Pacific Notes
Pacific Notes
Fiji
Cyclone Ami Hits North and East Islands
Delivering wind speeds up to 115 mph (185 kph), Cyclone Ami moved across the Fiji group Jan.13 on a path from northwest to southeast, hitting one of the two main islands, Vanua Levu, where there was extensive flooding and wind damage and moving on to damage Druadrua Island, off the Vanua Levu coast, which was directly in the storm’s path. The Lau group was also badly damaged. All of Fiji suffered under heavy rains and high seas. In the capital, Suva, on the island of Viti Levu, stores were closed due to wind and water damage and trees were downed.
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Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase told Radio Australia by phone that he and his Cabinet had declared a Natural Disaster Emergency in the Northern Division and in two eastern provinces. The declaration allows the director of Fiji’s National Disaster Management Committee to requisition supplies and personnel from any government department. Qarase said he thought the initial state of emmergency would last 30 days, but that the rehabilitation phase would take much longer. New Zealand sent a C-130 transport plane for use by the Fiji government in conducting damage surveys and delivering relief supplies.
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Shortly after the storm hit Vanua Levu, flood waters in the Koroitari River swept through several areas in the early morning hours. At press time, up to 14 people were believed missing due to the flooding and waters rose up to six feet in the ditrict’s capital, Labasa.
—Scott Whitney with PINA Nius Online and Radio Australia
Government In Trouble Again
Tiny but once-wealthy Nauru experienced a political stand-off in January when incumbent president Rene Harris and his government were voted out of office. That is to say, apparently voted out. In this small, habitually secretive place things are not always what they appear to be.
The political crisis began in the Parliament on Dec. 31 when, perhaps in a celebratory gesture towards the New Year, David Adeang, an opposition member, moved a vote of no confidence against President Harris and his government. The vote was carried 8-3 in favor of Adeang’s motion, a result greatly facilitated by the fact that President Harris and his Cabinet chose to boycott the session.
Harris chose to ignore the result of the vote and refused to quit his office so that his replacement, Bernard Dowiyogo—who was said to have been sworn in to the position—could take up his new duties. Harris went further, and lodged a successful application with the Supreme Court—which sits in Melbourne—preventing Dowiyigo from asserting his new status in any way, including referring to himself as the country’s president. It should be pointed out that many aspects of Nauru’s judicial system are handled in Australia.
This is not the first time that Dowiyigo has been president—if, indeed, he is. Since 1976, when he replaced the near-legendary, long-serving leader, Hammer DeRoburt, Dowiyogo has filled the post on a number of occasions, each time vowing to restore democracy and responsible government.
The restraining order placed on Dowiyogo on Jan. 10 was was lifted Jan. 17 by Nauru’s Chief Justice, Australian lawyer Barry Connell. Shortly after that, the Supreme Court ruled that nine votes were needed for a valid no-confidence vote, but that there had been only eight. So it seems Harris is still president, maybe.
—Norman Douglas
Terror Alert Insults Fiji, Philippines and Indonesia
On Dec.19, American Samoa’s Attorney General Fiti Sunia issued a revised immigration security alert that prohibits issuing entry permits to citizens and nationals of 25 world countries, including Fiji, unless approved by the attorney general himself.
The first alert issued on Aug. 7 bars entry into Pago Pago to individuals of Middle Eastern descent. That action resulted in a September lawsuit filed by a local resident, who is a U.S. citizen originally from the Middle East. The alert created an international media frenzy, prompting the territorial government to issued the revised Dec. 19 alert.
The new security alert, made it clear that the policy does not apply to U.S. citizens or nationals, or to permanent residents of the U.S. or American Samoa. However, Sunia continued the ban on entry permits to any individual who is a citizen or national of 25 countries, a list which still includes Fiji. The Fiji government was reportedly outraged at the ban and the U.S. State Department was said to be annoyed, while working behind the scenes to repair the territory’s diplomatic bungling.
Other countries listed on the security alert are: Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Indonesia and the Philippines.
“Take special note of arriving passengers and all other individuals seeking entry to American Samoa for individuals who are citizens or nationals of any of the above-named countries,” Sunia’s alert says. “All such individuals shall not be permitted to enter American Samoa unless specifically approved by the attorney general.”
As an unincorporated and unorganized U.S. territory, American Samoa is allowed to control its own immigration and borders.
—Fili Sagapolute
Embattled Chief Justice Fights Back
In October, the Marshall Islands filed seven cheating charges against its High Court Chief Justice, American Charles Henry. The charges allege that he violated his contract by traveling at government expense on more than one allowed trip, and used more than $14,000 in public funds on these trips. In November, before Palau Chief Justice Arthur Ngiraklsong, who was called in specially to hear the case, Marshall Islands Attorney General Atbi Riklon—who rarely handles prosecutions—stumbled through the hearing. Ngiraklsong, saying the government had not presented “one iota of evidence,” immediately dismissed three charges, declared an AG office-issued travel ban on Henry unconstitutional, and ordered the Ministry of Finance to released held-up paychecks to Henry.
Soon after the charges were filed, Henry launched a letter-writing campaign to leading American Congressmen urging a delay in approval of the proposed $1 billion funding package in the Compact of Free Association for the Marshall Islands because of his prosecution, which he says is a human rights abuse. He said the Congress should delay passage of the package until new amendments to the Compact of Free Association with the Marshall Islands are approved to insure that others “won’t have to endure what I’m going through.” In a letter to Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, Henry says his case was an example of widespread human rights abuses in the Marshall Islands that need to be remedied.
