Politics
Solving Differences Via The Traditional Means
How a few pigs helped avert a coup
Pigs have an important place in the culture of Vanuatu. In September, did a few porkers help avert a coup?
The tale behind their intervention is complex and isn’t over yet.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
Vanuatu’s police force is supplemented by a mobile force, a paramilitary squad of about 300 men. This began as a riot squad but is now virtually a small army.
There was trouble with the mobile force in 1996. Angry about a long overdue backpay, some mobile force men brought the issue to a head by detaining the country’s president and then taking him to see the then deputy prime minister.
Those involved in the incident were later sacked from the force after being arrested by the police.
 |
|
|
Training and equipment for the mobile force came from foreign donors, including Australia and France. Immediately before the latest incident, caused by a row over the appointment of a new police commissioner, a mobile force platoon had a week of “commando-type” training in New Caledonia.
Training focused on commando warfare using canoes and river and sea conditions. It was done with a local platoon of the French Navy Pacific infantry regiment and a contingent of the Chasseurs Alpines, specialists in mountain snow warfare.
After the course, a mobile force lieutenant was quoted saying: “I’ve never taken part in such a physically intense session. But there was an excellent spirit among the troops.”
Did the time in New Caledonia fire up the mobile force for what happened next?
On August 27, armed men of the mobile force and regular police clashed outside the Port Vila police station after the mobile force was sent by a magistrate to serve warrants on 27 policemen said to have seditiously on August 4, arrested the then police commissioner, attorney-general and members of the police service commission. The August 4 arrests were dismissed by a court.
The arrests by the mobile force flopped because police refused to leave the police station until all weapons were removed.
After the threats, the mobile force men left the police station when the police officers agreed to meet with their lawyers before handing themselves to the mobile force. Trouble began in August when Mael Apisai was controversially appointed police commissioner by the police service commission, amidst allegations of political favouritism.
A high court judge ruled that Apisai’s appointment, over 11 other applicants for the job, was invalid because the commission hadn’t interviewed him. The commission then gave the job to Patu Lui, but the next day replaced him with Hollie Simon as acting commissioner. After being arrested with the commander of the mobile force, Abijack Marikampo, and 25 police officers on a mutiny charge for the arrest of the former police chief and attorney general, Simon was suspended and replaced by another acting appointment, Arthur Colton, a mobile force major, who warned of the risk of a police force split.
Early in September, seven of the accused police officers were reinstated by a magistrate to help the prosecution investigate the case against them. The magistrate set September 19 for the next hearing but dropped arrest warrants for 20 other police officers.
Public Prosecutor, Heather Line-Leo, then agreed that the police should be part of a traditional reconciliation ceremony.
In Suva, the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre hailed a formal reconciliation signed between the government, police force, the mobile force and the Malvatumauri (Vanuatu National Council of Chiefs). Reconciliation entailed the exchange of pigs and mats. Prime Minister Edward Natapei, for the government, gave a pig each to the police and mobile force. The police and mobile force swapped pigs and the Malvatumauri gave a pig to the prime minister.
Pacific Concerns Resource Centre’s Director, Motarilavoa Hilda Lini, a former Vanuatu cabinet minister, declared: “History has shown that constitutional governance, Western judiciary and Western legal procedures do not always have the capacity to deal with people’s energy and determination when their conscience is clear that they are defending what is right, either by nature or by law.”
The whole affair is reported by the Vanuatu Trading Post newspaper to have a background of inter-service rivalry and political squabbles.
Home Affairs Minister Joe Natuman was told his responsibility for the police and mobile forces, the prison service and the police service commission had been assumed by the prime minister.
The affair dented Vanuatu’s tourist image in its main market, Australia, since the Australian Government issued a warning that Australian visitors should be careful about being in Port Vila. What happens next will be decided in court.
