People Briefs
People Briefs
At the end of December, Guam Gov. Felix Camacho met with He Yafei, director general of the People's Republic of China Department of North American and Oceania Affairs, to discuss the request for Guam to gain "approved destination" status from the Chinese government. The aim is to increase Chinese visitors through the special status, with Camacho seeking a corresponding visa waiver from U.S. immigration for Chinese visitors, reports Pacific Daily News. -GJ - ADVERTISEMENT - Six new trial counselors were admitted to practice law in the Kosrae State courts, and were sworn in by Chief Justice Yosiwo George on December 15. Marris Jackson, Tulensa Palik, Edwin Mike, Edmond Salik, Clarence Alokoa, and Snyder Simon bring the total number of trial counselors in Kosrae to more than 20. Palik, Mike, Salik, and Alokoa are all police officers with the Department of Public Safety. Jackson works for the Federated States of Micronesia Customs Bureau, and Simon is a former court staff. -OW Jesse P. Stein has been appointed as the Saipan director of the Workforce Investment Agency, a U.S.-funded agency tasked with assisting local residents to find jobs. Stein was most recently the coordinator for the Domestic Violence Intervention Center. -FR The trip of Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko to Micronesia, scheduled for early this year, has been cancelled, Gov. Juan N. Babauta announced in early December. The Japanese imperial couple was to have toured the Northern Marianas, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Republic of Palau. No details of the cancellation were provided. -FR James Bhagwan of Fiji and David Storr of the United Kingdom won a joint first prize in the 2003 Commonwealth Vision Awards in a December 10 ceremony in London. Bhagwan's entry, The Tree of Freedom, uses a coconut tree and coconut to symbolize political and religious freedom, according to the Commonwealth News and Information Service. Bhagwan works with Guerilla Media and has produced films for Fiji Television Ltd. -GJ The appointment of Mitieli Baleivanualala as the new chief executive of Fiji's Ministry of Fisheries and Forestry has received strong support from people in the industry, reports Radio Fiji. Baleivanualala succeeds Vuetasau Buatoka, who has been appointed the CEO for Transport and Civil Aviation. The president of the Offshore Fisheries Association Ratu Josateki Nawalowalo says Baleivanualala's experience in the private sector is a boost for the fishing industry. According to the Fijilive Web site, Fiji Tuna Boats Association head Graham Southwick says Baleivanualala's appointment comes at a time when the Fisheries Ministry is riddled with corruption. Southwick recently lodged a complaint with police alleging that senior fisheries officials have been receiving bribes from Asian boat owners for long line tuna fishing licenses. -GJ Tongan Ana Fusipala Kessie was appointed as the Forum Island Countries representative to the World Trade Organization based in Geneva. Forum Secretariat Secretary General Noel Levi, CBE, made the announcement in Suva on December 23. Kessie, who took up the new appointment on January 15, recently worked as a specialized legal assistant in the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva, where she has lived since 1998. -GJ Convicted Saipan businessman Bert Douglas Montgomery was sentenced to 20 years in jail for his role in the conspiracy to defraud Bank of Saipan, reports the Marianas Variety. U.S. District Court Judge Alex R. Munson also ordered Montgomery and his co-defendants to pay US$5,273,643 in restitution to Bank of Saipan and $209,980 to bank customer Michelle Hom. He was found guilty earlier of multiple counts of wire fraud and money laundering. Montgomery begged for a lenient sentence so he could repay the bank and the community, but the Variety reported that Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Smith recommended a 20-year sentence against Montgomery, whom he described as "heartless." -GJ The U.S. Army 1st Armored Division, Engineer Brigade has honored Private Jonathan Falaniko, an American Samoan who was killed in Baghdad, Iraq in October 2003, by naming a house in the Army's Iraq rest and recreation compound, "Pvt. Falaniko Inn." American Samoa's U.S. Congressional delegate, Faleomavaega Eni, said this is a tremendous honor for Falaniko "who sacrificed his life so we may live in peace and freedom." Falaniko's father, U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major Ioakimo Falaniko, said the newly renovated house is in a compound that was formerly an officer's club for the Iraqi Republican Guard. -FS Polotani "Paul" Latu, described as the leader of a Maui-based drug ring with links throughout the Pacific area, was sentenced to nearly 22 years in jail and also ordered to pay a US$25,000 fine by U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor on December 15, the Maui News reports. Latu's prison term of 21 years and 10 months is the longest handed down so far to the 55 defendants indicted in connection with the drug ring, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Muehleck. Law enforcement officials estimated the drug ring was responsible for 50-to-70 percent of the crystal methamphetamine being sold on Maui. The drug ring was reported to have links from Maui to Oahu, California, Utah, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. -GJ Federated States of Micronesia Vice President Redley Killion pushed for stronger international action at