A huge landslide has buried a long hut with 13 people asleep inside at the foot of the Tolukuma gold mine in Papua New Guinea’s Central province.
The community from Saki village, Tolukuma, experienced the massive landslide yesterday morning between 4.30 am and 6 am amid heavy rain.
They were surprised to see that the long house built for visitors from nearby villages who come and reside there while panning for gold had disappeared.
“We have sent a message to the Central Provincial Disaster Office to assist with a chain saw and excavator to dig and cut through the trees, logs and dirt to uncover the house and search for the people buried by the landslide,” Saki village spokesman Cyril Samana told the PNG Bulletin by phone.
“We cannot do it ourselves with our bush knives because the slide has buried many of trees and logs too.
“The disaster occurred at about 4.30 am while the people were asleep. The landslide caught them by surprise coming down from the nearby Tolukuma mountain,” Simana said.
He said the people buried were from nearby villages panning for gold during the Christmas weekend.
‘Huge landslide debris’ “We woke up to see the huge landslide debris and the long house disappear. We have informed the disaster authorities and waiting for them to arrive possible tomorrow [Tuesday],” Simana said.
Simana said that since the Tolukuma mine was in operation in the early 1990s and 2000s, the ground on Tolokuma mountain had become soft.
He said the recent heavy rain in the afternoon till early morning may be the cause of the massive landslide burying the 13.
A map showing Tolukuma in Papua New Guinea’s Central Province. Image: PNG Bulletin/PNG Report
“Hopefully when the Disaster Office arrives, we will start clearing and digging,” Simana said.
“We have not been able to get through to the MP for Goilala or the Governor for Central. But we managed to reach the provincial disaster office,” Simana said.
Investigators at the scene where Pastor Yeremia Zanambani was alleged to have been shot dead by the Indonesian military near Hitadiap village. Image: CNN Indonesia screenshot
The family of Pastor Yeremia Zanambani, who was shot dead in Hitadipa district, Intan Jaya regency, Papua, three months ago are asking that the case be tried in a human rights court.
They oppose having the trial being taken to a military tribunal, reports CNN Indonesia.
“They [Yeremia’s family] want the case to be heard in a human rights court, so that the perpetrator can be tried in accordance with his actions and there will be justice for the victim. The victim’s family has no faith in the legal process of a military tribunal,” said a member of the team of lawyers representing Zanambani’s family, Yohanis Mambrasar.
In early October the government formed the Intan Jaya Joint Fact Finding Team (TGPF) to investigate the killing of Pastor Zanambani on September 19.
The team found allegations of the involvement of security personnel in the murder of the religious figure.
In a press release on Wednesday, the commander of the Army’s Military Police Centre, Lieutenant General Dodik Widjanarko, said that the Army Headquarters Legal Process Reinforcement Team was in the process of attempting to question 21 personnel from the 400 Raider Military Battalion in relation to the shooting.
Aside from questioning the 21 personnel, Widjanarko said that they had also questioned 14 personnel from the Cendrawasih XVII Regional Military Command’s (Kodam) Penebalan Apter Military Operational Unit Task Force.
Legal handling deplored Mambrasar said that he deplored the legal handling of the case which should already be at a more advanced stage in the investigation.
“Like arresting and declaring suspects, because there’s already enough evidence. There are many witnesses and the indicating evidence is already very strong [and enough] to explain the case and the perpetrator,” he said.
He also said other such cases which had occurred in Papua recently, such as the murder of two youths named Luter Zanambani and Apinus Zanambani on April 21, the torching of a healthcare office on September 19 and the shooting of Agus Duwitau on October 7 must also be resolved by a human rights court.
Rev Yeremia Zanambani … alleged to have been shot dead by the Indonesian military in Hitadiap village on September 19. Image: Suara Papua
Mambrasar said that as regulated under Article 9 in conjunction with Article 7(b) of Law Number 26/2000 on a Human Rights Court, the elements of a gross human rights violation in these cases — including Zanambani’s shooting — had already been met.
