On May 20, 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron (second from right) held a Defense Council meeting at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris to discuss the issue of New Caledonia, France’s conflict-ridden Pacific territory.
Benoit Tessier | AFP | Getty Images
Australia and New Zealand said they would send government planes to New Caledonia on Tuesday to evacuate their nationals from French territory.
The French High Commission in New Caledonia said on Tuesday that the airport remained closed to commercial flights and that the army would be deployed to protect public buildings.
Some 3,200 people are waiting to leave or enter New Caledonia after unrest broke out last week and commercial flights were canceled, local authorities said.
The French High Commission said more than 1,000 gendarmes and police from France were working and 600 more personnel would be added in the coming hours.
Roads in Noumea are being cleared and bulldozers are clearing away burned-out car wreckage and debris.
Six people died and the riots saw businesses and cars burned, stores looted and roadblocks limiting access to medicine and food. The chamber said 150 businesses were looted and burned.
The foreign ministers of New Zealand, France and Australia held a conference call on Monday night after New Zealand and Australia said they were waiting for permission from French authorities to send defense aircraft to evacuate tourists.
A subsequent meeting of the French Defense Council agreed on arrangements to allow tourists to return home.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said: “New Zealanders in New Caledonia face a challenging few days and getting them home is a top priority for the Government.”
“We would like to thank the authorities in Paris and Noumea for their support in facilitating this flight,” he added, adding that more flights would be sent in the coming days.
Australian Foreign Minister Wong Yin-yin said in a social media post on Tuesday that permission had been received for two “Australian government-assisted flights to leave New Caledonia today for Australian and other tourists.”
Protests erupted last week among France’s indigenous Kanak people, angry over France’s approval of a constitutional amendment that would change who can stand in elections, which local leaders fear would weaken the Kanak vote.
Viro Xulue, a member of a community group that provides social assistance to other Kanak people during the crisis, said it feels like a return to the civil war of the 1980s and people are scared.
“We are really afraid of the police, the French soldiers, and we are also afraid of the anti-Kankak militia terrorist groups,” Xu Lu told Reuters in a video interview.
The French High Commission previously said that three of the six people killed in the riots were young Kanaks shot dead by armed civilians, and there were also clashes between Kanak protesters and armed self-defense groups or militias formed to protect themselves. confrontation.
“The French government doesn’t know how to control the people here. They sent more than 2,000 troops to control it, but it failed,” Xu Lue said.
Pro-independence parties say they want the French government to withdraw electoral reforms before resuming talks, while France says the restoration of order is a prerequisite for dialogue.
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