Belau’s president looks

to a ‘strenuous’ future

MICHEL BONGIOVANNI and DASHA ROSS conducted this interview with Belau’s President HARUO REMELIIK during the filming of their television documentary, Belau: Choices After Nationhood.

Haruo Remeliik has played a significant role in the develop ment of the Republic of Belau over the last decade, culminat ing with his election as first president in November 1980.

Born in Belau in 1934, he completed his education in Hawaii and returned to Belau to follow a legal career, first as a clerk of courts and then as an associate judge of the Belau District Court. From there he went on to become deputy district administrator for the Trust Territory for almost 10 years.

In 1979 he was president of Belau’s Constitutional Conven tion which drafted the world’s first nuclear free Constitution, and was voted for by an over whelming 79% of the Belauan people on July 9, 1980. During this time he was also chairman of the Belau Commission on Status and Transition which conducted the on-going nego tiations with the USA over the draft Compact of Free Associ ation.

A contentious document that has been negotiated over the last 12 years, and with no finality in sight, it will be the determining factor in Belau’s future development. A subsidi ary agreement of the draft compact demands Military Land Use rights, which would turn 30 percent of Belau into American military bases, poten tially turning this picturesque group of coral atolls into another Guam.

In his inauguration speech, January 1, 1981, Remeliik al luded to the new nation as a canoe, stating: ‘For so many years we were but riders on other’s ships, going to desti nations we* never chose . . . but now a new day dawns on Belau.

We are to enter the high seas to sail with other nations.’

He also emphasised the strenuous reality to be faced: ‘We will move through treacherous waters of national

resource development, that great typhoon of developing an emerging nation. We recognise too that our major resource .. . is our own people as human resources.’

What would you like to see for the future of Belau?

Economic self-reliance is what I would like to see for Belau, because without that we cannot hope to achieve our ultimate goal, which is total indepen dence, and that’s our goal, everything we do today is to prepare an independent govern ment.

How far away is that?

It is still very far away from us.

We are now at the stage where economic independence is in conceivable in Belau today. We are totally dependent on the grants from the US Govern ment. We have very little rev enue that we are generating on our own, and what revenue we do generate is hardly enough to sustain the needs of one govern mental department. Basically we are a country dependent on the aid given by the United States government.

You were the President of the Constitutional Convention which drafted the nuclear free constitution, you also took a very strong stand against United States pressures to re vise the constitution. Why then did you initial the compact of free association which could be seen to be in opposition to the national constitution?

You are right, I took a strong stand opposing the US ap proach to have certain parts of our constitution amended. I initialled the compact based on my responsibility as chairman of the Status Transition Com mission, where the majority vote of the members of the Status Commission was in favour of the compact. I went ahead and initialled the com pact, knowing that it was in conflict with some aspects of the Constitution. But on the other

hand I was strongly of the belief that the ultimate decision will be made by the Belauan people, the people who overwhelmingly ratified the Constitution. Be cause although the compact makes certain allowances with regard to nuclear devices, our Constitution provides that the compact must be accepted by 75 per cent of the people when it is put to the referendum. I have confidence that the people of Belau are pretty much aware of things and are very capable of making their own decision.

Perhaps one of the most conten tious parts of the Compact of Free Association is the Mili tary Land Use Rights Subsidi ary Agreement. On an island such as this, where land is such a sensitive issue, how will the Belauan people respond to the proposal of the appropriation of aproximately 32 000 acres of their land to be used for US military training bases?

You are correct that land is a very sensitive matter here in Belau, because of lack of land.

The idea behind this particular subsidiary agreement is that the national government of Belau would negotiate with the owner of the property within the area specified by the US for what ever requirements they may have. It was made clear during the negotiations that the land will not be used for activities directly related to aggression, only for training purposes, and although the training of mili tary personnel could be seen to be aggressive activity, we con sider it lesser in degree than the installation of military equip ment. Because we told them we don’t want anything that will attract aggression from outside Belau, because during the last war, which we were not part of, many of us were killed, we were taken from our homes and forced to live in the jungle. We don’t want to see that repeated.

But in this particular subsidi ary agreement there are plans

to store ammunition, missiles.

Wouldn’t the housing of this weaponry make Belau a target for aggression?

It could. But the kind of ammunition we are talking about is strictly for training purposes, not storage for sup porting purposes. According to the agreement ammunition and missiles can only be allowed to transit, not to remain in Belau for any duration of time.

The Reagan administration has seriously reduced the 1981/82 budget available to Belau.

What plans does the govern ment have to deal with such restrictions?

As of now we don’t have any additional sources of funds to make up for what has been reduced by the Reagan admin istration. We are trying to balance our budget by cutting our expenses, but this is some thing we find very hard to accomplish because the govern ment we inherited from the Trust Territory is very expens ive because of its size. But if we reduce our government we will create social problems because we don’t have many other job opportunities, the government is the major employer in Belau.

Without the Government pay roll, the people from Koror would not be able to survive economically to continue the lifestyle they enjoy today, so we are stuck with a costly govern ment we have to maintain to provide economic survival for our people.

So is the Compact of Free Association a prerequisite for independence?

It is a step forward because it provides a higher level of financial assistance than we are receiving today.