UPDATE - New Caledonia placed under state of emergency

ADDS NEW INFORMATION, CHANGE IN HEADER, DECK, LEDE

By Esra Taskin and Nur Asena Erturk

PARIS/ANKARA (AA) – France imposed a state of emergency in its Pacific overseas territory of New Caledonia on Wednesday following several days of unrest in the capital Noumea in which four people have been killed and hundreds of others injured.

French President Emmanuel Macron convened a defense and national security council meeting

in the morning and decided to declare a state of emergency, according to a statement issued by the French presidency.

“All violence is intolerable and will be the subject of a relentless response to ensure the return of order,” the statement said.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal proposed the declaration of a state of emergency and the issuance of a decree to "combat serious breaches of public order" during a Cabinet meeting, said government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot.

She announced that the state of emergency would come into effect at 8 p.m. Paris time (1800GMT) and would last for 12 days.

Authorities in New Caledonia will have enhanced powers, including the ability to impose travel bans, conduct home searches and enforce house arrest, said Thevenot.

Attal was scheduled to preside over a crisis meeting at the Ministry of the Interior later in the evening to address the situation.

- Violence in New Caledonia

At least four people have died in rioting that broke out on Monday after members of the French National Assembly adopted constitutional reform on voting rules, according to broadcaster RFI.

A police officer who was severely wounded in the riots succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday, broadcaster BFMTV reported.

Around 200 stores and more than 50 vehicles have been set on fire during the unrest, resulting in four deaths.

At least 130 people have been detained and more than 60 security personnel have been injured in the incidents.

Local officials announced that schools would remain closed as tensions rose on the island, with protesters looting shops and setting vehicles ablaze.

- Constitutional reform

The constitutional reform was adopted with 351 lawmakers voting in favor and 153 against.

It will allow an increase in the number of voters on the island by around 25,000 people, including French residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years. Pro-independence leaders fear that this will dilute the vote of the indigenous Kanak Melanesian population, who are already a minority.

Kanaks represent 41.2% of the New Caledonian population, according to a 2019 figure given by France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies.

French lawmakers will vote to definitively adopt the constitutional change by the end of June unless local pro-independence and loyalist groups agree on a better text.

New Caledonia was annexed by France in 1853 and became an overseas territory in 1946. The 1980s were marked by riots for independence.

In 2006, the French parliament voted in favor of restricting French citizens’ voting rights in New Caledonia, one of the Kanaks’ goals.

Independence was rejected in a first referendum in 2018 and a second in 2020. A third referendum in 2021 was boycotted by the pro-independence groups, who claimed that it should have been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 90% of the voters chose to remain part of France, a result that the pro-independence groups rejected.

*Writing by Muhammed Yasin Gungor in Istanbul