08/06/2024 via: sansnom Translated by Act for freedom now!
13th May 2024. The shopping centre « Kenu In » goes up in smoke from the first night of the insurrection
Despite the efforts of the French colonial authorities, who day after day backed with numerous press releases are announcing a return to normal, the situation in New-Caledonia is far from being settled four weeks after the outbreak of the uprising of a part of the Kanak youth. And some signs are unmistakable, such as the continuation of the curfew (18h-6h) at least until June 17, the requisition of petrol stations for the exclusive use of cops and military that has just been lifted on June 8th, or the fact that the international airport of La Tontouta remains closed «until further notice». Only the airfield of Magenta has been open to commercial flights again since June 5th, or internal flights to New Caledonia to Lifou, Ouvéa and Maré, and nearly 500 French tourists are still blocked on the island after three weeks. As for the North of New Caledonia, it is the army that takes charge directly of the supplying (and therefore rationing and priorities) of the stores, managing the containers that arrive at Koné by barge.
At present, despite the pressure of the 3,500 cops and soldiers sent to the scene, some roadblocks in the neighbourhoods of Nouméa or along the 50 km road leading to the airport, are still being re-erected by Kanak insurgents after their dismantling, without omitting to trap them with gas cylinders at times or even prepare some little surprises for the blues: on June 4th in Dumbéa, for example, a gendarme fell down a manhole after walking on branches that had been placed over it to mask the opening. “With a depth of 1m20, concrete re-inforced irons 2 mm in diameter had been positioned vertically at the bottom to create piles. The gendarme was impaled by one leg and a metal stake that had got in between his bullet-proof vest and body vest, which had pierced but without penetration thanks to the Kevlar plate.”
In total, of this archipelago of 270,000 inhabitants, 212 police officers and gendarmes have been injured since May 13, but also a significant number of Kanaks that the authorities officially refuse to account for, but which we know is considerable and sometimes very serious: several insurgents have lost an eye or had facial bones smashed following shots from police flash balls, others have bullet wounds and are in coma.
Continue reading NEW CALEDONIA: THE KANAK INSURRECTION AND THE NICKEL INDUSTRY →
