NOUMEA: For the fifth consecutive day of violence marked by looting and riots that have claimed the lives of six people, one person died on Saturday in New Caledonia, France’s Pacific territory while two others were injured.
This took place in the northern Kaala-Gomen area of the archipelago, General Nicolas Mattheos said. One source revealed that a father and son who attempted to go over a barricade set up by rioters were among those people killed.
In Noumea’s streets, there was presence of marines and police officers with rifles; furthermore, hundreds of armoured cars patrolled its roads throughout Sunday.
A group of journalists from AFP claimed that some cars and houses were reduced to ashes at Magenta district as other police forces fought to re-establish order.
Residents spoke about hearing gunfire, helicopters’ whirring motor blades at night as well as “huge explosions” – it looked like gas cylinders were blowing up inside a flaming building.
For days Helene has been maintaining temporary roadblocks with her neighbors. They take turns guarding these barricades for two or three hours waiting for thousands of French security forces expected to fly 10 600 miles (17 000 kilometers) away who would bring lawfulness back into the country.
“At night we hear shooting and things going off,” she told AFP. “Helicopters landing and army planes landing — which is sweet music for our ears.”
The usually calm seaside city has been rocked for almost a week now.
According to officials, a gendarme has been shot in his head while another one died following friendly fire incident that occurred during unrests.
Three more victims include an indigenous Kanak aged seventeen years old along with two men aged twenty and thirty-six years old respectively.
This springing from economic complaints plus social pressures is mainly political confrontation between Paris authorities and Indigenous pro-independence activists’ camp however French authorities have held CCAT responsible for the violence.
The authorities have placed under house arrest ten activists they suspect of orchestrating the unrest.
Vaimu’a Muliava, New Caledonia’s local minister, warned on Saturday that the territory is “on a destructive path” and told those involved: “you are only punishing yourselves.”
CCAT also called in a statement on Friday for a “time of calm to break the spiral of violence”.
Nevertheless, 81-year-old Noumea resident Annie still heard loud explosions during the night despite this request.
She said it had been worse than anything she had seen in the violent 1980s – an era of political assassinations and hostage takings euphemistically referred to as “The Events”.
“Its even worst than during The Events,” she said. “There were not so many arms then.”
– ‘Out of our hands’ –
Since colonisation in the late 1800s New Caledonia has been part of French territory.
However after centuries, debate over whether or not these islands should be French, autonomous or independent continues to dominate politics with almost all viewpoints’ being divided along ethnic lines.
This new round of unrest was sparked by French plans to change electoral laws giving tens of thousands non-indigenous people voting rights.
Pro-independence movement argues this will weaken power base for indigenous Kanaks who make up about forty percent.
French authorities called for talks insisting that things were now “calmer” and returning to normalcy again.
“Reinforcements will control areas that have got out of our hands in recent days,” announced high commissioner Louis Le Franc, who is New Caledonia’s highest-ranking government official.
Thursday saw that the La Tontouta International Airport (controlled by the French army) was being landed on by them and after which they could be seen moving through Noumea in red caps, holding their guns with gas masks, and riot shield.
Thursday’s report from Prime Minister Gabriel Attal revealed that about 1000 extra security forces are being deployed to reinforce the 1700 already present
However, no agreement has been reached so far in negotiations for peace.
Macron had cancelled a video conference with local political leaders scheduled for Thursday because there were not enough participants but started contacting pro-independence and anti-independence officials one by one on Friday, his office said.
– Shortages –
In Noumea, hundreds of people waited outside shops in hope they would receive some food or anything needed urgently.
“Make your purchases in less than ten minutes so that others can have supplies too!” said a store attendant directing customers into a supermarket at Magenta on Saturday.
Helene said that the economic situation went from bad to worse during these years and only this week’s chaos will exacerbate everything further.
“A lot of people are leaving, work is getting scarce. It’s not the expats, or people who have big businesses here who are at risk. It’s mostly the people who don’t have much already,” she said.
“It would take several years to rebuild everything”.
According to a local business group’s estimate damages amounting to 200 million euros ($217m) were inflicted around Noumea,.
The cost of damage to the islands’ reputation may be even higher still.
Tourism accounts for a large part of New Caledonia’s income however as a result of closing down Noumea International Airport an estimated number of 3200 tourists and other travellers are stranded within or out of archipelago
Nicholas Agustin aged 36 owner of Australian painting business came with his girlfriend last week expecting to do some sightseeing and island hopping in the capital.
“We saw men on the streets with balaclavas and big sticks. There was smoke in the city,” he said.
On Friday, a French government agency, Viginum, claimed that a “massive and coordinated” online campaign had been launched saying that French Police had shot pro-independence demonstrators in New Caledonia.
This intensified diplomatic rift between France and Azerbaijan as the government referred to “Azerbaijani actors” behind this social network campaign.
