Briefs
Government
Samoa
A "security scare" prompted the closure of the U.S. Embassy in Samoa’s capital of Apia for two days in August, a U.S. official says. No guards were outside of the U.S. Embassy, but a notice was posted on the door reading: "The Embassy will be closed on Tuesday, August 6, and Wednesday, August 7, 2002 in order to complete some electrical work. We regret the inconvenience."
U.S. Chargé d’ Affaires in Apia, Frankie Reed, is quoted by the Samoa Observer newspaper as saying that there was no electrical work done but was closed due to a security scare.
"The public reported two suspicious- looking characters surveying the Embassy," Reed is quoted telling the newspaper. "In response, the Embassy was closed as a security precaution."
The local media said later that Samoa police are conducting investigations into allegations that people were seen last Sunday taking pictures of the American Embassy, which resulted in the closure of the embassy.
—FS
Fiji
Support for women to receive full pay while on maternity leave is gaining strength in the South Pacific. Under a new Employment Amendment Bill, Fiji’s working women will receive this benefit. Announced recently by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, the bill is expected to be introduced soon by the government and will entitle all working mothers to full salaries or wages when on maternity leave, regardless of the number of children.
The bill is not without its controversial aspects. Private sector employers in Fiji have been paying $5 per day (50 percent of usual wages) to workers on maternity leave, but only for up to three pregnancies. Fiji’s Public Service Commission has been paying full wages, but also for a three-pregnancy limit. Women who keep producing children are obliged to do so on half pay thereafter. Temporary replacements also have to be found for public or private sector workers. Employers in Fiji have not reacted to the prospects with great enthusiasm.
—ND
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Australia-Solomon Islands
As the financial crisis in the Solomon Islands becomes rapidly worse, with cuts to utilities in the capital, Honiara, and the inability of the government to pay water and electricity bills and public service salaries, the country is a "failed state" and in danger of becoming a "basket case." These are views expressed by Australians closely involved with Pacific issues.
Hugh White, director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, says that Australia’s policy of the last few decades towards the South Pacific has failed. In addition to the collapse of Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea has become "dysfunctional." To reverse this condition, Australia should become more directly involved in the management and survival of its South Pacific neighbors.
If this sounds like a form of trusteeship or, worse, colonialism, another observer and participant in Pacific Island affairs has also suggested direct intervention. This is Mark Otter, academic and aid consultant, who wants to know why Australia isn’t taking "East Timor-style action" to help solve the Solomon Islands crisis.
—ND
Vanuatu
Barak Sope, former prime minister of Vanuatu, has been jailed for three years by the country’s Supreme Court for illegally signing government guarantees. Sope was removed from office by a vote of no confidence at an extraordinary meeting of the Vanuatu Parliament on Easter last year, following extensive criticism of him over government guarantees he had given to a foreign businessman. Sope retained his seat in recent elections, but was already facing criminal charges over the affair. The Vanuatu Supreme Court was told that Sope had signed the government guarantees worth a total of US$23 million in the last six months that he was in office. The guarantees should have been approved by the Vanuatu Cabinet, signed by the finance minister and had parliamentary approval, but none of this was done.
Handing down a three-year jail sentence, Justice Roger Coventry said that because of Sope’s status in the community, a possible term of six years had been reduced to three. The former prime minister, educated at Essendon Grammar School in Australia and at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, was secretary general of the pre-independence New Hebrides National Party (later the ruling Vanua‘aku Pati) and a close friend and confidant of independent Vanuatu’s first prime minister, Walter Lini. He has written extensively on politics in his country.
—ND
Palau
A July 12 special election failed to recall the two most vocal Senate opponents of Palauan Senator-elect Elias Camsek Chin. Chin supporters had gathered enough signatures on a petition to trigger a recall election for long-serving Senators Seit Andres and Joshua Koshiba. In the spring of 2001, when Andres and Koshiba spearheaded a drive to deny Chin a Senate seat, they claimed it was due to concerns that Chin was not a Palauan citizen or didn’t meet the legal residence requirement for the Senate. The election went forth, but Andres and Koshiba each polled better than 60 percent of the votes cast to retain their seats. As a Palauan court has ruled that Chin is entitled to take his seat, it remains to be seen how well the three combatants will function together in the Senate in the wake of this ongoing animosity.
—RS
The presidents of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands met in Palau in late July for a four-day summit, the second such gathering of the leaders of Micronesia’s Freely Associated States. At the top of the agenda were efforts to improve extradition among the three countries, to update and standardize quarantine regulations and to address immigration procedures to facilitate the free movement of products and people among the FAS. Presidents Tommy E. Remengesau Jr., of Palau, Kessai Note of the Marshall Islands and Leo Falcam of the FSM also discussed the Prior Service Benefit program, which provides retirement, survivor and disability benefits for Micronesian employees of the U.S. Navy and the former government of the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific. The three leaders agreed that the program would need additional money from the U.S. Congress to remain solvent over the next four years and pledged to coordinate their lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C. to obtain additional revenue.
—RS
American Samoa
The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded the American Samoan government over $1 million for improvements to its Pago Pago International Airport. One grant is for a "noise compatibility" study, resulting from complaints from nearby residents after the runway was extended an additional 1,000 feet. The two additional grants are for security improvements.
—FS
Samoa
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller for Currency issued a nationwide alert in early August warning that an American company is conducting the "unauthorized sale of Samoan banking licenses" on the Internet. The alert was in response to a complaint filed July 25 by the Samoan government’s Office of the Registrar of International and Foreign Companies against Witherspoon, Seymour and Robinson Inc. The company, however, denies the allegations. Erna Vaai, inspector of offshore banks for the Samoa government, said that WSR has been advertising on the Internet the availability of capital management companies registered in Samoa, and is soliciting buyers for pre-approved banking licenses, allegedly in Samoa and other Pacific Island jurisdictions.
—FS
Federated States of Micronesia
FSM Compact negotiators have received what is apparently the "final" U.S. funding offer: $76 million in grant funding and $16 million in trust fund contributions. The grants are to be reduced slightly each year, while the trust fund contribution will increase by the same amount each year. The new funding period is for 20 years, through 2023. Originally, the FSM asked for $84 million annually and a $20 million annual trust fund contribution. The $76 million offer from the U.S. is about equal to the Compact grant funding provided to the FSM in fiscal year 1997.
—GJ
Contributors:
Norman Douglas, Rebecca Stanfel, Fili Sagapolutele and Giff Johnson
