NICE, France (AP) — The French prosecutor in New Caledonia said authorities have opened an investigation into the unrest that has killed seven people and caused significant destruction in the Pacific archipelago, with decades of tension between those who those seeking independence and those loyal to France.
Violence flared on May 13 in response to attempts to amend the French constitution and amend voting lists in New Caledonia. France declared a state of emergency in its Pacific territory on May 15 and rushed in hundreds of reinforcements to help police quell the uprising, which included shootings, clashes, looting and arson.
“We are interested in those who pulled the strings, who led the planning and committed these abuses in New Caledonia,” prosecutor Yves Dupas said late on Tuesday in an interview with broadcaster France Info. He added that investigators are interested in everyone on the island “regardless of their level of involvement or responsibility” in the unrest, whether they are “perpetrators or their sponsors.”
He said officials were investigating allegations of criminal association, criminal acts and crimes.
Authorities are also investigating those suspected of violence against civilians involved in the unrest, Dupas said. He said several New Caledonia police officers are in custody.
The seven people killed in the shootings included four people from the indigenous Kanak community and two gendarmes, Dupas said. According to the French Interior Ministry, one of the gendarmes was killed when a weapon was accidentally fired.
The prosecutor said he did not know whether those killed in the unrest were related to former French footballer Christian Karembeu, who said on Monday he was “in mourning” after two members of his family were fatally shot during the recent violence.
Karembeu, who goes by Kanak and had moved to mainland France as a teenager, was asked in an interview with French broadcaster Europa 1 whether his relatives had been the target of recent violence. The 1998 World Cup winner with France said: “It is true that it is indeed a murder and we hope that these murders will be investigated.”
Dupas said four people from the Kanak community were among the civilian victims. “It is possible, but I cannot confirm, that some are relatives of Christian Karembeu.” He also said his office has not received any criminal complaints from families of civilian victims to date.
Since May 12, 442 people have been detained in New Caledonia, Dupas said. Of those, 90 have been referred to court, he said.
Detainees held at the French prison in New Caledonia’s capital Nouméa, known as Camp Est, were transferred to the detention center in Koné in the north of the archipelago and others were sent to facilities in mainland France, Dupas said .
French President Emmanuel Macron decided on Monday to lift the state of emergency in New Caledonia to facilitate dialogue between local parties and French authorities on the future of the archipelago of 270,000 inhabitants and restore peace.
Pro-independence parties and Kanak leaders urged Macron to withdraw the electoral reform law if France wants to “end the crisis.” Opponents fear the voting legislation will benefit pro-French politicians in New Caledonia and further marginalize indigenous Kanaks, who have long fought to be free from French rule, amid sharp economic disparities.
New Caledonia became French in 1853 under Emperor Napoleon III, Napoleon’s nephew and heir. It became an overseas territory after World War II, with French citizenship granted to all Kanaks in 1957.
People of European, mainly French, descent in New Caledonia, which has long served as France’s prison colony and now has a French military base, distinguish between descendants of settlers and descendants of the many prisoners forcibly brought to the area sent.
The Pacific island east of Australia, which lies ten time zones ahead of Paris, is known to tourists for its UNESCO World Heritage-listed atolls and reefs. Tensions between indigenous Kanaks seeking independence and the settlers’ descendants and other white settlers who want the country to remain part of France have been simmering for decades.
