Beyond Scotland: four more potential independence referendums

All eyes may be on Scotland, but the UK vote isn’t the only referendum around. From Iraq to Papua New Guinea, potential nations are planning to make a break for independence. Here are four movements to watch

Catalan independence supporters. Photograph: Josep Lago/AFP/Getty Images

Catalan independence

In Spain, the Scottish referendum is being followed closely by Catalan separatists planning their own vote on 9 November. Recently about 70% of Catalonia’s 7.5 million residents were keen for this to go ahead – but the Spanish government is definitely not. It has branded the referendum illegal.
With their own language and cultural identity, Catalonians have long wanted to rule themselves. The deep recession and spending cuts have just increased this desire in the rich north-eastern region.
But the secessionist leadership has been hit by a financial scandal, with the area’s former head, Jordi Pujol, recently admitting his family had been hiding money in Switzerland(paywall) for more than three decades.
Now only 55% of Catalonians say they would support a referendum if Spain continues to deem it illegal.

Kurdish independence

With all the turmoil in Iraq, the country has narrowly escaped a planned referendum too. Massoud Barzani, the leader of the largely autonomous Kurdistan region, had started telling his advisers to begin preparing for a vote on independence back in July.
Now the plan has been dropped after the Kurds have promised to forge a new Iraqi government and fight Islamic State (Isis) instead.
The Kurds have been increasing their autonomy in recent years, but came up against Iraq’s prime minister Nouri al-Maliki on issues such as whether oil-rich Kirkuk was part of their area, and whether they should be allowed to sell oil directly.
Now they need money and weapons to fight Isis – which means placating the US – so have slowed their rush to independence.

The Bougainville Independence Movement

Further away from the media spotlight, Papua New Guinea could also see the shuffling of ballot papers. The nation’s Bougainville region has been autonomous since a civil war in the 1990s left 15,000 people dead.
The war was sparked by anger over the way the revenue from the area’s copper mines was shared, and their social and environmental impact. Recently, Papua New Guinea’s prime minister formally apologised to the people of Bougainville for the war and performed a reconciliation ceremony by breaking an arrow with the president of the region.
Part of the peace agreement, however, was a vote on independence for Bougainville and its surrounding islands, which has to take place between 2015 and 2020.

The New Caledonia independence movement

Another referendum has been brewing between New Caledonia and France. The territory was annexed by France in 1853, a penal colony established and thousands of convicts sent over. Today Europeans make up a third of the population and live in the wealthier southern province of the nickel-rich territory, with indigenous Kanaks making up 45%.
The two groups have long been in conflict. In 1878, a rebellion against France left 1,000 Kanaks and 200 Europeans dead (and left France in posession of the head of the Kanak’s rebel chief, which they displayed in museums until last month). Violent unrest broke out again in the mid-1980s between pro-independence Kanaks and anti-independence loyalists, with France this time sending in paratroopers.
Since then the island has been granted increased autonomy, and attempts have been made to address the economic imbalance. A vote on independence was also timetabled for between 2014 and 2019. In recent elections, however, parties that want to keep New Caledonia as part of France had a majority.

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