Pacific Report

Lange S Ambitious Anti-N-Tests Move

New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange has foreshadowed moves at the United Nations to have a ban imposed on all forms of nuclear weapons testing. Speaking in Wellington on October 8, Mr Lange said the approach would probably be made within a month or so. He added that New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Sweden and several other countries had already agreed to co-sponsor the resolution, which would seek a blanket ban on all underground and atmospheric tests. Mr Lange said that during his recent visit to the United Nations he had reviewed work and confirmed support for the initiative. He said it was vital to lobby for this support because it would again be needed for the nuclear non-proliferation treaty review conference next year. On the ANZUS defence treaty, Mr Lange said he was confident it would remain intact despite his government’s ban on visits by American nuclear powered or armed warships. He said there was every indication that New Zealand’s partners Australia and the United States wanted to talk and not to confront. Mr Lange added that he did not see a future without New Zealand, Australia and the United States closely associated with each other in defence matters.

Frank Talking At Oz-Png Conference

Frank talking about aspects of Australia’s aid program, and some sharp criticism by Papua New Guinean speakers of their government’s handling of the Irian Jaya refugee issue, characte rised a conference on PNG-Australia relations in Canberra in September. It was organised by the Australian National Univer sity’s Centre for Continuing Education, and the Australian Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific (AFSP). Summing up the conference, Canon Rex Davis, Australia-born Honorary Secretary of the United Kingdom FSP, said: “Let us be frank and recognise that all aid is today part of the policy pattern of any government and exists, at the end of the day, for that government’s self-interest. Australian aid to Papua New Guinea is not altruistic. It is part of larger policies which may, indeed, have elements of guilt, but is surely much more connected with the more significant elements of the Australian economic and political hegemonic interest in the South Pacific ... I suppose all this must be accepted as part of the aid conspiracy which dominates the Western world (today). We may lament this but it has to be accepted as part of the reality though, I hope, not uncritically.” On the Irian Jaya issue, Canon Davis said: “I recall Premier Ultula Samana’s eloquent plea on the refugee issue. And I deeply hope that Papua New Guinea’s leadership can come to see that its acceptance of its greater sovereignty relates not to how it copes with Australian aid inspectors, but how it manages now today and tomorrow its responsibility for its Melanesian brothers an d sisters in the refugee challenge of these weeks and months. That leadership did not fail during the crisis in Vanuatu shortly after its independence.”

Progress At U.S. Islands Fishing Talks

rive days of talks in Suva in September between member countries of the South Pacific Forum and the United States on Amencan fishing rights in the Forum countries’ 200-mile fisheries zones ended in preliminary agreement on the basis for negotiating a treaty to give the American fishing industry access to tuna in the zUO-mtie zones-It is hoped to reach an agreement permitting individual countnes in the region to negotiate their own licensing tees and terms with American companies under the protection of the mam treaty. No mention was made, at least publicly of the confroversy over seizure by Solomon Islands of the American tuna boat Jeanette Diana for illegal fishing in Solomon waters (PIM Oct p/). Solomon Islands Government offered the boat for sale but there were no takers. The U.S. Government advertised extensively a warning that it would not recognise any sale or the transfer of title Latest r , e P orts fr , om 1 Honiara suggest that the Solomon Islands Government has asked the Jeanette Dianas owners C and F. Fishing Co., of San Diego, to make a bid for purchase.’

When the Papua New Guinea Government ordered the confisca tion of the American superseiner Danica for illegal fishing, it settled, finally, for payment of $A250,000 and released the ship.

Solomons Islands’ Central Tender Board originally put a reserve price on the Jeanette Diana of $53.9 million. Also on tender were the vessel’s helicopter and various accessories. The Suva talks were set up by the Forum’s South Pacific Fisheries Agency, headquartered in Honiara.

Street Protest Ojv Moresby Pack Rape

The pack rape in early October of a nine-year-old New Zealand girl, her mother and another woman has brought to the streets cries for a crackdown on crime in Port Moresby. At the same time police launched raids on squatter settlements, trying to flush out the gang of up to 20 which held the girl, women and their husbands at knife point. Minister, John Giheno, said those responsible should have “one part” of their body cut off. “These rapists should be flogged publicly,” he told a news conference. “They are animals.”

About 200 people, both expatriates and locals, protested outside the main police station on October 4 demanding protection for their families. The New Zealand couple, their daughter, and another couple were sitting in the living room of a house in a Port Moresby suburb on the night of October 2 with the front door open. They felt safe because the house is part of a group surrounded by a barbed wire fence with a gate patrolled by security guards. The gang apparently got in by throwing rocks at the security guards while others got over the fence at the back of the compound.

