Pacific Report

□ Development Progress

Reviewed

THE STANDING Committee of the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders met last month at the East-West Cen ter in Honolulu to begin plans for the third conference of leaders in 1990 and to review the work of the Center’s

Pacific Islands Development Program

(Pidp).

Leaders were briefed by researchers on tourism development, the role of the private sector, and government

policies and strategies for private sec

tor growth in the region.

Tne President of Kiribati and chair man of the Conference standing com mittee, leremia Tabai, accepted a $lOO,OOO contribution from the Gov

ernment of Japan, presented by

Tadayuki Nonoyama, Japan’s consul

general in Hawaii.

□ Adb Funds Png Health Sector

THE ASIAN Development Bank has agreed to provide $Ub360,000 in tech nical assistance for a Health Sector

Financing Study in Papua New

Guinea. The grant will be financed by

the Japan Special Fund.

Tne objective of the assistance is to help the PNG Government find alternative ways to supplement financ ing of the recurrent health expendi ture, a predominant part of the total

expenditure of PNG’s health services.

The study will be conducted in two phases. Phase one will assess and quantify the needs of additional recur rent funding in the sector while the second phase will review additional financing methods and recommended

ways of implementing options.

A team of consultants will support the study, due to begin in April.

□ Us Maps On Pacific Tour

UNITED STATES MPs last month toured Pacific island jurisdictions for

which they have legislative responsibi

lities. The legislators are members of the House of Representatives Commit tee on Interior and Insular Rights.

Their itinerary included visits to Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau and American Samoa.

Despite declining health, 66-year-old

Committee chairman, Representative Morris’ Udall led the tour. Delegates were expected to find that political status is a uniform concern through out the islands. Guam wants Common wealth status while the Northern Marianas has Commonwealth but wants to be released from the In terior’s jurisdiction. Palau remains un decided and American Samoa shows signs of wanting to reassess its status, with conservative Governor Peter Col eman suggesting a re-examination of ties, albeit within the US framework.

□ Nz-Nauru Deal Ends

THE strained civil aviation agreement between Nauru and New Zealand has been terminated. The five-year-old agreement, under which New Zealand officials advised on Air Nauru opera tions and airworthiness, has lapsed and was not renewed, said NZ Associ ate Foreign Minister Fran Wilde.

The move followed the grounding of the airline when its operating cer tificate was withdrawn twice last year.

The Minister said New Zealand had tried hard to keep Air Nauru flying while ensuring standards were main tained and had offered advice in tended to achieve those aims.

“Unfortunately, Air Nauru has not always found it possible to accept this advice, and the New Zealand Govern ment regrets that the arrangement did not worT out more satisfactorily for both parties,” he said.

Australia’s High Commissioner to Nauru, Beris Gwynne, had earlier been recalled after it became known she had gathered information on Air Nauru’s safety record. That informa tion was passed on to the New Zea land Department of Foreign Affairs as a matter of course. But Nauru’s Presi dent Hammer deßoburt cited Ms

Gwynne for “unsatisfactory behaviour”

and requested her withdrawal.

□ Yamamoto Plane Row

AN AGREEMENT to return to Japan the wing of the aircraft in which Admiral Yamamoto died had angered the provincial government in North

Solomons, Papua New Guinea.

The wreckage of the aircraft has re mained at Buin since it was shot down during World War 11. The PNG and Japanese governments have signed an agreement for the return of wreckage from the aircraft for display in Japan.

A Japanese delegation was due to col lect a wing from the aircraft in late February. The agreement was made without the knowledge of the North Solomons Government and has drawn angry reactions from local leaders.

North Solomons Premier Joseph Kabui said his government should have been consulted because the wreckage is in its area and is a tourist attraction. “There is no guarantee that this wreckage will be safe. The agree ment does not stipulate or guarantee the safety and return of the wreckage to the province. We find this difficult to understand,” he said.

The agreement provides for the construction of a road to the wreckage site, the establishment of a trust fund starting with K 9500 for Buin land pwners. The wing will be displayed in the Japanese city of Nagoka, and the money raised will be used to maintain the road to Buin for continuous visits

by Japanese tourists. It also provides

for construction of a medical care pro ject at Buin and the election of two village leaders to the Association over

seeing the Ngoka project.

□ Tahiti Newspaper Changes

FRENCH PUBLISHING magnate Robert Hersant, owner of the con servative Le Figaro, Paris-Match ; and a chain of other publications in France, has added another daily news

ADB funds to upgrade PNG health care.