“As referred to under Article 7, namely that there were acts of violent killing which took in a systematic and broad manner”, he said.
IndoLeft News reports: Although the government sanctioned TGPF only said that it found indications of the involvement of security personnel in Zanambani’s murder, an investigation by the government’s own National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) explicitly alleged Zanambani’s murderer as being Hitadipa sub-district military commander Chief Sergeant Alpius Hasim Madi.
Komnas HAM said Zanambani was killed while being interrogated on the whereabouts of an Indonesian military assault rifle two days earlier during an exchange of fire with the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB).
As late South African President Nelson Mandela said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Papuan Governor Lukas Enembe also believes this.
Enembe made a remarkable decision to provide scholarships to Papuan students to obtain education overseas such as in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, the US and other countries across the world.
He has realised that having West Papuan students in many world ranking universities will help raise the profile and dignity of Papuans on the global stage.
This year, six Papuan provincial government scholarship recipients have graduated from several universities in New Zealand. About 160 Papuans are currently studying in New Zealand.
Marius Elabi graduated with Master of International Relationship and Security Studies from Waikato University on December 8, and Anggie Freesia Maritje Kapisa with a Bachelor of Science major in microbiology and Stephanie Verneytha Dike with a Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition from Otago University on December 16.
Fredy Nawalyn with a Bachelor of International Business Management, Erli Enambere with a Bachelor of Contemporary International Studies and Prisilia Samori with a NZ Diploma in Tourism and Travel also graduated from the Institute of the Pacific United New Zealand on December 18.
Kapisa, who is the first child of her family to achieve education overseas said she was so humble and grateful to set an example for her younger sisters.
Even though Otago University did not hold its usual full graduation ceremony, a graduation ceremony was staged for Pacific students at the university campus.
Grateful for study opportunity
Kapisa said that she was so grateful to have a Pacific community at Otago University, so her West Papuan friends who were studying in New Zealand could come and celebrate the graduation together.
“I am so grateful to have my Pacific community here and West Papuan friends because my family could not attend my graduation,” said Kapisa.
Kapisa always stayed close to her family said that during her study she had encountered a lot of challenges knowing that came from a non-English speaking country and a different education system.
But with her commitment and perseverance and with the support from the people around her, she completed her study.
Governor Lukas Enembe … he realises that having West Papuan students in many world ranking universities will help raise the profile and dignity of Papuans on the global stage. Image: West Papua Today
“Off course, I was homesick, but I must keep my health. It is not only my physical health but also my mental health,” she said.
“As you don’t know what I am going through, so it is important for me to have someone to talk to.
“I know that if I could make it, other girls can also make it,” said Kapisa.
Governor Enembe’s scholarships
Stephanie Verneytha Dike, who also graduated from Otago University, said she was extremely grateful to all the lecturers and academic supports staff who had helped her during her study.
She said she was so grateful to the government of Papua province and particularly Governor Enembe for granting her the scholarship to study in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Being an international student and studying overseas in a new environment and social life was always challenging, Dike said.
Dike who is also the first born in her family said that she faced a number of challenges that she managed to overcome.
She said the language barrier was the first challenge she faced along with social life.
Papuan microbiology graduate Anggie Kapisa at Otago … “I know that if I could make it, other girls can also make it.” Image: APR
Another challenge was the study because students were very competitive in class, so she had to study really hard.
“The challenges came from various factors, from education, the life like socialisation, and living far away from family – but the biggest challenge was competition in class,” she said.
‘Motivation to study hard’
“We have to pass the paper because we have the scholarship from the government, and we don’t want to waste the chance that the [Papua provincial] government has provided for us.
“Even though it is a pressure, we need to take it as our motivation to study hard,” said Dike.
Marius Elabi, who graduated from Waikato University, said that getting an opportunity to obtain knowledge from one of the universities in New Zealand was a fulfillment of his dream.
He said students needed to be grateful for the current provincial government’s programme to send students to pursue education in developed countries like New Zealand.
