Pacific Report
pp. 7-8 · Read in the full issue
Pacific Women Foregather In Sydney
The Australian Pacific Women’s Peace Conference was held in Sydney on June 28-30 under the auspices of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, an international non-government organisation which has consultative status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and UNESCO. The conference was held as part of the culmination of the UN Decade of Women 1975-85 Equality, Development and Peace. It was also a prelude to the world conference of government representatives due to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, on July 15-26.
Non-government organisations were to hold a parallel forum in Nairobi over the same period. The Sydney conference attracted delegates from Australia and New Zealand, including Aboriginal Australians and Maoris, as well as from Pacific Island countries such as Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Tonga, Cook Islands and Palau.
Theme of the conference was the role of women in political, economic and social life in the region, particularly in relation to questions of peace and independence. A significant number of Islands women were prominent in the proceedings both as speakers in the general sessions, and in informal discussions. The conference logo was based on a rubbing from a carved wooden New Guinea bowl and depicted a snake, the creation symbol in many cultures, and almost always female. It was a reflection of the wide spectrum of cultural settings from which participants came that alongside matters of peace, nuclear weapons, and so on, much attention was also given to land rights, freedom of the press, street crime, alcoholism, and the sometimes unwelcome intrusion of governments in matters affecting women. A full report of the conference will appear in PIM, September. Bill Coppell in Sydney.
Heavies Head For Cooks
The South Pacific Forum will hold its 16th meeting August 4 to 6 on Rarotonga when one of the items to be discussed will be the proposal to establish a nuclear-free zone in the Pacific. This meeting will be followed, at the same venue, by the Second Pacific Islands Conference, August 7 to 10, which will discuss the results of research on development conducted by the Pacific Islands Development Program, formed in 1980 in Hawaii to help to meet special development needs of the region through co-operative research, education and training.
Air Nauru Gets The Cuts
Air Nauru has drastically reduced its services. The 15-year-old airline, with an operating budget of S6O million a year, has cut its fleet from seven to two, sacked or retired 26 pilots plus supporting crew, abandoned many services and reduced the remainder. At the peak of its expansion the airline covered more than four million route miles a year, calling at 29 ports in 26 countries, and with a flight deck crew of 60. Air Nauru has retained nine captains and nine first officers and two 737-200 SP aircraft out of its fleet of four 737 s and three 727-100 s. It will fly one service weekly to Hong Kong via Guam and Manila, one to Tarawa, one to Fiji, one to Sydney/Melbourne and two services a week to Auckland via either Honiara and Vila or Pago and Niue. President Hammer deßoburt told the Nauru Parliament that the airline’s losses could no longer be sustained in view of the overall financial constraints facing the republic.
Earthquakes In Png , Vanuatu
Authorities in Papua New Guinea have reported considerable damage after an earthquake shook two provinces on July 3. The earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the Ritcher scale, shook the provinces of New Ireland and East New Britain. Government officials said the earthquake caused landslides, low tides and damage to water tanks in New Ireland, while in East New Britain, the earthquake destroyed water tanks and buildings, caused landslides and broke up roads. No casualties had been reported, and an assessment of damage was still continuing. PNG’s chief vulcanologist, Dr Peter Lowenstein, assured residents in East New Britain that the earthquake would not lead to a volcanic eruption,
despite recent volcanic activity near the provincial capital, Rabaul.
The following day, July 4, a strong earthquake shook the South Pacific near Vanuatu, ihe Hong Kong Royal Observatory said the earthquake measured 6.5 on the Richter scale, and was centred about 1300 kilometres west of Fiji. Police in Port-Vila said residents were woken during the night by the earthquake, but there had been no reports of major damage or casualties.
Top French Official On P.R.Tour
Jean-Michel Baylet, secretary of state at the French Foreign Ministry, spent the latter half of July touring the Pacific to explain his government’s views on the New Caledonian crisis, and other regional issues, apparently in an effort to head off any strongly anti-French initiative at the South Pacific Forum in Rarotonga in the first week of August. He visited Vanuatu, which has been highly critical of French intentions (see stories elsewhere in this issue), then Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, and Western Samoa. While diplomats say Vanuatu is not likely to win support for its motion on New Caledonia, the Forum is expected to be much more united in its opposition to continued French nuclear testing at Moruroa, although Mr Baylet was believed to have assembled a hopeful brief on that subject, too. A possible indication of Pacific reaction to the Baylet visit was given by PNG foreign minister, John Giheno, speaking in July to a session of the Association of South East Asian nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur. He said island nations were committed to the quest for a peaceful solution to the Caledonian issue and sought ASEAN support for that cause. He asked for similar help in the Forum effort to bring an end to nuclear testing in the Pacific.
