PARIS (AP) – Violence raged across New Caledonia for the third day in a row on Thursday, hours after France imposed sanctions. State of emergency in the French Pacific regionwill strengthen the powers of security forces to quell unrest on the islands, which have long sought independence.
The French authorities new caledonia Protests earlier this week over voting reforms promoted by President Emmanuel Macron’s government turned deadly, leaving five people dead, including two police officers, the Paris Interior Ministry said.
The territory’s top French official, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, announced on Thursday that at least 60 members of the security forces had been injured and 214 people had been arrested in clashes with police, arson and looting.
“Everything is being done to restore the order and calm that Caledonians deserve,” French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said after a meeting at the Elysée presidential palace in Paris.
Associated Press Paris bureau correspondent John Lester reports that the unrest in New Caledonia, France’s Pacific region, is unlikely to affect the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris.
He said 1,700 security forces had already been sent to support police, and another 1,000 would be sent, but the situation was “unbearable and indescribable, with looting, rioting, arson and attacks. “The situation remains extremely tense.”
Two members of the island’s indigenous Kanak community were among the five dead, French Interior and Overseas Territories Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Thursday, vowing that France would “regain full control.”
He said 10 people believed to be members of the independence movement, known as the Field Acton Coordination Unit, were under house arrest. In April, the group supported several protests against French authorities on the island.
Still, Darmanin argued that the movement is “a small group that calls itself pro-independence, but instead commits looting, murder, and violence.”
Leaders of the Kanak trade union in Paris appealed for calm and said they were deeply saddened by the deaths in their distant homeland.
“We hope that the French government will make a strong political statement rather than sending in the military,” trade union leader Roque Haokas told reporters on Thursday. “Starting a conversation would be a powerful political statement.”
In New Caledonia, the National Council of Chiefs of the indigenous Kanak people condemned “all acts of vandalism and gun violence” but denied claims that the pro-independence movement was involved in the deadly violence.
Grand Emir Hippolyte Sinewami-Futamuu expressed his full support for the pro-independence group, which has mobilized more than 100,000 people “of all ages and backgrounds” in peaceful protests in the capital Nouméa and across the island in recent months. expressed. .
“This is not a ‘terrorist group’ or a ‘mafia group’ as some political leaders would like us to believe,” he said in a statement Thursday.
The state of emergency will be in place for at least 12 days as French troops are called in to protect ports and airports and relieve police forces. High Commissioner Le Frans said the curfew had been extended until Friday morning.
Political parties in the region also appealed for peace to both supporters of independence and those who want the island to remain part of France.
The last time France imposed emergency powers on one of its overseas territories was in 1985, also on New Caledonia. The measures will enable local authorities in France and the archipelago to deal with unrest, allowing home detention of people deemed to be a threat to public order, allowing searches, seizure of weapons and restrictions on movement, and allowing violators to be detained at home. may be sentenced to imprisonment.
This Pacific island east of Australia is home to around 270,000 people, 10 time zones ahead of Paris, and is known to tourists for its atolls and coral reefs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I am. Tensions have simmered for decades between the indigenous Kanak people, who want independence, and the descendants of the colonizers, who want to remain part of France.
People of European descent living in New Caledonia, which for many years served as a French prison colony and is now home to a French military base, distinguish between the descendants of the settlers and the descendants of the many prisoners of war who were forcibly sent to the territory. There is.
This week’s unrest erupted as the French parliament in Paris debated amendments to the French constitution to change New Caledonia’s voter list. Parliament on Wednesday approved a bill that would allow residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years to vote in state elections.
Opponents say this will benefit New Caledonia’s pro-French politicians and further marginalize the Kanak people, who have previously suffered harsh segregation policies and widespread discrimination.
President Macron announced on Wednesday that if no meaningful dialogue and agreement can be reached among local MPs, he will convene a joint session of parliament, a joint session of members of both houses of the French parliament, by the end of June to amend the constitution and pass legislation. did.
New Caledonia became a French colony in 1853 under Napoleon’s nephew and successor, Napoleon III. After World War II, it became an overseas territory, and in 1957 all Kanak people were granted French citizenship.
A peace agreement between the warring factions was reached in 1988. Ten years later, France gave New Caledonia political power and broad autonomy, promising up to three consecutive referendums on the island’s future.
of Referendums were held between 2018 and 2021 And the majority of voters chose New Caledonia. Remain part of France rather than support independence.
Kanak people support independence rejected the results of the previous referendum in 2021which they were boycotting because it was held in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Mr. Suluk reported from Nice, France. Associated Press writer Oleg Setinich in Paris contributed to this report.
