Pacific Report
pp. 5-7 · Read in the full issue
POPE TO VISIT PNG , SOLOMONS , IN MAY A historic “first” for the southwest Pacific is on the way up with the announcement of visits by Pope John Paul II to Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands in May. The only other Pacific islands ever visited by a pontiff are the Samoas (visited by Pope Paul VI in 1970), and Guam (which received John Paul II in 1981). Pope John Paul II is due to arrive in PNG on May 6, spend three days there, and then fly on to Honiara on May 9. Details of the Solomons visit were announced on his return to Honiara from a visit to Port Moresby late in January by Archbishop Daniel Stuyzenberg. The archbishop, who had consultations with Vatican officials in the PNG capital, said the Pope and his party would fly from Port Moresby to Honiara in two Air Niugini F2Bs, landing about 11.30 a.m. and leaving about 7.30 p.m.
P.N.G. GIVES NEW GO-AHEAD ON OK TEDI Papua New Guinea’s Cabinet at a lengthy meeting on January 25 approved the building of an interim tailings dam at the Ok Tedi gold/copper mining project but with stringent environmental and financial conditions. This reversed a government decision in mid- December rejecting a request from the company. Ok Tedi Mining Ltd. (OTML), to enable it to meet its gold production start-up date of May this year. The rejection was announced only three weeks before a massive landslide occurred on the site of what was planned as a permanent tailings dam on the Ok Ma River. Following the January
25 meeting of Cabinet, PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare said the landslide had “dramatically changed the situation facing the project.”
Without an interim scheme, the project would have faced a delay of up to 15 months, between 300 and 500 jobs would have been lost, and the government, which is a 20 per cent shareholder in the project, would have forgone revenue. Mr Somare said: “The government has given approval to build an interim tailings dam but with tough conditions to ensure that a permanent dam is built as quickly as possible.” The interim scheme rejected in December involved the disposal of tailings into the Ok Ninga. It was rejected because of the risk of polluting the Fly River system. The revised scheme will deposit tailings into the Ok Mani, but with the condition that they be deducted from the 60 million tonnes that the mine had previously been permitted to put into its southern dumps area. (See background report,
“Tradewinds” department.)
’B3 GOOD YEAR FOR FRENCH PACIFIC PAPER In a review of France’s relations with the countries of the South Pacific in 1983, the Noumea daily Les Nouvelles Caledoniennes says that France had “chalked up points” on the issues of nuclear testing and the status of French territories, especially New Caledonia, in the course of the year. On the nuclear question, the paper noted that in 1983 France for the first time had waged a major campaign of information in the region. Nuclear tests had taken place at Moruroa
since the campaign, but, the paper said, the protests had appeared “less fierce” than in the past. It said that on the matter of the status of French territories, the Round Table meeting at Nainville-les-Roches near Paris in July, at which all political factions in New Caledonia were represented, had “marked an important new stage.” The paper said: “The meeting could be presented abroad as showing that France was open to dialogue and that it was prepared to consider all possible avenues of change, including independence. It could be emphasised that France had recognised the need for the abolition of the ‘colonial reality’, and the positive right of the territory to independence.
Having done these things, France had shown that she was in fact acting in accordance with the traditions of a freedom-loving country, and with the ideals of the French revolution.”
A.D.B. Regional Office For Portmla
The Asian Development Bank is to establish its South Pacific regional headquarters in Port-Vila, capital of Vanuatu. Vanuatu Finance Minister Kalpokor Kalsakau said the bank’s executive had unanim ously approved the proposal. Mr Kalsakau said he was grateful to the finance ministers of Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, and Solomon Islands who had supported Vanuatu’s application. He said he hoped the regional office would be able to satisfy the needs of the region. Mr Kalsakau, who is the bank’s governor in Vanuatu, said the office would open in June. Siting of the ADB regional headquarters had been the basis of much speculation, with Fiji’s capital Suva being widely tipped in many circles as the applicant most likely to succeed.
Flu P.M. Loses Libel Action
Fiji’s Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, has failed in a libel suit against the country’s leading newspaper, The Fiji Times , and costs have been awarded against him. The action, heard in the Fiji Supreme Court before Mr Justice Rooney, arose from a letter to the editor published by the Times in which Senator Inoke Tabua was criticised for a speech, in parliament, calling for the deportation of certain citizens of Indian ethnic background. The letter suggested that the senator was the nominee in the senate of the prime minister and noted that Ratu Mara had not commented on the speech, or rebuked Senator Tabua. Senator Tabua is the nominee of the Great Council of Chiefs, and not the prime minister, which fact was published by the newspaper together with an apology for the error made by the writer of the letter. In dismissing the action Mr Justice Rooney said holders of public office should not be thin-skinned in receiving public criticism, so long as it was fair and in the public interest. Mr Barrie Sweetman appeared for The Fiji Times and Mr Laßaleister, a Sydney based Queen’s Counsel, instructed by Fiji solicitor, G. P. Lala, for the prime minister.
BURNS PHILP PLANTATION BOUGHT BY PNG GOVT.