Elabi left his wife and children in West Papua and said it is really hard to be a student when you have got a family. But he was grateful to have a supportive family.
“I am so fortunate to have such a great wife and beautiful children who always get my back.
“My wife is a civil servant, but she is a great woman like other Melanesian and Pacific women,” he said.
“We West Papuans are capable to compete with other students here in New Zealand and in other countries, but we don’t have much opportunity,” said Elabi.
Father of three
Elabi, who is the father of three children, said that studying in New Zealand was not like in Indonesia where he had completed his undergraduate studies.
He said the challenges were similar to what Kapisa and Dike experienced, but one other issue that challenged him throughout his study was “family burdens”.
In order to be able to provide needs for his family back in West Papua, he did part time work as a cleaner and fruit picker.
“Even though I have to study and complete my thesis, I spent a couple of hours to do cleaning,” he said.
“During school break, I work with other West Papuan students at the farm.
“When you are students, never be shy to do any kind of work,” said Elabi.
Kapisa, Dike and Elabi said that they hoped the government of Papua province would send more Papuan students to New Zealand so that they could have a chance to know their brothers and sisters in the Pacific from New Zealand.
Presented achievements to family
The graduates said they presented their achievements to their mother, father, brothers, sisters, wife, children, extended family and all West Papuans.
Marveys Ayomi, a scholarship coordinator for Papuan students in New Zealand, said he was extremely proud of all the West Papuan graduates from Waikato, Otago and IPU New Zealand.
“First of all it is a big achievement for the people of Papua and we also need to acknowledge such an important role of the government of Papua plays from the very beginning since the establishment of the programme, specially a big thanks to our Governor bapak Lukas Enembe for providing this opportunity to many of our Papuan students.
“This is once in a lifetime opportunity for many of them and some of them in fact never travel out of Papua. Most of the students are highly motivated and driven to succeed.
“Now over the last three or four years we are averaging over five sometimes 10 students graduating over the last few years,” said Ayomi.
“This is the example of how successful the programme has been.”
Ayomi, a Papuan who has been living in New Zealand for 20 years and is a lecturer at the IPU New Zealand, said that there were many challenges that every student faced.
Adapting to new culture
Every student faced challenges like adapting to the new culture, academic system and other things.
Coming from Papua and culturally as a Melanesian and with a Pacific background, he said that New Zealand was a very unique and beautiful country for Papuans to be. He said in terms of the culture, there was a lot of similarity between Papuan culture and Māori culture.
“It is a different country, but I think culturally speaking we share a lot of commonalities and also similar cultural practices and traditions,” he said.
“The people of Papua have got a lot of hope for a bigger, better, brighter Papua in coming years. I call this day, the Golden Generation of Papua.”
He hopes everyone will succeed in their studies and enjoy their experience as much as possibly they can, take a lot of positive things that they can learn from New Zealand – “the beautiful nation and its people”.
Transfer some of those skills to your own people when you return home at some point,” said Ayomi.
“But if you still continue your studies, continue to do well and always put people in your land first before anything else.”
Laurens Ikinia is a Papuan Masters in Communication Studies student at Auckland University of Technology who has been studying journalism. He is on an internship with AUT’s Pacific Media Centre.
Papuan students in New Zealand pictured with Governor Lukas Enembe. Image: APR
For Margaret Mills, adventurer, environmental campaigner, activist poet and Greenpeace stalwart, it was a lifetime dream coming true at 91.
When she opened her parcel from the mail at her hilltop Waiheke island home just over a week ago, out popped advance copies of her maiden book, The Nine Lives of Kitty K. – the saga of a horse whisperer and her happiness and tragedies in the early settler days of outback Otago.
This was a wonderful Christmas present after a five-year labour of love. Writing the book took 14 months and then a further four years to get it published.
But she really dreamed about writing the book many years ago and when she finally had a chance to write it, she did so with tremendous enthusiasm and persistence.
