Caledonia Arrived French President Emmanuel Macron, who has promised a compromise in the framework of the rule of law. By May 27 It is known About the death of seven people in the riots, including two gendarmes. According to official figures, 122 law enforcement officers were injured, more than 460 people were arrested.

In the video with the Human Rights Watch logo, distributed by Russian-speaking Telegram channels, it was stated that from May 17 23 women were raped, 11 of them were interrogated in which law enforcement officers found out the connection of the disorders detained with participants. Residents of New Caledonia were supposedly not even in the police station, but in the utility room of the school. According to the video, according to human rights activists, more than half of the victims - girls under 16 years old.

Not a single message on this subject in the main French media could not be found. There is no report dedicated to recent events in New Caledonia, to site Human Rights Watch. Since the beginning of the riots, the human rights organization has limited itself to two links to news notes of the media about the situation in its mailings 15 And 16 May.

The video itself is an almost two -minute video (01:52), in which photographs of New Caledonia and the riots that occurred there are accompanied by text and ordinance music. In the lower left corner - the Human Rights Watch logo. The font at first glance is similar to the original one, which the organization uses in its video, but still differs from it - this is noticeable in the example of the capital letter R.

“Verified” asked the human rights organization to comment on the viral video, but at the time of publication of the analysis, it did not receive an answer.

The earliest post about the allegedly released Human Rights Watch report, according to TGSTAT, appeared in the Telegram channel "Sheikh Tamir"May 22 at 16:53 Moscow time. This channel has repeatedly been mentioned in the analysis of “verified”, including in connection with the spread of fake videos With the logo of the world media.

In recent months, France and personally Macron have become one of the main goals of pro -Kremlin propaganda, which also spread disinformation: for example, fakes about upcoming Olympic Games in Paris or about sending to Ukraine And death on the battlefield Soldier of the French Foreign Legion.

Thus, reports of the report of Human Rights Watch, dedicated to the crimes of the French military in New Caledonia, are not true. There is no such report, the video with the organization’s logo is fabricated, and the Telegram channels began to be distributed, more than once convicted of creating fakes.

Photo on the cover: Supreme Commissariat of New Caledonia

Fake

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