Pacific Report

Welcome To Independent Kiribati!

Armed with a pledge of ample but tied aid from Britain, Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati) began their independent career on July 12 in front of a capacity crowd of 7000 people in the sports stadium on Tarawa. Princess Anne, representing Her Majesty the Queen, handed the instruments giving Kiribati its freedom to Chief Minister leremia Tabai, and less than two hours later had flown out of the country. Kiribati is one of only two republics in full association with the commonwealth. Its chief minister be comes its first president. (Full report in PIM September by John Carter, who was in Tarawa for the occasion.)

France, Usa In Forum Sights

French secretary of state for foreign affairs, Olivier Stirn, did his work well during his July Pacific whistle-stop tour, par ticularly so in Wellington where he seemed to have put the fear of death into Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. But, for all the French outrage at the thought of any other nation interfering in French affairs in the Pacific, the South Pacific Forum, at its meeting in the same month in the Solomon Islands capital of Honiara, decided it would interfere: not as boldly as Papua New Guinea advocated, not as mildly as Mr Muldoon would have liked. The final resolution, noting the desire of Pacific Island peoples, including those in French territories, to determine their own future and calling on ‘the metropolitan powers concerned to work with the peoples of their Pacific territories to this end’, did not live up to the hopes of the four Melanesian New Caledonian Independence Front representatives who went to Honiara to put their case to Forum delegates. But they took hope from indications that individual Forum nations might make rep resentations to the UN Committee of 24 (on decolonisation) to get New Caledonia and French Polynesia back on the com mittee’s list of ‘non-autonomous territories’. The ‘French terri tories’ question occupied more than half of the Forum’s business time this year a one-day-only sitting. Another international issue was aired when the Cook Islands sponsored a motion call ing upon the United States to abandon plans to use a Pacific island (Palmyra atoll is the latest candidate to be mentioned) for storage of spent nuclear fuel. The motion, adopted by the Forum meeting, expressed ‘grave concern at the possible environmental hazards’ involved in the plan. The Forum adopted the convention establishing the South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) but left the matter of a wider fisheries agency, which could embrace distant water fishing nations in its mem bership, to be resolved by its administrative arm, the South Pa cific Bureau for Economic Co-operation (SPEC). Dr Gabriel Gris, secretary of Papua New Guinea’s Department of Decentralis ation and a former vice-chancellor of the University of Papua New Guinea, is to succeed Tonga’s Mahe Tupouniua who is returning to ministerial duties in Nukualofa after seven years as SPEC’s first director.

New Caledonia Votes

Almost 74% of the 68 289 registered voters turned out for New Caledonia’s July 1 poll to elect a new 36-member territorial as sembly. The election was made necessary by the March dissol ution of the old by French High Commissioner Claude Charbon niaud. The Gaullist RPCR (Rally for Caledonia and the Republic) and the Centrist FNSC (Federation for a New Society in Caledonia) between them got 32 841 votes (65.5%), and won 22 seats (RPCR 15, FNSC 7). The coalition of pro-independence parties got 17 243 votes (34.4%), and won 14 seats. Largest of the pro-independence parties is the Union Caledonienne, which won nine seats, the same number as it held in the old assembly. Generally speaking, the poll appears to have achieved the results desired by Paris: consilidation of the old profusion of small groups into a few larger formations, and emergence

of a stable majority favouring continued association with France.

Unifil Fijians; Woundings, Kidnapping

Two Fijian soldiers were wounded in June when Palestinians attacked a position held by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) south of Tyre. UN headquarters in Jerusalem said one was hit in the arm and the other had leg wounds. But the condition of both was described as ‘satisfactory’. Two Fijian soldiers were killed by Palestinian guerrillas in February (PIM March). In mid-June, in what appeared to be a propaganda exer cise by Rightwing Israeli-backed Lebanese forces, a Fijian lance-corporal, Waqa Vakaloloma, 21, was kidnapped and held for several days. He managed to escape. According to Fiji army sources, the Rightists had sought to use him to exploit Fijian feelings about the February killings by Palestinians.

