France's Macron to visit riot-scarred New Caledonia

French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to the Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia in an attempt to resolve a political crisis, Paris said on Tuesday, as tourists were evacuated from the riot-hit territory after over a week of unrest.

Macron "will leave as soon as this evening", government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot said, in a bid to soothe tempers over his government's voting reform plans rejected by indigenous Kanaks.

His trip comes on the heels of military evacuation flights for Australians and New Zealanders from the small Magenta domestic airport in New Caledonia's capital Noumea, which touched down in Brisbane and Auckland on Tuesday evening.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and New Zealand counterpart Winston Peters said more air force transport planes would be making the trip in the coming days.

Australian tourist Maxwell Winchester said he and his wife Tiffany were "ecstatic" to hear evacuation flights had begun after being stuck in a barricaded resort for a week.

"At least know we have a way out in the next few days," he said.

New Caledonia's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) which operates Noumea's still-blockaded La Tontouta international airport, told AFP commercial flights should resume on Saturday morning.

- Catapults -

The Pacific territory of 270,000 people has been in turmoil since May 13, when violence erupted over plans to give voting rights to thousands of non-indigenous residents, which Kanaks say will dilute their votes.

The unrest has left six people dead, including two police, and hundreds injured.

During his visit, Macron will aim to "listen to, talk and hold discussions with Caledonian elected officials" in an attempt to restore order, and "give answers to the many legitimate questions Caledonians are asking, both on the reconstruction side and the political side," a person close to the president told AFP.

Local prosecutors said Tuesday that around 400 shops and businesses had been damaged, while the CCI on Monday tallied 150 businesses "looted and set on fire".

French forces were slowly restoring calm across the territory, clearing burned-out vehicles from roads, and deploying troops to protect public buildings, authorities said.

Twenty-one supermarkets have been able to reopen and gradually restock, they said Tuesday. French authorities said police had so far arrested nearly 270 "rioters".

Over the weekend, security forces destroyed 76 roadblocks along the critical 60-kilometre (40-mile) road from Noumea to La Tontouta airport.

But AFP journalists said many had quickly been rebuilt by Kanak militants.

Kanaks with scarfs over their faces, some armed with homemade catapults, were still manning a roadblock Tuesday on the road to the international airport.

- Anger over vote reform -

One of several militants on the roadblock, a masked 25-year-old with sunglasses who gave only his first name, Stanley, said the proposed voting reform "means the elimination of the Kanak people".

"That's what they don't understand over there -- we are already in the minority in our own home," he told AFP.

Indigenous Kanaks make up about 40 percent of the population.

The new law would extend voting rights to those who have lived in the territory for at least 10 years.

Prominent French figures including former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who followed the New Caledonia file closely while in office, have called for delay to the constitutional change.

"You can't make progress on the Caledonia file by issuing ultimatums," Valls said Sunday.

But anti-independence representatives want it pushed through.

Withdrawing "would prove the wreckers, the looters and the rioters right," said Nicolas Metzdorf, a New Caledonia MP for Macron's Renaissance party.

- 'Madness' -

In the Noumea beachside suburb of Magenta, AFP journalists saw abandoned roadblocks and locals clearing up the streets.

"I am so happy to see this and for the madness to end," said one tearful resident who gave only her first name, Sylvie.

Paris has for now held off extending a 12-day state of emergency, which has led to a night-time curfew, house arrests of suspected ringleaders, as well as a ban on TikTok, the sale of alcohol, carrying weapons and gatherings.

New Caledonia has been a French territory since the mid-1800s.

But almost two centuries on, opinion is split roughly along ethnic lines over whether the islands should be part of France, autonomous or independent.

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