Pacific Report

On And Off-Again Bans

The Vanuatu Government in September placed Dick Ukeiwe, vice-president of New Caledonia’s council of government, and the territory’s top official political figure, on a list of prohibited immigrants. With him on to the banned list went New Caledonian government councillor Victorin Boewa. Both men were due to go to Port-Vila to represent New Caledonia at the South Pacific Conference in late October. Then, on October 7, after what were probably fairly hot discussions in Vanuatu Government circles, the government released a new statement taking them off the list.

However, some conditions on their access to Vanuatu remained: they were to come only after application, and then only for ‘official business’ (such as the South Pacific Conference). The statement said New Caledonia’s participation in the conference was ‘very important’, and that the revised decision had been taken in part at least in the interests of the conference. Immediately the original decision was announced, Vanuatu President Ati George Sokomanu expressed reservations about it in an interview on Australian radio. Prime Minister Father Walter Lini, in Melbourne at the time for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, is reliably reported to have admitted he was ‘surprised’ by it.

Vanuatu: French Aid At Last

The latest crisis in the bumpy relationship between Vanuatu and France was eased in October when new French Ambassador Marc Menguy arrived in Port-Vila bearing the first batch of the oromised French aid. Earlier in the month, Vanuatu Prime Minister Father Walter Lini had told reporters at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Melbourne that his government /vas considering cutting diplomatic ties with France because of :he non-arrival of promised French aid. The first instalment now delivered amounts to V 204 million ($A1.96 million). Asked in Melbourne about the possibility of Vanuatu approaching the Soviet Union as an alternative source of aid, Fr Lini said: ‘We lon’t really discuss serious things with the Soviet Union because ve are very much afraid of that country, in the same way we are ifraid of America. They are two super-powers, and we do not vant to get into their network. To do so would be to risk losing ndependence, politically and otherwise.’

J.S. Completes Micronesia Review

'he Reagan Administration has announced it has completed its eview over the status of three of the four entities making up the rust Territory of the Pacific Islands (Micronesia), and nego tiations were expected to resume in October on the basis of the Compact of Free Association and other agreements already litialled. The administration early this year announced it was (lacing the policies followed by former President Carter towards JS Pacific territories in abeyance, and planned a full review of hem. This review is understood to have concluded that the US hould move promptly to terminate United Nations Trusteeship •n terms satisfactory to itself and to the governments and •copies of Micronesia. This decision will be welcomed by the licronesian governments. The administration however will treat ie accords and the 11 subsidiary agreements still to be egotiated as a single package, which could result in some elays. Once the compact and other agreements are completed nd signed, a number of further steps must be taken before the usteeship can be terminated. These include approval by the licronesians’ local legislatures, ratification by the US Congress, itification by plebiscites in Mirconesia, and termination of the rusteeship Agreement by the United Nations Trusteeship council and by the Security Council.

Del Levi For Paris Talks

apua New Guinea’s Foreign Minister Noel Levi will join Fiji Prime linister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara and Tonga’s Minister for Foreign ffairs and Defence Prince Tupouto’a on a forthcoming mission ) Paris to discuss the future of France’s Pacific territories with resident Mitterrand (PIM Oct p 5). Earlier, former Solomon lands Prime Minister Peter Kenilorea was to have gone with the ijian PM and the Tongan prince. But following Mr Kenilorea’s efeat in a vote for the prime ministership (PIM Oct p 33) Ratu lara invited Mr Levi, who had just returned from an official visit

to France,‘to go in Mr Kenilorea’s stead. The August meeting of the South Pacific Forum in Port-Vila decided that the mission should go, and asked Ratu Mara to lead it and choose his companions. President Mitterrand has indicated his willingness to receive the delegation.

Indira Gandhi In Fiji, Tonga

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited Fiji in September on her way to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Melbourne. The visit was marked by a number of memorable meetings with members of Fiji’s Indian community, and by the conferring on her of the degree of Honorary Doctor of the University of the South Pacific. Mrs Gandhi also paid a two-day visit to Tonga.

Fiji To The Polls July 82

Fiji’s present parliament will be dissolved in May in preparation for general elections to be held from July 10 to 17. The elections will be the first since September 1977.

Senator Sees End To Moruroa Tests

In an outspoken series of statements during a September visit to French Polynesia, French Socialist Senator Louis Perrein: reproached local political leaders with the ‘scandal’ of the existence of shanty towns in Papeete cheek by jowl with luxurious mansions; advised Polynesians not to go on relying on the N-testing programme for the territory’s economic survival: ‘For the time being it is essential that the programme should continue, but in a few years it will become possible to carry out the tests in laboratories, and the Moruroa programme will disappear so you must start productive work’; and told them that the two keys to progress in the territory were tax reform and land reform: ‘Your commercial economy must be transformed into a productive economy’. Asked whether he had come to Tahiti on a scheduled Air New Zealand flight only because of convenience of time tables, Senator Perrein replied: ‘I flew with an airline other than Air France or UTA because even senators must look for the cheapest means of transport they can find. It hurt me not to be travelling with a French carrier. But it’s normal for people to choose the cheapest available means of transport. I don’t have the kind of income that allows me to travel without consideration of cost and I imagine it’s the same with other tourists, or with the Polynesian who wants to make a trip.’

