The death of two Kanak insurgents during a police intervention between Wednesday night and Thursday 18 September sparked new tensions in the Noumea metropolitan area. “The night was relatively restless and contrasted somewhat with the serenity that had presided over the nights for several weeks”he said during a press conference organised by the High Commissioner, General Nicolas Matthéos, commander of the New Caledonian gendarmerie.
Representatives of the internal security forces recorded some stones and Molotov cocktails being thrown at the gendarmes, attempts to block roads with plants and rubbish, the start of a fire in a museum and the explosion of an electrical transformer. Outside the town, they observed the destruction of a hut by fire in the commune of Bourail.
The general, however, stressed that the situation was in no way comparable to that which followed May 13, when riots broke out in the archipelago, resulting in the deaths of 13 people, including two gendarmes. “We have seen a very clear decrease in mobilization”“This decrease is mainly due to the large number of arrests made in the last four months, around 2,500,” said General Matthéos, who believes that this decrease is mainly due to the large number of arrests made in the last four months.
According to Jean-Marie Cavier, territorial director of the national police, police forces were confronted by groups of three or four people, mainly in the working-class neighbourhoods most affected by the uprising.
Quiet night in Saint-Louis, bastion of independence
General Matthéos specified that in Saint-Louis, bastion of independence, at night “had not been marked by riots”especially “because families are working to prevent the situation from getting out of control and creating more problems”.
The day before, the two men, aged 29 and 30, were shot to death by a member of the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN). The two men killed were the subject of a search warrant issued in July against thirteen people from the Saint-Louis “tribe”. They are suspected of being among the perpetrators of some 330 shots fired by the gendarmes on the road that passes in front of the tribe since the start of the riots and of having participated in some sixty carjackings, armed carjackings, which have been occurring in the same location since June.
The violence began on 13 May, linked to the pro-independence mobilisation against the reform of the electoral body, which had been suspended since the dissolution of the National Assembly. Hundreds of people were injured and material damage was estimated at at least 2.2 billion euros during this violence on a scale not seen since the quasi-civil war of the 1980s.
The south of Grande Terre remains inaccessible by road
Although tensions have eased significantly since mid-July, the south of Grande Terre, the main island of the archipelago, remains inaccessible by road. The reason is the insecurity that reigns among the Saint-Louis tribe, an obligatory crossing point about ten kilometres from Noumea. In four months, the gendarmerie estimates that they have been shot at more than 330 times.
Due to its closure, the 1,200 people who live in the tribe can only access it on foot and upon presentation of an identity document to the gendarmes in order to pass through. “hairs”north and south of the track. Only emergency services and ambulances can cross Saint-Louis.
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In the rest of New Caledonia, almost all the lockdowns put in place since May 13 have been lifted and traffic has been restored everywhere. The curfew put in place since the riots, however, remains in force from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., and will even be adjusted and reinforced from September 21 to September 24, a symbolic date in this Pacific territory. It will then be in force from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The island’s public holiday, 24 September, which marks the archipelago’s takeover by France in 1853, remains a sensitive date in New Caledonia, although it has been renamed Citizenship Day since 2004. Restrictions on the sale and consumption of alcohol, the carrying of firearms and the sale of petrol have been extended throughout the country until 24 September as well.
