Compact vote likely ... again

Palau

The tiny but violence-racked Republic of Palau is set to go to the polls once

more, to determine its future relationship with the United States.

By Ed Rampell

THE HOLY GRAIL’ known as the Compact of Free Association is now being hotly pursued once more, from New'York to Washington to Koror, with talk of yet another poli tical status plebiscite.

The United Nations, the United States and the Republic of Palau (ROP) are taking measures to resolve

Palau’s long deadlocked Compact

approval process with a possible seventh Compact referendum, as the republic’s tiny electorate of only 10,000 prepares for the possibility of casting its ballots on Free Association.

The proposed plebiscite would be Palau’s eleventh national vote since 1980 (not including numerous Pres idential, Senate, House and State elec tions), giving a whole new meaning to the terms universal” suffrage and

“participatory” democracy. Some wits

have even suggested that Palau may become the world’s first nation to have more votes than voters.

In April, the UN Trusteeship Coun cil sent a visiting mission to Palau to observe steps toward bringing into effect the Territory’s proposed pact with the United Mates, which has evaded passage since at least 1983 and has seen the death by gunshot wounds of two presidents, the bankrupting of the nation, and a world recora of ple biscites. The mission was also under instructions to obtain information on political, economic and social condi tions during its two-week visit.

There have been four referenda since 1980 on Palau’s nuclear free constirution (the world’s first) and six

plebiscites on the proposed Compact

between Palau and the United States, which would phase out the UN Trus teeship and replace it with a political status granting Palau home rule and substantial US assistance.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, would have access to the strategically located Western Pacific archipelago but the Compact has repeatedly failed to attain the 75 per cent approval neces sary to override Palau s anti-nuclear

constitutional stipulations.

Meanwhile, President Bush’s Admi nistration has been attempting to gain swift Congressional action on the Compact. On March 8, legislation for

Compact implementation was intro

duced once again in the House of Representatives, in a package that attempts to address Palauan Compact concerns through its subsidiary agree

ments, including: monetary relief for Palau’s IPSECO power project debt (up to SUS 43 million) as well as fund ing for health care, prisons, a public auditor and special prosecutor. The executive branch wants Congress to act as soon as possible, prior to the

proposed plebiscite which, according

to a State Department letter to Con gressional committees, “Since many

elements of Compact implementation .

. . are linked to actions this fiscal year . . . needs to occur by early summer.”

ROP Vice President Kuniwa Naka mura also agrees that a seventh re ferendum on the treaty could be held in June or (uly.

Palau President Ngiratkel Etpison’s

Administration is also active on the Compact front: a 26-member Future Political Status Commission has been established, with representatives from all parts of the Palauan political spec trum. On the left, Palau’s Senate is

represented by staunch anti-nuclear

leader Roman Bedor; the House of

Delegates is represented by attorney

Johnson Tonniong, nephew of

Opposition leader Governor Roman Tmetuchl (who once criticised the Compact as “a masterpiece of cross re ference”), and on the right is zealous Compact supporter and former sena tor Hokkons Baules (in a taped Au

stralian Broadcasting Corporation in

terview aired in February, a man who confessed to firebombing the home of an American attorney opposing the Compact and IPSECO named Baules as the person who hired him to carry out the arson and attempted murder.

The US Congress’s General Account ing Office investigative team has also claimed Baules received a $lOO,OOO pay-off from IPSECO).

The Commission’s position state ment says that “any conflict between the Palau Constitution and the Com pact will ultimately result in the changes to be sought within . . . the

Compact” (emphasis added) and

asserts that any proposal to

accommodate changes by effecting

amendments to the Palau Constitution will not be considered.”

This hard-line position could result in renegotiation, but the United States has flatly refused to reconsider the terms of the Compact.

According to Palauan officials, the Government in Koror is disquietingly similar to the uneasy coalition now ruling Israel: President Etpison beat

Compact critic Governor Tmetuchl (candidate for the Coalition for Open,

Honest, and Just Government) by only

37 votes, while the Coalition’s vice presidential candidate, Kuniwo Naka mura, beat Compact supporter Frank Asanuma by a landslide.

Although Etpison is supported by

the same pro-Compact faction that

previously supported slain Presidents

Salii and Remeliik, the Opposition’s strength has forced him into a posi tion of compromise ... if not into rapprochement. Beneath this mood of coalition and conciliation, however,

political faction-fighting the

Palauan pastime still rages. Four out of five of the President’s ministe rial choices were rejected by an Opposition dominated OEK (National Congress), and the posts for attorney general, special prosecutor and attor ney general are unfilled at time of going to press.

One of President Etpison’s first con ciliatory moves resulted in the resigna tion of Attorney General Philip Isaac, who gave as his reason for resigning the President’s pardon of Johnny Gib bons, younger Brother of Paramount Chief Ibedul (a Compact critic and re

peat presidential aspirant). Gibbons

was convicted of possession of a firearm and ammunition (both illegal in Palau) following a confrontation with the police, while Isaac who

reportedly wore a pistol strapped to

his ankle every day of the Remeliik murder trial had prosecuted the assassination case against Governor Tmetuchl’s son and nephew, though he had no evidence to support his case. The American Civil Liberties Union has charged Isaac with “pro secutorial misconduct” and when the ROP Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s convictions it severely re buked Isaac. Ironically, Isaac’s resigna tion was on the grounds that the Attorney General’s Office “until now has been permitted to function im mune from the vicissitudes of politics.”

The long-awaited investigation by

the Congressional General Accounting

Office into allegations of heroin traf

ficking, widespread government cor

ruption, terrorism and the IPSECO power project should be released to

the public in May, during which

month the UN mission to Palau will also make its report on the Trus teeship Council during its annual deli berations on Micronesia. □