Éloi Machoro
Éloi Machoro (b. 1945 in Thio, New Caledonia – d. 12 January 1985 in Canala) was a New Caledonian Kanak separatist politician.
Career
After founding the seminary of Païta in 1974, Machoro became a teacher. He aligned himself with the Caledonian Union political party. In 1977, under the leadership of Jean-Marie Tjibaou, he chose to recognize the Congress of Bourail as independent from Caledonia. That year he was chosen as a Representative of his party in the Territorial Assembly of New Caledonia. Machoro climbed the political ladder thereafter. Following the assassination of Pierre Declercq on 19 September 1981, Machoro became the Caledonian Union's General Secretary. As a member of the Socialist Kanak Independence movement, he was among the party's most radical partisans. He sought permanent change for New Caledonia, even if it required military force. He and other separatist militants went to Libya.
The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS, Front de libération nationale kanak et socialiste) was formed on 18 November 1984 and replaced the Independents. On 1 December 1984, Jean-Marie Tjibaou formed a provisional government of Kanak Socialist Republic and Éloi Machoro became Minister of Security and so became the leader of the independents' armed forces.
At first, Machoro disarmed the gendarmes of Thio, and gained control over the village without violence. On 11 January 1985 he killed Yves Tual, the daughter of a European stockbreeder. These events triggered a series of nighttime rebellions. On 12 January, the gendarmes started an operation to free the house of a European that the FLNKS had occupied under the leadership of Éloi Machoro, located in the neighborhood of Canala. The FLNKS occupants eventually fled and found some security for themselves in another house when the gendarmes, after strong warnings and pursuit, began to catch up with them. When the two parties eventually met, Éloi Machoro and other Kanaks were killed during the ensuing action. The gendarmes left Machoro in pain for hours to die without giving him help.