It’S Sunshine Again In New Hebrides

A new and positive turn in New Hebrides affairs: at a June meet ing in Noumea, French and British representatives agreed with Chief Minister Gerard Leymang and Deputy Chief Minister Walter Lini that the condominium powers would drop their earlier controversial requirement that there must be a referendum on the constitution and independence before elections. They accepted an alternative three-stage plan proposed by the New Hebridean leaders. At the same time, it was agreed that the New Hebridean constitutional committee, whose work has been stalled by internal wrangles, would get back to the job. (Political Currents.)

‘Arise, Sir Jacob...’

Sergeant-Major Sir Jacob Vouza, Solomon Islands’ legendary hero of World War 11, received a knighthood in the 1979 Queen’s birthday honours. Sir Jacob, a former police sergeant-major now in his seventies, served with the Solomon Islands Defence Force and the US Marines during the battle of Guadalcanal. By refusing under torture to give information to the enemy he saved the lives of many allied soldiers. Britain decorated him with the George Medal and the US with the Silver Star. He was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 1957 for his postwar community service activities. Sir Jacob has also been active in keeping alive the friendship with American war veterans, especially on their pilgrimages to the old battlefields.

Banabans Reject London Ruling

Leaders of the Banaban community have rejected the June de cision of the British Government not to allow their Ocean Island homeland to be separated from the new nation of Kiribati.

Spokesman Tebaiti Tawaka said Britain had once again cheated the Banabans out of their birthright. ‘Britain and her partners ripped the Banabans off for years. Now the British Government has committed the final betrayal . . . We cannot give up the struggle now.’

Finbar Kenny For Rarotonga

American millionaire Finbar Kenny will appear voluntarily to face conspiracy charges in the Cook Islands (PIM June). The Cook Islands Government had earlier started extradition proceedings in the USA against Mr Kenny. Along with former Premier Sir Albert Henry and other defendants, he faces charges connected with the flying-in of voters from New Zealand in the Cook Islands’ elections in March 1978. Mr Kenny is the financial power behind the Cook Islands Philatelic Bureau. Meanwhile, a group in Mel bourne, Australia, known as ‘The Friends from Rarotonga As sociation’, has been raising money to help pay Sir Albert’s legal costs in the case. The group is appealing for money from families of people who went to Rarotonga for cancer treatment while Mylan Byrch was there. It claims to have raised $3OOO so far.

Radio Australia Beefs Up Its Pidgin

Radio Australia has increased the strength of the transmission used for its Pidgin service from 10 kW to 100 kW. ‘GET THE HELL OUT OF ISLANDS’ (I) New Zealand journalist Mike Field, editor of the Apia-based Western Samoa Government newspaper Savali, whose free wheeling journalistic ways have more than once tried the patience of his mentors in the prime minister’s department, has resigned and, for good measure, been ordered to quit the country. The crunch came when, after receiving instructions not to publish a report of a court hearing of bribery charges against a former MR (Political Currents), Field brought out the June 5 issue of Savali with a blank column on the front page and a blank page two (PIM July). The large white spaces were ac companied by a short note from Field saying the report, of which all that appeared was the headline ‘Ex-MP Fined $1550 in Brib ery Case;’ was ‘ordered removed by the government only a few hours before it was due to be printed’.

GET THE HELL OUT OF ISLANDS’ (II) The Papua New Guinea Government has ordered Dr Ralph Premdas, head of the politics department at the University of PNG, and a US citizen hailing originally from Guyana, to leave the country. There were suggestions the reason was his involve ment in the recent damaging five-week student strike at the university (PIM July), but this has been denied by Dr Premdas.

He was told to go but last minute recourse to the National Court won him time to make a legal appeal.

Now Neave Runs ‘Soviet Weapons’

The New Caledonian newspaper France Australe carried a four column front-page banner headline in June ’Soviet Weapons off Noumea Dropped off by the Australian Gun-runner Arrested in the New Hebrides’. On page two, the paper carried practically the same headline, with a report of the opening of the court hearing in vila of charges against Australian David Neave (PIM July). The small print in the court report took much of the steam and sensationalism out of the headlines.