Row erupts over Yamamoto relic.

paper to his growing Pacific interests.

The Hersant group, Pacific-Presse Communication, last month took over control of Les Nouvelles de Tahiti, one of Tahiti’s two biggest newspap ers. Announcing the takeover m a front page statement, former pub lisher Julien Siu, a Tahitian-Chmese businessman, and Pacific-Presse group

publisher Henri Morny promised

readers the paper would be given an editorial facelift and a more commer cial structure.

Media commentators suggested the paper would be given a more profes sional, more lively presentation with the use of four-colour pictures like its sister-paper in Noumea, Les Nouvelles Caledomennes. Once regarded as a reasonably liberal paper and frequent ly criticised for giving too much space to pro-independence parties, it is now expected to move further to the right than its rival, La Depeche.

Louis Bresson was named as new editor-in-chief and it was announced he would head a “solid and dynamic” team of journalists. “His mission is clear,” said the publishers in their joint statement. “He must offer every morning to our readers a modern

newspaper, complete, independent,

objective, attuned to the preoccupa tions of the territory’s leaders and its population, while at the same time being open to the aspirations of youth ... on whom our future depends.”

Ironically, just two days after the

takeover of Les Nouvelles, one of the

region’s previously independent and

locally owned newspapers, commenta tor Daniel Tardieu criticised the curbs in news media and the proposed licensing of newspapers in Fiji.

“In all countries respecting civil liberties,” he wrote in La Depeche, “those of the press are the foundation stones of democracy. One crucial fac tor is the right of citizens to free ex pression. But the press embarrasses governments and those who do not like freedom of expression”.

□ Landowners In Sydney Talks

LANDOWNERS IN the Special Min ing Lease (SML) area of Forgers in Papua New Guinea are dissatisfied witn the handling of their affairs by the local representatives of the

Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) company.

So the landowners decided to go straight to the top, last month sending a 10-member delegation to Sydney for talks with the overseas managers of the company. A chief of the SML area, Pakitu Pundi, led the delegation to discuss problems with the people landowners feel are the “real” mana gers of the venture.

The delegation reportedly sought

an assurance of 10 per cent free share participation in the mine, construction

of a permanent township before min

ing begins, upgrading of the local

health centre, trie awarding of con tracts to Porgerans, and training and

employment.

□ Cooks Aid To Increase

US aid to the Cook Islands is likely to increase by $lOO,OOO to around SUSSOO,OOO a year, according to out going US Ambassador to New Zea land, Paul Cleveland. After a recent visit to Rarotonga, Mr Cleveland gave assurances aid would be continued to the newly elected government of

Prime Minister Geoffrey Henry.

Mr Cleveland said bis country is paying more attention to the Pacific in response to demands from the region and increased awareness in the US.

Talks between Mr Cleveland and Mr Henry centred on future US aid prog rams, in particular possible assistance to develop the black pearl industry in the northern Cook Islands.

Meanwhile, a New Zealand Audit Office team has examined the man agement of NZ’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) to the Cook Islands.

An Audit Office team spent a week in the Islands and observers say their re sponse to ODA projects was generally favourable. It is not known if the

team’s report will be made public: the decision to publish rests with a select committee of the NZ Parliament.

Cheryl Lilly

□ Centre For Norfolk

THE American Society for Environ mental Education (ASEE) has prop osed the development of an environ mental research centre on Norfolk Is land. A site for the proposed South Pacific Centre for the Environment has yet to be found, but preliminary meetings indicate considerable enthu siasm for the project.

ASEE president Dr William Mayo says the centre will provide a focus for scientific research of relevance to the region and establish a centre to host regional South Pacific conferences on environmental and scientific topics.

The project, Dr Mayo hopes, will be funded by donations from individuals, corporations and governments. The ASEE has so far sought the involve ment of the Norfolk Island Govern ment, the University of Auckland (NZ)

and the Macquarie University, Sydney.

If approved, the centre would open in 1991, with its first research project already listed as a study of monitoring of Norfolk Island rainfall using high ►

resolution electronic rain gauges.

The study would provide a data base for water budget investigations and help assessment of soil erosion, forestry management and botanical re search, Dr Mayo said.

□ Fruit Will Not Fly

AN indefinite ban on the exportation of fruit to New Zealand by travellers has been imposed by the Cook Islands Ministry of Agriculture in a bid to stop the spreacf of fruit fly. The move follows the discovery of live fruit fly larvae in a private shipment of papaya.

Officials say the ban is aimed at operators who attempt to sneak fruit out of the Cook Islands without fol

lowing quarantine regulations.

