{"id":67586,"date":"2024-06-07T04:44:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T04:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/07\/in-new-caledonia-no-confidence-with-france-after-violent-protests\/"},"modified":"2024-06-07T04:44:04","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T04:44:04","slug":"in-new-caledonia-no-confidence-with-france-after-violent-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/07\/in-new-caledonia-no-confidence-with-france-after-violent-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"In New Caledonia, \u2018No Confidence\u2019 With France After Violent Protests"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/07\/multimedia\/07newcaledonia-wftc\/07newcaledonia-wftc-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"In New Caledonia, \u2018No Confidence\u2019 With France After Violent Protests\" title=\"In New Caledonia, \u2018No Confidence\u2019 With France After Violent Protests\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The police station in Hienghene, a remote town in the Pacific island of New Caledonia, has been barricaded in for nearly three weeks. A few dozen protesters have blocked off the station\u2019s access road and take turns keeping watch from the outside. Their cause is evident in the words written in chalk on the road: the names of three prominent French politicians, including the president, paired with the word \u201cAssassins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The standoff is one example of the uneasy stalemate existing now in New Caledonia, where <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/14\/world\/asia\/new-caledonia-curfew-protests.html\" title=\"\">protests<\/a> against more than 170 years of French rule <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/17\/world\/asia\/new-caledonia-france-protest.html\" title=\"\">turned violent last month<\/a> and drove the territory to the brink of civil war. Seven people died, many more were injured, and businesses suffered losses worth hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">France quelled the worst of the violence by rushing thousands of armed police to the semiautonomous territory. President Emmanuel Macron even made a surprise visit. Mr. Macron ordered a dayslong state of emergency, banned the use of TikTok, and shut the territory\u2019s main airport. Those restrictions have since been lifted, and commercial flights are slowly resuming from a smaller airstrip near the capital, Noumea, though the territory\u2019s main airport remains closed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The authorities continue to enforce a nightly curfew and a ban on alcohol sales, while Indigenous Kanak protesters maintain barricades on Noumea\u2019s outskirts and in remote towns like Hienghene.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe closed their door and keep them there and make them see what it\u2019s like when a Kanak boy is kept in their jail in Noumea,\u201d Jonas Tein, a protester in Hienghene, said about the town\u2019s police station, which appears to have been resupplied through regular visits by police helicopters. \u201cWe try to stay calm,\u201d he said, but the crackdown by French police made him \u201cwant to have guns and do what they did in Noumea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tensions over French rule have simmered in New Caledonia since a civil war in the 1980s. The current agitation has its roots in a proposal from Mr. Macron that would add thousands of French migrants to New Caledonia\u2019s electoral rolls. Mr. Macron called the change a step toward full democracy in the territory. But to many Kanaks it was a betrayal of a decades-old peace agreement. They also worried the influx of new voters would make it impossible to win independence in any future referendum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">New Caledonia, and its vast nickel deposits, have new strategic value for France in the Pacific, where China has increasingly been jostling for influence. An independent New Caledonia, French loyalists argue, could easily be swayed toward Beijing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During his trip to New Caledonia, Mr. Macron announced he would delay his voter-roll proposal. Kanak leaders and some moderate French loyalists have since urged him to withdraw it entirely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe only way to make the situation calm is to take away the text\u201d of the constitutional amendment, said Jo\u00ebl Tjibaou, who is helping lead the siege of the Hienghene police station. Mr. Tjibaou\u2019s father was a prominent Kanak leader who was assassinated after negotiating an end to the territory\u2019s 1980s civil war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Politicians from the territory\u2019s pro-independence and loyalist parties are now working with a delegation of senior French civil servants to find a compromise that could resolve the tensions, although participants warn progress will be slow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe state has the watch, but we have the time,\u201d Roch Wamytan, the pro-independence president of New Caledonia\u2019s congress, has told local news media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Pro-independence leaders have called for an end to the violence. Nonetheless, the unrest has made some white residents of New Caledonia anxious about their future. Mining has made New Caledonia prosperous, but there is stark economic inequality between whites and the Kanak people, who are now a minority in their homeland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nicolas Sougnac lives in Koumac, a settlement north of Noumea. He said that though the protests have not led to violence in his town, they have cut off supplies of fuel and made it hard to get food. He said he felt like he had been taken \u201chostage,\u201d and that the French government had \u201cabandoned\u201d him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe last few weeks have shown that there\u2019s no future for France in New Caledonia unless it can come to some kind of agreement with the aspirations of the independence movement,\u201d said Adrian Muckle, a history professor at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. \u201cIt has really underscored the capacity the independence movement has to bring the territory to an economic standstill.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Most of the unrest has been concentrated around Noumea, in New Caledonia\u2019s south. The French authorities are investigating several episodes of the previous weeks: some Kanak protesters were shot by unknown assailants; a video showed French police officers forcing a Kanak protester to his knees so that one officer could kick the man\u2019s head; and a police officer of Kanak heritage reportedly got a severe <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/la1ere.francetvinfo.fr\/nouvellecaledonie\/province-sud\/noumea\/un-jeune-policier-passe-a-tabac-par-des-voisins-vigilants-dans-le-quartier-de-tuband-a-noumea-1493840.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">beating<\/a> from members of a local French militia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Two police officers have been killed by protesters. According to French authorities, 192 more officers have been injured. Police leaders have said that protesters weaponized some barricades with gas tanks. One police officer was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/la1ere.francetvinfo.fr\/nouvellecaledonie\/a-dumbea-un-gendarme-se-blesse-dans-une-bouche-d-egout-piegee-1493822.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">injured<\/a> after falling into a manhole that protesters converted into a hidden trap. This week, there were reports of more shootings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A spokeswoman for Louis Le Franc, France\u2019s top official in New Caledonia, declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The death toll from the current violence is much lower than in New Caledonia\u2019s civil war. Nonetheless, \u201cthe scale of the damage that\u2019s been done to Noumea is on a much greater scale,\u201d Dr. Muckle said. \u201cIt\u2019s a real shock to a lot of New Caledonians about what can be done in a short time. A lot of people are seriously thinking about their future in New Caledonia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Among them is Lizzie Carboni, a writer in Noumea. Armed police are stationed throughout her neighborhood. On Friday, a protester walked through her street threatening to burn residents\u2019 homes. \u201cI feel safe during the day,\u201d Ms. Carboni said. \u201cBut at night, you can never be sure there won\u2019t be a rock thrown at your window.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Carboni is now trying to leave the territory. Last week, she attended an online seminar about migrating to New Zealand. She found more than a hundred other people on the call, most of whom appeared to be New Caledonians.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhen I see how rapidly the chaos came, you can never know what tomorrow is going to be like,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s no more confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/07\/world\/asia\/new-caledonia-france-unrest.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The police station in Hienghene, a remote town in the Pacific island of New Caledonia, has been barricaded in for nearly three weeks. A few dozen protesters have blocked off the station\u2019s access road and take turns keeping watch from the outside. Their cause is evident in the words written in chalk on the road: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/07\/multimedia\/07newcaledonia-wftc\/07newcaledonia-wftc-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[50244,21788,9403,10452,1390],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67588,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67586\/revisions\/67588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}