The police station in Hienghène, a remote town on the Pacific island of New Caledonia, has been barricaded for almost three weeks. A few dozen demonstrators blocked the access road to the station and took turns monitoring from outside. Their cause is evident in the words written in chalk on the road: the names of three prominent French political figures, including the president, combined with the word “Assassins.”
This impasse is an example of the worrying impasse in which New Caledonia currently finds itself, where demonstrations against more than 170 years of French domination became violent last month and brought the territory to the brink of civil war. Seven people died, many others were injured, and businesses suffered losses worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
France suppressed the worst violence by dispatching thousands of armed police to the semi-autonomous territory. President Emmanuel Macron even made a surprise visit. Mr Macron declared a state of emergency for a day, banned the use of TikTok and closed the territory’s main airport. Those restrictions have since been lifted and commercial flights are slowly resuming from a smaller airstrip near the capital, Nouméa, although the territory’s main airport remains closed.
Authorities continue to impose a nighttime curfew and a ban on alcohol sales, while indigenous Kanak protesters maintain barricades on the outskirts of Nouméa and in remote towns like Hienghène.
“We closed their door, kept them there and made them see what it looks like when a Kanak boy is detained in their prison in Nouméa,” Jonas Tein, a protester in Hienghène, said of the police station. town, which appears to have been restocked. thanks to regular visits by police helicopters. “We try to stay calm,” he said, but the French police crackdown made him “want to have weapons and do what they did in Nouméa.”
Tensions over French rule have been simmering in New Caledonia since the civil war of the 1980s. The current unrest has its roots in a proposal by Mr Macron to add thousands of French migrants to New Caledonia’s electoral rolls . Mr Macron called this change a step towards full democracy in the territory. But for many Kanaks, it was a betrayal of a decades-old peace agreement. They also feared that the influx of new voters would make it impossible to achieve independence in a future referendum.
New Caledonia and its vast nickel deposits take on new strategic value for France in the Pacific, where China is increasingly fighting for influence. According to French loyalists, an independent New Caledonia could easily be influenced by Beijing.
During his trip to New Caledonia, Mr. Macron announced that he would delay his proposed electoral list. Kanak leaders and some moderate French loyalists have since urged him to withdraw it entirely.
“The only way to calm the situation is to withdraw the text” of the constitutional amendment, declared Joël Tjibaou, who participates in the conduct of the siege of the Hienghène police station. Mr. Tjibaou’s father was a prominent Kanak leader who was assassinated after negotiating an end to the territory’s 1980s civil war.
Politicians from the territory’s pro-independence and loyalist parties are now working with a delegation of senior French officials to find a compromise that could resolve tensions, although participants warn progress will be slow.
“The state has surveillance, but we have time,” Roch Wamytan, pro-independence president of the New Caledonia Congress, told local media.
Independence leaders have called for an end to the violence. Nevertheless, the unrest made some white residents of New Caledonia worried about their future. Mining has brought prosperity to New Caledonia, but there are strong economic inequalities between whites and the Kanak people, who now constitute a minority in their country of origin.
Nicolas Sougnac lives in Koumac, a town north of Nouméa. He said that while the protests have not led to violence in his city, they have cut off fuel supplies and made it difficult to access food. He said he felt like he had been taken “hostage” and that the French government had “abandoned” him.
“The last few weeks have shown that there is no future for France in New Caledonia unless it reaches some sort of agreement with the aspirations of the independence movement,” said Adrian Muckle, professor of history at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. “It really highlighted the ability of the independence movement to bring the territory to an economic standstill.”
Most of the unrest was concentrated around Nouméa, in the south of New Caledonia. French authorities are investigating several episodes from previous weeks: Kanak demonstrators were shot dead by unknown assailants; a video showed French police forcing a Kanak protester to his knees so a police officer could kick him in the head; and a police officer of Kanak origin was reportedly seriously injured. beat from members of a local French militia.
Two police officers were killed by demonstrators. According to French authorities, 192 additional police officers were injured. Police officials said protesters armed some barricades with gas tanks. A police officer was hurt after falling into a manhole that protesters turned into a hidden trap. This week, more shootings were reported.
A spokeswoman for Louis Le Franc, the most senior French official in New Caledonia, declined to comment.
The toll of current violence is much lower than that of the civil war in New Caledonia. However, “the scale of the damage in Nouméa is much greater,” Dr Muckle said. “It’s a real shock for many New Caledonians what we can do in a short time. Many people are seriously thinking about their future in New Caledonia. »
Among them, Lizzie Carboni, writer in Nouméa. Armed police officers are stationed throughout his neighborhood. On Friday, a protester marched down his street, threatening to burn down residents’ homes. “I feel safe during the day,” Ms. Carboni said. “But at night, you’re never sure that you won’t throw a stone at your window.”
Ms Carboni is now trying to leave the territory. Last week she attended an online seminar on migration to New Zealand. She found more than a hundred other people on the call, most of whom appeared to be New Caledonians.
“When I see how quickly the chaos has happened, you never know what tomorrow will look like,” she said. “There is no more trust.”
