Political

Currents

Although Mr Kenilorea is highly likely to be re-elected to parliament for his East Are Are constituency, his chances of becoming prime minister once more must be rated as less bright.

Former chief minister Solomon Mamaloni is the man many people would like to see as the new prime minister.

Many of his supporters are prepared to forgive his various past social misdemeanours.

Unlike Mr Kenilorea, Mr Mamaloni hardly ever goes to church. He is seen by many as a much simpler and more approachable person than the present PM.

Mr Mamaloni knows that the expatriates are in some fear of him, and he takes advantage of this fact. It is hard to say exactly why this fear exists, but the general belief is that it arose because he was not always ready to heed their advice when he was CM.

George Atkin in Honiara.

Compensation

to PNG

servicemen

Papua New Guinea this year intends to pay out half a million Kina equivalent to nearly SA7OO 000 to its nationals who served as soldiers attached to Australian units. Up to 450 men who can be traced in the 35 years which have elapsed since the war will receive the money in lump sum compensation payments under a scheme approved recently by the PNG cabinet.

The extent of individual pay ments will be based on rank and period of service at the time of discharge.

Although the announcement was well received by PNG ex servicemen, problems are likely to arise in authentication and regarding the position of civilian recruits who served with army units. Civilian re

emits, who mainly provided

carrier services for the forces, were more numerous than ser vicemen.

The announcement also drew a bitter reaction from Sir John Guise, former Deputy Chief Minister and Governor- General, who said that Aus tralia, not his country, should be footing the bill.

Sir John, now a back bench member of parliament and once a patron of the PNG Re turned Services League, said Australia’s failure to fully com pensate up to 6000 servicemen and other recruits who served the Allied cause was ‘blatant

injustice’.

The Pacific War had been fought when Australia was the

administering authority in

PNG, and the responsibility rested squarely with Australia, he said. Sir John claimed that his own representations in the matter had been ignored in 1977 by the Australian Prime Minister, Mr Fraser.

The Australian Returned Services League has also ex pressed embarrassment over

the turn of events. The presi dent, Sir William Keys, com mented that recent moves to recognise PNG ex-servicemen as entitled to Australian com pensation had extended over five years. PNG, tired of wait ing for some response from Australia, had decided to make the payments itself thus adding to what appeared to be an injustice on the part of Aus tralia.

Hawaii call on

N-free Pacific

Campaigners for a nuclear-free Pacific will step up their pro test activities in the next few months.

The move follows a May conference in Hawaii of groups from 16 Pacific countries.

One of the six New Zealand delegates to the conference. Dr Viola Palmer, outlined the strategy adopted by the confer ence in an interview with the New Zealand Herald.

The conference called on the governments of all Pacific countries to ban immediately

the transport, storage and dis posal of nuclear waste in the Pacific Ocean.

It decided to stage an inter national protest against con tinued French nuclear testing in the Pacific on July 14, the day of France’s main national celebration, Bastille Day.

The conference also decided to lobby member countries of the South Pacific Forum, which includes New Zealand, to actively oppose the French tests. ‘The New Zealand Govern ment has not been very vocal in opposing the French tests,’ said Dr Palmer. ‘But now that France is trying to do the dirty on us with our sheepmeat trade to Britain, they may speak up.’

Other measures put forward by the conference included sending a protest vessel into the French nuclear testing zone in French Polynesia.

Dr Palmer said a resource centre with four staff was to be set up in Hawaii to coordinate the movement’s campaign.

The recent missile tests in

the Pacific undertaken by China were not discussed as the conference because the tests were not known abouu until just before they took place.

Dr Palmer said a protesz would be made to the New Zealand Government over the involvement of New Zealanof armed forces in the latesa Rimpac military exercise, iii which a Hawaiian island war shelled.

NH: Action on

local councils

Claims by New Hebrides so cessionists and some French spokesmen depicting the Nev; Hebrides Government as rigicb ly centralist and unwilling td tolerate any devolution oc powers to the islands are noo borne out by the facts.