The Papua New Guinea Government gave Bums Philp (PNG) Ltd one month from January 27 to cease all its operations on Kenabot plantation in East New Britain. PNG Lands Minister Mr Korowaro said the government would also charge monthly rents for the plantation manager’s residence and a Chinese businessman’s trade store on the plantation. The government is buying the 300-hectare property for K 162,000 to resettle people in case of a volcanic eruption in Rabaul. The sale would affect 15 families, and arrangements were being made to resettle them. Bums Philp’s general manager Chester Ryan described the government’s decision as “a very satisfactory conclusion for all concerned.” Earlier, Mr Morowaro had claimed that the company had refused the government’s purchase offer, and warned that government powers of compulsory acquisition might be used. Mr Ryan responded by saying that he believed Mr Korowaro had not clearly understood his company’s requirements. Later Mr Ryan said: “The situation has been resolved and we thank Mr Korowaro for his understanding.” Mr Korowaro said rents would be charged at the rate of K3OO a month for the manager’s residence, and K2OO a month for the trade store run by businessman Ron Seeto. He explained: “Rent is being charged because the valuation of K 162,000 (by the government) included the buildings on the property, which consequently become the property of the State.”
South America’S Pacific-Coast Nations Meet
Foreign ministers of Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, member nations of the Permanent Commission of the South Pacific, met in
Vina del Mar, Chile, from February 9-11. The commission was bom out of what is known as the Santiago Declaration of 1952, in which the four Pacific-coast South American nations for the first time established in international law the 200-mile exclusive maritime zone, which has since been adopted by nations throughout the world.
Matters high on the agenda of this year’s meeting were: the exploration and exploitation of the seabed, including mining; the protection of the maritime environment from radio-active radiation; the protection and better utilisation of living maritime resources; latest developments in research into the El Nino phenomenon; and co operation between the PCSP and other international organisations. A central concern of the PCSP meeting was to “look at strategies linking both sides of the Pacific Ocean.”
Big Islands Trade Display For Honolulu
A trade exhibition of South Pacific Island products will be held in conjunction with the 1984 Conference on Pacific Island-United States Trade Through Private Sector Development on the evenings of March 19, 20 and 21, at the Pagoda Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii. The trade show will be sponsored by the Pan Pacific Alliance for Trade and Development, which is also co-sponsoring the conference with the United States Agency for International Development. Exhibitors from 21 South Pacific Island nations will be displaying their products to Pacific Rim country buyers, investors and trade representatives.
Island nation governments also have been invited to discuss trade and investment opportunities in their countries. Products expected to be on display available from Islands countries include: hardwoods (furniture, veneer panelling, timber); agricultural products (vanilla, ginger, pepper, cardamom, coffee, tea, sugar, tropical fruits and juices); coconut products (soap, copra, cosmetic and cooking oil, wood, cream, syrup); handicrafts (tapa cloth and other fibre products such as baskets and weavings, wood carvings, ethnocultural artifacts, masks); mineral resources (bauxite, copper, nickel); marine products; and specialty products such as tropical wines and liqueurs, woollen sweaters and collector postage stamps. Primarily, the exhibit is planned to introduce Island products to U.S. buyers and importers.
The conference will bring together Pacific Island business and government leaders with American private sector expertise to help develop the export capabilities of Islands businesses.
Tongan Royalist Revels Rile Mt. Roskill
The Auckland New Zealand home of King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV of Tonga has become the target of complaints by nearby residents, says a recent report in the The Fiji Sun. Residents say that noisy kava parties at the house in posh St. Andrew’s Road, Mt Roskill are keeping them awake at night. Angry locals are organising a petition to Mt.
Roskill’s mayor, Dick Fielding. A report in The Auckland Star says the parties, which include singing and traditional band music, are held to honor Tonga’s king whenever he stays in Auckland. “They just get noisier all the time,” said one resident. “They continue all night. On Friday, they had one which went on until 10 the next morning.”
Manager of the king’s household, Vava Falemaka, acknowledged the complaints but explained the parties were a Tongan custom. He said: “It happens only when the king is here. Tongan people come to pay their respects and do a bit of singing and dancing... If we told everyone ‘no noise’, they wouldn’t come. We can’t just turn them out. I know this is a nuisance for Europeans. As Tongans, we don’t mind a lot of noise from neighbors. I hope they understand it’s only for a while.”
P & O TO CUT VISITS TO SUVA The cruise line P&O says it is considering dropping Fiji’s capital, Suva, as a port of call because of what it says is the harassment of tourists by taxi drivers and curio vendors. The warning has been conveyed to the Fiji Visitors Bureau by the President of the National Tourist Association, Gerald Barrack. Reports from Suva say the FVB has also received a number of letters of complaint from P&O itself, asking the organisation to do something about the problem. The company’s Fiji representative. Jack St. Julian, says P&O has no plans to pull out of Fiji completely, but will be reducing its trips to Suva and calling into the country’s second city, Lautoka, more often. At present most P&O liners call at Lautoka before stopping at Suva.
About 27,000 tourists arrived in Fiji by ship between June and December, 1983, compared with about 30,000 in the same period in 1982.