Foreign Minister

Vanuatu “under pressure”: Foreign Minister

Vanuatu’s Prime Minister, Father Walter Lini, re cently announced that his Government would postpone indefinitely making a decision on the establishment of a Libyan diplomatic mission in Vanuatu.

Speaking to PIM after the Forum meeting, Foreign Minis ter Sela Molisa denied that the announcement was a result of any pressure from other coun tries: “They (the Libyans) are not ready, and we are not ready”, Mr Molisa said. “We expect them to go about establishing diplomatic missions in a re sponsible and mature way” he said referring to the recent visit of two Libyan envoys.

“They went home because we made it very clear that we expect such things to be done in accordance with the Geneva Convention. ”

Molisa said Vanuatu saw Libya as a friendly country with similar views on a range of issues. Moreover, Libya “is the second largest oil producer and is successful in agriculture, par ticularly in turning desert into arable land”.

Molisa said Vanuatu had several big projects on which it had approached friendly gov ernments for assistance, and that funding of SUS 40 million for a new airport to take 747 aircraft, had been raised with Libya, Japan, Australia and the Netherlands. Of these countries Japan had been the only one to reply so far, Molisa said, but was only interested in funding the terminal and not the runway.

On reports of groups from the Vanua’aku Pati being sent to Libya for training, Molisa said: “Our intention was to send some people to different coun tries, including Australia, Malaysia, Holland and Libya for training to be exposed to different environments, to study journalism.

“Libya, Israel and South Afri ca are countries under pressure to survive . . . our policy is not

to deal with South Africa and we have no diplomatic relations with Israel. For journalism we need people with good educational backgrounds, not just for newspapers, but to be capable of analysing informa tion.”

Molisa pointed to Vanuatu as also being a country under pressure as the only South Pacific country to join the Non- Aligned Movement.

“We have 100 sub-commit tees with commissars we want them to be exposed (to pressures) and to come back and keep the people in touch at the grass roots level. We’re now thinking of doing this training in Port Vila if we can get experts to come. ”

Molisa said Vanuatu had been disappointed with the pre- Forum South Pacific mission of Australian Foreign Affairs offi cial, David Sadleir to discuss the Libyan threat with regional leaders.

“On the reports of arms coming to Vanuatu, we ex pected David Sadleir to explain where they got this information ... we don’t want any shipment of arms.”

Vanuatu was “still consider ing police training with Libya

if you look at the security of Libya, with all the pressures around, they’ve got a very strong police and army.

“We have a Police Services Commission anyone who goes to Libya and comes back and poses a problem (will) end up in jail. They have to obey our laws, Vanua’aku Pati supporters or whatever.”

Vanuatu was happy with the Forum statement on New Cale donia, Molisa said. “But in reality if France goes ahead (with the referendum), what can any Forum country do?

Just go banging ahead at the UN.

“We think giving the FLNKS observer status at the Forum is another pressure on France, but the Forum has to reflect everybody’s view well, so long as everybody stays to gether at the UN.”

Molisa said the issue of a new airport was linked to the politi cal developments in New Cale donia. Our tourism was affected by the troubles in 1984 (with planes needing to refuel at New Caledonia’s Tontouta airport) that’s why its so very impor tant to have our own airport, so as not to be dependent on tourists coming through New Caledonia.

Sela Molisa, Foreign Minister of Vanuatu during visit to Washington.