Direct Auckland-Niue Link At Last

A direct flight to Auckland from Niue was due to begin in October following the long-awaited re-sealing of Niue’s airport runway The service is to be operated by Polynesian Airlines’ Boeing 737.

Telephone Links Australia, Kiribati

A telephone link between Kiribati and Australia was opened in October. Kiribati was previously linked to the outside world by a radio circuit to Nauru. The President of Kiribati, leremia Tabai, in Melbourne for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, was present when the first call from Kiribati on the line was taken by Australia’s Minister for Communications lan Sinclair.

New Book On Santo Revolt

Noumea-based lawyer Jean Leder, who defended Santo secessionist Jimmy Stevens at his trial, has written a book on last year’s rebellion on Santo. The book, entitled Cent Jours au Bout du Monde (100 Days at the End of the World) was a sell-out when it was released in Noumea in September. The book is understood to deal particularly severely with the last French Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides, Jean-Jacques Robert. ‘KEEP YOUR NOSES OUT’ CALL FROM NOUMEA The New Caledonian population has demonstrated in recent weeks both through the local press, and through their elected representatives the extent to which they are finding the interference in their affairs by South Pacific countries more and more questionable, not to say intolerable. An official, diplomatic example of this was the banning from visits to Vanuatu of the Vice-President of New Caledonia’s Council of Government Dick Ukeiwe, and government councillor Victorin Boewa. An attempt has since been made to put this affair to rights, but the bad memory will certainly remain. Then there has been intervention in territorial affairs by Australian, New Zealand, Fijian and Papua New Guinean trade unions, who are giving financial support to the Independence Front. These efforts are not to be tolerated either Nor, for similar reasons, are those of various Christian churches in the South Pacific. Statements by the regional governments are appreciated not much more. Generally the opinions expressed in the media, or by official bodies, are the product of a line of

propaganda which often falsifies facts. To take one example. The Independence Front claims to represent 80% of the Melanesian population which itself represents 43% of the total population of New Caledonia. The Loyalty Islands, the Belep Islands, and the Isle of Pines represent the only constituencies in which this claim can be checked, because they are the only ones populated exclusively by Melanesians. Here are the official electoral results for these constituencies at the most recent elections for the territory’s deputies to the French National Assembly: Indepen dence Front candidates: 65.23%, pro-French candidates: 34.77%. Over the New Caledonian population as a whole, the Independence Front secured 34% of votes cast, which is confirmation enough that two-thirds of the population desires to retain the links with France. If South Pacific countries continue to interfere against the freely expressed democratic will of New Caledonia’s inhabitants, it is to be feared that a steady tide of misunderstanding will set in between these countries and the inhabitants of New Caledonia. Daniel Tardieu in Noumea.

Royal Treatment For Trudeau In Fiji

Canada’s Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was given the full Fijian traditional ceremony of welcome, usually reserved for royalty and high chiefs, when he stopped in Fiji in October on his way home from the Commonwelath Heads of Government Meeting in Melbourne. Major event of his brief stay in Fiji was to open the new $5.7 million School of Natural Resources complex at the University of the South Pacific. The school was built with Canadian aid money.

Churches’ Susio 000 For N.C. Front

The World Council of Churches, comprising 313 Protestant and Orthodox churches throughout the world, has made a grant of SUSIO 000 to the Front Ind6pendantiste in New Caledonia, as part of its Programme to Combat Racism. This has been a highly controversial programme since, in the early ’7os, it first gave unconditional grants to armed movements fighting for liberation in Africa. Now that a good many of the movements which previously received grants from the programme have become governments, the WCC is widening its scope. The largest recipient for this year’s list is SWAPO, the independence movement in Namibia. A number of smaller grants have gone to Aboriginal projects in Australia. This is not the first time the WCC has taken an interest in New Caledonia. In November 1979 WCC staff member Erich Weingartner went on a fact-finding visit to the territory at the invitation of the Eglise Evangelique, a member of the World Council of Churches. The Eglise Evangelique, unlike the Catholic Church in the territory, has taken a stand in support of independence for New Caledonia. Jean-Marie Tjibaou, Front Independantiste member of the Territorial Assembly, is a member of the WCC’s Human Rights Advisory Group.

