“Calmer situation”: the authorities welcomed on Friday a decline in violence in New Caledonia now under a state of emergency, even if certain districts of Nouméa remained out of control, on the fifth day of riots against electoral reform in this French archipelago in the South Pacific.
“The state of emergency has made it possible, for the first time since Monday, to return to a calmer and more peaceful situation in greater Nouméa”, the capital of the archipelago, “despite the fires of a school and two businesses », welcomed the representative of the State in this territory, colonized by France in the 19the century.
Since Monday, this violence, the most serious to have occurred in New Caledonia since the end of the 1980s, has left five dead, including two gendarmes, and hundreds injured, according to the authorities.
The crisis began with a pro-independence mobilization against a constitutional reform of the electoral college, rejected by representatives of the indigenous Kanak people.
The High Commissioner of the Republic, Louis Le Franc, conceded that three disadvantaged neighborhoods of the largest city in the territory, mostly populated by Kanaks, remained in the hands of “hundreds of rioters”.
In the Tir Valley in particular, “hundreds” of them are continuing their “abuses” and seeking to do battle with the police, he detailed. “Reinforcements will arrive […] to control the areas that have escaped us in recent days,” Mr. Le Franc assured the press.
Bare minimum
For most of the population of Nouméa, the priority on Friday was to get supplies, with shortages looming.
In front of the rare stores in Nouméa which have not been ravaged by flames or looted, the queues continue to lengthen.
“We’ve been here for more than three hours,” sighed Kenzo, 17, in search of rice and pasta. “Like everyone else, we are patient,” he comments, fatalistically.
According to the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of New Caledonia, David Guyenne, the violence “wiped out” 80% to 90% of the city’s commercial distribution chain (stores, warehouses, wholesalers). .
The High Commissioner promised the mobilization of the State to “organize the delivery of basic necessities”, as well as an “air bridge” between the metropolis and its archipelago, separated by more than 16,000 km.
For his part, a manager at the Nouméa hospital, Thierry de Greslan, was alarmed by the deterioration of the health situation on the archipelago. “Three or four people died yesterday [jeudi] due to lack of accessibility to care”, due in particular to roadblocks erected in the city, he said on France Info radio.
During the night from Thursday to Friday, a new wave of reinforcements of police and gendarmes arrived from France. The government announced the sending of a thousand of them to support the 1,700 already there.
The army was also deployed to secure the ports and the airport of the territory placed since Wednesday evening under the regime of the state of emergency, which allows travel and meetings to be prohibited or house arrests to be made.
The curfew decreed from Tuesday between 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. local time remains in force.
“Great firmness”
In Paris, the Minister of Justice asked the prosecution for “the greatest firmness against the perpetrators of the abuses”.
Éric Dupond-Moretti also indicated that he was considering transferring the “criminals” arrested on the “Caillou” to mainland France “so that there is no contamination […] of the most fragile minds” and to “ensure security within penitentiary establishments”.
After a new crisis meeting in the morning, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is due to receive parliamentarians at Matignon on Friday for an “exchange” on the crisis.
After the cancellation of a videoconference with all New Caledonian elected officials on Thursday, Emmanuel Macron hoped to be able to speak separately with them on Friday.
Accused by the government of having fanned the embers of discontent, the Field Action Coordination Cell (CCAT), the most radical fringe of the separatists, asked Friday for “a time of appeasement to stem the escalation of the violence “.
On RFI radio, one of its members, Rock Haocas, assured that his organization “did not call for violence and […] to destruction”, attributing these riots to a “marginalized majority Kanak population” in Nouméa.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, also denounced the interference of Azerbaijan, where several Caledonian independence leaders have traveled in recent months. “Unfounded” accusations, according to Baku.
Protesting the TikTok ban
In New Caledonia, the social network TikTok, used by rioters, is banned until further notice.
La Quadrature du Net, an association defending fundamental freedoms in the digital environment, announced that it had requested the Council of State, the highest French administrative court, to suspend this blocking.
The riots, which mainly affected the Nouméa metropolitan area, have already caused damage worth 200 million euros (almost CA$300 million), according to local estimates.
The constitutional reform which ignited the powder was adopted by the deputies, after the senators, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.
This text will still have to be voted on by parliamentarians meeting in Congress, unless an agreement on a global text between separatists and loyalists occurs beforehand.
The reform passed aims to expand the electorate in provincial elections, crucial in the archipelago. Supporters of independence believe that this modification risks reducing their electoral weight and marginalizing “even more the indigenous Kanak people”.