pacific report

Vanuatu Reacts On

Libya

Vanuatu’s Prime Minister, Father Walter Lini, says any attempt to raise the question of Vanuatu’s links with Libya at the South Pacific Forum will signal the end of the 13-member regional grouping. Father Lini says the forum has no mandate to discuss the domestic issues of member states, which includes Vanuatu’s Libyan connec tions. Concern over Libyan moves in the South Pacific led to a hastily arranged meeting in early May between Australia’s Foreign Minister, Mr Hayden and the New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr Lange. In a statement issued in Port Vila, Father Lini accused Australia and New Zealand of trying to use his country’s trade and diplomatic ties with Tripoli to isolate and destabilise Vanuatu. Father Lini said Vanuatu would not be forced to follow the Western line but would maintain a non aligned and independent foreign policy in the South Pacific.

Timber Marketing

Investigated

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Mr Wingti has appointed Mr Justice Toss Barnett of the National Court to investigate allegations of malpractice in timber market ing operations of the last six months.

Terms of reference for the inquiry include allegations that certain ministers received direct or indirect benefits in the allocation of the country’s timber resources to various companies. The roles of Foreign Minister Ted Diro and Police Minister Paul Torato will be investigated - both held the forestry portfolio during the period in question.

Kiribati Captures

U.S. Boat

Kiribati captured an American tuna boat allegedly fishing illegally inside its exclusive economic zone. The arrest of the purse seiner the “Tradition” followed a com bined air and sea operation by the Ministry of Natural Resource Development and police. A Ministry statement said the boat was taken to the port of Betio under command of a boarding party. Natural Resouce Development Minister, Mr

Babera Kirata, said the ship’s captain and the company would be charged with illegal fishing in Kiribati waters. The “Tradition” was one of nine American purse seiners alleged to have been fishing in Kiribati’s exclusive economic zone without a licence.

Both the Kiriabti and Tuvalu Governments had lodged protests with the US Govern ment over alleged illegal fishing by Amer ican tuna boats. Kiribati’s Police Commis sioner, Mr Patrick Somerville, said the master, owner and the charterer of the “Tradition” could face liability of up to $A 250.000 and the court could also order the forfeiture of the boat and catch.

Fisheries Pact Signed

The Cook Islands Minister for Marine Resources, Dr Pupuke Robati, has signed a new fisheries agreement with the Taiwan Deep Sea Tuna Boat-owners and Expor ters Association, licensing 55 Taiwanese long-liners to operate for 12 months, back-dated to January 1, in the country’s 200- mile fisheries zone for a fee of SNZ 140.000 (about SUS 82,150). Last year, 30 Taiwanese vessels were licensed for a fee of $U542,000. Negotiations are con tinuing with South Korea over its licence renewal.

Soviet Vessel Visits

Vanuatu

The first Russian fishing boat to visit Vanuatu since the signing of the agreement licensing Soviet fishing vessels to operate in Vanuatu’s 200-mile fisheries zone berth ed in Port Vila recently. The ship, the “Tagma”, obtained fuel and supplies, said Vanuatu’s fisheries director, Mr Richard Kaltonga.

Nauru Wins Court

Action

The Nauru Local Government Council won a damages suit against the New Zealand Seaman’s Industrial Workers’ Un ion, which, in 1973, blacklisted the Nauru ship “MV Enna G” in New Zealand. The union entered two appeals, the first against the judgment of the NZ High Court in December, 1982, and the second against an increase in the damages when the

Court of Appeal allowed a cross-appeal by the council for an increase in the original damages award plus interest. The original award to the Nauru Council was $A63,568.66 (about $U545,133 plus 11% interest from July 23, 1973. The second Court of Appeal increased this by 5A142.110 (about $US100,898) plus,in terest, and ruled that the interest should run from 1982, the date of the High Court judgment,and not from 1986 when the Appeal Court increased the amount of damages.

Compensation Sought

From France

The international environmental group, Greenpeace, is seeking SUSIB million from France in compensation for the sinking of its flagship, the “Rainbow Warrior”, by French agents. The “Rain bow Warrior” was blown up in Auckland harbour, nearly two years ago, just before it was due to lead a flotilla to protest against French nuclear testing in the South Pacific.