“An extraordinary New Zealand debut historical novel … celebrating an unsung heroine of the Goldfields,” says her publicist Karen McKenzie.
In fact, most of the book is a true story, with only the early parts in Ireland being a reconstruction.
“Set in a turbulent period of goldfields’ history, The Nine Lives of Kitty K. paints a vivid picture of pioneer life as told by the sons and daughters of those who lived it and survived the terrible Depression of the 1890s,” says McKenzie.
‘Toughest woman in Otago history’ “Kitty Kirk (1855–1930), arguably the toughest woman in Otago history, endured those times, supporting herself as a woman alone.”
Former Pacific Media Centre director David Robie says the book tells a story of Kitty’s life at the tail end of the goldrush that “provides a glimpse of the harshness of life in early settler times – especially for women”.
He adds: “The author, Margaret Mills, herself an outback adventurer with a green heart, characterises in real life some of the grit and joyous energy displayed by Kitty.”
Mills is a much liked character on Waiheke island who had a role on the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior when it was bombed in Auckland on 10 July 1985 with the death of photographer Fernando Pereira.
She asked to be relief cook for a month when the campaign vessel arrived in New Zealand after a humanitarian voyage rescuing Rongelap islanders from the ravages of a US nuclear testing legacy in the Marshall Islands.
Mills had only been on board three days when French secret agents bombed the ship.
“I heard the captain say, ‘Oh Margaret, are you still here? We’ve been bombed!’ and I laughed. Well I mean, would you think of being bombed here? No,” she told Newshub in 2015.
After the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior Mills continued to work on Greenpeace ships.
Her friendships with crew members changed her life.
Her Kitty K. book will go on sale in mid-February and she hopes to have two launches – one on Waiheke and the other in Queenstown where “people will really care about this story of early hardships”.
The Nine Lives of Kitty K.: The Unsung Heroine of the Goldfields, by Margaret Mills (Mary Egan Publishing, February, NZ$34.95)
The notion that the covid-19 pandemic was “the great equalizer’ should be dead and buried by now. If anything, the lethal disease is another terrible reminder of the deep divisions and inequalities in our societies.
That said, the treatment of the disease should not be a repeat of the same shameful scenario.
For an entire year, wealthy celebrities and government officials have been reminding us that “we are in this together”, that “we are on the same boat”, with the likes of US singer, Madonna, speaking from her mansion while submerged in a “milky bath sprinkled with rose petals,” telling us that the pandemic has proved to be the “great equalizer”.
“Like I used to say at the end of ‘Human Nature’ every night, we are all in the same boat,” she said. “And if the ship goes down, we’re all going down together,” CNN reported at the time.
Such statements, like that of Madonna, and Ellen DeGeneres as well, have generated much media attention not just because they are both famous people with a massive social media following but also because of the obvious hypocrisy in their empty rhetoric.
In truth, however, they were only repeating the standard procedure followed by governments, celebrities and wealthy “influencers” worldwide.
But are we, really, “all in this together”? With unemployment rates skyrocketing across the globe, hundreds of millions scraping by to feed their children, multitudes of nameless and hapless families chugging along without access to proper healthcare, subsisting on hope and a prayer so that they may survive the scourges of poverty – let alone the pandemic – one cannot, with a clear conscience, make such outrageous claims.
Not only are we not “on the same boat” but, certainly, we have never been. According to World Bank data, nearly half of the world lives on less than US$5.5 a day. This dismal statistic is part of a remarkable trajectory of inequality that has afflicted humanity for a long time.
The plight of many of the world’s poor is compounded in the case of war refugees, the double victims of state terrorism and violence and the unwillingness of those with the resources to step forward and pay back some of their largely undeserved wealth.
The boat metaphor is particularly interesting in the case of refugees; millions of them have desperately tried to escape the infernos of war and poverty in rickety boats and dinghies, hoping to get across from their stricken regions to safer places.
