Pacific Report

END OF AN ERA AS U.S. SIGNS TREATIES In September-October ceremonies, official US representatives in the Pacific signed documents ratifying treaties of friendship between the US and Kiribati, Cook Islands, Tuvalu and Tokelau.

Main significance of the treaties is that they represent formal abandonment by the US of 19th-century-based claims to islands within the four groups. The signings followed ratification of the treaties by the US Senate on June 21, after two years in which it could not make up its mind (PIM Aug p 5). After the signing of the US-Kiribati treaty in Suva, US Ambassador Fred J. Eckert said that the treaty calls on the US and Kiribati “to work together for the social, economic and peaceful betterment of the South Pacific”. Replying, Kiribati Ambassador Atanraoi Baiteke said: “Our countries abide by the principles of democracy which I believe will form the foundation to fulfilling our commitment under the treaty of friendship.”

E.E.C. To Rescue Of Forum Line?

Speaking in Apia in October, deputy director of the European Development Fund, Maurice Foley, said that the European Economic Community was prepared to give more aid to the Pacific Forum Line. His statement followed Australia’s refusal to contribute further funds to the line at the last meeting of the South Pacific Forum in Canberra (PIM Oct pl 5). Mr Foley said the EEC believed the shipping line was important to the development of the South Pacific. But, he went on, the Pacific countries had to show their determination to make the line viable. Mr Foley planned talks on the line with the governments of Western Samoa, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.

Fiji: Reddy Warns On Job Discrimination

Indian Opposition leaders in the Fiji parliament have warned that the country’s peace and harmony could be endangered be cause of racial discrimination in senior government jobs. Nation al Federation Party leader Jai Ram Reddy said in October it was alarming that almost all senior government posts were held by Fijians and only a few by Indians. Speaking at the party’s annual convention, Mr Reddy said the ruling Alliance Party was giving the public service an active role in party politics and race relations were being strained as a result. Former party leader S.

M. Koya said it was sad the other races were not being given equal opportunities with the Fijians although the government had a policy of multi-racialism. Indians form half Fiji’s population.

It was estimated that, at the end of 1981, Indians numbered 326,000 (50 per cent) and Fijians 290,000 (45 per cent).

Somare To Visit Indonesia

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, Michael Somare, will make a State visit to Indonesia for border talks with President Suharto later this year. The dates for the trip are yet to be confirmed with Jakarta but the visit is expected to follow the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in New Delhi scheduled for the last week in November. Mr Somare is expected to deal with embarrassment caused to the government in September when the former Defence Minister, Epel Tito, predicted in Australia that Indonesia would invade PNG within 10 to 20 years. (PIM Oct p 6).

Palauans To Vote Yet Again

Yet another plebiscite on the Compact of Free Association with the US is planned in Palau before the end of the year. This was announced in October by Palau President Haruo I. Remeliik.

Supporters of the compact hope that the new plebiscite will complete the process of its ratification by Palauan voters. The compact was approved at a February plebiscite, but voters rejected an associated amendment to their constitution which would override the ban on the entry into Palau of nuclear materials. Judge Robert A. Hefner later ruled in the Palau Supreme Court that failure to approve the amendment meant rejection of the compact as a whole (PIM Oct p2O).

Noumea Wins, And Vanuatu Accuses Fiji

New Caledonia won the right to host the 1987 Bth South Pacific Games in the Games Council vote in Apia by 18 votes, to 14 for runner-up Vanuatu. But the win has been soured by charges by Vanuatu’s Minister for Education, Youth and Sports, Onnyn

Tahi, that New Caledonia’s success was due at least in part to lobbying against Vanuatu by Fiji delegates. Interviewed by the Vanuatu Government newspaper Tam-Tam, Tahi said that one Fiji delegate had tried to convince delegates of other countries to vote against Vanuatu by saying that any host country should first of all host the Mini-Games, and that the Games should be hosted by Solomon Islands (another contender) because it was a bigger country than Vanuatu. He also said that Vanuatu does not have stable relationships with some South Pacific countries “as a result of its airline policies.” Mr Tahi said that what Fiji had done was just the tip of the iceberg, and that it was “actually concerned with Vanuatu’s position on the Matthew and Hunter Islands issue, its banning of US warships from Port-Vila, and other political stands in international forums”. “The Games spirit is dead,” Mr Tahi said. “It is politically influenced and participat ing countries are using it to achieve their political aims.”

Mamaloni Pleads For Un Rules Change

Prime Minister Solomon Mamaloni of Solomon Islands has asked the United Nations to change its rules requiring poor nations to have diplomatic offices at the UN headquarters in New York. Mr Mamaloni was addressing the General Assembly in October, after his country had opened its first overseas diplomatic office at the UN. Mr Mamaloni said Solomon Islands was admitted as a member following its accession to independ ence in 1978. But it could not send a representative because under UN rules it had to have a permanent diplomatic office in New York. The prime minister said the opening of the new office was a great achievement in foreign relations. He said he was grateful that Australia was providing about SUSSOO,OOO a year for the upkeep of the office, which will be shared by the Maldives, the Solomons, Western Samoa, and other small Pacific Island countries.

