To protect New Caledonia, hundreds more French police officers begin to arrive

Following unrest that resulted in hundreds of arrests and four fatalities, the senior French official in the Pacific Island territory announced on Friday that French police reinforcements were starting to arrive in New Caledonia as part of a huge effort to retake control of the city.

France’s High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said that Thursday night was comparatively tranquil after three nights of turmoil and that demands for calm were beginning to be heeded, however he added that standoffs persisted in several areas of the capital city Noumea.

The upheaval may make President Emmanuel Macron’s aim to strengthen French influence in the Pacific, where China and the United States are vying for dominance, more difficult. It was spurred by resentment among the Kanak over a contentious electoral reform.

By Friday night, there will be 2,700 police and gendarmes on the French-ruled island, up from 1,700 under the French reinforcement.

“Reinforcements will arrive massively, immediately (and will be) deployed to control the areas which have escaped our control in recent days … to reconquer all the areas of the urban area which we have lost,” Le Franc said during a live press conference.

He claimed that crews with expertise in mine clearance will start the process of removing road blocks that activists had booby-trapped in order to provide food and medicine to the general populace.

The island of New Caledonia had food supplies for two months, according to the authorities on Friday; the distribution issue was the only concern.

“Our cries for serenity, harmony, and rapprochement are starting to be heard… It’s critical that people who are the source of the conflicts and obstructions hear this, stated Le Franc.

Over the course of three days, protesters enraged by the election change put up roadblocks, burned down businesses, set fire to automobiles, looted stores, and cut off access to food and medicine, according to authorities.

After ten years of residency in New Caledonia, French citizens will now be eligible to vote in provincial elections thanks to a new measure that parliamentarians in Paris approved on Tuesday. Leaders in the area worry that the decision may weaken the vote of native Kanaks.

RESUME CONVERSATIONS?

A long-running dispute about France’s involvement in the mineral-producing southwest Pacific Island located 1,500 km (930 miles) east of Australia has resulted in electoral reform as the most recent flashpoint.

Jimmy Naouna, a member of the FLNKS political bureau, expressed his encouragement that French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal had taken an interest in the dossier.

A pro-independence alliance canceled a video conference with Macron on Thursday, citing their desire for France to first reverse the election reform and rejecting Macron’s July deadline for a deal, he told Reuters.

“If we want to resume the talks for the new political agreement the French government, Macron, has to lift, suspend or withdraw this electoral reform bill,” he stated.

“Give us time to hold talks in a more peaceful environment without this electoral reform above our head,” he said.

According to Naouna, the violence was centered in the suburbs of Noumea, while rallies in the island’s north were peaceful.

“This is the youth and it is really from the economic crisis, the nickel crisis and social crisis, everything together has made this situation blow up,” he stated.

In addition to banning TikTok and placing at least ten individuals under house arrest, France has proclaimed a state of emergency on the island.

The rioting has claimed the lives of three young Kanak people, while a 22-year-old police officer was shot and killed. While getting ready to deploy, an unintentional gunshot killed another police official.

Gerald Darmanin, the interior minister of France, announced on Thursday that police had apprehended the individual who had shot two Kanaks. Le Franc added that one of the perpetrators had turned himself in, and that investigations into the other deaths were still ongoing.

The United Nations should lead a discussion mission to New Caledonia, according to the Pacific Conference of Churches, which joined other regional intergovernmental groups in demanding that France rescind the constitutional law on Friday.

In a statement, the churches stated there had been a breakdown in engagement between the French government and Kanak people.

Former Pacific leaders’ organization, Pacific Elders Voice, declared that France need to pay attention to “indigenous Kanak voices and the Pacific-wide support for self-determination” as choices were being taken in Paris without any real consultation.