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The Baltimore Sun—which in September ran an extended feature series on abuses of Federated States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands citizens recruited to work in relatively low-paying jobs in the U.S.—raised the visibility of the case against Henry with an early December story that quoted Henry saying he was being prosecuted in retaliation for his work on cleaning up the international adoption process in the Marshall Islands. “I don’t have a smoking gun, but I highly suspect it has to do with adoptions,” he told the Sun. The Marshall Islands government is “corrupt,” he added.
The cheating charges were, in fact, the result of an investigation into Henry’s travel since he was hired in April 2001. It was conducted by Marshall Islands Supreme Court Chief Justice Allen Fields, also an American, who is based in Sacramento, California. Henry says the issue is, at most, a contract dispute.
Within 10 days of the Baltimore Sun article, the Marshall Islands government took its first serious action against Henry since filing the charges, hiring Majuro-based private attorney David Strauss, another American, to prosecute the case. Strauss, an outspoken critic of the government who recently led financial fraud investigations on a government-appointed Task Force on Accountability, has rarely lost cases in his 15 years of private practice in the Marshall Islands.
The Marshall Islands Journal reported recently that it had obtained documents showing that while working as chief justice for the Marshall Islands, on at least two occasions, Henry traveled to the U.S. where he worked as a temporary judge for the California court system. —Giff Johnson
PalauTension in Olbiil Era Kelaulu
Tension mounts in Olbiil Era Kelulau, Palau’s National Congress, as legislators receive letters from the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Everett Walton, regarding funds used for overseas travel. Amid a spate of publicity concerning the utilization of government funds by public servants for travel expenses—to the tune of more than half a million dollars in fiscal year 2002, two seated legislators were indicted by the OSP in early December for misuse of public funds.
On Dec.10, Delegate William Ngiraikelau was charged on six criminal counts including grand larceny and misconduct in office. Ngiraikelau allegedly used government funds to attend a June 2001 meeting of the Western Legislative Council in San Francisco—a meeting that the special prosecutor disclosed had never been scheduled to take place. The Superior Court released Ngiraikelau on his own recognizance to await a Dec. 30 arraignment. He was also ordered to surrender his passport and to remain in the country.
At the same time, Mario Gulibert, Speaker of the House of Delegates, was charged in an 11-count civil indictment for “unofficial trips” taken in 1998 and 1999. The charges include embezzlement, grand larceny and forgery. (click here) Both men continue their respective positions in the House of Delegates. Meanwhile, 11 other delegates and four senators have been given until Jan. 15 to respond to the special prosecutor regarding similar complaints.
—Nancy Chism
Sole Dry Dock in FSM Embarks on Major Project
Semo Micronesia, a joint venture between Kosrae and Korea, has two current projects that will enrich and expand the services that it would provide, said Robert Weilbacher, vice president of operations for Semo Kosrae.
The first is an eight-month agreement with the Micronesian Long Line Fishing Corporation, (click here to see our story) which calls for the repair of 10 of their fishing vessels. Two of them have been completed, with the remainder to be mended by the welders, machinists, engineers, carpenters, and fiberglass workers of Semo after the holidays.
As Weilbacher stated, “The price of fish is good now, fishing is good, and so they will send the next one in the early part of the new year.” More ambitious is the “rehabilitation project” starting next month on the slipway; the extension and enlargement of the approach and the ramp where ships are dry-docked out of the water.
Traditionally, Semo has only been able to handle the comparatively smaller class of fishing boats and government field trip vessels, but with the rehabilitation the larger purse-seiners, the FSM stalwart, the Caroline Voyager, and other vessels up to 1,200 tons could be dry-docked for repairs. The project will be publicly and privately funded, approximately $175,000 and $217,000 respectively. “Currently our facility is a little bit shallow for deep draft vessels,” Weilbacher says.
—Olivier Wortel
New Leadership Takes Over
Sworn into office in Guam on Jan. 6 were Gov. Felix Camacho, Lt. Gov. Kaleo Moylan, members of the 27th Guam Legislature and the island’s first-ever elected attorney general, Douglas Moylan.
Camacho and Kaleo Moylan were sworn into office just after midnight in a brief ceremony at the historic Plaza de Espana in Hagatna. Hours later, Camacho would make his inaugural address in Adelup, the Guam chief executive’s office complex. He spoke of a government of Guam grown unwieldy in size and confused in its mission. “We must and will re-organize it in a way that serves the needs of our people and reflects the reality of our times by reducing the size of government and its costs, by improving services and by living within its means,” the new governor said.
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Guam government finances are in dire straights. The call to action and change was echoed in the inauguration of the 27th Guam Legislature. “We must forge a revolution in the way that our government deals with people,” said newly-selected Speaker Ben Pangelinan, who has been a longtime critic of outgoing Gov. Carl Gutierrez. “We must revolt against the arrogance of power and forge a culture of service and responsibility.”
Attorney General Moylan, in his inaugural speech, said he would create a government corruption division with his agency and prosecute those accused of white collar crime “to the fullest extent of the law.”
—Paul Borja
