EBN- After France’s national assembly approved changes to voting rules in the Pacific island, there have been three fatalities in unrest in New Caledonia. As rioting persists, businesses and schools remain closed.
According to a spokesman for the president of New Caledonia, Louis Mapou, the three deceased were young Indigenous Kanak people; police in the French territory had supplied the information.
The move, which some local leaders fear will dilute the Kanak vote, caused rioting this week before lawmakers in Paris voted on a bill allowing French citizens who have lived in New Caledonia for ten years to vote in provincial elections.
According to French officials, one person was discovered shot and dead in an industrial area. Louis Le Franc, the high commissioner, stated that “someone who probably was defending himself” was the source of the shot rather than law enforcement.
In the worst disturbance the French overseas territory has seen since the 1980s, protests against the changes turned violent on Monday night, with shots fired at security personnel, cars set on fire, and stores looted.
In response, authorities deployed a heavy security contingent, imposed a curfew, banned public gatherings and closed the main airport. That curfew has been extended to Thursday.
“More than 130 arrests have been made and several dozen rioters have been taken into custody and will be brought before the courts,” the French high commission said on Wednesday morning.
Describing the “serious public disturbances” as ongoing, the high commission decried widespread looting and torching of businesses and public property, including schools.
