Islands Business - Pacific Update

Increased sightings of illegal fishing vessels

There’s been a dramatic increase in the number of sightings of unauthorised fishing vessels in the western and central Pacific Ocean in the last three months. And it is alarming fisheries officials in the Pacific Islands region.

Speaking at a regional meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency in Wellington, New Zealand, the Executive Director of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, Andrew Wright, said there is strong evidence of a significant increase in illegal fishing ranging throughout the central Pacific through French Polynesia, Cook Islands and Kiribati.

The majority of reports received so far concern large purse seiners flagged to Latin American countries. These vessels normally operate in the eastern Pacific. But as fishing conditions for tuna in that region are reported to be depressed this year, vessels are moving west.

Tuna fisheries in the central and western Pacific are managed through the recently established commission, which has its headquarters in Pohnpei.

Wright said members of the commission agreed that only vessels flying the flag of members of the commission may be authorised to fish in the western and central Pacific. Under such arrangement, Latin American countries are not members of the commission and so any of their vessels fishing in the WCPFC Convention Area will be conducting illegal activities.

Such activities undermine the conservation and management measures of the commission, and adversely affect the fragile islands economies dependent on fishing. Members of the WCPFC treat the threat posed by illegal fishing activity very seriously, Wright said.

Mock exercise highlights problems

Lack of transport and poor communications were two problems highlighted in a mock exercise carried out by the PNG Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) at Kokopo in East New Britain.

Team work... those who were involved in the mock exercise.

The exercise, aimed at preparing CAA staff and other civil agencies to deal with disasters and emergencies with or without resources, was carried out at Tokua Airport which is currently undergoing maintenance and upgrading work for international status.

The CAA staff also extended invitation to other civil agencies such as police, fire service, provincial disaster officers and hospital doctors whom the public will depend on in times of disasters and emergencies.

The mock exercise started with a phone call from the CAA office to relevant civil agencies with a scenario which the civil agencies responded to.

The emergency was a crash at the aerodrome. A twin otter plane with five passengers on board crashed at the threshold of runway 28 at the Tokua airport, outside Kokopo.

Police, fire services, hospitals; Nonga and Vunapope and the disaster officials were called to the scene to assist the passengers.

The exercise was to contact the respective civil agencies, coordinating their arrival at the crash site; paying more emphasis on how best to contact them, the arrival timings, and what to do when onsite.

The successes and problems of this mock exercise were later discussed where each civil agency learnt its part and looked at ways or strategies it could use in times of disasters to minimise the damages to properties and more importantly loss of lives.

CAA airport boss Bill Burua said it was important for mock emergencies to be carried out because people should know what to do during times like this.

The exercise—an Aerodrome Emergency Procedure (AEP) which was a CAA regulation for all airports—is the first of its kind after the airport was moved to a new location following the twin volcanic eruption of 1994 that buried the old Rabaul airport.

—By Annette Sete

Who’s running Nauru?

The currency, top police, money controllers, heads of education and health, the man who runs the power and water, and the refugee camp that brings in most of the income in Nauru—are all Australians, according to a Sydney Morning Herald report.

The world’s largest island nation has a big say in the running of Nauru, the world’s smallest. Australia has paid for the privilege, but has also been able to soften the blow of that payment by giving it a name with a warm inner glow—foreign aid.

The newspaper said since the Australian foreign affairs minister, Alexander Downer, signed the first memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Nauru in 2001, the island has received more than $100 million (US$81 million) in Australian Government aid.

In each of the nine years before that, it got about $3 million (US$2.4 million) worth of Australian aid. In the first year of the agreement, the amount jumped to $30 million (US$24.5 million). This year, the figure is $29.4 million (US$24 million) for Nauru’s 10,000 souls, compared with $46.1 million (US$37.7 million) in official aid for China and its 1.3 billion people. The reason for such riches being poured into a 21-square-kilometre mid-Pacific coral rock is the Australian government’s “Pacific Solution”, under which it currently maintains one immigration “processing” camp, housing 90 people on the island.

Mark Thomson, who headed the AusAID programme for Nauru throughout 2003, describes the aid payments to that nation as “an unmitigated bribe” to ensure the immigration camp continues.

But AusAID has denied the aid was a bribe. “Australia’s current four-year aid strategy for Nauru was developed in response to the Pacific Islands Forum’s call in 2004 for donor assistance under the Biketawa Declaration to assist Nauru to address an economic crisis,” it said.

