Paris: France has declared a state of emergency on the Pacific island of New Caledonia on Wednesday after four people, including a police official, were killed in riots over electoral reform. The state of emergency came into effect at 5 am (local time), giving authorities additional powers to ban gatherings and forbid people from moving around the French-ruled island.
The riots broke out in the French overseas territory over a new bill adopted by lawmakers in Paris on Tuesday, which allows French residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years to vote in provincial elections. Some local leaders fear this move will dilute the vote of the indigenous Kanak community. More than 200 people have been arrested and more than 300 have been injured since Monday as protests turned violent in the archipelago, which has long sought independence.
In three municipalities on the French-ruled island, gendarmes (another French police) faced about 5,000 rioters, including between 3,000 and 4,000 in the capital Noumea, France's High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said in a televised press conference. At least 64 gendarmes and police were injured, while road barricades put up by the protesters were causing a "dire situation" for medicine and food for the population, he added.
Police reinforcements adding 500 officers to the 1,800 usually present on the island, have been sent after rioters torched vehicles and businesses and looted stores. Schools and airports have been shut and there is already a curfew in the capital. "No violence will be tolerated," said Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, adding that the state of emergency "will allow us to roll out massive means to restore order."
Watch the video:
Authorities also decided to ban video app TikTok, which the government during a bout of riots on France's mainland last summer said helped rioters organise and amplified the chaos, attracting troublemakers to the streets. French PM Attal said that soldiers from France will be used to secure New Caledonia's main port and airport.
Rioting broke out this week in opposition to the vote, where lawmakers in Paris voted 351 to 153 in favour of the electoral reform. Gunshots could be heard and schools remained shut in New Caledonia's capital Noumea on Wednesday morning after another night of rioting despite a curfew. French President Emmanuel Macron hascalled for calm and dialogue.
Earlier in the day, a spokesperson for New Caledonia's President Louis Mapou said three young indigenous Kanak had died in the riots. The French government later said a 24-year-old police official had died from a gunshot wound. "He took off his helmet (to speak to residents) and he was shot right in the head," Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
Police were reportedly outnumbered by protesters. Noumea resident Yoan Fleurot told Reuters that he was staying at home out of respect for the nightly curfew and was very scared for his family. "I don't see how my country can recover after this", Fleurot said, adding he carries a gun during the day when he goes out to film the rioters he called 'terrorists'.
Why are people protesting against electoral reform?
The electoral reform is the flashpoint in a decades-long tussle over France's role in the mineral-rich island, which lies in the southwest Pacific, some 1,500 km (930 miles) east of Australia. The French government has said the change in voting rules was needed so elections would be democratic.
Under the terms of the 1998 Nouméa Accord, voting in provincial elections was restricted to people who had resided in New Caledonia prior to 1998, and their children. The measure was aimed at giving greater representation to the Kanaks, who had become a minority population. This changed with the latest amendment passed on Tuesday, which has fuelled fears that the Kanak votes would be diluted.
Paris has come to view the arrangement as undemocratic and lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment to open up the electorate to include people who have lived in New Caledonia for at least 10 years. Macron has said he will delay rubber-stamping it into law, and invite representatives of the territory's population to Paris for talks to reach a negotiated settlement. However, he said a new agreement must be reached by June or he will sign it into law.
The major pro-independence political group, Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS), which condemned the violence, said it would accept the offer of dialogue and was willing to work towards an agreement "that would allow New Caledonia to follow its path toward emancipation".
New Caledonia's history with France
New Caledonia lies at the heart of the Indo-Pacific region, a geopolitically complex maritime region, where China and the United States are jostling for power and influence in security and trade. After France's colonisation in 1853, New Caledonia officially became a French overseas territory in 1946. Starting in the 1970s, in the wake of a nickel boom that drew outsiders, tensions rose on the island, with various conflicts between Paris and Kanak independence movements.
Notably, New Caledonia is the world's third-largest nickel producer, but most of the population lives below the poverty line. A 1998 Nouméa Accord helped end the conflict by outlining a path to gradual autonomy and restricting voting to the indigenous Kanak and migrants living in New Caledonia before 1998. The accord allowed for three referendums to determine the future of the country. In all three, independence was rejected.
"Tonight, France is more beautiful because New Caledonia has decided to stay part of it," Macron said after the result of the most recent vote in 2021, which was boycotted by pro-independence parties due to the coronavirus pandemic, and there remains lingering scepticism over the legitimacy of the result.
(with inputs from Reuters)
ALSO READ | France becomes world's first country to guarantee abortion as constitutional right | WATCH