94 Protesters Stranded On French Reef
The fifth International Congress on Reef and Man in Tahiti at the end of May turned out to be an exhausting, week-long talkathon whose main feature was the almost total lack of participaton by anthropologists, sociologists and historians, who alone could have given proceedings the “multi-disciplinary” character promised by the organisers. The only notable exception was that grand old lady of Pacific culture studies, Professor Katharine Luomala of the Bishop Museum and the University of Hawaii, who, however, was officially introduced to a congress seminar on fish-poisoning as “Mrs Luomala from the Gilbert Islands” because her paper happened to deal with Kiribati. As an anthropologist specialising in atoll communities, I personally was particularly looking forward to the three symposia on the protection, conservation and manage ment of coral reefs. But although most of the 141 French scientists who took part had done fieldwork in our islands of French Polynesia, we heard nothing from them about the very special environmental problems in the Tuamotu atolls, resulting from the detonation of 112 atomic bombs at Moruroa since 1966. The only pollution problems they talked about were those in Tahiti, Moorea and Borabora, arising from various aspects of poorly planned “development”. The closest they came to the most important sources of pollution, the military bases at Moruroa, Fangataufa, and Hao, was a brief reference to the terrible ciguatera epidemic at Mangareva, in the southeast corner of the Tuamotus, where all fish have been poisonous since 1968. On the last day of the conference this lack of information on a subject of such great scientific and human concern was sharply criticised by Dr Graham Baines from Solomon Islands, and departmental secretary Tamata Ravo from Vanuatu. Almost all the other participants in these special symposia on environmental protection felt the same way, and a hastily drafted petition addressed through the congress organisers to President Mitterrand was signed by 94 of them. The petition respectfully called upon the president to “direct your government to quickly cease its program of nuclear weapons experiments in coral reef structures, and to make available to the international scientific community data on environmental radioactivity at and about Moruroa Atoll, and scientific details of the effects of underground nuclear weapons tests on the geological structure of the atoll”. In the weeks and months that have elapsed since the congress, nothing has so far been said about this petition in the local newspapers, or on local radio or TV. Nor did the chairman of
the congress organising committee, Professor Bernard Salvat, read it, or mention its existence, in a post-congress radio debate devoted precisely to local reef pollution problems, and lasting an hour and a half. There can no longer be any doubt that the petition, signed by 94 scientists from 28 countries, has simply been suppressed.
Bengt Danielsson in Tahiti.
U.S. Congress Heavily Amends Compacts
The U.S. congress House Interior Sub-committee on Public Lands has approved and sent to its parent committee a resolution approving the Compact of Free Association between the United States and the U.S. Trust Territory states of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), but the resolution proposes so many amendments to the original compacts, approved by referendum by the Marshalls and the FSM, that the Reagan administration has said that it did not know whether it would be able to support the resolution. Marshalls President Amata Kabua has already rejected a suggestion by chairman Stephen Solarz of the Congress House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Sub-committee that some amendments might be made by Congress following a U.S. fact-finding mission to the Marshalls.
The amendments proposed by the House Interior Sub-committee are designed to benefit American contractors and fishermen and the economies of U.S. territories in the Pacific, as well as reasserting U.S. congressional authority over compact changes and clarifying U.S. obligations, financial and otherwise, to Trust Territory residents.
Bole For Fui Parliament?
The vacancy in the Lau-Rotuma seat in the Fiji parliament caused by the death of veteran politician, Jonati Mavoa (p 65), seems likely to be filled by Felipe Bole, currently the secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Development Program, in Hawaii. The seat is regarded as solid-gold Fijian Alliance territory. Mr Bole was formerly Fiji’s delegate at the United Nations and was at one time permanent secretary at the Department of Education. Bole’s chances of winning nomination are regarded as good, although some other names have been bandied about. These include Mr Tevita Longa, Mr T. Yaqona, and the two brothers. Solo and James Makasiale. From our Suva Correspondent.
Parliament Officers Meet In Kiribati
THE Commonwealth Parliamentary Association sponsored the 16th conference of parliamentary presiding officers and clerks held in the Kiribati House of Assembly, Tarawa, from June 9-21.
Kiribati President leremia Tabai, opening the conference, said that his country’s independent constitutional history was only a few years old, having begun in 1979. But, he said, the Kiribati parliamentary system was still evolving, finding its own proper and appropriate place in national life. Speaking in reply on behalf of the 40 delegates from Pacific countries, the Speaker of Australia’s House of Representatives, Dr Harry Jenkins, said one of the features of the Pacific region was the relatively large number of newly independent nations, and the peaceful and free way in which they had achieved independence, Dr Jenkins said: “Indeed, independence is the key term, because all countries in the region are striving for independence and self-sufficiency. But this is not always easy for nations such as these because of their small to medium size.” Dr Jenkins said the conference was an example of the firm basis on which countries in the Pacific region operate.
Vianney K. Teabo in Tarawa.