• Liberal-Minded Norfolk Administrator

Peter Coleman, 51, former leader of the NSW state parliamen tary opposition, takes over as administrator of the Australian ter ritory of Norfolk Island in September from D. V. O’Leary. Mr Coleman lost his Liberal seat at the NSW state elections last October, and his appointment by the federal Liberal government brought criticism of ‘jobs for the boys’. Nevertheless, most people who know anything about Mr Coleman see his appoint ment as a good one. He’s a trained lawyer, a former chief sec retary of NSW and minister for revenue, author of several books on Australian history (including censorship laws), and genuinely liberal-minded, with wide-ranging interests. His arrival will follow establishment in August of an elected Norfolk Island legislative assembly which will give the Islanders a greater measure of self government.

Petition To Oust Tupuola

Western Samoa’s opposition party headed by Vaai Kolone in late June handed to the head of state a petition asking him to ask Tupuola Efi to stand down as prime minister and to appoint Vaai in his place. The reasons given were that the country had lost confidence in the present government, who were in any case in a minority, and that the country, in view of its economic crisis, needed a government with a mandate from the people.

Death Link With Arawa

F. R. ‘Kip’ McKillop, the man whose Arawa plantation on Bougainville was forcibly resumed by the Papua New Guinea Administration in 1969 as the site of the town of Arawa that today services the activities of the giant Panguna copper mine, died

at Teresopolis, Brazil, on July 2, aged 63. Kip McKillop, who died from a heart attack, built up Arawa plantation during 17 years on Bougainville, and bitterly fought acquisition of the prop erty. Arawa, among other things, was noted for its magnificent collection of orchids and native plants, and McKillop was one of the founders of the New Guinea Biological Foundation. He bought and developed planting property in Brazil, with his wife Mary, following the loss of Arawa. About 50 old PNG friends attended a memorial service to him in Sydney on July 11.

Tonga’S ‘Sea’ Of Pumice

A ‘sea’ of pumice covering almost 200 km by 10 km of ocean north of Tonga s main island of Tongatapu was baffling geol ogists in June. Among a number of clues as to its origin, Ron Richmond, Fiji’s director of mineral development, told the Fiji Times that on May 10 an orbiting satellite had detected steam coming from Tonga’s Fonualei volcano.

Getting Closer To Karkar

The Papua New Guinea Government will spend Kl2B 000 to make volcanic Karkar Island, north of Madang, more accessible to emergency services. Among measures planned are upgrad ing of airstrip and wharf facilities to take bigger planes and ships, installing radio and communications equipment and placing a television monitor near the volcano mouth. The volcano’s activity increased late last year, but has been reported stable since the deaths of two volcanologists in an explosion in March (PIM May).

A New Franco-Tongan Pact?

In his June speech from the throne opening the session of Ton ga’s legislative assembly, King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV spoke of planned celebrations of the 125th anniversary of Tonga’s treaty with the French Government, and foreshadowed possible re newal of the treaty in January 1980.

Oscar Temaru Touches Sore Spot

Oscar Temaru, outspoken leader of the pro-independence Front de la Liberation de la Polynesia has raised a matter generally regarded as tabu by pointing at a press conference to the prob lem posed in French Polynesia by the economically powerful Chinese community. Affirming ‘We are not racists, we are patriots’, Mr Temaru spoke of ‘the non-integration into French Polynesia of an ethnic group of Asiatic origin who still refer to China as their mother country’.

They’Ll Fly Noumea-Norfolk-Nz

The Aero Club of New Caledonia has organised a New Caledonia—Norfolk Island—New Zealand aerial rally for November-December. A dozen Caledonian and one Australian aircraft had already entered by early June. Decision to stage the rally was based on the success of the 1978 Coral Sea rally organised by the club.

SIX MONTHS BAN ON MOVING WAR RELICS Effective from July 1, the Papua New Guinea Government declared a six-months moratorium on the removal of human re mains and other relics of World War 11. The moratorium will allow the government to devise a new policy covering the collection and export of relics, particularly weapons, aircraft and utensils, some of which, it is believed, have been taken out illegally.

Timing of the moratorium allowed the Japanese mission which had been diving for remains of Japanese war dead (PIM July) just enough time to finish its work.

Giant Man-Eating Croc Caught In Png

A government wildlife and fisheries team has caught and killed a five-metre man-eating crocodile near Madang in Papua New Guinea. The remains of a man, taken six days earlier while his children watched, were cut from the stomach of the crocodile.

The victim was 34-year-old Gabriel Solop, a plantation inspector, who was seized by the leg and dragged into a river while check ing fishing lines.