French President Emmanuel Macron has convened convene a crisis meeting about the riots in his country’s overseas territory in the Pacific, New Caledonia.
At least two people were killed and three were seriously injured overnight, French officials there said on Wednesday.
It was the third day of violent unrest over a constitutional reform pushed by Paris that has roiled the archipelago, which has long sought independence.
Macron’s office said the president also canceled a trip he had been planning to northwest France on Wednesday while he focused on the crisis.
Decades of tensions
French authorities in the territory said more than 130 people have been arrested and over 300 have been injured since Monday in the violence that has raged across the archipelago, where there have been decades of tensions between indigenous Kanaks seeking independence and descendants of colonisers who want to remain part of France.
The special defense and security council meeting called by Macron typically brings together a limited group of officials, including Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and the ministers for defense, interior, economy and foreign affairs.
Minister of Interior and Overseas Territories Gérald Darmanin said 100 gendarmes were evacuated during violence overnight following “an attack on their station with an axe and live ammunition.”
“Calm must absolutely be restored," Darmanin said in an interview with French broadcaster RTL.
Police reinforcements
On Tuesday, the French Interior Ministry sent police reinforcements to New Caledonia, which long served as a prison colony and now hosts a French military base.
A thousand gendarmes and 700 police officers have been deployed and a dozen professionals from a specialized police intervention and riot control unit have also been mobilized, the territory’s top French official, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, said at a news conference in New Caledonia.
Two people were killed and three gravely injured in the unrest overnight, Le Franc said in an interview with France Info broadcaster.
Earlier Wednesday, he warned that if calm is not restored, there will be “many deaths” in the area of the capital, Nouméa, where protests over the voting rights turned violent on Tuesday.
Curfew extended
Local authorities extended a curfew until Thursday morning.
Clashes between police and protesters have continued in and around Nouméa despite a curfew and ban on gatherings. Schools have been closed “until further notice” and the main airport, La Tontoura, “remains closed to commercial flights.”
“The situation is not serious, it is very serious," Le Franc said. “We have entered a dangerous spiral, a deadly spiral.”
He said some residents of the capital have formed “self-defense groups” to protect their homes and business.
Expand voter list
The unrest started on Monday with a protest over France’s efforts to expand voter lists that would benefit pro-France politicians on New Caledonia and further marginalize the Kanak people, who once suffered from strict segregation policies and widespread discrimination.
Early Wednesday, France’s National Assembly adopted a constitutional revision reforming the electoral body in the territory, with 351 lawmakers voting for and 153 against the bill.
Pro-independence representatives appealed to supporters for calm and condemned the vote in the National Assembly, France’s most influential house of parliament.
Macron also appealed for calm after the vote and condemned “unworthy violence” in a letter to Caledonian representatives and political parties.
Call for dialogue
He called on all local politicians to engage in dialogue and submit suggestions for changes to the bill. Macron said he would convene the Congress, a joint session of lawmakers from both houses of the French parliament, by the end of June to amend the constitution and make it law in the absence of a meaningful dialogue with local representatives.
The bill would allow residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years to cast ballots in provincial elections.
People of European descent in New Caledonia distinguish between descendants of colonisers and descendants of the many prisoners sent to the territory by force. The vast archipelago of about 270,000 people east of Australia is 10 time zones ahead of Paris.
New Caledonia became French in 1853 under Emperor Napoleon III, Napoleon’s nephew and heir. It became an overseas territory after World War II, with French citizenship granted to all Kanaks in 1957.
Successive referendums
A peace deal between rival factions was reached in 1988. A decade later, France promised to grant New Caledonia political power and broad autonomy and hold up to three successive referendums.
The three referendums were organized between 2018 to 2021 and a majority of voters chose to remain part of France instead of backing independence.
The pro-independence Kanak people rejected the results of the last referendum in 2021, which they boycotted because it was held at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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