In an appendix to a repon issued after a Port-Vila press conference on June 27, thr government presented the folc lowing account of its consider able activity in favour oo measures of decentralisation

: since taking office. The appen dix says in full: 1. The government’s inten tions on decentralisation were declared in its manifesto ‘Platform’ and have been upheld since it took office. 2. A Local Government Re view Committee was estab lished in March, under the ■chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs, the Honour able George Kalkoa. 3. This committee is continu ing its work and contains mem bers of the opposition. 4. The leaders of the se cessionist movement and oppo sition party members were in vited to participate in the af fairs of the committee, with invitations being extended to Jimmy Stevens, George Cron stadt, Jean-Marie Leye, Maxime Carlet and Father Gerard Leymang. Father Gerard did attend, the others ieclined to do so. 5. The committe made a leries of draft recommen lations in April following the tpening round of meetings, vhich were held at Port-Vila md lasted for four days. 6. Since then members of the :ommittee have engaged in a our of islands in the group, xplaining the recommen lations and, more important till, learning the views of the icople the recommendations /ill affect. The places on Lspiritu Santo which are prac ical to visit will be visited next /eek. 7. The present plan is that te committee will meet in July ) finalise its proposals; they ill then be submitted to the ouncil of Ministers for ap

roval, following which they

ill become government pol ‘y- 8. It is important to note that te government set up this ammittee within four months f taking office, because apart om Port-Vila and Luganville, here there were properly mctioning municipal councils, Tective local government arely existed in the New [ebrides. 9. In the 1960 s a number of •cal councils were established, hich to begin with functioned (tremely well. However, due

> continual inter-residency

rivalry, and particularly to apa thy on the part of the French Residency, which viewed the councils as potentially danger ous political breeding grounds, the system was allowed to de cline. This was particularly unfortunate as these councils represented at their peak some 60% of the total population. In short they declined because (a) basically the French Residency did not approve, regarding them (quite rightly) as essen tially a British conception, (b) as a direct result of this finance was not forthcoming, and (c) the failure of political move ments such as Nagriamel and Jon Frum to participate, which makes Stevens’ claims for de centralisation particularly dubious. 10. In 1975, largely due to a French initiative, the local councils were legislated out of existence and replaced by com munity councils. 11. However, only eight of these councils were established and all of them in pockets of French influence i.e., Lamap, Wallarano, Vao, Olal, Erakor, Port Olry, South Epi and Gaua. These represented only 5% of the total population. 12. The recommendations of the committee are that the country should be divided into units, to be called Island Coun cils, one of which is intended for Espiritu Santo. These, therefore, will be relatively large units because the com mittee is of the considered opinion that if they are to be viable the councils must be large. Included in the com mittee’s recommendations are measures for the councils to be democratically elected and financed and staffed in the main from central government funds. The larger councils will have their own Public Works Department, Agriculture De partment, co-operatives and be come responsible for some as pects of health and education.

Refugees make

Swedish home

A report from Sweden tells how the two former anti- Indonesian rebel leaders Jacob Prai and Otto Ondawame are now settled there as refugees.

This follows their exile last

year when Papua New Guinea, which had captured them as illegal immigrants, would not allow them residence because of diplomatic links with Indo nesia. The two men would not return to their homeland, Irian Jaya, which is an Indonesian province sharing a border with PNG. They feared reprisals from Indonesia because of their former rebel activities.

The two men, together with Prai’s two wives and children, are being supported by special government allowance which Sweden pays to those accepted as genuine refugees who cannot safely return to their home land. The majority of recipi ents are refugees from commu nist oppression, but because of a liberal interpretation of the law and Swedish generosity, refugees such as Prai and Ondawame are included.

Prai’s children are attending Swedish schools and learning the language quickly, but Prai and his two wives are finding adaptation to the Swedish life style and climate not without difficulties. Prai reports that the winters are unbearable, but now that it is summer the weather is more tolerable, although the temperature rare ly rises above 25 degrees. They are free to travel in Europe but have tended to restrict their movements to the Scandinavian countries. Late last year there was a confer ence of Free Papua Movement representatives in Holland, but Prai was unable to attend.

