Two weeks ago, customary leaders began mediation with young people wanted by the police for alleged abuses committed since May 13, the date of the start of the unrest in the archipelago linked to a constitutional reform projectsuspended since the dissolution of the 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 “posed by the State to the youth, the customs and the population for an armed intervention this Monday, September 30” and considers that this intervention “could compromise all steps taken for de-escalation” and lead to a new “bloodshed”.
Asked by AFP, the High Commission declined to comment.
“We can’t wait too long.”
General Nicolas Matthéos, commander of the gendarmerie in New Caledoniafor his part declared to AFP that he “suspended operations for the duration of mourning, i.e. until tomorrow” Monday.
THE funeral of two young men killed by the police on September 19 took place this Sunday, in the Saint-Louis tribe.
“We cannot wait too long, the road must be reopened. Of course we advocate and seek by all means surrender to avoid further losses, but it is really difficult”, General Matthéos further indicated.
Since the beginning of August, the High Commission has established a double “lock” preventing any vehicle entry on the portion of the road crossing the tribe, following carjackings and shootings at the police.
“Asymmetry”
In a press release on Sunday, the large Négrah chiefdom of Mont-Dore, where the Saint-Louis tribe is located, judges that “the asymmetry between the means employed and the aim pursued is shocking and unacceptable when it leads to death of three young men within the tribe and this in two months.
The chiefdom also emphasizes that its “the duty is to continue the dialogue with (one’s) youth.”
Since May 13, New Caledonia has been going through a serious crisis which has seen the mobilization against a reform of the electoral body degenerate into riots which have destroyed the economic fabric of the archipelago, 13 deadincluding two gendarmes, and caused at least two billion euros in damage.
