A customary chief of the district of Guahma, on the Caledonian island of Maré, was arrested on Monday January 17 and placed in police custody, indicated the prosecutor of Nouméa, in an investigation into abuses at the end of 2020 against a tribe that he is believed to have sponsored.
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A controversial figure, Henri-Dokucas Naisseline was the subject of a search warrant, recalls the Nouméa prosecutor, Yves Dupas.
He was arrested for never having responded to summonses from investigators who want to hear him on his role in the violence committed against the Roh tribe on November 2, 2020, against the backdrop of a politico-religious conflict between part of the tribe and the great chef.
130 people evacuated
A hundred men armed with machetes and stones had attacked the home of opponents of the great chief during the night, destroying and burning their homes as well as a tourist lodge and several vehicles.
Victims then testified that they had to hide for several hours in the rocks by the sea.
In the following days, the State had sent four platoons of mobile gendarmes and the GIGN to secure property and people.
On November 5, the government of New Caledonia organized the evacuation of 130 people from Roh to Noumea.
Under the influence of a customary expulsion, they have still not been able to reach their island to this day.
In the province of the Loyalty Islands, all land is customary and the traditional chiefdoms hold strong power there.
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Inducted
" in 2007, Henri-Dokucas Naisseline inherited the office passed on to him by his father, Nidoïsh Naisseline, a figure of the Kanak struggle who died in 2015. His son is not unanimous among the inhabitants of the Guahma district, where many residents accuse him of authoritarian excesses.
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