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booth for Palau

The chances of Palau’s Compact of Free Association with the United States being passed appears slim, with in creasing opposition developing against the pact, despite threats that the U.S.’s $lO million annual aid to the island of 15,000 people will be cut off.

All four previous referenda have failed to produce the necessary margin of victory be cause of Palauan opposition to proposed U.S. military options on Palau land. In earlier ver sions of the defeated Compact, the U.S. military was given access to nearly one-third of Palau land for jungle warfare training manoeuvres, as well as control of the sea port in Koror and airfields on the largest islands of Babeldaob and Angaur. This was coupled with agreements allowing nuclear weapons storage and transit in Palau.

When the first version of the pact were defeated, the U.S. and Palau government repre sentatives rewrote the military/ nuclear sections in ambiguous terms.

As successive versions failed to gamer 75%, the U.S. and Palau approved an agreement banning storage of nuclear weapons, limiting U.S. rights to “transit and overflight” of nuc lear weapons. Last December, it again fell short of the 75% needed.

Washington’s interest in Palau dates back to the early 19705, when Pentagon plan ners first tapped Palau as part of a defence line arc on the Asian periphery stretching from Japan through Tinian, Guam and Palau to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Palau and other Micronesian bases have taken on added importance to the United States since the 1986 ousting of Ferdinand Marcos and the resulting cloud of un certainty over the future of U.S. bases in the Philippines. US State Department officials have consistently stated, however,

that the US has no current plans for building military instal lations in Palau.

Even President Salii seemed to suggest that the odds against approval of a Compact defe ated six months ago were high when he told the Trusteeship Council that Palau might look to a country other than the US to associate with if voters reject the Compact. “While retaining the idea of free association, Palau could seek partnership with a nation other than the United States,” he said, adding that it would be one “less insistent on its military preroga tives. ”

However, President Salii is outspoken pro-West, and is

campaigning strongly for a Compact victory. His UN com ment could be interpreted as pressing Palauans, who are generally considered to be staunchly pro-American, to en dorse ties with the US, if the alternative were seen as a pact with another nation.

In addition, he has said that if the Compact is rejected a fifth time, the government will im mediately call a referendum seeking to amend the con stitutional nuclear provisions in line with the Compact of Free Association.

President Salii and other gov ernment officials tout the prop osed Compact for the nearly $1

billion in aid it will bring during a 50 year period.

Late last year the US im plemented compacts of free association with the Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia. State Department officials have warned Palau that the current Compact is the US’s final offer, and cannot be re negotiated. The officials said since the US Congress has already voted for the Compact, the US will not agree to any

changes by Palau.

Giff

Johnson.

President Lazarus Salii.