If the police have regained control in many “red light districts” of Nouméa and its conurbation hitherto held by the rioters, residents are wary of this “calm before the storm”.
“In this country, we are falsely calm. We must not trust appearances. At home, things are boiling. These abuses bring back old buried memories of the violence of the Events. It is never good.”
If her voice is soft and calm, Laure repeats it in a firm tone: “Calm has not returned“contrary to what advocates, day after day,
authorities. This 52-year-old mother leaves her home for the first time since the riots broke out, more than two weeks ago. His neighborhood, Kaméré, is one of the hotspots of the violence shaking the Nouméa metropolitan area.
On this Wednesday morning, if some residents dare to set foot outside, it is only because the police have managed to regain control of the main road, after several days of heavy clashes. Schools, medical center, pharmacy, supermarket, bakery… Here, nothing was spared by the rioters.
Residents stunned
Scenes of desolation are difficult to overcome for the rare residents who risk taking a few steps in the neighborhood.
Standing behind the college gates, Laure, stunned, cannot take her eyes off the buildings partly blackened by the fires. A disaster which further extends the list of some 35 educational establishments partially or totally destroyed in the city.
“I have been working in this structure for a long time. It was already very difficult to fight against the school dropout of young people in our disadvantaged neighborhood. Now, I don’t see how we are going to get out of it and move forwarddespairs, with glassy eyes, this state agent with a thirty-year career in teaching. I saw them on the roadblocks. They are all former students. We do our best to help them, but the school is far from being able to save all these young people. With the group effect, they drag themselves into the worst.”
“We can’t stop them”
A destructive spiral “which is not finished”, warns this mother once again. And she’s not the only one. This fear is shared by all the residents met in Kaméré for whom the trauma of the violence of recent days is still raw. “We cannot stop them. These young people have anger that has become uncontrollablefears Pauline, 58 years old, who “pray every day” so that these rioters “find the path to appeasement”.
“They are completely lost and drinking and smoking a lot of cannabis only makes things worse.”
It’s not Pascaline and Isabella who will say the opposite. “We went out to go shopping for the first time, but we hurry back because we really don’t feel safe. It’s the calm before the storm. We know the mentality of the people here. No matter how much we call each other my brother, my sister, it only takes one little thing for everything to go wrong very quickly.”
These Noumean women still get chills just thinking about a scene that occurred in their neighborhood four days earlier. In the middle of the night, while houses were set on fire, thirty-five residents had to flee by sea, a sign that the “return to calm is very fragile”.
Take refuge with a loved one
A climate that is oppressive to say the least, which pushes certain residents to make a drastic decision: take advantage of the presence of the police to take refuge with relatives in judged neighborhoods. “safer”.
It is the choice of Robert, 57, who leaves on foot with his 14-year-old son. “It has become too dangerous to stay here. We live in fear and we haven’t slept for two weeks. At night, it’s still hot. As they destroyed the public lighting, they do what they want and it’s a mess. We don’t want to come back. confides this dad. If they burn in our house and we have to flee, what will become of us once we face them outside? Everything depends on the decisions taken on the political level, but these young people are not about to give up the fight. We don’t know when, but we know it’s going to start again.”
Deeply divided
An intuition confirmed by Phaster, 38, who actively participates in the mobilization against the thaw of the electoral body.
“It’s only calm because the gendarmes are there and we decided to respect their work.” assures this activist who is now waiting “the instructions” given by the leaders of the CCAT (Field Action Coordination Unit) on the front line in the protest against the constitutional reform project which ignited the powder. People are deeply divided. The politicians have succeeded in making two blocs oppose each other (independence and loyalist) and now, we are against each other. There is still a lot of pressure. Everything can start again very quickly.”
