Net raid in New Caledonia. Eight people were arrested on Wednesday June 19, including Christian Tein, considered the leader of the Field Action Coordination Cell (CCAT), the movement at the origin of the uprising against the reform of the electoral body in the archipelago, confirmed the prosecution to AFP.
The identities of the other seven people were not immediately known. The eight suspects were taken into custody. These could last up to 96 hours, “concerning acts relating to organized crime”, specified the public prosecutor of Nouméa Yves Dupas in a press release.
The Nouméa public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation on May 17, notably for criminal conspiracy targeting “suspected sponsors” of the riots, including “certain members of the CCAT”.
Unprecedented violence
Since May 13, New Caledonia has been in the grip of unprecedented violence since the civil war of the 1980s. Nine people, including two gendarmes, have been killed, hundreds of people injured and the material damage is minimal. to 1.5 billion euros. More than 3,000 soldiers, gendarmes and police officers were deployed on site.
The Field Action Coordination Cell, or CCAT, is an organization created in November 2023, directly opposed to electoral reform. She has been in the government’s crosshairs since the start of the riots, with the authorities accusing those responsible of being behind the violence. The independence collective had been described as a “mafia organization” by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
On Wednesday morning, the headquarters of the Caledonian Union, which also houses CCAT offices, was cordoned off by the police, AFP noted on site. The roadblock installed in the street by the activists has been cleared. According to several testimonies collected by AFP, the building was searched.
“The police entered the offices and took photos, particularly of documents,” assured Reine Hue, elected official (UC), from the province of the Islands. It was the CCAT premises that were targeted, confirmed the public prosecutor, who specified that “this operation took place without incident”.
The Caledonian Union denounced these arrests
In a press release, the Caledonian Union denounced these arrests, which were carried out while Christian Tein, also general commissioner of the UC, “was on his way to Nouméa, where he was to hold a press conference”. The Caledonian Union “denounces these abusive arrests while local anti-independence leaders and criminal militiamen strut around in complete freedom” and “demands immediate explanations for all these gratuitous arrests”.
The party, however, calls on its activists “not to respond to the provocation” and calls for calm “while waiting for more information on these arrests”.
In the city center of Nouméa, a vast security perimeter has been set up in front of the gendarmerie headquarters, where police custody takes place. The surrounding streets were closed to traffic, AFP noted. Many stores, banks and several administrations decided to close their doors at the end of the morning – “for security reasons”, explained a trader, causing major traffic jams.