Probe Intensifies

Palau

Investigation into a reign of terror.

By Ed Rampell

American congressional

investigators flew to Palau from Washington and Honolulu late last year to probe a reign of terror that has con tinued in the world’s first national nuclear free zone throughout the 1980 s. The Gen eral Accounting Office (GAO) team ex amined the events of the September night when peace activist/attorney Roman Be dor’s 71 -year-old father was murdered and a meeting house and the home of another elderly pacifist were firebombed. The at tacks remain unsolved.

The GAO is also looking into other in cidents such as the June, 1985, assassina tion of Palau President Haruo Remeliik; the “bankrupting” of the Republic via the IPSECO power project; alleged use of Pa lau as a transit point between Asia and America for drug trafficking; alleged mas sive Government corruption; and a string of arson attacks and political intimidation.

The GAO which is the US Congress watchdog agency is specifically striv ing to determine whether or not Palauan citizens have been denied their constitu tional rights. This point is essential be cause when Congress passed initial Compact legislation last year, it was with the specific stipulation that America’s fi nal approval would only be granted after the people of Palau passed the accord in full accordance with the Republic’s con stitutional process.

However, the September 7 events preempted a court challenge to the Com pact set for the following day. On Septem ber 8, “intimidated” dissidents dropped their court case. The US House of Rep resentatives, led by Congressman Morris Udall (Democrat, Arizona) is concerned that Palauans have been denied their guaranteed right to due process of law. If so, this would mean that the Compact had not been passed in accordance with the Republic of Palau Constitution and hence that it had not met its requirements for passage by the US Congress.

According to a GAO investigator, Con gress will not vote on the Compact until the agency’s report is completed and turned over to the congressmen. This means that the Compact could yet again be held up indefinitely, or even killed.

The United States has jurisdiction over Palau because the Republic is an Ameri can administered United Nations Trust Territory. The Compact would replace the 41-year-old Trusteeship with a new politi cal relationship granting Palau home rule and substantial economic aid, in exchange for Pentagon access to the strategically lo

cated Western Pacific archipelago 800 kil ometres east of the troubled Philippines.

However, the Compact’s military provi sions conflict with Palau’s anti-nuclear constitution, and the fledgling nation’s political status process has been dead locked since 1983, despite 10 related na tional referendums.

The GAO probe is a preliminary in vestigation. The team of about seven ex aminers probed Palau for two weeks as a result of their findings, the US Congress will decide whether to launch a criminal investigation at Palau with the power to indict.

Since the political violence of 1981, when then-President Remeliik’s office was firebombed during the first of two tur bulent general strikes, indictments throughout what has been called a reign of terror have been rare. The only convic tions (for Remeliik’s assassination) were overturned by the Palauan high court, amid international outcries of a frame-up.

Recently, the Palau police charged three men, including Joel Toribiong, President Salii’s special assistant, with shooting at the home of Speaker of the House Santos Olikong.

People at all levels of Palauan society will be investigated, including, it is re ported, some occupying high ranks in the Palauan Government. “Nobody is above suspicion and investigation,” says a GAO member.

However, some critics of the Palau probe fear a whitewash, citing a lack of time, manpower, and funding for the ini tial investigation. There’s also concern that terrified Palauans may not be too anxious to speak out, fearing reprisal. Further more, critics of American policy in Palau are anxious, they say, that the US admin istration already rocked by the Iran contra affair may not want to open up a scandal that could possibly link America to covert actions at Palau.

Meanwhile, the Compact languishes in political limbo, as it continues to await the US Congress, UN Trusteeship and Secu rity Council approval it legally requires approval that may hinge on what the GAO investigators uncover. □