After three nights of violent clashes that resulted in four mortality and thousands of injuries, France sent troops to New Caledonia’s ships and international airports, banned TikTok, and declared a state of emergency on Thursday.
Pro-independence protests are taking place in response to a European proposal to change election laws in the Pacific archipelago, largely led by indigenous citizens. Since the violence started in the 1980s, the situation has gotten worse, with one police officer’s dying and several others ‘ deaths as a result.
After four days of unrest, little pieces of rock and concrete that appeared to have been thrown during protests spread the burnt dust among main roads.
Armored automobiles moved around the town’s hand- lined streets, which are often crowded with tourists.
Fearful residents in the area constructed wooden barriers by stacking different things such as wooden boxes, buckets, bedframes, cheap jerricans, tree leaves, and scraps of landscaping across the streets.
As part of a complete European response, security causes placed five suspected conspirators under house arrest. The higher fee, which represents the European state in New Caledonia, issued a statement supporting this decision.
House searches may get carried out “in the coming hours’, it said.
Since the conflicts broke out, more than 200 “rioters” have been detained, according to the high payment.
Authorities said that hundreds of people, including 64 officers, have been wounded.
” We need butter,” the phrase means.
AFP journalists in the streets of the investment Noumea reported a second night of” clashes,” but it appeared calmer than earlier times.
White occupants in particular neighborhoods sat on lawn chairs, operated walls, and displayed wooden white flags. Their intention to happily monitor the streets was embodied in this.
Spectators walked slowly around the bones of stores that had been burned, moving through distorted doors, cabinets that had been looted, and package that had been discarded.
” We simply grabbed what was available to eat in the stores. Soon there will be no more shops”, said one woman in a suburb of the capital, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
” We need milk for the children. I do n’t see it as looting”, she told AFP.
According to the high commission, France is building an “air bridge” to quickly move police and troop reinforcements while also bringing in essential supplies for the populace.
French President Emmanuel Macron made a promise to meet with New Caledonian lawmakers in Paris on Thursday and demanded that the political dialogue resume.
There is a TikTok ban.
At a crisis ministerial meeting, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal revealed that soldiers had been dispatched to guard ports and the international airport, which are closed to all commercial flights.
He claimed that TikTok was being used by rioters and had been banned. Less than 20 accounts that were connected to the violence on the platform were identified by AFP by Thursday morning.
New Caledonia is situated between Fiji and Australia. It is one of the many countries around the world where the majority of the country was still largely under French rule during the post-colonial era.
In the latter half of the nineteenth century, France colonized the area, giving it a distinct status from other foreign nations in the nation.
Independence has been rejected three times in referendums, but it still enjoys strong support among the Kanak people, whose ancestors have lived on the islands for thousands of years.
The state of emergency allows authorities to implement travel restrictions, impose house arrests, and conduct searches.
There are restrictions on gatherings, carrying weapons, and alcohol sales in addition to a night curfew.
A spokeswoman for the French government reported that nearly 1,800 law enforcement officers have been mobilized, and 500 more will be added.
The act of arson and pillaging.
People went out to protest. The National Assembly of France, located 17, 000 kilometres ( 10, 600 miles ) away, voted on Tuesday to grant voting rights to residents who have resided in New Caledonia for 10 years. A joint session of both chambers of the French parliament is still necessary to approve the reform.
Pro-independence organizations claim that this decision would lessen Kanaks ‘ ability to vote, who make up roughly 41 % of the population.
Voters who support the reform contend that island residents who moved to the province later were unable to take part in provincial elections because voter lists have not been updated since 1998.
Without consensus from New Caledonia’s opposing sides, Macron has stated that French lawmakers will vote to pass a new constitution without a definitive vote by the end of June.
Pro- and anti- independence parties issued a joint statement calling for” calm and reason’ to return to the archipelago, adding that” we are destined to keep living together’.
( With inputs from agencies )
