Transcript
WZ: An estimated 300 people have held a street meeting amid concern for their safety after the latest spell of attacks. For people living in Mont Dore and further south, the road past St Louis is a virtual sniper alley and they are sick and tired of the inconvenience and worry.
DW: What do they want to happen?
WZ: It seems that they want to form an association that can take on the French state because it is France which is responsible for security.
DW: What about the politicians?
WZ: One party, an anti-independence party, has written a letter to the French High Commissioner asking for the military to be sent in. The French army has its Pacific forces in New Caledonia. The party called Union for Caledonia within France says what is going near Noumea would not be tolerated in the rest of France.
DW: Any other reaction?
WZ: A New Caledonian member of the French National Assembly Philippe Gomes has noted, like everybody else, that nobody has been arrested. After all, five policemen have received gunshot injuries, many cars have been stoned and damaged and at the end of last month dozens of stolen cars were set alight to block the road. He has called on the French authorities to arrest, judge and jail the gunmen and assailants who he says are known to the police.
DW: And the government's reaction?
WZ: the overseas minister Ericka Bareigts has replied to Mr Gomes, saying of the many initiatives being rolled out for New Caledonia three projects, worth four million dollars, were aimed at addressing youth delinquency in St Louis. Last week, the government announced a raft of measures to try to appease the situation by trying to curb youth delinquency. It also promised to send more police next year.
DW: Is it a policing issue?
WZ: For many, it is, but others sense that it is a malaise that has evolved over many years. It is a by-product of colonisation and of under-achievement that has simply got out of hand. There are suggestions that a small group of disaffected men are now hard-core criminals that want to take on the police. And armed attacks on the police are a regular occurrence across New Caledonia. In recent weeks, there have also been attacks north of Noumea, with guns fired at firefighters. One of them was injured and forced the unit to leave a bushfire unattended.
