SYDNEY, May 16 (Reuters) - Armed forces were protecting New Caledonia’s two airports and port after a third night of violent riots that have killed four people, the Pacific Island’s top French official said on Thursday morning, adding at least four alleged instigators were under house arrest.
In three municipalities on the French-ruled island, gendarmes faced about 5,000 rioters, including between 3,000 and 4,000 in the capital Noumea, France’s High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said in a televised press conference.
Two hundred people have been arrested, and 64 gendarmes and police injured, while road barricades put up by the protesters were causing a “dire situation” for medicine and food for the population, he added.
New Caledonia is part of France, it’s not a different country. If you are a New Caledonian, you are a French citizen.
But it doesn’t operate as a part of France. If it did, this law wouldn’t be necessary because a French citizen living there would already have the right to vote by virtue of being a citizen. This measure seems to remove that block and allow outside influence to control the politics of the island. Honestly, I can’t think of a non-nefarious reason to do this. It reeks of a political coup.