Fiji bans oil imports

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Jailmates clean up in laundering scam

A confidential prison report says two inmates of an Australian jail have been organising the laundering of about US$lOO million of counterfeit notes from Kuwait and Pacific Island countries.

The prisoners at the minimum security Monwell River Prison, 150 km south east of Melbourne, used a telephone in the jail to operate the trade in fake US currency.

The contents of the report have been confirmed by the Director General of Prisons in the state of Victoria John Griffin. He said the money was coming into the country via Sydney from Kuwait and the Pacific Islands and the plan was to swap the fake notes for Australian currency.

Fiji bans oil imports

FIJI has banned oil and petrol imports, backdated to July 4, in preparation for a supply deal with Malaysia. Last month the three oil companies in Fiji, BP, Shell and Mobil, were caught by surprise when the government gazette included oil products in the Customs regulations list of prohibited imports.

The Fiji government-owned Fiji Na tional Petroleum Company on June 30 reportedly purchased its first shipment of Malaysian oil for refining by Esso in

Singapore.

Nine die in air crash

THE nine people aboard a small aircraft died when it crashed in northern Vanu atu last month.

Those killed were four Vanuatu na tionals, an Australian diplomat, two Frenchmen, an English women and the

British pilot.

The British Norman Islander aircraft, belonging to the Government-owned domestic carrier Vanair, appears to have hit a Banyan tree soon after taking off from West Coast Airfield, and plunged 20-30 metres down a gully. Investi gations into the cause of the crash are expected to start shortly.

Help in driftnet war

UNITED States lawmakers last month proposed that the Pentagon supply military ships and aircraft to help the undermanned US Coast Guard stop driftnet fishing by Taiwanese boats in the North Pacific.

The bill was proposed in response to new reports that Taiwanese fishermen were defying driftnet bans and lying to their government about the use of the 50km-long nets in forbidden zones.

Lawmakers in Alaska, Washington and Oregon are pressing President George Bush to impose trade sanctions against Taiwan and other countries

whose fishermen continue to defy the ban on driftnet fishing.

Award for Bavadra tribute

A NEW book about peace, social, environmental and political issues in the South Pacific is among projects awarded grants by the Rainbow Warrior Trust Fund.

The largest grants of US$6OOO each went to several groups, including the Vanuatu National Council of Women and the New Zealand Rainforest Coalition to develop resource materials. Auckland based Asia-Pacific Network, owned and run by prominent journalist David Robie, was awarded a US$2OOO grant to help complete a book written by a collection of nuclear free and indepen dent Pacific activists from the Phillipines to Tahiti.

The book is dedicated to the memory of the late deposed Fiji Prime Minister, Dr Timoci Bavadra.

Another Tonga scam

TONGA’S outspoken pro-democracy

MP, Akilisi Pohiva, has uncovered an other financial scam in the kingdom.

He produced documents in parliament last month showing that a private company registered in Tonga - the South Pacific Land, Sea and Air Ltd - has been issuing naturalisation papers to Hong Kong residents as part of a leasing

agreement. Tonga’s Attorney-General

Tevita Tupou, who is also justice minis ter, admitted in the house the naturalis ation certificates were false and issued without authorisation.

Burma/PNG ties formed

BURMA’S military government has forged diplomatic ties with Papua New Guinea. The announcement was made last month on the state-run Radio Rangoon monitored in Bangkok.

The announcement came on the same day as ASEAN decided to send a delegation to Burma to discuss human rights abuses there.

Australia tightens up

THE Australian Government has an nounced the end of its business migration scheme. Immigration Minister Gerry Hand conceded that reports of criminal involvement and other abuses had dam aged public confidence in the pro gramme.

He said new procedures would begin early next year. There will be a new

immigration category requiring business

applicants to satisfy a points test similar to that imposed on other migrants with an additional test for business skills.

Overstayers a burden

OFFICIALS in Tonga are concerned that 5000 visa overstayers in New Zealand may be forced to return to Tonga. A Tongan Government official said that neither Tonga’s social system nor its economy could sustain such a sharp influx of people.

Remittances from overseas Tongans is one of the major contributors to Tonga’s

foreign exchange.

Meanwhile, Western Samoa has indi cated that it would welcome the return of its estimated 7000 overstayers.

Amnesty expansion?

THE international human rights organ isation Amnesty International is hoping to extend its operations in the South Pacific.

At present its only offices in the region are in New Zealand and Australia, although it’s been active in investigating human rights abuses in Pacific nations such as Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Aborigines sue

THREE Aborigines are taking the Aus tralian Federal Government to court in a test case, alleging the Government was negligent in failing to prevent their alcoholism.

The three have taken out a civil summons against the Commonwealth Government and the Carlton and United Brewery, saying they were negligent by encouraging them to drink alcohol, subjecting them to the disease of alcohol ism and causing them damage.

Disarming case in Lae

POLICE in Lae, Papua New Guinea were last month contacted by a man who reported his arm had disappeared, but they did not immediately connect the incident with an arm found the same day in Mt Kagen, more than 250 kilometres away.

Police say the man, who was appar ently drunk, had been driving his vehicle toward Lae with his right arm hanging out the window. He told police he remembered passing a truck going in the opposite direction at close range but said he didn’t realise his arm had been ripped off just above the elbow until sometime later, when he felt some pain and noticed his arm was no longer there. □

Pohiva: uncovered another scam