Pacific Report

Vanuatu Unions Reject Boycott Call

Vanuatu’s trade unions will not join other Pacific countries in a boycott of French exports and services called for by the Pacific Trade Union Forum. Vanuatu Trade Unions’ secretary-general Mr Kenneth Satungia said his organisation, which covers 16 trade unions, considered the boycott call was political.

Nestle Gives In To U.N. Pressure

Nestle, the world’s largest supplier of infant formula, (milk) bowed in March to international pressure and announced it will abide by UN marketing guidelines in selling formula in developing countries. The Swiss company said it will adhere to a World Health Organisation code banning advertising and free samples in nations that do not regulate the sale or distribution of infant formula. Nestle also agreed to advise mothers of the benefits of breast feeding and the dangers of incorrect preparation of the canned formula. The code was adopted at the urging of Third World countries: they have argued that contaminated milk and water in many countries and incorrect use by parents make infant formula a possible health hazard. In the past, the company had refused to abide by the letter of the WHO code,endorsing it only in ‘principle’. Critics of the company, who organised a worldwide boycott of Nestle products, praised the step, but vowed to continue the boycott until the company proves its adherence to the code.

Deroburt Libel Suit To Go On

US Judge Samuel King has refused to dismiss Nauru President Hammer Deßoburfs SUS7.S million libel suit against a Guam newspaper, declaring that defence requests for information about the financing of the case have been met. King also reversed an earlier magistrate’s order that Deßoburt turn over to the defence details of his legal costs in the case, and placed a protective order on the documents in question. King ruled as part of the pre-trial discovery process in the civil suit Deßoburt filed after the Pacific Daily News reported he was secretly backing a Marshall Islands separatist group in May 1978. The newspaper and the Gannett Co Inc are co-defendants in the suit to be tried in Honolulu in August.

Combined Seabed Survey Is Underway

Australia, New Zealand, the United States and South Pacific island countries have begun a co-ordinated search for oil under the Pacific seabed. The geo-scientific survey involves two US research ships and more than 50 scientists from the partner countries. The survey, in seas around Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji, Solomon Islands. Vanuatu and US-owned Wake Island, is described as the most ambitious seabed search for oil, gas and minerals ever undertaken in the South Pacific. The results will be made public at the Pacific Energy and Mineral Resources Conference in Honolulu in August.

Cyclone Bernie Claims A Life

A man who suffered head injuries when his house collapsed during Cyclone Bernie, which ripped through Solomon Islands in April, has died in hospital. His is believed to be the only death caused by the cyclone, which first hit the Antong Java atolls and went through the southern part of Santa Ysabel, south of the provincial capital of Buala.

Vanuatu’S Sharp Population Rise

The Vanuatu Bureau of Statistics estimates that the total population at December 31 last year was 123 000, an increase of 10 300 over the official census total of 112 700 in January, 1979.

MARSHALLESE TO VOTE ON FUTURE OF US BASE Marshall islanders on Kwajalein Atoll will hold a referendum on August 13 to decide their attitude to the continued use by the United States of the atoll as a target testing base for nuclear missiles fired from Vanderberg rocket base in California. The atoll’s landowners have called for a moratorium on testing until after the referendum.

Solar Lighting For Rural Dwellers

The Fiji Government plans to buy 100 solar photovoltaic lighting sets consisting of photovoltaic panels, battery, voltage regulator or protector, fluorescent lights and associated fittings to form

part of its rural electricity programme. The decision to buy the sets comes after successful experiments by the Ministry of Energy in solar energy with special application to rural lighting.

Tests have established that the solar photovoltaic system offers tremendous potential and could substantially reduce lighting costs in remote areas.

Fijian Soldiers Upset Arabs

Dipolmatic sources in Tel Aviv have reported that Bedouin tribesmen have threatened to kill Fijian soldiers of the Sinai peacekeeping force. The threat was made after an incident said to involve two Fijians and Bedouin girls. One report said the incident consisted of two soldiers ‘looking at’ the girls but another report, regarded as more serious, said the soldiers had pulled aside the girls’ face veils in jest. The head sheikh of the area, about 15 kilometres into the desert from the northern Sinai base of El Gorah, was seen by military police and accepted an apology, which was believed to have ‘closed’ the incident.

Carpenters Win Big Tahiti Contract

Fiji-based Carpenters Industrial has won a contract to build a $F3.5 million oil tank farm at Papeete on Tahiti for Mobil Australia and Total, the French firm. Carpenters Industrial, which competed against firms in four countries, will begin construction almost immediately. The tanks will be made at the works in Suva and shipped to Papeete for assembly. Said Mike Bowkett, a director of the company: ‘We wanted to prove that Fiji has an international engineering force to be reckoned with and this is our chance. It is our first major breakthrough. We will show that our engineering abilities and the skills of our tradesmen rank equal with the best anywhere.’

Fiji, South Korea Links

Fiji’s first Ambassador to the Republic of Korea. Jioji Kotabalavu, who was appointed ambassador to Japan last year, has presented his credentials to President Chun Doo Hwan in Seoul.