Sadly familiar sight
This sight has sadly grown familiar in recent years not only throughout the Mediterranean Sea but also in other bodies of water around the world, especially in Burma, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have tried to escape their ongoing genocide. Thousands of them have drowned in the Bay of Bengal.
The covid-19 pandemic has accentuated and, in fact, accelerated the sharp inequalities that exist in every society individually, and the world at large. According to a June 2020 study conducted in the United States by the Brookings Institute, the number of deaths as a result of the disease reflects a clear racial logic.
Many indicators included in the study leave no doubt that racism is a central factor in the life cycle of covid.
For example, among those aged between 45 and 54 years, “Black and Hispanic/Latino death rates are at least six times higher than for whites”. Although whites make up 62 percent of the US population of that specific age group, only 22 percent of the total deaths were white.
Black and Latino communities were the most devastated.
According to this and other studies, the main assumption behind the discrepancy of infection and death rates resulting from covid among various racial groups in the US is poverty which is, itself, an expression of racial inequality. The poor have no, or limited, access to proper healthcare. For the rich, this factor is of little relevance.
Moreover, poor communities tend to work in low-paying jobs in the service sector, where social distancing is nearly impossible. With little government support to help them survive the lockdowns, they do everything within their power to provide for their children, only to be infected by the virus or, worse, die.
Iniquity expected to continue
This iniquity is expected to continue even in the way that the vaccines are made available. While several Western nations have either launched or scheduled their vaccination campaigns, the poorest nations on earth are expected to wait for a long time before life-saving vaccines are made available.
In 67 poor or developing countries located mostly in Africa and the Southern hemisphere, only one out of ten individuals will likely receive the vaccine by the end of 2020, the Fortune Magazine website reported.
The disturbing report cited a study conducted by a humanitarian and rights coalition, the People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA), which includes Oxfam and Amnesty International.
If there is such a thing as a strategy at this point, it is the deplorable “hoarding” of the vaccine by rich nations.
Dr Mohga Kamal-Yanni of the PVA put this realisation into perspective when she said that “rich countries have enough doses to vaccinate everyone nearly three times over, while poor countries don’t even have enough to reach health workers and people at risk”.
So much for the numerous conferences touting the need for a “global response” to the disease.
But it does not have to be this way.
While it is likely that class, race and gender inequalities will continue to ravage human societies after the pandemic, as they did before, it is also possible for governments to use this collective tragedy as an opportunity to bridge the inequality gap, even if just a little, as a starting point to imagine a more equitable future for all of us.
Poor, dark-skinned people should not be made to die when their lives can be saved by a simple vaccine, which is available in abundance.
Dr Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr Baroud is a non-resident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). This article is republished with permission. His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
The vandalised KNPB secretariat at Almasuh, Merauke, in Papua. Image: Suara Papua
By Charles Maniani in Manokwari
Indonesian Mobile Brigade (Brimob) paramilitary police, national police intelligence officers (intel) and the army’s special forces (Kopassus) have stormed the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) offices in the Almasuh area of Merauke regency, Papua,
The raid last week was reported by a Suara Papua informant from Merauke on Monday. The raid ended with two motorcycles being seized and six more people arrested.
“Yesterday, on Sunday (13/12/2020) at around 2 pm local time Brimob and intel officers arrived and vandalised the KNPB secretariat in Almasuh, they arrested six people and two motorcycles were taken,” the source told Suara Papua from Merauke.
When sought for confirmation on Tuesday, Merauke KNPB member Yoris Wopay said that arrests were made on two occasions totalling 14 people who were being held temporarily by the Merauke district police (Polres).
“They were all arrested and beaten with cane sticks, four people were ordered to lie on the ground, then they were taken to Polres, there they were assaulted again, Kristian Yandun’s head was cut and bleeding and Michael Beteop’s back was bleeding, then they were detained with criminal prisoners. And two motorcycles were taken by the Merauke Polres”, he said.
No reason was given for their detention and the detainees have asked for a lawyer.
