Loukas Nitsas and his family – wife and two children of five and three years old – arrived in New Caledonia for a break just two days before the island was engulfed by deadly violence.
The photos of Nitsas and his family on DoubleTree Resort on Escapade Island (Îlot Maître), surrounded by emerald sea and azure sky, are incongruent with the chaos enveloping Nouméa.
When Nitsas and his family arrived, they “saw lots of large Kanak flags” as they drove in from the airport. The roads were full of Indigenous Kanak men “on utility vehicles with large Kanak flags, and young people, even kids with small flags.”
“I said half joking to my driver, ‘It seems that they don’t like the French’, and little did I know what would happen,” said Nitsas.
“You could see the anger in their eyes, the way they were looking at us. They don’t know we’re not French,” he said.
Unfolding chaos viewed from the resort
On DoubleTree Resort on Escapade Island, the marine reserve 20 minutes from Nouméa by boat, Nitsas could see Nouméa burning.
“On DoubleTree, two days later, we heard shots and saw plumes of smoke rising from Nouméa – we switched on the television and saw violence on the streets, fires, and looting.
“You could see the smoke rise from lots of places on Nouméa; the island was full of smoke,” Nitsas told Neos Kosmos on a Messenger call.
The deadly violence erupted after Paris approved a constitutional amendment to allow recent arrivals to the territory to vote in provincial elections.
The amendment, which some local leaders fear will dilute the vote of the Indigenous Kanak, is the latest flashpoint in a decades-long scrap over France’s role in the territory. At least six people have died in the chaos and disorder, which resulted in torched cars, looted shops, and road barricades, cutting off access to medicine and food.
Nitsas worries about getting off the island and says they can’t get any information.
“No one is telling us anything; we find out what we can from our phones and television.”
“We are ok, but we are worried; our kids are three and five, and we hear that they are ambushing cars, so even if we were to get off DoubleTree, we are not sure what would happen on the way to the airport”, he said.
French residents from Nouméa, have fled and live on yachts moored on DoubleTree, according to Nitsas.
“The French have filled the hotel. Many say the rioters have burned their homes, and they arrive daily with small and larger boats.
“They tell us that all the supermarkets are empty and that the rioters have burned factories, the Peugeot and Porsche dealerships,” said Nitsas.
On arrival at the resort, Nitsas was told by a local that the rioters had burned a tourist shop hiring out boats and canoes, “‘They have destroyed us,’ he told me'”.
The arrivals are “eating the hotel food, drinking lots of beer and wine at night”, said Nitsas.
Stranded with uncertainty and fear
Out of 90 staff, only 11 have remained at the resort, and the reception is closed.
“I don’t know, but I feel that some of the Kanak have left to join the independence movement while others are apologising for what happened,” said Nitsas.
Australian government officials “ring every day and ask if we are ok every evening, but they can’t tell us much more”.
The Australian Consulate-General in Noumea has closed due to the violence.
“No one is telling us anything. People from Japan and New Zealand are with us, and they are also in the dark.
“We are seeing social media, and some of the New Zealanders are saying their government will be sending a military air force plane to pick them up, but no one is sure,” Nitsas said.
According to the hotel management, Nitsas said: “There are only five days left of food”.
“The hotel has continued to charge us and has asked us to check in again to extend our stay as more people are expected to arrive from Noumea,” Nitsas said.
“The French say they are scared, but at night, they seem happy; they relax, drink lots of beer, and are all on their laptops and phones.
“They look like officials or business people; they are all well dressed, and there seems to be some connection with the management; the resort manager sits with the ones fleeing the violence at night,” said Nitsas.
Military boats arrive on the resort island with armed soldiers to protect citizens, and Nitsas is worried that the militants “will follow those escaping from Nouméa” to the island.
“There is a fear the Kanak know the French are on this island, and they may come; that worries me,” said Nitsas.
Speculation and rumours have filled the void in information; Nitsas was told by one of the French who arrived at the resort that “one in three of the Indigenous Kanak have guns, there are 8000 Indigenous, and they have guns”.
He has also been told that “someone is behind the rioting”.
France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind protests and violence that have rocked its Pacific island territory of New Caledonia over the French government’s decision to change a voting law.
Nitsas said that last night, when they were waiting in line to be served, one of the French residents seeking refuge at the resort told his wife “to speak French when she was speaking English”.
“It is a real colony, totally French; there is no English, and I can see why the Kanak are angry – if I were growing up here, I would also be angry,” said Nitsas.
The French government has declared a state of emergency over their Pacific territory. Six hundred gendarmes have been tasked with retaking the road from the capital, Nouméa, to the international airport.
