Letters

The Air Nauru advertisement on the inside back cover of your December 2005 edition is quite prescient, in that it shows the flight crew of Air Nauru walking down the runway in front of the aircraft. Given the latest repossession of the airline's only aircraft, this is presumably the only way to travel in Nauru.

Seriously, it is a sad thing to consider how the demise of Air Nauru reflects both the vision and profligacy in the management of Nauru's "public" assets over the past 30 years or so.

Perry Head
Pacific Specialist (retired)
Australia

For more on Air Nauru, see Pacifc Notes...

Resistance Army Not True BRA Fighters

With regard to your article and an article in The National newspaper, "Takeover Threat" 9 December 2005 (www.pacificmagazine.net), we find it absolutely appalling that the Resistance Army of Bougainville (RAB) are threatening the Autonomous Government of Bougainville (ABG) and holding it accountable for K10 million for "assisting" the PNG Defense Force during the war on Bougainville.

If the Resistance Army wants the money that is supposedly owed to them, then they should be directing their claim to the PNG Government - the employer of the PNG Defense Force. The Autonomous Bougainville Government is not legally liable to pay the K10 million they are asking for. The ABG were not in existence when this agreement for payment was allegedly made.

Also, labeling this "gang of thugs" as "BRA fighters" misleads headline readers who consider the BRA to be the Bougainville Revolutionary Army. The real BRA won the war and entered the mature politics of a peace process that has resulted in the election of an autonomous Bougainville government.

The RAB are still behaving as a rabble gang of thugs threatening and holding to ransom a legitimate post-war government with demands for money but with whom they have had no agreement for any such payment. Illegitimate "demands with menaces" is a serious crime and we look forward to the arrest and prosecution of these RAB members rather than paying them "blood money" that is better spent on wages for the courageous army of workers in education, health care, water and energy resources and the like.

Vikki John
William Beattie
Sydney

We welcome your letters. They can be sent by email to pmeditor@pacificbasin.net or by regular mail to Pacific Magazine, 1000 Bishop Street, Suite 405, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813, U.S.A.