Mr Kotabalavu was formerly Permanent Secretary of Fiji Foreign Affairs.

PNG: AN EX-SOLDIER AIMS FOR THE TOP Brigadier-General Ted Diro, former commander of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force, has fixed his sights on becoming PNG’s next Prime Minister. In a interview with Stuart Inder published in the May 11 issue of the Australian weekly magazine The Bulletin, Diro said he had 43 candidates standing in the June election, of which 35 were what he called ‘hard core’. Diro, a Papuan, stresses that his group is not partisan Papuan, it is merely based on Papua, ‘as Somare is based on the north coast and Chan is based on the islands’. Inder comments: ‘What the members do have in common is that they are hand-picked, educated and with experience in business or administration. Ten of the hard core have university degrees. His candidates include three former departmental secretaries, a former Ambassador to Japan and a District Commissioner. They have agreed to abide by a code which stresses allegiance, ethics and honesty. They have to have sufficient financial standing to support the cost of their own election. Diro said: ‘We need decisions that are made impartially, objectively and are not biased towards personal interests. We want to keep the country free of corruption. We need people who can contribute intelligently towards debate and understand the issues.’ He is critical of the Chan government and the previous Somare one for what he terms their lack of cohesion and collective reponsibility. He says both men have had their opportunities and are not capable of resolving the country’s problems.

‘No Confidence’ Again In Vanutau7

A group of government members of the Vanuatu parliament is reported to be planning to move a motion of no-confidence in the Prime Minister, Father Walter Lini. A Radio Australia correspon dent who visited the Vanuatu capital recently, says members of the ruling Vanuaaku Party told him five of their colleagues had signed a notice of intention to move the motion. It was expected that the two other signatures required to get the motion introduced would be obtained. The correspondent was told by sources in the party that the move had the private support of several cabinet ministers. However, a senior member of the Opposition, Father Gerald Leymang, told the correspondent that he and eight other members of the Opposition wanted nothing to do with the move. The correspondent says that according to sources in the ruling Vanuaaku Party, there’s dissatisfaction with Father Lini’s decision to dismiss several senior expatriate civil servants without first consulting cabinet ministers affected. There was also said to be dissatisfaction over Father Lini’s alleged

failure to consult with the council of ministers about negotiations for a large loan from an American bank. An earlier move for a no confidence motion failed in March.

Fine For N-Protest Skipper

The anti-nuclear protest yacht, Pacfic Peacemaker, left Papeete on May 2. It was believed to be heading for Honolulu. Earlier, a French court in Papeete had imposed a nominal fine of CFP2O,OOO, or about SA2OO, on skipper Bill Ethell who had been charged with trespass in French Polynesia’s territorial waters.

Stirn’S New Caledonia Independence Call

Independence for New Caledonia is ‘the only way of avoiding a confrontation between Europeans and Melanesians a confrontation that would end in a bloodbath, and the departure of the Europeans’. In these terms Olivier Stirn, state secretary for France’s overseas departments and territories under President Giscard d’Estaing, has nailed his colours to the New Caledonian ‘independentist’ mast. Writing in the highly influential Paris weekly magazine L'Express Mr Stirn called for the various stages of the move to independence to be clearly defined ‘with a calendar containing guarantees of the rights of all communities in the territory, and involving them right from now in the building of their future small State’. He said: ‘The New Caledonian situation is a worrying one. Recent confrontations have not been limited to the exchange of hostile words. There have been deaths. The government should have heeded the warning. But it has chosen to preserve the status quo, with the application of a number of formal improvements. It has failed to seize the nettle of the one clear and viable solution... The indecisive policy of the government is to be condemned. It is a dangerous policy. It could lead, after a period of violence, to the precipitate and abject departure of the territory’s French-born population.’ Mr Stirn claimed he was making his criticisms ‘not from any desire to engage in partisan polemics, but out of concern for the preservation of civil peace and the image of France’.

‘Water Before Capitols’ In Micronesia

The United States Congress Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs has asked the Federal Government to spend more money on essential services like roads and water supplies in the Trust Territory of Micronesia and postpone the building of capitols for the governments of Belau, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. The committee called attention to the 1983 budget which provided only SUS 7 800 000 for the capital improvements programme, compared with $8 544 000 in 1982 and $27 764 000 in 1981. The full amount was to be spent on building three capitols. The committee commented: ‘This is despite the fact that we saw hospitals with leaking roofs, muddy, water-filled roads, leaking water mains, sewage systems that weren’t connected to anything and generators that didn’t work, among other things. While the US Government did make a commitment to the Micronesian governments in 1975 to fund the building of their new capitols, and while we believe that this commitment must be honoured, we do not think it should be at the top of the list of priority items that need to be completed at this time. Roads, water and power, and other basic kinds of infrastructure are sorely needed before the capitols are built. Until these areas have their infrastructures in place, there can be no economic development.’ The committee also pointed out that the

‘Quiet Revolution’ In Tonga

The Tongan Government’s Ministry of Works plans to provide 2000 low-cost houses over the next two years at its new industrial complex in Nukualofa. The houses, each of 34.5 square metres, will have two rooms and will cost $T2200 each plus S6OO for transport and supervision costs. Twenty-five will be prefabricated weekly. Cost of the project is estimated at $4.5 million, much of which, the government hopes, will come from overseas aid.

