Nauru protest

A GROUP of Nauruan women last month used the arrival of political leaders for the South Pacific Forum at Yaren, Nauru, to protest alleged gross mismanagement of their small republic’s phosphate wealth. They attached banners to the sides of cars reading ‘Wealth Belongs To The Ministers’. Nauru has more than SAI billion in a phosphate earnings trust which is invested around the world.

In May, the Australian manager of the trust, Geoffrey Chatfield, quit his job claiming the trust was in “dire finacial straits”. Chatfield said in his resignation letter that various Nauru government organisations kept bleeding the trusts, which also showed declining earnings because of over investment in foreign real estate. Ruby Dediya, chairperson of the “People’s Movement” which staged the protest is a hospital matron, who also edits The Nauru Chronicle , which in a recent editorial raised detailed questions about various trust investments. She said the Nauru government’s handling of the 7000 population republic’s finances was like a children’s magic show. “The magician stands in front of all the little children, makes things appear and disappear to the wonderment of his audience, and shows his audience only what he wants them to see. “That way he can •i r i 55 easily fool them.

Dediya specificially questioned the

new Nauru government’s borrowings from Taiwan. The group has been further angered by what it sees as

profligate spending on this year’s 15-nation forum including new marble flooring in the airport terminal and 36 new vehicles for visiting del egations. The group has further ques tioned expenditure of millions of dollars renovating a hotel where foreign leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, are staying. Another row has surfaced over the Nauru govern ment’s financing of the London West End musical Leonardo, which lost several million dollars.

On May 27, a group of women led by Dediya staged a sit-in on Nauru’s airstrip to stop officials from travelling to London to join Nauruan President Bernard

Dowiyogo for the musical’s gala opening.

The People’s Movement said its members who worked in the public service had been threatened with dismissal if they attempt to embarrass the administration during the forum. Dediya has written to Dowiyogo calling on him to hold a public meeting on Nauru to discuss the country’s finances and future.

In the letter, she specifically raised the issue of some SA2I million invested through Britain in prime bank notes and letters of credit. The scheme is under investigation by the London Fraud Squad and the Nauru government is taking legal action to try to recover millions of dollars still missing. President Dowiyogo has reportedly sought a meeting with the protesters to discuss their grievances pri vately. But they have maintained that any meeting should be open to ordinary

Naurans.

Aap

Robert Matau Nauru protest: a group of women with placards outside the Civic Centre, the venue of the South Pacific Forum.