Committee of 24 visits S. Pacific

Vs attention focussed on the re-listing of New Caledonia with the UN Decolonisation Commit tee a UN mission submitttcd a report on the situation of another South Pacific territory, Tokelau, which is on the list of non-selfgoverning territories.

A mission from the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation which visited Tokelau in July noted that at this stage the 1700 people of Tokelau did not want to change the nature of their relationship with New Zealand, the administering power.

The mission was headed by Mr Ammar Amari of Tunisia and included representatives of the governments of Fiji and Trinidad and Tobago. The July visit was the third by a UN mission, the others being in 1976 and 1981. The mission s findings and recommendations were adopted by the UN Special Committee in a resolution passed in early September.

The mission, accompanied by UN staff members, the Secretary of the Office for Tokelau Affairs and an NZ Foreign Affairs department official, spent two weeks examining at first hand the situation in Tokelau and consulting Tokelauans on their wishes for the territory’s political future. The mission also visited Western Samoa, New Zealand and Fiji.

During their time in Tokelau the mission members spent two days on each of the territory’s three atolls, meeting with the various Councils of Elders, (taupulega) village workforces, (aumaga) women’s committees, youth representatives and members of the Tokelau Public Service.

Schools, hospitals, housing schemes and agricultural projects were visited by the mission.

The mission held special talks with the General Fono, Tokelau’s highest political body, noting in their report the inreasing degree of responsibility and decision making handed to the General Fono in recent years. The report recommended that New Zealand continue to encourage Tokelauans to assume an even greater role in running the territory’s affairs and urged New Zealand, in

co-operation with the Tokelau Public Service, to expand and intensify its program of political education in the country in order to improve people’s awareness of their choices in the process of self-determination.

In Apia the mission met with representatives of the UN Development Program, the FAO, the WHO and UN ESCO - organisations which along with New Zealand and Samoa provide Tokelau with assistance in the water, power, health, education, agriculture and fisheries fields.

In Fiji the mission members met with students from Tokelau at the University of the South Pacific, and talks were held with Tokelauan communities in Apia, Auck land and Wellington.

New Zealand government policy is that Tokelau should eventually undertake an act of self-determination and moves towards this are being taken at a pace acceptable to the people of Tokelau.

Mr H.H. Francis, the Tokelau Administrator, told the mission New Zealand had no intention of influencing Tokelau’s choice of future status, but pointed out that the territory could never be expected to achieve financial independence, and that while integration could bring advantages it could have a negative impact culturally.

NZ Foreign Affairs officials told the mission that NZ had no geo-political, strategic, economic or other interest in Tokelau, except to preserve its reputation as an administering power. Departmental secretary Mr Merwyn Norrish questioned the need for a formal vote of self-determination as part of the decolonisation process.

He said that should Tokelau decide to maintain the status quo or develop a unique relationship somewhere between integration and free association, then a less formal process might be appropriate so long as the UN agreed.

NZ Prime Minister David Lange told the mission he wanted to encourage Tokelau to take greater responsibil ity for managing its own affairs as and when it felt ready.

He reaffirmed that New Zealand would remain commit ted to providing Tokelau with continued financial support even as it gained more autonomy.