Meanwhile, seven Burmese asylum seekers detained on Nauru were asking the High Court in Australia to force the government in Canberra to process their refugee applications under Australian law.

Election dates revealed in India

Fiji’s general elections will be held in June 2010, Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry has told the Indian media.

He said while there was pressure from the international community on Fiji’s interim government to hold elections within 18 to 24 months, lengthy electoral procedures had to be completed before the elections could be held.

His statement, which sets the date as June 2010 appears in defiance of Fiji’s commitment to the European Union (EU) to hold elections within 18 to 24 months which was one of the many proposals in the EU’s roadmap for Fiji’s early return to democracy.

Ban Fiji soldiers from UN duties

The New Zealand Government has again re-iterated its earlier call to continue to lobby the United Nations (UN) to ban on Fiji’s soldiers taking part in peacekeeping operations around the world. This follows reports that the United Nations secretary general’s office has stated Fiji’s military contributions to UN peacekeeping operations would be now considered on a case-by-case basis.

“New Zealand remains opposed to the United Nations using Fijian peace keepers in its operations, and will continue to strongly press the point with the UN on this matter,” a spokesperson for New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, said.

Change of guard

A former long-time chairman of the Federated States of Micronesia Development Bank, Emanuel Mori, has been elected as the island nation’s new president, replacing Joseph Urusemal. Mori, who has a lot of experience in the private sector, is from the island of Chuuk. He is the second in almost 30 years from the island to hold the position of presidency after the late Tosiwo Nakayama. Nakayama, who died recently, was the first president of FSM in 1979.

Fijian to head Solomons police

Solomon Islands has a new police chief. He is Jahir Khan from Fiji and he replaces Australian Shane Castles, who was declared persona non grata by the Sogavare government. Khan’s appointment has created some controversy in Honiara. He served in the Fijian Police Force for 48 years prior to his Solomon Islands appointment.

State of emergency

The state of emergency in Tonga has extended once again for another 30 days, but with some relaxations. This is the sixth time the emergency power has been extended. Police Minister Siaosi ‘Aho said only Tongatapu is being covered by the new extension based on the situation at present compared with the conditions since after the riots.

Ramos-Horta’s East Timor president

Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor’s newly elected president, took the oath of office at a simple ceremony in Dili. He succeeds Xanana Gusmao as leader of the young nation. Ramos-Horta, who spent years abroad as a spokesman for East Timor’s struggle for independence from Indonesian occupation, took nearly 70% of the vote in the May 9 election run-off.

Gas industry gets $2bn boost

A new player willing to invest Kina $7 billion (US$2 billion) in PNG’s gas industry has been found.
Liquid Niugini Gas limited, a partnership between three international companies, submitted a multi-billion dollar proposal to the government. The agreement would see the company build and operate a liquid natural gas plant near Port Moresby. The announcement comes two months after the proposed gas pipeline between PNG and Australia was scrapped because of spiralling costs.

NZ company enlisted

Niue is again enlisting the help of a Christchurch company in New Zealand to boost its online resources.
The firm SAFI Technologies has been chosen to develop a government website for Niue, with the project funded by a United Nations (UN) development programme. The website—www. gov.nu—would make it easier for Niueans, at home and overseas, to gain access to government services, official information and news.

More than 50 percent of Niueans had internet access, and it is proposed that the website would include sub-sites for individual villages and allow citizens to make inquiries directly to public servants.

Peters hails Fiji move

New Zealand’s foreign minister Winston Peters said the Fiji interim administration’s decision to lift emergency regulations “is a good first step on the road back to constitutional government.”

Peters told reporters that an important effect of the decision will be the military’s return to barracks.

However, Peters said it is only a first step. “It should bring to an end the abuses of human rights witnessed ever since the coup,” he said. “We encourage the interim government to take further steps to re-establish the independence and integrity of the Fiji justice system,” he said.

Fiji’s Interim Prime Minister and military commander Commodore Bainimarama made the announcement to lift Public Emergency Regulations in force in Fiji since December 5 military takeover.

The state of emergency was enacted in the days after the military takeover on December 5 and was only meant to last a month, but has been extended a number of times.

New Zealand continues to impose diplomatic sanctions on Fiji interim administration and is demanding a quick return to democracy after the coup last year.