Ex-Soldier Arrested On Irian Arms Charge

A former Australian soldier, Gary Scott, was arrested by the country’s Federal Police in October on charges of seeking to supply weapons to OPM (Free Papua Movement) guerrillas in Irian Jaya.

Scott was detained on October 2 following a search of his Sydney flat. Scott is reported to have served with Australian forces in the then Territory of Papua New Guinea in the 19605, during President Sukarno’s “confrontation” period. Shortly before his arrest he told the Sydney-based weekly The National Times that he had crossed into Irian Jaya with other Australians and engaged in combat with Indonesian troops.

Qantas Will Operate Air Pacific

The Fiji Government announced on October 12 that it had selected Australia’s national airline Qantas to operate the Fiji airline Air Pacific for the next three years, with an option for renewal for another two years. Qantas has said that it will operate Air Pacific with a “no loss” situation. Among other provisions, it will supply the chief executive, and the head of the finance. Other contenders for the hotly contested prize were Air New Zealand, Ansett Airlines of Australia, and Continental Airlines.

Namalw S Ujv. Swipe At Indonesia

Papua New Guinea says it is not satisfied with most of the replies it has received from Indonesia about alleged violations of its sovereignty. The reservations were voiced by PNG Foreign Minister, Rabbie Namaliu, during an address to the United Nations General Assembly in October. Mr Namaliu said PNG had protested on several occasions in recent years about what it believed were violations of its territorial integrity. They included intrusions by military aircraft, and the destruction of a village near its border with Irian Jaya. Mr Namaliu said that in only one case did the Indonesian government admit a mistake had been made, that it had been unintentional, and had publicly apologised. Exercising his right of reply in the assembly, Indonesian Ambassador Ali Alatas said: “We were painfully surprised ... to hear the Foreign Minister of Papua New Guinea accuse us of having violated his country’s territorial sovereignty.” Mr Alatas said Mr Namaliu had spoken of events “which we thought had long been resolved and clarified” between the two governments. He said Indonesia had shown great restraint.

Somare Rejects Report On Refugees

Papua New Guinea has rejected a report by an Australian human rights group that Irian Jayan refugees should be allowed to stay in PNG at least temporarily. The Prime Minister, Michael Somare, said the Australian branch of the International Commission of Jurists did not run PNG. “It’s like me going to New South Wales and telling Premier Wran that he should accept some of the refugees,” Mr Somare said. The jurists, led by the NSW shadow Attorney-General, John Dowd, inspected refugee camps in the West Sepik and Western provinces. Mr Somare said the government had been informed by the Geneva-based Secretary- General of the ICJ, Niall McDermot, that the delegation led by Mr Dowd was not sponsored or supported in any way by the parent body of the ICJ. “In other words, it has little standing or authority.

The PNG Government does not want the refugee camps to be treated like tourist attractions. But since we have nothing to hide, we allowed Mr Dowd and his group to visit the camps.”

Fiji Widens Hongkong Lure

The Fiji Government’s offer of special residential permits of five years duration to Hongkong citizens, who will invest at least SFIOO,OOO in Fiji, particularly if the investment generates employment and exports, has been extended to citizens of other countries. A big response from prospective investors in India could meet with opposition from Fijians, who are already outnumbered by Indians in Fiji, and from Fiji-born Indians who might face unwelcome competition.

Mara On 14Th Independence Anniversary

“Despite the serious setbacks suffered by our people last year in the wake of the natural disasters, our economic performance has been satisfactory this year, and is expected to recover considerably in 1985.” Fiji Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara offered this appraisal in his Fiji Day message on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of independence on October 10. Ratu Mara added: “We moved into independence in a happy and peaceful way with a united and multi-cultural society. We have always been deeply conscious of this and undoubtedly it has remained a source of humble pride and inspiration to our people . . . This is a time of rapid and dynamic change in Fiji. However, the enduring values of goodwill, tolerance, mutual respect and loyalty will undoubtedly help us to face the challenge in the years ahead with determination and success.”

