Pacific Report
pp. 5-6 · Read in the full issue
Uni Survives, Sokomanu Speaks Out
Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Father Walter Lini survived a no confidence motion in parliament in April, but failed to win the full support of his Vanuaaku Party MPs. Four former Vanuaaku Party ministers voted in favor of the motion, while three other members of the party abstained. The motion, lost 22 votes to 13, alleged that Fr Lini had contravened the constitution by securing an overseas loan. Fr Lini told parliament he had been involved with the loan as a private individual, not as PM, and threatened legal action against the movers of the motion. A week earlier, another no-confidence motion against him had been ruled out of order by Speaker Maxime Carlot. In a separate development, Vanuatu’s President Ati George Sokomanu has sharply criticised the Uni-led government in an interview with an Australian newspaper. Of the no-confidence motion, he told Colleen Ryan of the Sydney-based weekly The National Times that Fr Lini “had brought the whole thing on himself.” “There has not been proper consultation with the executive. He is not following party rules. The whole problem has come because of lack of administration and know-how at the top. It is on the executive side the Vanuaaku Party has no proper co ordination.” President Sokomanu made it clear in the interview he saw himself as a credible alternative prime minister.
Extra Aid From Australia For Png
Following an April visit to Port Moresby by Australian Foreign Minister Bill Hayden, Australia is unlikely to go ahead with planned cuts in aid to Papua New Guinea over the next few years. Australian aid this financial year amounts to about $U.5.210 million, roughly a quarter of the total PNG budget.
Under present arrangements, aid is supposed to drop by about five per cent a year, but the PNG Government, hard hit by the world economic recession, and facing the threat of disintegra tion of some government services, is asking that there should be no decrease in aid over the next two years, and a decrease of only two per cent for the following two years. On his return to Canberra, Mr Hayden said that the Australian Government would give an extra $lO million in bridging aid to PNG “as an expression of faith and commitment, while it considers the PNG request.”
Mamaloni Sacks Two Ministers
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Solomon Mamaloni in April sacked two ministers, and postponed the next sitting of parlia ment for two months. The sacked ministers were Peter Salaka and John Ngina. Mr Salaka held the portfolio of Lands, Energy and Natural Resources, and Mr Ngina that of Transport, Communications and Government Utilities. Mr Ngina had short ly before been convicted and jailed on a charge of causing another man bodily harm, and Mr Salaka last year drew a High Court reprimand in a case involving a foreign logging company.
Both men are members of Mr Mamaloni’s People’s Alliance Party, and are reported to have strongly supported him in cabinet. Following announcement of the sackings Mr Mamaloni left for his third overseas trip within a month. He went to South Korea.
Priests Deported, Say Irian Jaya Rebels
Rebels in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya claim that the Jakarta government has deported to the Netherlands five Dutch priests working as missionaries in the province. The claim was made in a report from the rebel movement sent to the Port Moresby office of Radio Australia in April. Signed by the “field commander” of the largest Irian Jaya rebel grouping, Donald Derey, the report said the priests had been deported because the Indonesian Government wanted the people of Irian Jaya to become Muslims. He also accused Indonesian officials of interfering with the supply of food and medicines to drought victims in the province.
French Helicopters On Hunter Island
The Vanuatu Government has claimed that France is moving to establish a presence on the usually uninhabited islands of Matthew and Hunter which are in dispute between the two countries. The islands lie between Vanuatu and New Caledonia.
A statement issued in Port-Vila late in March said that Vanuatu
will pursue the matter in international forums if France continues to refuse recognition of Vanuatu’s sovereignty over the islands.
The statement added, however, that Vanuatu remained con vinced that the matter can be resolved amicably with France.
Quoting radio reports from Australia and Vanuatu, the Noumea daily Les Nouvelles said that, even though the French Govern ment remained silent on the matter, French naval vessels had been active in the vicinity of the islands, and that Puma helicopters had landed on Hunter. The daily speculated that their goal was to prepare a helicopter landing pad on the island and to replace the plaque announcing French sovereignty over Hunter which had been removed some weeks before by a Vanuatu Government mission (See report this issue PIM).
Kilauea Eruption Destroys Houses
Lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, which has been active for several months, continued to flow through hillside areas in April, destroying several houses. Authorities said about 150 people had been ordered to evacuate their homes on April 9 as a wall of lava five metres high and 300 metres wide flowed down the volcano’s side.
