One thousand police arrived in New Caledonia from France and streets were relatively calm, the French High Commission said yesterday, but roads were blocked and the airport remained shut, stranding tourists on the Pacific island after a week of riots.
The activist group organizing the protests in the French-ruled territory, Field Action Co-ordination Cell (CCAT), said in a statement that blockades would continue, urging protesters to remain peaceful.
Road blocks were making it difficult to supply food to stores in several areas and provide secure travel for medical staff, New Caledonia government officials said.
Photo: AFP
“It’s important to point out that the problem is not so much a lack of staff, medical and food supplies, but more importantly an access problem,” a government statement said.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said “the situation there is deeply concerning,” after a night when there was fire and looting.
French High Commissioner of the Republic in New Caledonia Louis le Franc on Sunday evening said that a police operation to regain control of the road from the capital, Noumea, to the international airport would take several days.
Gendarmes had dismantled 76 road blocks, the French High Commission said yesterday.
Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said officials were speaking to their French counterparts about “how they are progressing in terms of managing law and order within Noumea, and if there is any need for any kind of airlift from Australia.”
Albanese earlier told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio that Australia had been seeking approval from French authorities for two days to send an evacuation flight to New Caledonia to pick up tourists stranded in hotels.
There are about 3,200 people stuck waiting to leave or enter New Caledonia as commercial flights have been canceled due to the unrest that broke out last week, the local government said.
Protests erupted last week sparked by anger among indigenous Kanak people over a constitutional amendment approved in France that would change who is allowed to participate in elections, which local leaders fear would dilute the Kanak vote.
The Bolivian government on Friday struck a deal with protesting miners, but was still grappling with blockades and demonstrations by other workers across La Paz. Other groups are still blocking access roads into the city, which is also the seat of the government. Police on Thursday prevented the miners from entering the main square by using tear gas, while the demonstrators hurled stones and explosives with slingshots. Protests against the policies of Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz have convulsed the Andean nation since early this month, and roadblocks were choking routes into La Paz throughout Friday, the national road authority said. Miners demanded that Paz
The Philippines said it has asked the country’s Supreme Court to allow it to arrest former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s chief drug war enforcer to stand trial in an international tribunal. The International Criminal Court (ICC) last week unsealed an arrest warrant against Philippine Senator Ronald dela Rosa, accusing him along with Duterte and other “coperpetrators” of the “crime against humanity of murder.” Dela Rosa briefly sought refuge in the Philippine Senate last week while asking the Philippine Supreme Court to stop an ongoing attempt by government agents to arrest him. “By his own conduct, he has placed himself outside the protection of
A ship anchored off the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was seized and taken toward Iran and another — a cargo ship near Oman — sank after being attacked, authorities said on Thursday, as tensions escalated near the Strait of Hormuz. It was not immediately clear who was behind these incidents, but they happened as a senior Iranian official reiterated his country’s claim of control over the waterway and another said it had a right to seize oil tankers connected to the US. The turmoil in the strait has been a sticking point for weeks in talks between the US and Iran to
The researchers in Ireland looked at their computer screen, marveling at a medieval book tracked down in a Roman library. They flipped through its digitized pages and found their sought-after treasure: the oldest surviving English poem. “We were extremely surprised. We were speechless. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we first saw that,” said Elisabetta Magnanti, a visiting research fellow at Trinity College Dublin’s school of English. The poem was also within the main body of Latin text, she said, calling it “extraordinary.” Composed in Old English by a Northumbrian agricultural worker in the 7th century, Caedmon’s Hymn appears within some copies of
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