2024-05-13 22:01:11
Demonstrators during a rally organized by the field actions coordination cell (CCAT) in front of the Nouméa courthouse, May 13, 2024. THEO ROUBY / AFP
Vehicles burned, stores looted, clashes between demonstrators and police: violence punctuated the night from Monday May 13 to Tuesday May 14 in Nouméa, 17,000 kilometers from Paris, where deputies are looking into a constitutional revision denounced by the separatists of New Caledonia.
As a result, the High Commission of the Republic in New Caledonia announced a curfew for the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in the Nouméa metropolitan area.. The curfew is decreed from Tuesday 6 p.m. to Wednesday 6 a.m., announced, in a press release released shortly after 8 a.m. local Tuesday (11 p.m. Monday in Paris) the representative of the State in this South Pacific territory. “It can be renewed as much as necessary”specifies the text.
In addition, any gathering is prohibited in greater Nouméa, as is the carrying of weapons and the sale of alcohol throughout New Caledonia, reports the high commission which invites the 270,000 inhabitants of the Oceanian archipelago to stay at home. The government of New Caledonia, for its part, announced on Tuesday the closure of high schools and colleges until further notice. Schools in several municipalities, notably those in Nouméa, also keep their doors closed. The international airport is closed and the Aircalin company has suspended its flights for the day on Tuesday.
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Nearly one in five voters deprived of their vote
At the entrance to the New Caledonian “capital”, a large factory, specializing in bottling, was the victim of an arson attack and completely ravaged by flames on Monday around 10 p.m. local time (1 p.m. local time). of Paris), noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse (AFP). Several supermarkets were looted in Nouméa, but also in the neighboring towns Dumbéa and Le Mont-Dore. At least two car dealerships were also engulfed in flames around 11 p.m., Agence France-Presse (AFP) was also able to note.
As night fell, mobile gendarmes and police officers were battling young masked or hooded demonstrators, who took over several roundabouts. Fires were lit on the road to obstruct traffic, while shots from defensive bullet launchers and de-encirclement grenades were heard throughout the town.
“I have a thought for the police (…)and particularly for the gendarmes, from whom we are currently evacuating families threatened with death by demonstrators who do not go through democracy, but through violence, live ammunition, intimidation and death threats.castigated Gérald Darmanin from the podium of the National Assembly on Monday.
The first altercations with the police began during the day, on the sidelines of the independence mobilization against the constitutional reform examined Monday in the hemicycle, which aims to expand the electorate in the provincial elections, crucial in New Caledonia. Established in 1998 by the Nouméa agreement, the electoral body is in fact frozen, which has the consequence, twenty-five years later, of depriving nearly one in five voters of the right to vote.
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For the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, who carried out this constitutional reform, this provision “no longer conforms to the principles of democracy”. But the separatists criticize, conversely, a thaw which risks “minorize the Kanak indigenous people even further”.
Fear of new incidents
In its press release, the high commission, which denounces “disturbing public order of great intensity”, reports 36 arrests. “ Those arrested will be presented to justice during the day”it is specified.
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The gendarmerie, which is responsible for most of New Caledonia, indicated, at the start of the evening, 26 gendarmes injured, including one seriously, in one eye, by the clashes of the day. “No serious injuries have been reported among the population. “, says the press release from the high commission.
In fear of new incidents, the RAID, four squadrons of mobile gendarmes and two sections of CRS 8, a unit specializing in the fight against urban violence, will arrive as reinforcements, AFP learned from a source close to the matter. Fifteen GIGN reinforcements will also be sent to Nouméa.
Near Nouméa, the road which crosses the tribe of Saint-Louis, an independent stronghold, at Mont-Dore and which connects the south of the island to Nouméa was cut by the police, due to the presence of numerous demonstrators, armed with stones, and lit fires on the road.
The popular district of Montravel, in Nouméa, also had to be cut off to traffic on several occasions, as well as the expressway which connects the city to the north of the island.
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In a statement previously published Monday, the High Commissioner of the Republic in New Caledonia, Louis Le Franc, condemned “the blockades of public roads which have taken place since this morning and the numerous attacks on police officers and soldiers of the national gendarmerie”. He specified that he had given the order to “gradual unlocking” busy roads during the day.
The debates postponed after the numerous LFI amendments
While a solemn vote was planned for Tuesday afternoon on this government project, the debates could not be concluded during the night, due to the number of amendments tabled in particular by the group La France insoumise (LFI ), who was accused « d’obstruction » parliamentary by several benches and by the President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet.
The new examination schedule will be approved on Tuesday morning during a conference of presidents, but Ms. Braun-Pivet has already indicated that the deputies will be able to resume their debates in the afternoon, even if it means shaking up the agenda. “I hope we can get to the vote on Tuesday or Wednesday. We all want a political outcome”explained the leader of the Renaissance deputies Sylvain Maillard after midnight.
After that of the Senate, the approval of the Assembly is necessary to move this text forward, before bringing Parliament together in Congress to revise the Constitution, on a date which remains to be fixed. Advocating appeasement, Emmanuel Macron promised on Sunday not to convene Congress “in the process” of the vote of the Assembly, according to those around him, for “prioritize dialogue”.
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