W. Samoa: Devaluation, Plea To Undp
Following a 16 per cent devaluation of Western Samoa’s currency in March, the cost of diesel fuel and kerosene in the country rose by 57c. Price of a gallon of petrol became SWS3.B7, or about $A2.60. Fares on the country’s flag-carrier Polynesian Airlines rose by 11 per cent. Some imported goods soared in price by as much as 350 per cent. In an effort to ease its severe economic problems, the government announced in April that it would ask the United Nations for aid equivalent to $75 million. It said it would approach the United Nations Development Program for the aid in the form of a grant. The UNDP was set up to help the world’s 33 least developed countries. Western Samoa is the only South Pacific country elegible for the aid. Prime Minister Tofilau Eti said the aid request was small by international standards, and justified because the country had received no increase in foreign aid during the past three years.
Officials Quizzed On Ttpi Affairs
Members of an Interior and Insular Affairs Sub-committee of the US House of Representatives have sharply questioned ad ministration witnesses on the administration’s Fiscal Year 1984 budget for the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and particularly on the health needs of the islanders and a recent outbreak of cholera on Truk. Administration witnesses, including Pedro San Juan, assistant secretary for territorial and interna tional affairs in the Department of the Interior, and Janet McCoy, high commissioner of the TTPI, said the cholera outbreak, which occurred at the end of August 1982, has now been halted.
Danger, however, remains, and longterm improvements in sewerage, water, and health-care facilities must be undertaken before the island can be considered cholera-free. In addition to the SUSI. 6 million appropriated in December 1982 on an emergency basis to combat the epidemic on Truk, Secretary San Juan asked for another $2 million for Truk water improve ments to continue longterm health improvements. Mr San Juan requested $87,909,000 for operations and construction in the TTPI for FY 1984, a five per cent increase over last year’s request. Committee members questioned the witnesses sharply on the adequacy of American efforts to aid the region. Question ing focused on the closing and reductions in force in US Government offices formerly concerned with TTPI liaison and administration, on the need to maintain the existing territorial infrastructure, and particularly on health, water and sewerage facilities on Truk and Ebeye Island in the Marshalls. Members expressed concern about over-crowding and slum conditions on Ebeye Island near the Kwajalein Missile Range, which they feared might lead to cholera outbreak there similar to the one on Truk. In reply, administration witnesses pointed out that the US Department of Defence had recently contributed $2 million to help improve water treatment on the island, and that another $2 million was on the way. The US Government is hoping to resettle some of the inhabitants of Ebeye on nearby atolls,
witnesses said, relieving the crowded conditions on Ebeye.
Congressmen expressed concern at the large debt to foreign governments currently owed by the government of the Marshall Islands. They pointed out that foreign governments lending the Marshall Islands money may assume that the US Government will repay the loans, should other means of repayment prove impossible. The Congressmen pointedly declared that the US Government would not be responsible for such debts.
Solomons To Change Timor Stand?
The Solomon Islands Government co-ordinating committee has unanimously recommended a reversal of the country’s position on East Timor at next year’s general assembly of the United Nations. A member of the committee, Joses Tuhanuku, said that the Solomons’ vote in support of Indonesia earlier this year had taken the committee by surprise. The co-ordinating committee is made up of two representatives from each of the three groups in the country’s coalition government. Mr Tuhanuku said the committee would recommend to Prime Minister Solomon Mamaloni that the Solomons support the Portuguese resolution which calls for self-determination for the people of East Timor.
Mr Tuhanuku also said that his party, the National Democratic Party, wanted the Solomon Islands to offer asylum to Seth Rumkorem, rebel Irian Jaya leader, who has been in Papua New Guinea for several months waiting for a country to offer him asylum. He fled Irian Jaya late last year but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been unable to find a country prepared to accept him.
Samoa To Mix Games, Independence Fest
Western Samoa’s cabinet agreed in March to defer the country’s annual independence celebrations from June to coincide with the Pacific Games in Apia in September. Secretary of the Games Organising Committee, John McDonald, said the com mittee had requested the deferment to enable overseas visitors to the games to see the celebrations. Between 30,000 and 40,000 people travel to Apia from all over the country for the elaborate independence celebrations, which last three days. Mr McDonald said the Pacific Games in September are expected to be attended by about 2000 athletes. He said that catering problems had been solved through offers of assistance from the Australian army, the United States navy and the loan of a United Nations catering consultant, David Aite, who is normally involv ed with training schemes for the South Pacific hotel industry.
Kwajalein Islands Go Back To Owners
Six islands in the Kwajalein Atoll were returned to their Marshallese owners in March, when Marshalls Chief Secretary Oscar deßrum signed quitclaim deeds on behalf of the govern ment of the republic. The six islands were Ninni, Gea, Gugee gue, Ningi, North Loi and South Loi. The United States had held use rights to the islands since the 1950 s in conjunction with the Kwajalein Missile Range. The U.S. agreed to return them during negotiations on the current Kwajalein Interim Use Agreement.