TONGA S PIRATE TV STATION IN ACTION “While everybody else is just talking we have done it,” said Fakate Tupouniua, manager of Tonga’s new pirate television station ASTL-V3. Reporting this in the daily newspaper The Australian, on October 8, David Robie writes from Nukualofa that the station “has cashed in on the video boom in the kingdom and started broadcasting, beating a major Australian network to the punch”

The chief executive of Australia’s Channel Nine, Lynton Taylor, met broadcasting officials from Fiji and Tonga in Suva earlier this year to discuss his network’s proposals, which also include offers to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Western Samoa. Channel Nine is offering to hook up the six countries to satellite transmissions, relaying 50 top-quality international prog rams a day from a collecting station in Los Angeles to Sydney. The pirate TV station, set up with the assistance of Honolulu-based U.S. technical consultants, has upset the Tonga Broadcasting Commission, which has a government mandate to launch a national television service. The TBC, writes Robie, had agreed to a four-month feasibility study by Channel Nine. Robie writes: “Mr Takafai Brown, editor of the new independent Tongan Times newspaper, warned that television might have a negative impact on longan culture Television could hit Tonga financially and culturally. It would be too sudden a development for our society,’ he said. I believe Fiji has the right idea about not wanting Fiji until the whole country has electricity’.”

A Step Further For Marshalls Compact

James McClure s Committee on Energy in the U.S. Senate has the U.S. and Marshall Islands Compact of Free Association and compact funding. This completes all committee action in the Senate on the compact, and the only remaining steo is hp V a°Hnnc y h the Senate - The House of Representatives committee heanngs have been resumed and the Foreign Affairs CommittPP has said that it plans to continue the hearings into next year.

However, the Reagan administration has said that it is still pressing for final House approval before the end of this year.

Cooks Minister Goes “Foreign”

Under a new bill approved by the Cook Islands Parliament, the title of the Minister of External Affairs will be changed to Minister of Foreign Affairs and policies connected with foreign affairs will be directed by the Cabinet. There will be no alteration in relations with New Zealand which will continue, along with the Cook Islands Government, to be responsible for external affairs and defence.

Two Tributes To Frank Hurley

The Australian Museum, Sydney, in September, staged an exhibition of still photographs taken by Australian cameraman and adventurer, Frank Hurley, on an expedition to Papua in 1922.

Earlier, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation screened Pearls and Savages, a motion picture made by Hurley during the expedition.

Now It S President Gaston Flosse

With much pomp and circumstance in mid-September, French Polynesia moved into the new period of its “internal autonomy” status. Press coverage featured heavily the fact that under the new arrangements, the elected leader of the local government in this case, Gaston Flosse takes the title of president, rather than vice-president as in the past, of the territorial government. French Polynesia, unlike New Caledonia, accepted the proposals of Paris for its future political status.

A Solomons Repubuc?

In the second general elections in Solomon Islands since independence in 1978, due to be held on October 24, 230 candidates were set to contest the 38 seats in its single-chamber National Parliament. Solomon Islands is a constitutional monarchy with the British Monarch as its head, but, if outgoing Prime Minister Solomon Mamaloni and his People’s Alliance Party are returned to power, a change to a republic may follow.

Coleman Loses Third Term Fight

The U.S. Department of the Interior has informed Governor of American Samoa Peter Tali Coleman that it will not interfere with a ruling by the Territory’s High Court barring Governor Coleman from running for a third term this month. At issue is a law limiting governors to two terms. The department said there was “an overriding public interest” in maintaining the integrity of the judiciary.

Pjv.G. War Veterans Bitter On Pensions

A meeting of war veterans in Melbourne has been told that men from Papua New Guinea who fought for Australia in World War II were “bitterly disappointed” that they did not receive a war pension. The president of the PNG branch of the Returned Servicemen’s League, Norm Osborn, told the Australian 1984 annual meeting of the RSL that he had been trying for 25 years to convince the PNG and Australian Governments to make grants available to the war veterans, but with little success. Mr Osborn said there were more than 7000 men from PNG who had been members of the Australian fighting forces. About 4000 of these were still alive, and, apart from a very small number who received a medical pension, they had not been compensated in any way for their service. The real problem, he said, was that the men were dying off rapidly, and, for many of them, any assistance would come too late.

Fijfs Cm. Raps Easy Prison Releases

Fiji’s Chief Magistrate, Gordon Ward, has criticised prison authorities for a decision to release prisoners from jail to serve their sentences. Mr Ward said he was horrified at the number of offences being committed by such prisoners. He said the time had come to review the system which allowed prisoners to serve sentences outside jail walls. The chief magistrate’s criticism follows a case in which an extra-mural prisoner was charged with the murder of a female shopkeeper. Mr Ward said he believed the public in Fiji must be angry at the apparent ease with which violent and dangerous men were released back into the community by the authorities ... as he put it . . . to “continue their crimes.