AFP
New Caledonia: first evacuations of French people, high tension
Tension remains high on Saturday in New Caledonia, where the mission to “restore order in the days to come” set by President Emmanuel Macron is proving difficult, and where the evacuation of French tourists has begun. For the French metropolis stuck due to the riots, the first flights aboard military aircraft took off on Saturday from the Magenta aerodrome in Nouméa, towards Australia and New Zealand.”The wait was interminable, since the reopening of the “the airport is being pushed back day by day,” one of these tourists told AFP, referring to La Tontouta international airport, closed since May 14. The death toll from the violence rose to seven dead on Friday. , the seventh being a 48-year-old man whose identity has not been communicated, killed by a police officer. Two days after the one-day visit of the head of state, opponents of the electoral reform which provoked the riots from May 13 remain determined to obtain its definitive withdrawal.Mr. Macron welcomed the restraint of the police on Thursday. He emphasized to New Caledonian journalists that “our gendarmes and our police officers did not kill anyone”. The next afternoon, the facts contradicted him. A police officer, “physically attacked by a group of around fifteen individuals”, fired a “shot to escape” and killed a man in Dumbéa, near Nouméa, according to the account of the prosecutor of la République Yves Dupas. This police officer, who shows “traces of blows on his face” just like a colleague who accompanied him, was placed in police custody, added the prosecutor. – “Extremely fragile” – Before this homicide the circumstances of which remain to be clarified, two gendarmes, one of whom was hit by an accidental shot, three Kanak (natives) and a Caldoche (Caledonian of European origin) had been killed. Images from public television Nouvelle-Calédonie La 1ère, and photos widely commented on on social networks, showed the departure on Saturday morning of the coffin of a 19-year-old separatist, killed in Nouméa on May 15, by boat towards the island of Maré where he was from. In the sectors and neighborhoods where the separatists hostile to electoral reform are the most numerous and the best organized, regaining control of the lines of communication and stopping acts of destruction, mainly at night, will be a very long and complex job.” “order that must be reestablished, and reestablished quickly, before the situation degenerates further,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Friday, during a ceremony honoring the two gendarmes killed near Paris. “The situation today remains extremely fragile in New Caledonia, a little thing can cause it to falter.” The High Commission of the Republic in New Caledonia reported in a press release on Saturday operations against the dams in seven districts of Nouméa, mainly in the north of the city. “The neutralization and cleaning of the dams are carried out under the security of the police and gendarmerie forces,” he described. Between the districts of Ducos and Kaméré, around ten backhoe loaders were active on Saturday to clear piles debris still on fire, under the eye of the gendarmes who secure the area, noted an AFP journalist. The Raid intervenes first to secure the passage of the convoy, under the incessant noise of the blades of a helicopter flying over The area. Trucks and sweepers bring up the rear to remove the debris. The night from Friday to Saturday was still agitated in several districts of Nouméa and surrounding areas. – “We maintain the resistance” – In Kaméré, houses were affected by fires and /or looted. A mother told AFP that she had been taken out of there via the ocean by the GIGN, with “several dozen people from the neighborhood.” “We found out from people in the neighborhood that our house had been looted in the night like any other, it’s horrible, very shocking,” she said in tears on the phone. The authorities reported “35 people, including 7 minors”, saved by the nautical brigade in the middle of the night. “We are maintaining resistance in our neighborhoods,” said Christian Tein, the leader of the CCAT, the independence collective which is organizing the protest, during a press conference on Friday. He denounced “the strong repression (…) that our population is undergoing”. The separatist said he wanted to “loosen the grip a little so that fuel (…) and especially medicines ” can be transported without hindrance. “It is our priority,” he assured. The state of emergency established on May 16 still prevails, with the accompanying measures: 12-hour daily curfew, ban on gatherings, transport weapons and the sale of alcohol, banning of the TikTok application. The President of the Republic wishes to be able to lift this state of emergency thanks to “appeasement” which would come from negotiations on the institutional future of New Caledonia .He gave elected officials and political leaders of the archipelago until the end of June, helped by a “mediation mission” of three senior officials dispatched from Paris. The president’s objective is “a global agreement” which “can be submitted to the vote of Caledonians”.md-cm-hh/tmt