TOO MUCH MONEY SPENT ON ABORIGINES’ CHAN Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan was asked at a Port Moresby press conference on his return from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Melbourne in October what he thought of a suggestion by Charles Perkins, the senior Australian Aboriginal public servant, that aid given by Australia to PNG could be better spent on Aborigines. Sir Julius replied: ‘Well, this is Australian business, and if Australia wants to give more money, they should. But I think that more is not necessarily better and this is probably the case with the Aborigines. They have been getting a lot from the Australian Government, which has probably depreciated their values, and they are not prepared to work any more. I sometimes put my head into some of the Australian pubs, and you see a lot of them in there.’

Rough Week In Belau

Belau, in the US Trust Territory, had a series of troubles in September. In one week, two bombs destroyed the president’s office at Koror, the capital; government workers went on strike: and inmates of the gaol walked out. No one was hurt in the bomb blast and order was soon restored, with the strikers returning to work. President Haruo Remeliik was talking on Saipan with Mr Daniel High, acting TT High Commissioner, over the strikers’ demands for wage rises, as the Belau government can’t pay higher wages on its present budget.

The Two Samoas Talk

Prime Minister Tupuola Efi, of Western Samoa, and the Governor of American Samoa, Peter Tali Coleman, have had discussions on future co-operation of their countries including the easing of regulations governing travel between the two Samoas. As

American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States, has higher living standards than independent Western Samoa, large numbers of the latter’s nationals view American Samoa as the ‘promised land’. In an interview after the talks, Governor Coleman, replying to a question on the possible union of the two Samoas, said it was a possibility, but ‘probably not in our lifetime’. The future of the two Samoas, he said, lay in closer co-operation.

16 Fishermen Lost

Two Taiwanese fishermen were plucked from the sea in September after spending 40 hours clinging to a glass fishing buoy mounted with a radio location beacon. The buoy was of the type normally used to locate the ends of long set lines. The men, the radio operator and a crew member, were thrown into the sea when their vessel, the Shui Long Shing, capsized and sank in heavy seas about 150 km west of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. She was operating out of the South Pacific Fishing Company’s base at Palekula. The other 16 men on board were lost. They were all Taiwanese, except for two young Ni-Vanuatu (see Deaths of Islands People). lan Mclntyre in Port-Vila.

Putting Vanuatu On World Financial Map

Vanuatu’s Minister of Finance, Kalpakor Kalsakau, accompanied by the general manager of Vanuatu’s Central Bank. John Howard, left Port-Vila in September on a trip of great significance to Vanuatu’s involvement in the world financial community. First stop was the Commonwealth finance ministers’ conference in Nassau where they also planned to look at the set-up of the Bahamas Finance Centre. Then on to Washington where they were to attend the annual meeting of the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, both organisations which Vanuatu is now in the process of joining. From Washington they planned to go to New York to inspect the new offices of Vanuatu’s Shipping Registry, and hold talks with parties interested in using it. Then they were to move on to London to give final approval for the plates and advertising material associated with printing and issuing of the currency notes associated with the Vatu, Vanuatu’s new currency. lan Mclntyre in Port-Vila.

Coup For Tonga S Mini-Navy

The two small naval patrol boats of Tonga’s mini-navy, which have the mammoth task of policing the immense area of the kingdom’s territorial waters, brought off a double coup on September 16 and 18. A Korean vessel, the Nam Hae, was caught red-handed on September 16, fishing illegally in southern Haapai waters, and escorted to Nukualofa, where it was formally arrested together with its crew, pending a Supreme Court hearing of the issue. Aware that such vessels normally hunt in pairs or packs, the navy continued its search and sent out radio calls to Tongan fishing vessels in the vicinity to be on the alert for signs of a sister ship or ships. The second vessel was apprehended on September 18 and shepherded to Nukualofa the same evening.

The arrests are the first of their kind since 1977. Under Tongan law. the maximum penalty that can be imposed for such Infringements of national fishing rights is $T 100 000 and confiscation of the vessel. But actual fines for similar cases in the past have tended to be in the vicinity of S2O 000, without confiscation. Following the arrest of the vessels, a senior government official commented ‘Let’s hope the penalties provide not only a deterrent but also a hefty contribution towards the upkeep of our largely decorative defence forces!’ Penny Hodgkinson in Nukualofa.

KUNG FU FILMS, COMICS, GET THE CHOP Kung Fu films and all types of comics including Christian and educational comics have been banned in Papua New Guinea’s North Solomons province. Arguing for the ban in the provincial assembly, Simon Kekero said young people who practised the art of Kung Fu had often seriously hurt innocent people. Of comics, he said youngsters practised the ‘bad things they read about in comics’. Girlie magazines such as Playboy are already a prohibited import in PNG. But newsagency stands are loaded with magazines ranging from Phantom comics to sexually oriented science fiction and horror comics.

Boomerangs On Mare Island

A recently published history of the island of Mare in New Caledonia’s Loyalty Group has revealed that the first inhabitants used boomerangs of exactly the same design as those used by Australian Aborigines. The work was written by French Marist missionary, Marie-Joseph Dubois, who lived on the island for 25 years.