Meanwhile Martin Tabu, the man who took over as leader of

the Free Papua Movement in Iranian Jaya but later surren dered to the Indonesians, is still in the Indonesian capital Jakarta where he is described as ‘a guest of President Suhar to’. The Free Papua Movement (OPM) has indicated that if Tabu does not return he will be permanently replaced by Seth Rumkorem who has been ap pointed acting leader.

Colonel Wajoi who was an OPM captain in the Jayapura ambush last year, has been released by the Indonisians who are attempting to reach a peaceful settlement with the OPM. Wajoi is living in Jaya pura, but his movements are restricted by the authorities.

Recent reports from Irian Jaya suggest that in the moun tainous interior minor harass ment of the Indonesions and sabotage on a small scale have been carried on, although ac tivity on both sides has been at a low ebb.

Fiji plea for

‘national unity’

The often renewed controversy over whether a government and opposition system is suited to Pacific Island countries has again been raised in Fiji.

Papua New Guinea and Fiji have both frequently debated whether they should have single governments of ‘national unity’ in place of opposing political parties. In Fiji how ever the controversy has tended to be more sharply polarised because of the pres ence of Indian and Melanesian

Clenched fist salute at an OPM camp in Irian Jaya

'race elements in the political structure.

Government and Opposition leaders in Fiji both spoke re cently in favour of ‘government af national unity’ involving fac tions which represent separate political groups. However the nature of how such a govern ment should be formed and how its representation should be determined remains a source of disagreement and this is effectively preventing the emergence of any real moves towards unification.

Speaking in parliament the Dpposition Senate Leader, Senator Kuar Battan Singh, ;aid he supported the concept )f forming ‘a government of tational unity’. He said that he National Federation Party md the Alliance Party were ;ach failing to get full nultiracial support and some brm of coalition appeared to )e the answer. He said that >ecause of the nature of the »arties themselves, the nature •f the constitution and the Vestminster pattern of parlia nent a racial imbalance had

arisen to the detriment of the Indian community.

He believed that although the Constitution of Fiji had survived without threat for 10 years, the continuing imbal ance in government posed a constitutional threat and the only answer was to seriously and sincerely explore the possi bility of forming a government of coalition.

Senator Singh said ‘While the Constitution has given the two major races parity of rep resentation in the House of Representatives, it has not been able to provide them with parity in the decision-making processes where national policy is formulated and determined.’

He said that Fiji’s only hope for continued multiracial har mony as it moved into the second decade of indepen dence, ‘where we will be plagued by increased unem ployment, a restless youth, and other pressures for a better life by our people’, lay with a government, in which the views of all the people were ad equately represented so that all

leaders had some responsibility for the policies which Fiji would implement.

He appealed to the Senate to provide a type of leadership that was above party politics, slating that that was one of the major reasons the House was created.

The Fiji Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara also claimed recently that the two faction system of government was proving unsuitable for Fiji conditions. He said he person ally favoured what he also called ‘a government of national unity’. He also indi

>cated that he would be pre pared to discuss the ‘sharing’ of

(leadership.

But the Leader of the Oppo sition, Mr Jai Ram Reddy, iclaimed in reply that the Prime Minister was interested only in “the sort of coalition which 'would suit his own wishes and Heave his authority untouched’.

He said that on previous oc casions when a real opportunity lhad arisen to form a govern ment of differing factions the Prime Minister had rejected the idea.

He said it was hard to escape the conclusion that the Prime Minister was mainly interested in retaining his own strength.

Tribal fights

still serious

Fighting tribesmen in Papua New Guinea are learning how to elude the law so they can :ontinue their battles without nterference from authority.

Fhe PNG Prime Minister, Sir lulius Chan, said this recently vhen he expressed concern at he continuing outbreak of nter-tribal battles in his :ountry’s highland region. Sir lulius said ‘I think we can say ve are dealing with very in genious people who don’t want inything to stand in the way of vhat they see as their right to ettle grievances by fighting.’

