In Houaïlou, on the east coast of New Caledonia, the gendarmerie was attacked with construction equipment and the town hall blocked on Sunday during the first round of the legislative elections by activists from the CCAT, the organization behind the mobilization which is shaking the archipelago. Monday, the atmosphere remains tense.
“How can you talk about democracy when we are colonized?” For Jean-Pierre Baou, the representative of the Field Action Coordination Unit (CCAT) in Houaïlou, participating in the legislative elections was out of the question.
In the second constituency, where this mining town is located with reliefs shaped by the exploitation of nickel, a strong mobilization nevertheless allowed the independence candidate Emmanuel Tjibaou to come in first with 44.06% of the votes, in a tie to win on July 7 an unprecedented mandate.
But Jean-Pierre Baou respected the CCAT’s “watchword” to the letter – to block a polling station – he explains, against the backdrop of conflict with the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) which brings together the main pro-independence parties and whose leaders are accused of weakness on the blockades.
Jean-Pierre Baou, 56, admits that the blockade “annoyed some people”. “We wanted to stay in front of the town hall to prevent people from going to vote, except that they sent the police opposite. It made the situation worse,” he continues.
Previously, the entrance to the gendarmerie had been forced with a piece of construction equipment stolen from a nearby mine. A simple “position statement” by the young people, the activist said.
On Monday, the tension remained palpable, illustrating the upheavals shaking the north of New Caledonia, particularly since the incarceration in mainland France of several CCAT figures, on the weekend of June 22 and 23, while the unrest until then mainly concerned Noumea.
According to security sources, it is no coincidence that the Houaïlou region has risen up. The local branch of the CCAT is known to be “very extreme” there, they explain to AFP. The cause in particular: “the total dilution of customary structures” for decades, with a “youth that escapes all control”.
Kanaky flags flying on the carcasses of the cars, the young people from the last roadblock before Houaïlou pose, hooded.
On the bridge that crosses the river lies a burnt-out bus, tagged with insults. No hostility, but a latent pressure.
– Strewn with pitfalls –
An intrusion by the GIGN (National Gendarmerie Intervention Group) sows disorder: the soldiers suddenly invade a neighboring house, in a housing estate occupied by gendarmes before the crisis. As in many Caledonian communes, they lived among the population and relations were cordial, say the inhabitants.
The departure of the GIGN, a few minutes later, takes place under the stone throwing of the youngest. Then, as a city car passes, the tone suddenly rises: the driver is accused of having helped the police and drives off quickly to avoid the worst. He got away with a broken window.
Relations are strained with the mayor, Pascal Sawa, a member of the Caledonian Union and a member of the FLNKS. He refused to comment on the situation.
Although the Houaïlou polling station brings together nearly 4,000 voters, the village is empty. Most of the inhabitants are scattered throughout the territories of the 33 Kanak tribes scattered across the commune, sometimes in remote areas of the surrounding mountain range.
A heavy silence remains. Slightly overlooking the village, the gendarmerie looks like an entrenched camp.
The huge construction machine is still blocking the entrance to the premises, the broken gate of which has been hastily put back in place with a padlocked chain.
With automatic weapons in hand, two gendarmes stand guard. The attack did not cause any injuries to the police but was serious enough for the commander of the New Caledonian gendarmerie, General Nicolas Matthéos, to come to the scene.
Helicopter travel: the journey to Houaïlou from Noumea remains fraught with pitfalls, six weeks after the start of the unrest shaking New Caledonia.
After Bourail, a rural town 150 km north of Noumea, you have to take a winding mountain road, regularly slaloming through a succession of obstacles.
Anything goes to block the road: burnt-out scooters or cars, cut-down trees, hubcaps…
Unlike Nouméa, where the dams are constantly cleaned, the police admit that they do not bother removing them here.
