a deportation

The Month

Inside story of a deportation

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“When are you leaving? You’re in danger.”

The words coming over the phone lacked any trace of con cern. The voice of the man de scribing himself as “John Smith” reminded Voice of Vanuatu staff people of a source which is sel dom far from the prime minis ter’s side . . .

Then, screeching to a halt out side the newspaper’s office, came a truck of the Mobile Force, the military wing of Vanuatu’s police.

The truck was filled with sol diers. One got out, came to the office, and asked for a three month subscription to Voice of Vanuatu. When I asked him to come back the following week, he left with a broad grin on his face . . .

These were two incidents, minor frustrations, which occurr ed during a morning in the last week of production of Voice of Vanuatu.

At any time from March 12 when the “Order of Removal from Vanuatu” and the “Notice to Leave Vanuatu” were served, I could have been jailed.

The order, signed by the Minister of Home Affairs, Sela Molisa, said I might be kept in prison or in police custody, at his discretion, and while in jail this would be lawful custody.

My priority was clear. If I

were to stand by the freedom of

the press and speech, granted by

Vanuatu’s constitution, then I had to exercise the right to con tinue producing the newspaper.

The order and the notice gave me two weeks to leave Vanuatu.

The notice described me as an undesirable resident, and as a

security threat.

The papers were served on Saturday, March 12, at 9 p.m. in my office, by Commissioner of

English-born Christine Coombe was a freelance journalist in Vanuatu, and was established there before independ ence. She established and operated the Voice of Vanuatu newspaper, and she was Vanuatu correspondent for RIM and for Radio Australia. She was deported in March following an unsuccessful appeal against an order signed by Home Affairs Minister Sela Molisa. The order declared her to be an undesirable resident and to be a security risk.

Here she tells of her last weeks in Vanuatu before being put on an aircraft for Australia.

Police and Principal Immigration Officer, Bill Herman.

When the news got out, there was a public outcry thoughout Vanuatu. A petition was cir culated at the instigation of read ers. Page by page it was de livered to the prime minister’s office.

The petition was headed “We

want Voice of Vanuatu and free dom of speech”. All but one of the signatures were from Melanesians.

Foreigners put their heads in the sand. Friends insisted the telephones were tapped and the office bugged. Local advertisers grew scarce. One said the com pany feared to be seen supporting Voice of Vanuatu.

While reporters tend to be quick to notice policemen and police cars, I’m confident my movements were being watched.

I rarely went anywhere unaccom panied by a staff member. They knew to contact our lawyer if I didn’t come back when I said I would.

Their support and the support

from other colleagues was re markable. But I was shattered to hear that my staff had spent most of one morning discussing what a “free press” was. They’d come to the conclusion that it meant Christine could write just what she liked. Quickly I put them straight. I thought I’d explained the principles of a free press well

enough. But what they needed was to see it being exercised.

From then on they confidently snubbed the many attempts to undermine their will.

Privately we kept our spirits

up by re-writing a few hymns.

The favorite was “Amazing Grace”. I threatened staff with immediate dismissal if they sang it in the streets. They laughed.

Port-Vila lawyers, Hudson and Co., were instructed on the

Monday morning following the

notices being served.

Parliament opened that week and the first point of the opening speech from Leader of the Op position Vincent Boulekone was that the constitution had again been defiled by the deportation order on the editor of Voice of Vanuatu.

Voice of Vanuatu has closed its doors, he said, government has 100 per cent control of its information weekly and the na tional radio. There will be no freedom of speech, the Opposi tion Leader said.

While Voice of Vanuatu was rolling from the presses on the Friday following the opening of parliament the leader of the op position fought to have his open

ing speech accurately recorded.

The official parliamentary re cords had blurred his comments on freedom of speech, he said.

Hudson and Co. wrote to the minister for home affairs asking for reconsideration of the order and notice on the grounds that

they infringed the constitution

and proclamations by the general

assembly of the United Nations which both uphold the freedom of speech and the right to work.

Report from Vanuatu Christine Coombe