Regional Briefing
Politics
Australia
Aid rule change
Australia has changed its rules for giving aid to the South Pacific. Observers interpreted them as a device to bypass islands governments felt by Canberra to be “long-term failures”.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the new approach will be to give aid directly to community groups in islands states that have bad governments. As the Australian Government changed the emphasis of its strategic doctrine, its defence minister, Robert Hill, told parliament in October that state failures in the Pacific looked like a permanent feature of the foreseeable future. Future Australian aid will be focused on education and health and on propping up legal and police systems.
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Papua New Guinea
No more asylum seekers
Foreign Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu has reiterated to the Australian Government that Papua New Guinea will not accept asylum seekers after the October 11 expiry of an agreement for detaining them at Manus. Of the 356 initially sent to Manus, two Macedonians and seven Turks have returned to their home countries; 12 were moved to Nauru and the others were accepted by Australia and New Zealand.
Indonesia
FBI checks out Indonesian probe
Four United States Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have been in West Papua to check on an Indonesian police probe into the ambush killing of two Americans and an Indonesian on a road to the United States-owned Freeport copper and gold mine.
The Indonesian army claimed that West Papuan freedom fighters were responsible for the killing. But human rights groups and even some Indonesian authorities believe elements of the Indonesian military were responsible, with a motive of having an excuse for tougher action against Papuan rebels against Indonesian rule. The three dead were employees of an international school operated by Freeport. Another 12 Freeport employees, mostly Americans, were wounded. Freeport has meanwhile, proposed that the West Papuan administration takes up a 15 percent shareholding in the mine.
Foreign ministers dialogue
The foreign ministers of Australia, East Timor, Indonesia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines gathered in Indonesia last month for the first meeting of the Southwest Pacific Dialogue. They discussed people smuggling, terrorism, money laundering, human resources, fisheries and economic matters. The dialogue is Indonesia’s idea. It was originally called the Southwest Pacific Forum. But the name was changed to avoid confusion with the Pacific Islands Forum.
Northern Marianas
Territory wants seat in US Congress
The United States Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary for Insular Affairs, David Cohen agrees that the Northern Marianas should have a seat in the United States Congress (as American Samoa does, but with no vote) and more United States funding and continued local control over minimum wage policies, according to the territory’s governor, Juan Babauta. The governor feels that like other United States colonies and territories, the Northern Marianas should be able to “speak on the floor of the Congress and deal with other members on equal footing, rather than as outsiders looking in.” Formerly a Japanese colony, the Northern Marianas is a largely self-governing United States territory.
Japan
PALM 2003 in Okinawa
Japan expects to hold its next PALM meeting with Pacific Islands leaders about May next year, possibly at Okinawa, Fiji Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase was told last month when he visited Japan as the current chair of the Pacific Islands Forum. The last meeting occurred at Miyazaki in 2000.
Vanuatu
West Papua move annoys PNG, Australia
Vanuatu has annoyed Indonesia’s close neighbours, Australia and Papua New Guinea by deciding to support the West Papua campaign for freedom from Indonesian rule and to allow the opening of an office in Port Vila by the West Papua freedom movement. Vanuatu is the sole member of the 16-member Pacific Islands Forum to depart from the Forum’s official policy of recognising Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua.
Others
Islands endorse parliamentary forum
Pacific Islands recipients of aid from the European Union have endorsed the idea of establishing a Pacific parliamentary forum for discussing problems caused by political instability, democracy, law and order, poverty and trade and for strengthening the European Union link.
Solomon Islands
Australia/NZ mission visits
A joint Australian and New Zealand mission spent four days in the Solomon Islands in October for discussions on the country’s efforts to restore law and order and end its economic crisis.
French Polynesia
Chirac to visit the Pacific?
French President Jacques Chirac may be visiting the Pacific region next July, French Polynesia’s President Gaston Flosse reported after meeting Chirac in Paris in September to discuss possible future constitutional reform for French Polynesia.
Mandela ready to visit region
South Africa’s former president, Nelson Mandela, says he is prepared to accept an invitation to visit the South Pacific issued to him by Maire Bopp Dupont, founder of the Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation, when she met him on a visit to South Africa.