When the chief secretary signed the quitclaim deeds on March 17, ownership immediately reverted to the rightful owners under Marshallese tradition and custom.
PNG: 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE “BIG WALK”
March 28 saw 50th anniversary observances of what is known in the modern history of Papua New Guinea as the Big Walk: the expedition begun on March 28, 1933, by the two gold prospecting Leahy brothers, Mick and Dan, and Australian government officer Jim Taylor. It was the first expedition in PNG to use aircraft for reconnaissance, and the first to use film. It led to the discovery of the Wahgi Valley in the Chimbu District, and of about 200,000 people whose existence had previously been unknown. Jim Taylor, 82, a long-time resident of the Eastern Highlands town of Goroka, took part in the 50th anniversary celebrations, as did Danny, the last of the Leahy brothers.
Several hundred people, blacks and whites, took part in the 50th anniversary emulation of the Big Walk. Reporting the event, Peter Hastings, foreign editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, quoted PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare as addressing Jim Taylor at a reception held for the occasion: “You are a legend in your lifetime, the living link between Australia and this country”.
Hastings noted that film of the expedition shot by the late Mick Leahy “has been made into a dramatic documentary film called
First Contact due to be shown later this year on (Sydney’s) Channel 7”. Hastings said the film “comprises some of the most dramatic visual records of Highland reaction to the white intruders”.
Upng Students To Help Aboriginals
Students at the University of Papua New Guinea have opened a fund to sponsor Australian Aboriginal students through universi ty studies in PNG, believing that Australia’s Aboriginals do not get enough encouragement or opportunity to study at university level in Australia. Mr Burford Maiago, president of the UPNG branch of the PNG Aboriginal and Islander Cultural Society, said that preparations are being made for Aboriginal students to begin studies on the Port Moresby campus next year.
Aid From Tonga For Fiji, Oz
Tonga is giving financial assistance to victims of recent bush fires in Australia and those affected by Cyclone Oscar in Fiji.
Bushfires in the Australian states of Victoria and South Australia in February killed 71 people and destroyed more than 2000 homes. In Fiji, Cyclone Oscar killed seven people and caused extensive damage to housing and crops. The Acting Prime Minister of Tonga, Baron Tuita, said late in March that his country would give $17,600 to Australia and $BBOO to Fiji. He said in making these donations, Tonga was mindful of the various forms of assistance it had received from these two countries in the past, particularly following the devastation caused by Cyclone Isaac in March last year. Baron Tuita said he regretted Tonga was not able to provide larger amounts of financial assistance.
U.S. Senate Committee Approves Treaties
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved four friendship treaties with Pacific countries that had been blocked by objections for more than a year. The treaties will now be considered for approval by the Senate. Under the treaties the U.S. will drop claims to 26 islands and atolls, including four in the Cook Islands. The then Economic Development Minister in the Cooks, Vincent Ingram, in a statement in March described as scurrilous claims by some American senators and witnesses before the Foreign Relations Committee which suggested that the Cook Islands were likely to become pro-Soviet. He said he did not see any Soviet threat to the Cook Islands, nor to any nation in the South Pacific.
W. Samoa Slashes Budget Spending
The Legislative Assembly in Apia in March passed the Western Samoan government’s 1983 budget. Two opposition members voted for the budget, while four others were not in the house, when it divided 25 to 16 in favor. The budget originally presented was for $46.3 million, but this was later pared down by $134,000 by the public accounts committee. By comparison the Western Samoan Government budgeted for $47.4 million last year.
International Pressure On Ptuf
A leading Pacific trade unionist has claimed that the Brussels based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICF TU) is trying to sabotage the independence of the Pacific Trade Union Forum. The secretary of the Solomon Islands National Union of workers, Joses Tuhanuku, claims the ICFTU is pressuring its Pacific affiliates not to go ahead with the establishment of a PTUF secretariat. This was to be discussed at the co-ordinating meeting of the PTUF in Vanuatu in April.
Australian, New Zealand and Fiji trade union councils are members of the mainly Western ICFTU. The Solomons National Union of Workers is affiliated to the Leftwing World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), while trade unions in Western Samoa, Vanuatu and Kiribati are not attached to either group. Mr Tuhanuku said the PTUF should stay independent of both, but he is not optimistic that this can be maintained because of ICFTU pressure.
MORE OZ, NZ, HELP FOR FORUM LINE The Australian and New Zealand Governments have formally signed an aid agreement to help finance a regional shipping service from Fiji to Tuvalu and Kiribati. Under the agreement, each country will provide $300,000 to the Pacific Forum Line.
The agreement is to be reviewed at the end of the year. The Pacific Forum Line has been losing money since it was set up five years ago to serve Pacific Island countries.