A Greenpeace lawyer in New Zealand, Mr Ted Thomas, said negotiations over the compensation claim would begin soon in Geneva, before a three- member in ternational arbitration panel. He said most of the $lB million claim related to damage caused to the “Rainbow Warrior” when the French agents used two limpet mines to blow it up. However, part of the claim was for what he called the outrageous nature of the French Government’s attack on the vessel. France has already paid New Zealand SUS 7 million in special damages for its agents attacking the ship in a New Zealand port.

French Funds For

Islands

A “Letter from the Minister for the South Pacific” (a monthly newsletter from the Papeete office of the Minister, Gaston Flosse), reports that the South Pacific Cooperation Fund set up by the French Government “as a financial catalyst for the technical, economic, social and cultural advancement of islands throughout the region”, is now available to island nations of the region. The fund, of about SUS 4 million, has already been used by the Cook Islands to repair damage caused by Cyclone Sally in January, and by Tonga to

finance the installation of solar-powered audio-visual equipment for educational purposes and the equipment of a foreign language school. The letter also reports that the new French University of the South Pacific will open in Papeete in September and Noumea in February, 1988, and its scientific council will offer seats to professors from other universities in the region.

New Member For Spec

The Republic of the Marshall Islands has become the 15th member of the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation, SPEC. The Marshall Islands Assistant Attorney-General, Mr John Howard, pre sented his Government’s Instrument of Accession, signed by President Amata Kabua, to Fiji’s Foreign Affairs Secretary, Mr James Maraj at the end of April. Full SPEC membership for the Marshall Islands - newly independent in free association with the US - was unanimously endorsed by the 14 other member governments.

Guest Worker

Scheme Rejected

The Australian Immigration Department told a Federal Parliamentary inquiry that a guest worker scheme would not solve the economic problems of the South Pacific.

The Department’s submission to the in quiry into Australia’s relations with the South Pacific said that concessions for the Pacific would call into question the fun damental tenets of Australia’s global non discriminatory immigration system.

Moreover, the submission said Australia was committed to permanent settlement rather than temporary workers, and ques tioned the long-term economic value of cash remittances to Pacific islands from workers overseas. The department said experience suggested that the effect of remittances was to increase reliance on imported food and consumer items. The department said that about 1550 people from the South Pacific migrated to Austra lia in 1986, a 59% increase on 1985.

Nz Warned On Trade

British Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, warned New Zealand that its anti-nuclear policies threatened its trade with Europe. Visiting Wellington, Sir Geof frey said Britain would continue to help New Zealand sell its dairy produce in the European community but he warned that New Zealand’s cause was less likely to prevail in the EC while it had policies which

were seen to be weakening Western security. NZ’s Prime Minister Lange re torted at a separate news conference by accusing farming interests in Britain of trying to exploit New Zealand’s foreign policy to disguise a protectionist argument.

Lange criticised Sir Geoffrey’s assertion that NZ was abricating responsibilities by cutting itself off entirely from the Western nuclear shield. New Zealand was now for the first time paying its way in defence with a policy of self-reliance.

French Gendarme

Shot Dead

A French gendarme was shot dead at Neami village,near Kone,in the central highlands of New Caledonia in late April.

French police said the gendarme was shot by a Melanesian wanted for theft who was arrested after being wounded in a leg by police. Another Melanesian was also arrested and two others sought by police.

The police said the case had no political overtones, however the FLNKS (Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front) said the four Kanak men had found guns in 10 cars belonging to local white settlers and had removed them. The FLNKS said the

police had arrived in Neami village before sam, accompanied by extreme right wing settlers - arrests for a suspected crime are illegal before bam - and that police had begun shooting, panicking villagers.

Army Exercises

Called Off

The New Zealand Army called off exercises with the Fiji Army that were scheduled for late April. A Radio Australia report from Wellington said the exercises were called off so as not to cause concern among Fijians. The report said it was understood that officials believed that NZ Army troops arriving in Fiji on military aircraft may cause Fijians to think they were being sent because of current local feelings about the new Government.

Two Men Found Alive

A Japanese fishing boat has found alive two young men who had been adrift in a six-metre fishing boat for months. The men, aged 18 and 20, were picked up near the Santa Cruz group in the far south of the Solomon Islands after surviving the ordeal in which five of their friends died. A PNG

Maritime Search and Rescue spokesman said the group set out from Maromon in the Lehir Islands, heading for Kavieng, about 220 km north-west on New Ireland.

The rescued men were hospitalised suffer ing badly from exposure and dehydration.

