Bougainville office

Headlines

Tonga

Bishop Finau dies

One of the driving forces behind Tonga’s pro-democracy move ment, Bishop Patelisio Finau, died of a heart attack in Niue on Octo ber 4. Bishop Finau, 59, was the Catholic Bishop of Tonga and chairman of the Pacific Conference of Churches. He was in Niue for a conference

executive meeting.

For a long time Bishop Finau had been critical of Tonga’s nobility-dominated

government and was one of the key speakers at last year’s pro democracy convention in Nuku’alofa.

In recent times he championed the struggles of the people of East Timor for independence from Indonesia. He has also been untiring in efforts to stop the bloodshed of the Bougainville conflict. As a member of the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement his philosophy was a nuclear free Pacific must surely be a small but mighty step towards a nuclear free world.

After a mass in Niue, his body was flown to Tonga for burial.

Hawaii

Marcos returns to the Phillipines

The body of Ferdinand Marcos has made the long trip back to the Philippines, ending a ghoulish episode in the history of Hawaii, where the late dictator died in disgrace and exile. On Sept 1, 50 Marcos supporters gathered at the Valley of the Temples graveyard for a ceremony. The ex-president’s corpse was removed from a refrigerated crypt at the windward Oahu cemetery where it’s been stored in since 1989, and moved to a Honolulu mortuary. There, health officials inspected the cadaver.

Ecumenical services were held on Sept 4 for Marcos at a Honolulu high school. Fifty Filipino officials and pop stars, who flew to Hawaii for the occasion, held services, too. A video about the life of Marcos in Hawaii was shown. On Sunday Sept 5, there was a viewing of the open casket. Officials of the United States and the Hawaii state government, as well as Filipino community leaders participated in services. There were Catholic church blessings and a 21 gun salute fired in honor of the former president of the Republic of the Philippines.

Cook Islands

Anger over child killing

There’s been a call for a return to “an eye for an eye”, Old Testament law in the wake of the Cook Islands’ first recorded child murder. Parents on Rarotonga are voicing shock and anger after the body of a four year old girl was found on a village beach in late September.

Local parents have called on the government to impose stiff penalties for molesting and child abuse. A counselling and rape crisis group spokesperson says it’s highlighted the need for the Cook Islands government to step up its deliberations on whether the Cooks will ratify the UN convention on the rights of children.

Papua New Guinea

Islands region threatens breakaway

The premiers of Papua New Guinea’s Islands region have again threatened to breakaway and form a separate country. The New Guinea Islands Premiers Council said they will go ahead with a referendum on secession if the national government moves to implement proposed reforms to the provincial government system.

The reforms propose abolishing PNG’s 19 provincial governments and replacing them with provincial authorities headed by national parliamentarians. The premiers have rejected the proposals and called on the government to set up a broadly representative commission to review the country’s constitution. The premiers from the New Guinea Islands say if the reforms are implemented, they’ll conduct a referendum in the five Islands provinces that will allow the people to decide what is best for the future of the New Guinea Islands.

Solomon Islands

Bougainville office closed in Honiara

The Solomon Islands deputy prime minister Francis Saemala has announced the closure of the Bougainville secessionists office in Honiara. Saemala made the announcement during talks with PNG prime minister Paias Wingti in Port Moresby in September. Saemala said his government had also restricted the movement of the secessionist representative in Honiara, Martin Miriori.

The move is part of the new Solomon Islands government s six-point plan to normalise relations with PNG. The North Solomons provincial administrator Sam Tulo has welcomed the closure.

Martin Tiffany Bishop Finau: a man of the people