protest

Banabans’ musical protest

The Gilbert Islands will get internal self government from Britain in November, as

a prelude to complete independence,

probably in 1978. This was agreed at a re cent constitutional conference in London, attended by leaders from the Gilbert Islands. Independence is, of course, subject to parliamentary approval, but these days that is little more than a formality.

The conference did not please the Banaban people from Ocean Island, now living in Fiji. They staged a demonstration in Suva against their exclusion from the talks. About 1,000 of them, led by a Banaban brass band and dancing girls and men in traditional dress, marched through Suva to the UK High Commission office to present a petition to the High Com missioner, Mr Stanley Arthur, to send to London.

Mr Rotan Tito, a Banaban leader, told a crowd of about 2,500, which included Fiji cabinet ministers, parliamentarians and civic dignitaries, that Banabans sought in dependence for Ocean Island because they did not wish to lose “our right of ownership or freedom of access to our ancestral home”. One of the speakers who supported Mr Tito was the Mayor of Suva, Cr Len Usher.

Mr Arthur issued a formal statement saying the London talks were entirely about internal self-government for the Gilberts, not independence. No decision taken in London would, in any way, pre judice the Banaban interests, including the UK Government’s special relationship with, and undertakings to, the Banabans.

The Fiji Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, a few weeks earlier, ac cused Britain and the Gilbert Islands of ig noring an agreement on the procedure for deciding the future of Ocean Island that was to look at the financial implications of the question before turning to the con stitutional aspects.

A few days after the London talks, a report issued from the Foreign Office said representatives of Britain, the Gilberts and the Banabans signed an agreement in Lon don for phosphate mining of another 100 acres of Ocean Island. British officials said that under the new agreement, which would reflect high prices for phosphate, 50% of the royalties would go to the Gilbert Islands, and the other 50% to the Banabans.

But back in Fiji, the Rabi Council of Leaders denied the Banabans had signed the agreement.