Briefs
Government
Samoa
Samoans at state functions will look like a rugby team because of the national costume Cabinet orders all local guests to wear at public events. This, according to Asiata Saleimoa Vaai, the leader of the United Independents Party. “I don’t know why that thing was done,” he says. “It’s foolish. Why should they have authority over my clothes? I think that’s quite inappropriate.” He says only schools, rugby and other sports teams wear uniforms.
—FS
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More than 2,000 people marched through central Apia in mid-March calling for peace to solve what Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi described as the “Iraq problem.” Action needed must be done multilaterally and within the framework of the United Nations and with the full authority of the Security Council, Tuilaepa told marchers in front of the government building in the capital. The march was dominated by school children from Catholic schools. Participating in the one-mile march was Samoa’s archbishop, Alapati Matailiga.
—FS
PalauPalau recently hosted the Western Micronesia Chief Executive Summit. Northern Marianna Islands Governor Juan Babauta, Guam Governor Felix Camacho and Yap Governor Robert Ruecho joined Palau President Tommy Remengesau, Jr. at Dolphins Pacific Park to discuss shared national concerns over solid waste management, fuel costs, promotion of tourism, establishment of a regional airline, health, and shipping. The next summit is scheduled for September in Palau.
—NC
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The sixth meeting of the Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Working Group of the Forum Fisheries Agency brought 16 Pacific nations, including Australia and New Zealand, together in Palau at the end of March. Palau’s Minister of Justice Michael J. Rosenthal commented at the opening that the richness of ocean waters in the region “is like a magnet attracting foreign fishing, some of it legal, some of it not legal. The problem that each nation face is how to protect the environment by deterring and eliminating illegal fishing within each nation’s waters.” During the meeting the participants discussed issues such as a boarding and inspection scheme for the convention area, the harmonized minimum terms and conditions for foreign fishing vessel access, and the vessel monitoring system.
—GJ
Following the adoption of travel expense regulations drawn up by Public Auditor Satrunino Tewid and House of Delegates counsel Rachel Dimitruk, delegates are again able to travel overseas on government business using government funds. A similar set of regulations has been presented to the Senate and is under consideration. The regulations are in response to the recent actions of Palau’s Special Prosecutor Everett Walton that resulted in the pay back of $245,248.92 to the government in questionable, undocumented travel expenses by four senators, 14 delegates and five past members of congress.
—NC
GuamFormer Guam Senator Marilyn Manibusan was found guilty of charges that she solicited payments from developers of housing projects while she was chairwoman of the Territorial Land Use Commission. She is to be sentenced in Federal District Court in July. With the announcement of Manibusan’s conviction, it was also revealed that James Sablan, former president of the Guam Housing Corporation, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the same case. Sablan had been indicted with Manibusan, but was removed from the trial as it began on February 24 with no explanation. Sablan will be sentenced in June.
—FW
The U. S. Navy began soliciting proposals for a new Base Operating Support contract to be implemented in the latter half of 2004. In late March the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Pacific Division hosted an industry forum in Guam to provide information and solicit input for the new contract. Raytheon operates the current Guam base contract, worth $328 million over seven years. The Navy is not renewing Raytheon’s contract.
—FW
Governor Felix Camacho and a team of economic advisors on March 19 unveiled their “Ten Strategic Initiatives to Stabilize and Grow Guam’s Economy.” The plan includes promotion of tourism, increase in military presence, solving water and landfill problems, promotion of Guam’s regional hub potential, reorganizing and downsizing the government, and more effectively addressing government. The plan itself was presented by Gerald Perez, acting administrator of the Guam Economic Development Authority and former president of DFS Guam.
—FW
CNMIThe U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency approved an increase in the reimbursement level for damages on Rota from Supertyphoon Pongsona. The federal agency will cover 90 percent of the damages, increased from the standard 75 percent. As of March 20, aid to Rota from FEMA totaled more than $12 million. FEMA also sparked concern as it reminded the CNMI government that buildings that have been repaired under FEMA funding must be insured in order to be eligible for future disaster assistance. Funding for insurance premiums will be a problem for the cash-strapped government.
—FW
FSMThe FSM Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order against the FSM Development Bank in response to a move by the Kosrae State Legislature. The TRO, issued by Judge Martin Yinug, holds up $3 million in development bank loans for Tropical Waters Kosrae, Inc., a private water company owned by FSM Congressman from Kosrae Claude Phillip and Attorney General Ron Bickett, that aims to export drinking water. The Kosrae legislature contends that the $3 million exhausts all of the funds within Kosrae State’s subaccount in the FSM Investment Development Fund (IDF), managed by the FSM Development Bank. In its court motion, the legislature claims, among other things, that there hasn’t been adequate evaluation of the commercial feasibility of the project and that the principal owners are not qualified.
—OW
TongaTonga’s Supreme Court in early April ruled a Tongan government ban on the independent Times of Tonga newspaper illegal. But despite the court ruling, the Tongan Privy Council issued a decision again banning the paper from Tonga. Clive Edwards, Tongan Minister of Police, told a Supreme Court hearing in March that the Times was banned from the kingdom for claiming that the country’s leaders were engaged in homosexual activities. King Taufaahau Tupou IV recently prohibited the entry of the New Zealand-published newspaper into Tonga and forbade Tongans from possessing copies of subsequent issues. In an apparent reference to a humorous item and cartoon published in the Times, Edwards said “They are saying that the leaders of this country are sodomites.”
—ND
Marshall IslandsTeen-age gang fighting on Ebeye Island in the Marshall Islands is increasing and is a leading cause of a soaring crime rate. “This is an almost daily occurrence when boys, representing different towns, gather in groups at night to combat one another with rocks, clubs and sometimes knives,” says Lt. Vincent Peter in the Detective Division on Ebeye. This gang fighting accounted for about 50 percent of the assaults on Ebeye last year, he says.
—GJ
NauruNone of the 95 Iraqis detained on Nauru who have been offered voluntary repatriation by Australia have agreed to accept it, following the rejection of their applications for refugee status in Australia, according to the Sydney office of the International Organization of Migration.
—ND
The RegionFive regional projects being implemented by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in early April received $289,000 from Japan. Japan’s Ambassador Kenro Iino presented the funding for an assistance scheme for law enforcement, regional security studies, law enforcement training, legal drafting assistance, and the Forum aviation action plan. In addition, Japan is supporting the cost of a Trade Exhibition at the Pacific leaders meeting next month in Okinawa. Also in March, the government of Japan made a financial contribution of $256,800 to the Pacific Islands Development Program at Honolulu’s East-West Center. PIDP acts as Secretariat for the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders and as its Standing Committee.
—GJ & SW
—Contributors: Fili Sagapolutele, Nancy Chism, Frank Whitman, Olivier Wortel, Giff Johnson, Norman Douglas and Scott Whitney
