Hundreds of heavily armed marines and police are patrolling Nouméa, the French territory’s capital, after a night of violence.
An additional person was killed in the French Pacific Islands territory of New Caledonia as security personnel attempted to restore order, bringing the death toll from nearly a week of unrest and violence to six looting.
French security forces reported a sixth death Saturday following armed clashes over France’s plan to impose new voting rules that could enfranchise tens of thousands of non-indigenous residents.
The territory is “on a destructive path”, local minister Vaimu’a Muliava warned on Saturday, telling those involved “you are only punishing yourselves”.
The person was killed in an exchange of fire against a barricade in Kaala-Gomen in the north of the main island, a security official said, while two people were seriously injured.
Le Monde and other French media reported that the person killed was a man and that his son was among the injured.
Two police officers were among those who died earlier this week in the unrest which prompted the Paris government to impose a state of emergency on the archipelago and send reinforcements for the security services. Three other people – all indigenous Kanak – were also killed.
Anger among indigenous Kanak people has been brewing for weeks over plans to amend the French constitution to allow people living in New Caledonia for 10 years to vote in the territory’s provincial elections, diluting a 1998 agreement that limited the right to vote. .
Hundreds of heavily armed French marines and police patrolled the capital, Nouméa, on Saturday, where streets were filled with debris.
Vehicles and buildings were set on fire in the Magenta district, the AFP news agency reported, as residents reported hearing gunshots, helicopter drones and “massive explosions” overnight.
The violence left around 3,200 tourists and other travelers stranded inside or outside the archipelago due to the closure of Noumea’s international airport.
French authorities have accused a pro-independence group known as CCAT of instigating the protests. Ten activists accused of organizing the violence were placed under house arrest, according to the authorities.
The CCAT called on Friday for “a time of calm to break the spiral of violence”.
New Caledonia has been a French territory since colonization in the late 1800s. Centuries later, politics remains dominated by debate over whether the islands should be part of France, autonomous or independent – with opinions largely divided along ethnic lines.
France has also accused the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan of interference in the territory. Azerbaijan, traditionally little present in the Asia-Pacific region and located nearly 14,000 kilometers from New Caledonia, has denied these allegations.
News Source : www.aljazeera.com
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