The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) on Sunday, September 29, asks the police to give them time before intervening in the Saint-Louis tribe, a separatist stronghold, to arrest young people suspected of abuse since the beginning of the Caledonian crisis. .
Two weeks ago, traditional leaders began mediation with these young people, wanted by the police for alleged abuses committed since May 13, the date of the beginning of unrest in the archipelago linked to a constitutional reform project, suspended since the dissolution of the Parliament. national assembly.
The FLNKS, which spoke with the High Commissioner, Louis Le Franc, on Saturday afternoon, notes in a press release that a “ultimatum” has been “the State proposed to the youth, customs and the population for an armed intervention this Monday, September 30” and considers that this intervention “it could compromise all the measures adopted for de-escalation” and lead to a new “killing”.
Asked by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the high commission declined to comment. General Nicolas Matthéos, commander of the gendarmerie in New Caledonia, told AFP that “operations suspended while the mourning lasts, that is, until tomorrow” Monday. The funerals of two young people murdered by the police on September 19 took place this Sunday in the Saint-Louis tribe.
“We can’t wait too long, we have to reopen the road. Of course we defend and seek surrender by all means to avoid further losses, but it is really difficult.”declared General Matthéos.
Double “lock”
Since the beginning of August, the high commission has established a double “lock” preventing the entry of vehicles on the part of the road that crosses the tribe, after vehicle thefts and shootings against the police.
In a press release on Sunday, the great Négrah chiefdom of Mont-Dore, where the Saint-Louis tribe is located, considers that “The asymmetry between the means used and the objective pursued is shocking and unacceptable when it leads to the death of three young people from the tribe in two months”.
The leadership also emphasizes that its “The duty is to continue the dialogue with (the) young people”.
Since May 13, New Caledonia has been going through a serious crisis that has seen the mobilization against a reform of the electoral body degenerate into riots that destroyed the economic fabric of the archipelago, left 13 dead, including two gendarmes, and caused at least two thousand millions of euros in damages.