Smuggling of unfumigated fruit

threatens an export industry that generates around SNZ7 million each year for the Cook Islands.

□ Eezs Not Easy

THE Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), extending 200 nautical miles from shore, has given unprecedented eco nomic power to many Pacific nations.

But US and Pacific policymakers now

are grappling with the thorny legal

question of whether an uninhabited is land can generate an EEZ.

Researcn by the Hawaii-based East- West Centre finds the US in a dilem ma over EEZs for the Northwestern Hawaiian islands. The problem stems from the ambiguous language of the UN Law of the Sea (LOS) Convention that established the EEZ concept. Re

searchers Jon and Dyke, Josepn Mor

gan and Jonathan Gurish say the Con vention aoes not confer EEzs on some small insular formations, the criterion being the ability of the formation to sustain human life. The US, however, contends that every insular formation is entitled to an EEZ, thereby extend ing the overall maritime space over which the US can exercise jurisdiction.

The US must decide whether to abide by the LOS Convention and thereby limit its EEZ claims to perhaps only three of the Northwestern

Hawaiian islands. The East-West re searchers say that decision would res trict US interests in the short term but provide for greater long-term benefits and the development of a common

Pacific heritage.

□ Arts Grants

THE London-based Commonwealth Institute has invited applications for an arts and crafts fellowship for the South Pacific region. Five fellowships will be granted, one for each of five regions of the Commonwealth.

Artists and craftspeople aged under 35 and residing in Commonwealth countries are eligible. Institute spokes woman Gloria Maddy says preference will be given to talented individuals who have shown promise of artistic merit and achievement in their own countries but who have not had opportunity to gain exposure and ex

perience overseas.

The fellowship is tenable for up to nine months and will cover return air fare, subsistence and exhibition costs.

Applications close on October 1.

□ Adb Vanuatu Grant

VANUATU is to receive a $U575,000 technical assistance grant from the Asian Development Bank. The grant is intended to assist the development of comprehensive legislation for en vironmental and natural resources planning and management.

Vanuatu’s population is growing at about 3.2 per cent each year, ana in creased agriculture, mining and indus try to meet local and export needs is expected to place considerable strain on the nation’s environment.

A consultant from the Environmen tal Law Centre, much is based in Switzerland, will be engaged to study

existing environmental legislation ana

provisions, and to draft appropriate guidelines and new legislation to sup port environmental concerns.

□ Tuvalu Upgrade Ends

THE major phase of a SAI.S million upgrade of Tuvalu’s Public Works Di vision (PWD) in Funafuti has been

completed. The project was the largest

funded in Tuvalu by New Zealand aid. The new PWD complex, designed by Fijian architects Lee and Associates, is also the most ambitious project yet undertaken by a local building con tractor.

The project was planned in 1985 af ter two New Zealand experts con ducted a review of the PWD and re commended a number of radical changes. Work commenced in 1987 and the upgraded complex was offi cially opened last month.

Future NZ aid to the PWD will con centrate on improving technical and

management skills through training

programs. Designate Director of

Works, Vete Sakaio, is due to depart for New Zealand for training in man

agement techniques.

Diana McManus

□ Fsm Backs Independence

FAILURE by many nations to recog nise the independence of the Feder ated States of Micronesia (FSM) did not detract from the reality of that independence, according to FSM Pres

ident John Haglelgam.

Mr Haglelgam told the Japanese media that disputes over recognition of FSM independence are “superpow er games” and were of little concern to his administration. Only 11 nations presently recognise the FSM, but Mr Haglelgam said recognition is ex pected shortly from China and many of FSM’s Pacific neighbours. The Pres ident denied Soviet allegations that a referendum result in favour of free association with the United States was against the will of islanders.

□ Ec Turns Fiji On

FIJI will receive a SFS million special loan from the Commission of the European Community for a rural elec trification program. Under the prog ram, 28 rural electrification schemes will be constructed to extend the national grid. A new power station will be constructed to extend the national grid. A new power station will be built at Korovou.

The program will be implemented

by the Fiji Electricity Authority. Funds

will be available in the form of a spe cial loan from the resources of the European Development Fund, with a maturity period of 40 years at 1 per cent interest per year.

Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a SUS9O,OOO technical assistance grant to the Cook Islands for a feasibility study of power generation, transmis sion and distribution on Rarotonga.

The study will be used as the basis for

a power expansion project with possi

ble ADB funding. □

Will patrol boats protected the EEZs of uninhabited islands from poachers?