Announcement of the building plan, and the first distribution of stockpiled emergency food supplies to people in the various post- Cyclone Isaac tent towns, were timed to coincide exactly with a peaceful, pre-arranged march to the Palace by 100 citizens, led by Catholic Bishop Patelisio Finau in full episcopal regalia, to present a 6500-signature petition directly to the King. In view of the popular groundswell of impatience and discontent in recent weeks, and the first-ever determination to bypass the normal hierarchical channels of communication with the monarch, the authorities were clearly concerned to nip any possible eruption of violence in the bud. In addition to timing its food distribution to keep the tent-people out of town, the government cancelled all defence forces and police leave over the weekend of April 3-4.

The Palace Guard was substantially increased and equipped with fixed bayonets: and numerous large beefy policemen were deployed along the march route and in the Palace grounds. As it turned out, the precautions were totally unnecessary. The 100-strong delegation strolled quietly to the palace. No banners, no chanting, no slogans. They filed through the indicated gate and seated themselves quietly in rows on the grass opposite the Palace verandah, sent in their petition and then waited, melting under a blazing sun for 40 minutes, until the King appeared on the verandah, accompanied by his brother the Prime Minister and his ‘talking chiefs’. A murmur of appreciation ran along the seated rows as the royal brothers seated themselves cross-legged on the verandah floor in a symbolic fakatonga gesture of goodwill and togetherness. Then a deep hush as their leader rose to address the King. The bishop said that it was in keeping with his duty to his God and his country that he give support to the people in a time of loss and suffering, and he respectfully begged His Majesty to pay heed to the petition and give what help he could to these his loyal subjects. In a 20-minute address (taped for re broadcasting to the nation) His Majesty thanked the people for coming to him, reminded them of the various positive actions taken by his government in the past week and agreed that efforts should be made to enable as many as possible to work overseas for a period so that they could remit funds to help in rebuilding their country. On refugee status, he said this was reserved for people displaced by war, and that cyclone victims could not expect to qualify. It was all over. The royal party rose and disappeared into the Palace. The people rose from the damp grass and filed quietly out past the fixed bayonets and impassive faced guards. In Tongan terms, the whole thing had been an epoch-making success. People felt that the run-up, signature gathering, period had had a positive effect on government action.

They were proud that they had overturned the traditional barrier between the monarch and his grassroots subjects, and been received with courtesy and kindness. They were impressed that they received support from a handful of influential commoners: Bishop Finau, the former President of the Free Wesleyan Church, Amanaki Havea, former MP Papiloa Foliaki, the former Crown Prosecutor, now in private practice, Laki Niu, and Professor Futa Helu of ‘Atenisi University. At the same time, they had noted, and will remember, all those who were not prepared to stand up and be counted the other church leaders, the town and district officers, and, above all, their elected parliamentary representa tives Penny Hodakinson in Nukualofa.

Fiji Chief Justice Upholds Custom

The courts must uphold the sanctity and moral force of customary ways which regulated the life of Fijian society, Chief Justice Sir Timoci Tuivaga, said formally. He made the comment when setting aside a lower court nine-months suspended gaol sentence and S6O fine imposed on each of five Matuku Island youths charged with assaulting another young man on Boxing Day. The court heard that on Boxing Day people from the neighbouring village of Raviravi came to Makadru Village to see some friends from Suva who had come for Christmas. A yaqona party was held which continued until the early hours of the morning. About 3 am, Tikoisuva from Raviravi was seen talking to Lati’s sister at a lonely spot some distance from the village. The five went to the spot and assaulted Tikoisuva by punching and kicking him until he was unconscious. He was carried to the village and when he came to he was again assaulted but this was stopped by a villager who came to his aid. Tikoisuva was taken to Yaroi District Hospital where he was admitted and remained for two days. Meanwhile the Makadru people held a village meeting at which the five were reprimanded and each given three strokes of the cane as punishment by a village elder.

A tabua was also presented to the chief of Raviravi village on behalf of the Makadru people by way of making amends and effecting reconciliation. The tabua was accepted which signified the complete reconciliation of the two villages. But as the matter had already been reported to the police, a team of police investigators was sent from Suva and conducted their own investigation which resulted in the five villagers being arrested, charged and brought to Suva. When passing sentence, the chief magistrate said the three strokes each that the five had received had saved them, from going to gaol. Justice Tuivaga said: The sentencing courjtolid not, with respect, give sufficient credit to the customary sanctions which from time immemorial have always been available within a village community for regularing the social behaviour and conduct of its people.’