For longer than recorded listory tribal fights with pears, clubs, bows and arrows lave been the means of settling lighland disputes over land toundaries, livestock owner hip, hunting rights, brides and lleged injustices. Papua New juinean national leaders nd Australian administrative fficers in earlier times had elieved that the emergence of modern society with higher ving standards and legal con rols would cause the decline of ribal fighting. But if anything lie new cash economy with etter communications, wider orizons and an increase in taterial possessions has merely reated more sources of inter •ibal friction and consequent ghting.

Attempts by the government ) stamp out the problem have let with only limited success, ir Julius said that the creation f a state of civil emergency ist year had brought a temper-

ary improvement because of wider power exercised by police.

He said the police had now reported however that tribes men were devising ways of neutralising police attempts at peace keeping. Helicopters had been effective for a while in rushing police to trouble spots but the tribesmen had learnt how to keep helicopters at bay by hammering wooden stakes into forest clearings so that no landing areas were available.

The tribesmen had also de veloped a technique of using blankets, either commercially obtained or woven from local materials, to smother teargas cannisters before the gas could take effect. Mud and dye were also being used by fighting tribesmen to disguise their fea tures and thus prevent identifi cation for court purposes.

A series of fights in the past two months have killed about 10 people and injured nearly 100, and have resulted in the destruction of houses and crops. In one fight more than 2000 men fought in a heavily populated area near the border of the Enga and Western High land provinces.

Crystal ball

of Greenpeace

Greenpeace, the international environmental campaigners, have raised many eyebrows with the sudden accuracy of their predictions over nuclear tests at France’s South Pacific testing range.

With the latest series

starting in June at Moruroa atoll in French Polynesia, the movement tipped two out of two in advance on June 16 and 22 and looked set to predict other tests equally ac curately. ‘We want to put pressure on France and the best way to do this is to keep up public aware ness of what is going on,’ says Michael Taylor, the 32-year old campaign director of the New Zealand branch of the world-wide movement. ‘By stepping up its pro gramme of tests and develop ing its nuclear technology, France is guilty of escalating the world arms race.’

Taylor is modest about his movement’s accuracy with the nuclear crystal ball, merely saying it relies on a ‘well placed French source’. Green peace’s predictions are then confirmed by the New Zealand seismological observatory, which is based in Wellington but does most of its detection work at a post in the Cook Islands.

The predictions are certainly no mean feat on the part of Greenpeace when it is con sidered that France never an nounces a nuclear test and never confirms them after they take place. French authorities simply acknowledge that the country conducts ‘occasional’ tests.

France has triggered 55 nu clear explosions in the South Pacific during the past decade, including a record nine last year, according to the Swedish military observatory at Hag

fors. But considering the num ber of tests detected by New Zealand so far this year that record could well be surpassed in 1980.

The June series predicted by Greenpeace were apparently linked with the neutron war head experiments since re vealed by President Valery Giscard d’Estaing and has en countered scathing criticism in the New Zealand press.

One newspaper, the major afternoon daily Auckland Star noted: ‘France has at last come out in the open over the neu tron bomb’, and added that critics would have little doubt that Moruroa and the Pacific were again ‘the far-from-home laboratory for its poisonous experiments’.

The editorial continued: ‘Why does France want a neu tron bomb? ... for the glory of France and for political capital in this pre-election year no doubt. ‘lts strategic value has been questioned by an eminent French nuclear expert who likens it to the Maginot Line which was so easily by-passed by the Germans in 1940. ‘For the neutron bomb has been promoted as a device to wipe out the vast tank superior ity of Warsaw Pact forces. ‘The trouble is that tanks are unlikely to be used for massive breakthrough as in World War Two.’

In sum, lectured the Star , the effects of the neutron bomb decision may be ‘less to make Europe look safer, than to make France look bigger’.

The Opposition Labor Party’s spokesman on foreign affairs, Arthur Faulkner, joined the criticism and condemned France for insensitivity to the Pacific peoples.

He said it was quite clear the French would continue testing until such time as it suited them to stop. ‘They are deaf to the cries of the Pacific nations and the judgement of the International Court. Time and time again the French authorities have been told Pacific nations do not want nuclear tests or wastes in the Pacific, irrespective of which nation may be respon

sible for them.’

David Robie

in Auckland.

Glory or folly? Observation bunker on Moruroa