LIVE – New Caledonia: Emmanuel Macron visits the archipelago this Tuesday evening

The new president of the League for Human Rights (LDH), Nathalie Tehio, says she feels “a lot of sadness” in the face of the riots shaking New Caledonia, the territory where she grew up, and calls for “going through dialogue “. “We do not resolve a political crisis by force,” this lawyer, elected the day before president of the LDH, an association founded in 1898, assured AFP on Tuesday.

“What is very, very sad today is to see that it is the extremists who are established in the street and that the government is, on top of that, fanning the embers,” denounced Nathalie Tehio, whose family lives in New Caledonia, an archipelago where six people have been killed since the start of riots, unprecedented in forty years. The government in Paris is “only repressive” while “this political problem must be resolved”, she denounced. “We have to go through dialogue,” insists the woman whose father was the advisor to Jean-Marie Tjibaou, an independentist who signed the Matignon Accords in 1988, who was shot and killed by a Kanak in 1989.

Emmanuel Macron will go “this evening” to New Caledonia, shaken by an outbreak of violence, to set up “a mission” there, government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot announced on Tuesday. “It was announced by the President of the Republic, in the Council of Ministers, that he will go there (in New Caledonia). He will leave there this evening to set up a mission there,” she explained. .

The president is leaving “in a spirit of responsibility”, added the spokesperson without detailing the “mission” mentioned or specifying how long the head of state would stay on the archipelago. She reiterated that “the return to order was the prerequisite for any dialogue”, while an electoral reform contested by the separatists must be validated “before the end of June” according to Emmanuel Macron, by the Congress bringing together senators and deputies. But “the executive continues (…) the construction of the political solution for the territory”, she also said.

Nouméa international airport remains closed to commercial flights until Saturday 9 a.m. (midnight in Paris), Charles Roger, director of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of New Caledonia, told AFP on Tuesday. platform manager. Due to the blockages and violence that have shaken the French territory in the South Pacific for a week, Tontouta airport has been closed to commercial flights since May 14. The first evacuation flights are due to take place on Tuesday to exfiltrate tourists stuck in the Oceanian archipelago, affected by an independence revolt against an electoral reform passed in Paris.

Due to the suspension of air connections, support measures are in place for French tourists residing outside New Caledonia, whose return flight has been canceled since May 13 due to the riots, and wishing to return home shortly.

In a press release, the public prosecutor of Nouméa, Yves Dupas, reports “216 police custody measures, including 144 for attacks on property, 25 for violence against a person holding public authority and 46 for attacks to persons”, having given rise to 31 appearances before the courts, including 11 incarcerations, since the start of the violence affecting New Caledonia.

Around 400 businesses and businesses have suffered damage in Nouméa and neighboring towns since the start of the riots in New Caledonia a week ago, the Nouméa public prosecutor, Yves Dupas, announced in a press release on Tuesday.

“Significant damage, particularly by fire, has been noted in the city of Nouméa and neighboring municipalities concerning, on the one hand, public buildings or facilities and, on the other hand, economic structures,” he said. Concerning these “economic structures”, he specified that “around 400 establishments such as shops, hypermarkets, businesses” were destroyed or damaged, “generating significant damage”.

“A little wisdom and perspective would not hurt anyone,” judge Tuesday on TF1 Gabriel Serville, DVG president of the Territorial Collectivity of Guyana, who is calling for the “withdrawal” of the reform of the electoral body. “We consider that the situation has become so serious and complicated (…) that today we need a strong gesture from the President of the Republic.”

“There is no maintaining order without dialogue,” noted Tuesday on LCI Thierry Lataste, former High Commissioner in New Caledonia. “On the political level, announcing that the convocation of the Congress (…) would be a sign for the separatists that they are absolutely not being heard. It could only revive the already very difficult situation that we have to face.”

“The return to calm continues throughout the territory,” wrote the State representative in New Caledonia, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, in a press release published Tuesday morning. However, he announced the sending of additional troops “in the coming hours” to quell the violence which has shaken the archipelago since Monday, in reaction to a constitutional reform decried by the separatists.

Nouméa and its surrounding area remain the scene of clashes and the roadblocks even expanded in places last night, noted an AFP journalist.

Emmanuel Macron chaired a third Defense Council on Monday around the violence in New Caledonia. While welcoming “clear progress”, he announced that soldiers would be deployed to “protect public buildings”.

Australia announced on Tuesday that it had received authorization to take off “today” two evacuation flights for its approximately 300 nationals stranded in New Caledonia.

“We have received authorization to take off today two flights chartered by the Australian government to allow Australian tourists and others to leave New Caledonia,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced in a statement.

The New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs indicated on Tuesday morning that his government had also, for its part, chartered an evacuation flight. However, Nouméa airport remains closed to commercial flights until Thursday.

Hello and welcome to this live broadcast devoted to current events in New Caledonia, after a week of violence and blockages in reaction to a constitutional reform criticized by the separatists. Follow with us, throughout the day, the latest information surrounding this crisis.