Éloi Machoro

Éloi Machoro (1945. Thio – 12 January 1985 Canala) was an independentist New Caledonian Kanak politician.

After he had founded the seminary of Païta, in 1974 he became a teacher. He selected as a party for himself the Caledonian Union which chose in 1977 in the Congress of Bourail under the leadership of Jean-Marie Tjibaou independent of Caledonia as an official position. In the same year he was chosen as a representative of his party in Territorial Assembly of New Caledonia. He quickly climbed the political ladder steadily until 1981 when after the assassination of Pierre Declercq at his own house on 19 September 1981 Machoro had reached the position of UC's general secretary. As a Kanak nationalist, he wished that New Caledonia never will be like it was before.», and among participants of the party's central part he represented the most radical partisans of Socialist Kanak Independence movement. Jean-Marie Tjibaou was the leader of the organisation, which would use armed forces also, if necessary. He and other independentist 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 which replaced Independentist Front. Jean-Marie Tjibaou called for the boycott of institutions and the elections. He shattered a ballot with an axe and said the system prefers to Caldoches. On 1 December 1984 Jean-Marie Tjibaou formed a provisional government, of Kanak Socialist Republic and Éloi Machoro became Minister of Security and so he became the leader of independentist armed forces.

At beginning he disarmed the gendarmes of Thio and without any violence got control over the village. On 11 January 1985 Melanesians killed Yves Tual, daughter of a European stockbreeder. These events triggered a series of night rebellions. The next day, on 12 January, the gendarme started an operation for freeing the house of a European which the FLNKS occupied with the leadership of Éloi Machoro, located in the neighbourhood 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 another Kanak died during the ensuing action, while the gendarme left Machoro in agonizing pain for long hours to die without giving him any kind of help.

Éloi Machoro is a controversial person of New Caledonia: for population of European Territories among anti-independentists his name was associated with violence against civil armed forces. Among independentists he was one of their characteristic leaders, a hero, who died martyrdom.