Congress of Micronesia

Marianas rub with the Congress of Micronesia

From a Saipan correspondent

It appears that part of the stra tegically-located US Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands will soon be come a permanent part of the American defence system in the northern Pacific.

Senator Edward Dig. Pangelinan, chairman of the newly-formed Mariana Islands Political Status Com mittee, has confirmed reports here that the first round of negotiations between local leaders and top-level US officials will begin on Saipan early in December. Pangelinan, also of the Congress of Micronesia’s Joint Committee on Future Status, met Ambassador Franklin Haydn Wil liams, President Nixon’s personal representative to the Micronesian status talks, along with other Marianas leaders, at the conclusion of the sixth round of Micronesian talks that ended on October 6 at Barbers Point Naval Air Station at Oahu, Hawaii.

Marianas leaders here received permission from Williams last April to negotiate with the US for a separate status different from the rest of the territory “. . . leading to full political union with the United States . . .” according to a Marianas position paper. Until then, the official US position was to deal with the ter ritory as a single political entity until the trusteeship over Micronesia was terminated.

The Congress of Micronesia is cur rently negotiating for a semi-indepen dent status with the US delegation.

However, the Marianas move has caused some disagreement within the Micronesian congress. Official trans cripts just released by the US State Department quoted Micronesian Status Committee chairman Sen.

Lazarus Salii on the final day of the talks: “We have asked, and ask again, that the United States provide to our subcommittee on land the details of its requirements in the Marianas. As you are aware, the mandate received by this committee from the Congress of Micronesia requires that our con sideration and negotiations encompass the entire present Trust Territory and not only five out of the six districts.

The unilateral action of the United States in accepting separate negotia tions with the Marianas does not, obviously, relieve this committee

f Ul . . . , ... from the obliga ions with which the congress has entrusted us.

Ambassador Williams replied: “The position of the Marianas District with respect to its desire for a future political status is a matter of record, as is the response of my government to their request for separate talks

leading to permanent political union of the Marianas to my country.”

Exactly what kind of political relationship Marianas leaders want is still unclear. Until two years ago unofficial plebiscites favoured reunifi cation with Guam, an unincorporated and fortified American territory at the southern end of the Mariana Islands chain. But that movement is dying out today. Leaders here generally favour by-passing Guam for more direct ties with the United States, or Commonwealth status, similar to Puerto Rico.

People here, as in nearby Guam, want military bases for economic reasons.