NEW MOVE IN LONG-RUNNING NAURU LIBEL CASE President Hammer Deßoburt of Nauru in October asked a United States Federal Appeals Court in Honolulu to overturn the dismissal of a SUS4O million libel suit he had filed against the Guam newspaper Pacific Daily News. The case stems from an article in the newspaper in 1978 linking President Deßoburt to a loan to a separatist group in the Marshall Islands. The case against the paper and its owners, the Gannett company, was dismissed in 1982 by a US district court judge, sitting in Honolulu. Announcing the appeal, President Deßoburt’s lawyer said the paper falsely reported that the loan had been approved after Mr Deßoburt took office in May 1978, when in fact it had been made by Nauru’s outgoing administration. Counsel for the paper maintained that Mr Deßoburt had approved the loan. At press time, the three-judge panel had withheld ruling on the case.

Flood Havoc At Lae, Png

Widespread flooding at Lae in Papua New Guinea in Septem ber-October killed 28 people, caused millions of dollars damage, destroyed villages with hundreds of homes and prevented 1250 tonnes of coffee being shipped before the international coffee year ended on September 30. The coffee, bound for export, was in trucks held up by the floods on the Highlands Highway. PNG, according to a PNG Coffee Industry Board spokesman, needed to export about 820 tonnes of coffee by September 30 to fill its quota. Ships were waiting at Lae to load the coffee for Australia, Britain and Europe. The board will ask the International Coffee Organisation to allow it to carry forward the balance of the unfilled quota to the next coffee year.

Sanjuan Out, Enter Montoya

Richard Montoya, formerly second-in-command of the US Department of the Interior’s Office of Territorial and International Affairs, which is responsible for US relations with its Pacific Island and other territories, has taken over from his boss, Pedro Sanjuan, who has gone to a post with the US delegation to the United Nations. According to The Washington Pacific Report, Sanjuan had conspicuously failed to win the support of the constituencies he needed to succeed in the job, not least that of the leaders in the U.S. Pacific territories. The Report writes: “Official hopes in the Interior are that Montoya will have a much

better track record than his predecessor, and WPR believes he will not disappoint his supporters on this count. From all accounts, he is a fine administrator and is determined to work hard to develop an improved relationship between his office and island governments.” It adds: “Montoya, 35, a former aide to ex- Texas Governor William P. Clements, was sent over to Interior in February by White House Chief of Staff Jim Baker to be a settling influence and attempt to build the bridges that Sanjuan had burned ... As a known quantity, it is unlikely that announce ment of his appointment will cause the firestorm of protest that his predecessor’s did. Nevertheless, islanders are likely to reserve judgment until they see if Montoya’s policies are as palatable as his style.”

Paratrooper-Editor Gets Jail Term

Before the courts more than 100 times on charges of defamation and incitement to crime, subjected to repeated fines on the charges, Noumea journalist Gerard Lacourrege was finally sentenced to 15 days jail on October 7 on yet another defamation charge. Mr Lacourrege, a former paratrooper in France’s Algerian war, edits the far-Right weekly political journal Corail, which is published in Noumea. Speaking after the sentence, Mr Lacourrege said he was considering an appeal.

He said it was the first time in 30 years that a French journalist had been jailed for an article. He added that the saw the sentence as “part of a well established plan by the French socialist government to close down my magazine”.

A.C.I. ALL SET TO FLY, AND . . .

Air Caledonie International (PIM Oct p3O) will launch its first Australian service a weekly direct link between Melbourne and Noumea on December 2. It will introduce its weekly flights between Brisbane and Noumea on January 6. A.C.I. will also be sole carrier between Noumea and Vanuatu from January 1, operating four flights a week in each direction, increasing to five next April. The airline’s initial network will also feature a weekly service to Fiji and Wallis Island on Wednes days, with return leg to Noumea on Thursdays. All Australian services from Melbourne and Brisbane will have A.C.I. link flights to Vanuatu. A.C.I. becomes the third French international airline and the second to operate out of Australia, along with UTA French Airlines, which is its general sales agent in Australia. It is owned two-thirds by private and institutional interests in New Caledonia and one-third by the Territory of New Caledonia through the domestic airline, Air Caledonie. The new services from Melbourne and Brisbane to Noumea follow an agreement signed by the French and Australian Governments in June this year (PIM Aug p 6). The airline will operate its Melbourne-Noumea service under an arrangement with Qantas, with an allotment of 117 seats on a Qantas 747 jet with weekly departures from Melbourne on Fridays. The return flight on Saturdays will depart Noumea at 1 p.m. for the three-and-a-half hour flight to Melbourne. For its Brisbane service, A.C.I. will wet lease an Air Nauru Boeing 737. There will be a weekly flight from Noumea on Friday mornings. After a two-hour turnround the 737 will depart Brisbane for Noumea.