Nz Festival Group Buffeted By Politics
New Zealand’s delegation to the Fourth Pacific Festival of Arts displayed some signs of being makeshift and limited after about a dozen chosen artists and performers decided to boycott the event.
Some others had refused to be chosen when the venue changed from New Caledonia to French Polynesia. A visit to New Zealand in June by the leader of the Polynesian Liberation Front, Oscar Temaru prompted public resignations from about six artists, including the political film maker Meratia Mita, well known for her film Patu on the Springbok rubgy tour of New Zealand, political song writers Linda and Jools Topp, the party’s official photo grapher John Miller, and most of a group of pakeha sculptors. The boycott was taken up by the Maori Artists and Writers’ Society, which picketed the departure of the predominantly Maori delegation from Auckland airport. Mr Temaru was something of an embarrassment for the Lange government, for his visit became a
focus of attention for groups of artists, Maoris and peace movement activists who agreed with his message that attending the festival was in effect to support French colonialism and nuclear testing. New Zealand’s Minister of Arts Peter Tapsell came under fire for officially representing the New Zealand Government at the June 29 opening ceremony in Papeete. Two Maori delegates took part in the boycott activities the unveiling of a monument to Tahitian warriors killed by French soldiers in the annexation wars, and a march of protest on Papeete. Titewhai Harawiia represented the Waitangi Action Committee, and Tuhipo Kereopa represented Kopahaitangi Wairiki. Tahitian independence activists have reg ularly attended protest marches organised by these two groups, and conferences in support of Maori claims to ratify the Treaty of Waitangi and recognise Maori sovereignty. Karen Mangnall in Auckland.
Irian Java Refugees In Australia
Australia’s problems in its relations with Indonesia took on a new dimension on June 26 when five refugees from Irian Jaya arrived in Thursday Island off the tip of Queensland seeking the right to “preach” the cause of Irian Jaya’s independence from Indonesia.
The refugees have nothing to do with the OPM, which seeks Irian Jaya’s independence from Indonesia by means of guerrilla tactics.
Indeed, they denounce the OPM as a “terrorist” organisation.
They belong to an intensely Christian religious organisation called “Musgas”, an English acronym for “Melanesian Union From Gag to Samarai”. Gag Island is in the Birds Head group in Irian Jaya, and Samarai is at the end of the bird’s tail in Papua. They believe in a united New Guinea Island. Peter Hastings of The Sydney Morning Herald wrote on July 2 that the Australian Government was “extremely worried that the five may be tempted by human rights activists on Thursday Island to claim political asylum in Australia, even if they do not genuinely seek it”. If they did claim asylum they would be the first Indonesian citizens to seek it in Australia. Their arrival in Thursday Island coincided with the influx of another 2000 Irian Jayans over the border into Papua New Guinea. About 500 crossed the border near Sekotchia, south of Wutung, in the West Sepik Province, and about 1500 crossed the border near the Yapsie River, about 250 km south of Wutung.
PNG sources said the OPM engineered the new crossings.
Easter Island And The Space Shuttle
Chile’s Foreign Minister Jaime del Valle said in Santiago on July 2 that there was no question of the United States building a military base on Easter Island as part of plans for an emergency landing strip for the space shuttle. The US National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has been seeking some kind of agreement about Easter Island, and critics of such an accord say it would have military implications and compromise Chilean sovereignty. In a statement issued on the eve of talks with US Ambassador to Chile, James Theberge, who had just returned from consultations in Washington, Mr Del Valle said Chile would not cede sovereignty over the island. His statement made no mention of plans for a port on the island, which diplomatic sources said Chilean officials had mentioned in informal discussions. They said the Chilean navy, taking NASA’s offer to pay for the airport runway extension as a sign that it desperately wants facilities on the island, has suggested demanding that Washington also finance construction of a port there. The sources added that Washington wants to do no more than extend the runway.
Bill Dunlop: Clairvoyants, And Susio,Ooo
Claims by Australian clairvoyants that missing American single handed sailor Bill Dunlop (PIM Aug. ’B4 p 67, Dec. p 7) was alive on Beveridge Reef, about 880 km west of Rarotonga, led to an aerial search of the reef in June. The search, carried out by an Air Rarotonga plane, discovered no sign of Dunlop or his 2.7 m sloop, Wind's Will. The flight, costing SUS2OOO, was paid for by the Bill Dunlop Search Fund Inc., which is headed by American lawyer Edward R. Heath Snr. Mr Heath told Cook Islands News that his fund was willing to pay a reward of SIO,OOO “for information leading to the rescue of Bill Dunlop”. He said the reward could encourage those in the boating community in the Pacific to check those islands on their journeys believed to be uninhabited. Anyone who found Bill Dunlop alive would receive the SIO,OOO. Dunlop was last seen sailing out of Aitutaki, Cook Islands, in June 1984, headed for Australia.