the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Italy in December. Killion underscored his message by recounting that FSM has for the past 18 months seen an alarming increase of severity in typhoons and storms. "In my island country, we have no choice but to address the impact of climate change because for us, climate change presents a genuine threat to the very survival of our peoples," Killion said. -GJ The Northern Marianas has a new Attorney General who was sworn in December 5 at the governor's office on Capitol Hill. Pam Brown, who most recently was the governor's legal counsel, took the oath administered by Supreme Court Chief Justice Miguel S. Demapan while protestors led by Sen. Pete P. Reyes stood peacefully outside. Reyes maintained that Brown was rejected by a coalition of senators led by him before he and his group lost the leadership to a group led by Sen. Paul A. Manglona following mid-term elections held November 1. -FR Guam's Pacific Daily News' local news editor, David V. Crisostomo, is among the top 16 Gannett newsroom managers recognized in 2003 for exemplifying leadership. He won the Gannett newspaper newsroom supervisor recognition award. "David is one of the most responsible, dependable, level-headed, young senior supervisors I've worked with to date," says Lee Webber, publisher and president of Pacific Daily News. Gannett is the largest U.S. newspaper group in terms of circulation. -GJ Labeled by federal prosecutors as a ringleader of a major crystal methamphetamine distribution operation in Hawaii, Herman Lemusu of American Samoa was sentenced in December to serve 30 years in federal prison by U.S. District Court Judge Helen Gillmor. Lead federal prosecutor Kenneth M. Sorenson said Lemusu imported hundreds of pounds of crystal meth into Hawaii and there was evidence of his shipping it to American Samoa. -FS Visiting U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real found Montez Salamasina Ottley guilty of bilking more than US$66 million out of about 5,000 investors in Hawaii, American Samoa and the U.S. mainland in an investment scheme that promised big returns for investors. Ottley was first convicted in February 2002 by a federal jury in Honolulu of 14 counts including mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy charges for orchestrating the investment program. The verdict was overturned in June, 2003 by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that ordered a new trial, saying that Judge Real should have allowed Ottley to serve as her own counsel at the first trial. During the re-trial, which was a non-jury trial, Ottley served as her own attorney. She is to be sentenced on February 23. -GJ Rear Admiral (selectee) Arthur J. Johnson assumed command of the U.S. Naval Forces Marianas on December 18. He relieved Rear Admiral Patrick Dunne, who has held the top Navy position in Guam since November 2001. Most recently, Johnson was stationed in Washington, D.C. where he was the Pentagon's assistant deputy director for political and military affairs in Asia. Johnson has been selected for promotion to Rear Admiral. -FW Palau Vice President and Health Minister Sandra Pierantozzi had the distinction of being the only woman from the Pacific region among 60 who were recently invited to attend an international symposium in Israel on women's participation in conflict resolution and peace building. Participants discussed women's rights and issue. Pierantozzi addressed the group and described Palau as a matriarchal society with nominal discrimination against women. -NC John Elechuus, the former chief of patrol with Palau's Bureau of Public Safety, is now the new chief of the criminal investigation and drug enforcement division. He had been the acting CIDE chief after Theodore D. Subris retired in September. Public Safety Director Hazime Telei says Elechuus holds an "impressive 25-year record in service and leadership in the Bureau of Public Safety," having been an investigator for the Attorney General's Office, a lieutenant for the patrol division, acting chief of the division of corrections, and chief of the patrol division. -GJ Terance W. Bigalke took over as director of the East-West Center's Education Program on January 1. He heads a program that has more than doubled the number of students on scholarships at the Center in the last five years. Bigalke, who was dean of academic programs, replaces Elizabeth Buck, who is stepping down after leading the program since 1998, but remains at the East-West Center as special assistant to the president for education. -GJ Spanish Ambassador to Palau, Ignacio Sagaz, voiced Spain's willingness to extend expertise, technical support and scholarship grants to Palau in November. Sagaz is a non-resident ambassador who is based in Manila. -NC In Memoriam Army Spc. Christopher Jude Rivera Wesley of Guam died while on duty in Iraq December 8 when the vehicle transporting him and other soldiers overturned. He was buried with full military honors in Guam on December 23. He is the first Chamorro to die in the Iraq war. -FW Long-time Pacific Magazine correspondent from Tuvalu, Ian T. Anderson, died in late 2003 at his home in Funafuti. He had experienced a stroke earlier in 2003 but had continued to write until his death in early October. He also contributed a regular column to the Marshall Islands Journal that was spiced with caustic comment from his many years of residence in this South Pacific nation. -GJ Contributors: Olivier Wortel, Frank Rosario, Giff Johnson, Frank Whitman and Nancy Chism. |