Foreign Ministers Call

On France

Foreign Ministers from Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have called on France to invite the United Nations to create a special committee to assess the independence issue in New Caledonia. Following a week-long meeting in Honiara in April the Foreign Ministers also called on France to consult the FLNKS independence movement in the territory, and noted with concern the French military build-up in New Caledonia. Also discussed at the meeting were economic coopera tion, security surveillance and the concept of a single regional organisation. The Ministers agreed to explore the possibility of setting up a House of Melanesia in Brussels and New York to represent their countries.

Undp Grant For

Project

The United Nations Development Prog ramme has announced a new grant, worth $U5622,000, to extend a livestock project in the Pacific region. The Tonga-based project had advised island nations on goat, pig and poultry farming.

Oil Palm Development

The Asian Development Bank has approved two loans totalling K 29.9 million (about SUS 33.2mi11i0n) and a technical assistance grant for a smallholder oil palm development project in Papua New Guinea’s West New Britain province de signed to increase the incomes of about 2200 small-scale farmers. The project is designed to increase PNG’s annual agricultural production by 31,930 tonnes of palm oil and 6390 tonnes of palm kernel with increased foreign exchange earnings of K 16.1 million(about SUSI7.B million) for the palm oil and K 1.3 million (about SUSI. 4 million) for the palm kernels.

Nauru Signs Nfz

Treaty

Nauru’s President Hammer Deßoburt made a flying visit to Fiji during which he signed the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone

Treaty without leaving his Air Nauru jet at Naursori airport. Nauru is the ninth of the South Pacific Forum’s 15 member nations to ratify the SPNFZ Treaty which bans the manufacture, testing or use of nuclear devices in the region.

Soviet Diplomat

Ordered Out

A Soviet diplomat who left New Zealand at the end of April after being accused of being a KGB agent claimed his expulsion was political. Mr Sergei Budnik, fourth ranking Soviet Embassy officer said on departure he’d never been a member of the Soviet secret police.

Minister Says

Tests Continue

The French Minister for Overseas Territor ies, Mr Bernard Pons, said France’s nuc lear test sites in the South Pacific will continue to contribute to French security.

Speaking to the Territorial Assembly in Tahiti, Mr Pons said France had to continue testing weapons as they were modernised to maintain the credibility of its nuclear deterrent Mr Pons described the tests as sufficiently isolated, and said France was sure it could master the problems of radiation safety, environmen tal protection, and the health of the Polynesian population. France’s recent nuclear test at Mururoa atoll prompted renewed protests from Australia and New Zealand.

Three Killed

After Bomb Explodes

In Papua New Guinea three men were killed when a wartime bomb exploded on Matupit island near Rabaul. The three were among six men who had been defusing the bomb to get the powder, which they had planned to make dynamite to catch fish. The three survivors were hospitalised. Rabaul police say the death of the three men is a shocking reminder to people on the Gazelle Peninsula not to try to dismantle bombs. Police have again appealed to people to report any sightings of wartime bombs, so that defence force personnel can be called in to remove them.

Unofficial Boycott

The first session of Fiji’s newly-elected parliament in Suva was unofficially boycot ted by the opposition. Only five of the 24 members of the opposition Alliance party

attended the ceremonial swearing-in ses sion, which was slightly delayed by a bomb hoax. Reuters newsagency said the unoffi cial boycott was described by some Alliance members as a gesture of support for the country’s indigenous Fijian popula tion, which they said was unhappy about the dominance of Indians in the new government. About 2000 Fijians milled around outside the building, singing traditional Fijian songs. An Alliance party statement said the members would be present for the next session and the taking of the oath of allegiance.

P.N.G. Diplomat

Recalled

Papua New Guinea recalled its High Commissioner to Australia, Mr James Winare, following an incident in Canberra in May, in which a senior Australian Foreign Affairs official, John Wallace, was assaulted. Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Ted Diro, said it was with “much regret” that he decided to recall Mr Winare, whom he described as a very diligent and hard working man with a long career in the public service. Mr Diro said Mr Winare may have been provoked into action which led to the unfortunate incident, but Papua New Guinea expected a high standard of professional behaviour by all its diplomats.

The Australian official, Mr John Wallace, required stitches in his face after the incident. Two months ago, Papua New Guinea recalled its Ambassador to the United States, Mr Abisinito, after he was involved in a car crash in Washington that resulted in serious injuries to an American.