AIR MIKE’S 0.K., DESPITE BIG DADDY’S ILLS Air Micronesia services will be unaffected by the bankruptcy action taken in the US by parent company Continental Airlines, according to statements from Guam and Houston. Continental, which reportedly has had losses of SUS47O million since January, 1979, in September filed a voluntary reorganisation plan in the US Bankruptcy Court. The plan included reducing domestic US services from 78 to 25 points, and hiring back as needed employees who had been furloughed. “We will continue to operate our normal schedule,” Air Micronesia President George A. Warde said in Guam. “We made a commitment 15 years ago to serve Micronesia and Guam, and more recently Japan and the Philippines,” Mr Warde said, adding: “That is exactly what we intend to do.” Frank Lorenzo, Continental board chairman and chief executive, said at company headquarters in Houston that the airline had created new subsidiary companies for its international services which would continue operations, leasing aircraft and crews and other personnel from the parent company. Mr Lorenzo said that Air Mike and the South Pacific services would operate all routes, and continue expansion.

Burns Philp Back In Blue Water

From 1896-1970, the so-called Main Line Fleet of the Australian company Burns Philp continuously served Pacific Island and Southeast Asian ports. Since 1970, however, the company’s maritime activities had been limited to coastal shipping in various Island countries. Now, since mid-year 1983, the com pany has been back in the blue water trade with its new Southwest Pacific Container Line (SPCL), serving an east-west range of countries from American Samoa to Papua New Guinea. The line’s two 2250-tonne Norwegian-built vessels, MVs Induna and Matunga named after old BP ships are steaming 7500 nautical miles in each round voyage. Ports served are Apia, Honiara, Lae, Lautoka, Noumea, Nukualofa, Pago Pago, Port Moresby, Santo, Suva and Vila. They are working to a regular 44-day round-trip schedule to provide a 23day frequency. Hugh Reynolds, general manager of Burns Philp’s Pacific operations, said SPCL is owned by Burns Philp (Vanuatu) Ltd., and the public companies Burns Philp (South Sea) Co. Ltd. (based in Fiji), and Burns Philp (PNG) Ltd.

Introduction of the line follows a feasibility study conducted by BP over several years.

John Teariki Dead

John Teariki, one of French Polynesia’s outstanding political leaders, died on October 5 following injuries received in a tractor accident on his farm. (Obituary tribute, PIM December).

Vanuatu’S Cocoa Project Set To Go

The biggest single project in Vanuatu’s five-year development plan a cocoa planting and processing scheme was set to begin in mid-October. Representatives of the newly formed Metenesel Estates Company were set to sign a longterm lease with the customary owners at Litzlitz on the island of Malekula.

The company’s shareholders are the Vanuatu Government, the Commonwealth Development Corporation, and the landowners.

The project is being supported by aid from Britain, France and Australia. The plan is for 1700 hectares to be planted with cocoa over the next five years. The plan includes a cocoa fermentary and a processing factory with a production capacity of 38 tonnes a day. It is hoped that the industry will provide Vanuatu with a new source of foreign exchange, create 530 new jobs, and ease the country’s dependence on copra exports.

PNG: ESCAPED OZ KILLER GIVES HIMSELF UP In Papua New Guinea in October, an escaped Australian murderer gave himself up after four days in hiding. Eric Gordon Berry, who in 1976 shot a man dead in Port Moresby, walked into the office of the Niugini Nius newspaper and told the paper’s editor that he had escaped to draw attention to the government’s failure to act on a parole bill introduced in parliament in 1981. He is now back in Bomana jail.

PNG: REPORTS OF BIRD OF PARADISE KILLINGS Papua New Guinea’s Minister for the Environment Halulu Mai has held talks with the Premier of the country’s Western Highlands Province Nambuga Mara over reports that local people are killing birds of paradise in the province’s Baiyer River Sanctuary. The sanctuary is the only one of its kind in PNG where nearly all 35 species of the bird are found. The sanctuary is an important tourist attraction and revenue earner for PNG.

Papua New Guineans are allowed to capture the birds for the purposes of ceremonial body decoration for which its feathers and claws are much valued. But the birds must be taken in the wild, in the home locality of the people concerned, and by traditional means use of modern weapons is illegal. Apart from this, the birds are strictly protected. There is the possibility, which is of great concern to the authorities, that the birds are being killed for trading purposes.

BRING BACK THE ROPE’ CALL IN YAP A five-member Commission on Crime appointed by the Yap State Legislature has recommended amendment of a section of the constitution of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) which prohibits capital punishment in the FSM. Amendment would allow the Yap State to enact its own law to permit re introduction of capital punishment which some delegates called for at the Yap State Constitutional Conference in 1982. The state constitution has to be consistent with the FSM national constitution.