A chocolate factory and a soda bottling factory are set on fire. Molotov cocktails were thrown at the police, and the prisoners took the guards hostage. Five people died. As protests against French rule boil over in New Caledonia this week, the South Pacific island experienced its heaviest violence since the civil war decades ago.
“I'm in a state of shock, I can't move,” Lizzy Carboni, a writer who lives in the capital Nouméa, said by phone as the fourth night of protests began on Thursday. Carboni said when she checked on his parents, her mother told him, “We never wanted to talk about what happened in 1984, but it's happening again.”
In 1853, France annexed New Caledonia, located approximately 900 miles off the east coast of Australia. France built penal colonies and transported more foreigners over time to mine New Caledonia's vast nickel reserves. As a result, the indigenous Kanak people eventually became a minority in their own land.
The most serious challenge to French rule occurred in the 1980s, when the French military was called in to quell a violent uprising. Dozens of people were killed in the ensuing clashes. To end the fighting, French authorities agreed to put New Caledonia on the road to independence.
But France's calculus has changed in recent years due to the escalating conflict between the United States and China over influence in the Pacific. French officials are concerned that China could increase its influence in independent New Caledonia, similar to what it is trying to do in other South Pacific countries such as Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.
French President Emmanuel Macron visited New Caledonia last July and laid out his vision for the Pacific outpost.
“New Caledonia is a French country because it has chosen to remain French,” Macron told a crowd protesting independence. “There's no going back now. I don't have a stutter.”
But even 40 years after the end of the civil war, pro-independence sentiment and resentment toward French settlers persist in semi-autonomous New Caledonia.
In the 1980s, France agreed to hold an independence referendum within 10 years. This was a bet that the emerging Kanak middle class would choose to remain in France. At the start of the new millennium, the vote was postponed for another 20 years. However, French authorities agreed to freeze the electoral roll to prevent people who had recently arrived in New Caledonia, who are considered likely to support continued French rule, from swaying the vote. France also agreed to hold three referendums instead of one due to the possibility of violent protests.
In the first round, held in 2018, pro-independence voters won a surprisingly strong vote, despite concerns that New Caledonia's beleaguered nickel-dependent economy could not survive without financial support from France. received 43% of the total. Two years later, 47% voted for independence.
The third and final referendum was held after the coronavirus pandemic, which has devastated many Kanak communities. Local mourning customs prohibit political activity, and indigenous leaders have called on Mr Macron to postpone the 2021 vote. When that proceeded as planned, many Kanaks protested and boycotted, voting overwhelmingly in favor of remaining in France.
Pro-independence leaders have called for a second vote, but talks with French authorities have stalled. And in a move towards full democracy, Mr Macron's government is backing an amendment to France's constitution that would allow some people who have moved to New Caledonia since 1998 to vote in the region.
Pro-independence sentiment has long existed in New Caledonia, but the latest round of demonstrations began on May 4, when Jean-Marie, the Kanak leader who was assassinated by disgruntled nationalists after negotiating an end to the civil war, It began as a memorial to Mr. Tibau's death. war. Protests spread across New Caledonia's 140 islands, home to about 270,000 people.
Mr. Tibau's son, Joel Tibau, said in an interview last year that France does not understand the depth of the country's feelings.
“If you look at our country, you will understand why we are fighting for our independence,” he said. “White people came here and stole our land and stole our customs. They don't respect us.”
On Monday, the French Chamber of Deputies considered constitutional amendments that had already been passed by the Senate. Adrian Mackle, a history professor at New Zealand's Victoria University of Wellington, said protests in New Caledonia, particularly Nouméa, turned violent as it became clear the proposal would be passed. .
“We are in a state of civil war,” Sonia Bacques, the region's most prominent anti-independence politician, wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday. “Without massive and urgent intervention by the state, we will lose control of New Caledonia within hours.”
Local authorities imposed a curfew, canceled international flights and mobilized 1,700 law enforcement officers. France has since sent in the military and another 1,000 police officers by plane. The French government declared a state of emergency, placed 10 protest leaders under house arrest and banned social media app TikTok in the territory.
French authorities said the rioters killed one police officer and opened fire on several others. Another police officer was killed by an accidental shot. At least 64 police officers were injured.
Although authorities say calm has returned to Nouméa, some residents are still afraid to go out.
“It's too dangerous,” Fabrice Valette, who lives with his partner and one-year-old son in Paita, a small town north of Noumea, said on Friday. “We have no idea how we're going to get food, drink and medicine.”
Three residents said in interviews that many of the protesters appeared to be teenagers and young adults who wore masks to hide their identities. At barricades and on the streets, many protesters held up colorful Kanakhi flags (the language New Caledonia is known for) as smoke from burned cars and buildings filled the air.
The protests were organized by a group called the Field Action Coordination Cell, whose leaders said they do not condone violence. Dominique Fauci, the Paris-based group's leader, warned that France's crackdown could backfire.
“We hope that sending additional resources there will not become a means of repression that will only make the situation worse,” he said.
The constitutional amendment now needs to be approved by a joint session of the French parliament, scheduled for June.
On Friday, New Caledonia's parliament speaker, Rok Wamitan, rejected Mr Macron's request for a meeting. “How can you talk to the President of the French Republic in these circumstances?'' he said.
Nicolas Metzdorf, New Caledonia's representative in the French National Assembly, blamed pro-independence leaders for the unrest. He acknowledged the risk of a return to civil war.
French Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin said Thursday that foreign interference from Azerbaijan contributed to the unrest. (Relations between the two countries have been strained due to France's support for Armenia in its territorial dispute with Azerbaijan.)
Darmanin did not provide details, but Azerbaijan denied the allegations.
Some feared an escalation in violence in a country where about one in four residents owns a large number of firearms.
“Everyone owns a gun, so the situation can escalate quickly,” said Valette, who lives in Paita. “I think it will be very difficult to unite people and become one country after this.”
Reporting for this story received support in part from the Pulitzer Center.