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| An Australian
soldier...with a Bougainville baby. |
UN to maintain presence in Bougainville?
The United Nations has proposed maintaining its presence in the Papua
New Guinea province of Bougainville for another six months. The United
Nations Bougainville mission was due to expire at the end of December,
but with the final fate of weapons from the island's civil conflict still
unresolved, the UN says it should maintain its presence until the end
of June. The issue has been discussed at the UN's Security Council, with
widespread support for a limited extension of the UN's presence. The council
heard the UN's presence on Bougainville is deemed to be essential to the
peace process, and more so with the scheduled withdrawal of regional peace
monitors in the Bougainville Transition Team.
Kipalan challenges appointment
One of two unsuccessful candidates for the office of Papua New Guinea
governor-general, Sir Albert Kipalan, is challenging the December 4 election
of Sir Pato Kakaraya, a former cabinet minister and now a coffee planter
and community worker, to the post. Kipalan was elected to the office by
the PNG parliament last September. But the Supreme Court afterwards ruled
the election was null and void since proper procedures were not followed.
Kipalan now claims that procedures for the election of Kakaraya were also
defective.
Lawyer fights refugees case
An Australian lawyer acting for 325 Asians imprisoned in Nauru has asked
the Victorian State's Supreme Court to declare that they are being falsely
jailed by the Australian government. A statement of claim alleges that
the Asians were transferred against their will to Nauru, after trying
to land in Australia as asylum seekers. The court was asked to order the
release of the detainees and for an injunction preventing any further
detention. At the end of December, several of the Nauruan detainees were
reported to be on a hunger strike, with some having sewn their lips together.
US to decide on Okinawa base
Reports that the United States may close or downsize its controversial
Okinawa military base has inspired the Northern Marianas, a United States
possession with a failing economy, to attempt to persuade the United States
to relocate the base to its territory. Okinawa is a Japanese island and
its inhabitants are hostile to the base's presence. The Northern Marianas
has offered Pagan island as a military training site, Saipan as a rest
and recreation port for the US Navy, and the increased use of Tinian island
for US Marine training. The territory's garment industry is collapsing
and tourism has not been doing well.
Territorial govt riddled with corruption
Lualemaga Faoa, chairman of American Samoa's senate select investigative
committee, claims the territorial government is riddled with corruption
that needs to be investigated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations
since the territory's attorney-general, Fiti Sunia, and members of his
family, appear to be implicated in it. In a separate matter, Don Fuimaono,
a businessman and vice president of the government-controlled Development
Bank of American Samoa, faces charges of criminal fraud and deceptive
business practices. Fuimaono is the eldest son of the senate's president.
Pitcairn's new links
Britain and France are discussing the opening of links between minute
Pitcairn, with a population of under 50 people, and French Polynesia,
to Pitcairn's north. "Exchanges" between the two territories
could include agreements on tariffs and air links beginning with Mangareva,
in the far south of French Polynesia.
Tokelau closer to independence
New Zealand says the signing of principals of partnership with Tokelau
moves the three atolls and their population of under 2000 Polynesian people
closer to independence. Foreign minister Phil Goff says while the final
choice is up to Tokelau, it seems clear that like the Cook Islands and
Niue, it will become a self-governing territory in association with New
Zealand.
Brown targets corruption
After being sworn in as the new attorney general for the Northern Marianas
Pamela Brown undertook to open a public corruption inquiry. Brown, formerly
a legal adviser to the territory's governor, said corruption hadn't been
given sufficient attention before. Meanwhile, in Port Moresby, the deputy
chairman of Papua New Guinea's public accounts committee, Kimson Kare,
says it should be empowered to jail politicians and public servants who
misuse public money.
Limited preferential voting for PNG
Papua New Guinea's acting electoral commissioner, Andrew Trawen says that
after being tested in a by-election, he is confident that a limited preferential
voting system will work well for future general elections. Voting in the
by-election had shown that electors understood the new system since they
had cast their first, second and third preferences without much trouble.
The by-election was for a seat made vacant after a court ruling made the
election of former public service minister, Dr Puka Temu, null and void.
The court ruled that Temu had used bribery to influence voters to win
his seat in a 2002 general election.
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