Suara Papua meanwhile has been unable to obtain confirmation from the Merauke district police about why they were arrested.
The names of those arrested are:
KNPB Chairperson Charles Sraun (38) Deputy Chairperson Petrus Paulus Kontremko (32) KNPB diplomacy division head Robertus Landa (23) KNPB members Kristian Yandun (38), Michael Beteop (24), Elias Kmur (38), Marianus Anyum (25), Kristian. M. Anggunop (24), Emanuel. T Omba (24), Petrus Kutey (27), Linus Pasim (26), Salerius Kamogou (24), Petrus Koweng (28) and Yohanes Yawon (23).
Million-dollar houses are now being sold in one of Auckland’s lowest-income suburbs and a local politician says New Zealand government failure is allowing the market to drive further inequality and hopelessness.
Last month an unremarkable 1960s weatherboard house on less than a quarter acre section in Ōtara in South Auckland sold for $1.01 million.
Another – which 12 years ago sold for $340,000 – went for $1.1m, more than triple its last sale price in October.
Manukau ward councillor Fa’anānā Efeso Collins said more than 80 percent of Pacific people did not own their own homes, and rising house prices were a cause of pain for his constituents, as rents went up and incomes did not.
“That means there are times where some people have to go without,” Collins said.
“I know there are parents who are decreasing the number of meals they’re having to ensure that the kids are eating enough, and getting three basic meals a day. That’s part of what I call the social trauma that’s being faced by many constituents that I work with.”
He said people felt hopelessness about the situation, which they did not think would get any better.
People ‘have given up’
“I think people have given up. There are many people in the Manukau ward… that have just given up,” he said.
“I’m really disappointed with what the government’s done. I think the government’s thrown money at a banking system that in my view isn’t working, and that’s not going to keep house prices down.”
The new highs in the local housing market served as a reminder to people in a low-income Auckland suburb that housing costs were eating up their paychecks.
“There are parents in Ōtara that I know of that are going without just to keep their babies fed,” one woman in Ōtara’s town centre, who did not want to be named, said.
“Sometimes you hear of parents that don’t eat because their babies need to eat.”
Born and raised in Ōtara – and still living there – she thought the high cost of living was feeding crime.
“It contributes to the poverty in Ōtara. How expensive the houses are is contributing to why there’s such a high crime rate,” she said.
Window washing
“There are heaps of children out here that are window washing because there parents can only just afford the rent. It’s not their fault – they are doing crime, but if they’re doing it to put bread and milk on the table, who can blame them?”
Another woman, a shop owner, said she was a Labour voter but housing was the government’s biggest failure.
“I’ve been living here for 35 years. I would like to buy my own house but I can’t afford to. It’s ridiculous, and now I’m over 60 [years old].”
She had been in paid work her entire adult life, and was only ever just keeping her head above water, she said.
“They’re too greedy, landlords. Every year she’s putting up our rent.
“For nearly six months I [haven’t] cut my hair. I have no money… $35 for a haircut, I can’t afford to pay. House prices must come down in New Zealand.”
One man in Ōtara said Auckland was a city of the haves and the have-nots. Another, without a house at all, said homelessness had broken him.
Economists and banks are not expecting house price rises to plateau any time soon.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Covid-19 vaccinations begin in the Northern Mariana Islands this weekend, but it is not yet clear when other Pacific countries will have access to a vaccine.
The Northern Marianas, which is a US territory, was expecting 5,000 doses of the The Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to arrive during the week, and vaccinations to start today, RNZ Pacific correspondent Mark Rabago said.
The vaccine had already been approved in the USA and UK. It must be stored at around -70C, and transported in special boxes, packed in dry ice.
Once delivered, it can be kept for up to five days in a fridge.
“A couple of weeks ago our government purchased and received 10 ultra cold freezers. The freezers we ordered came from South Korea, and we have two sent to Tinian and Rota and the rest will be used in Saipan,” Rabago said.
The country had already been sent a “mock package” of the vaccine as a trail, from the US federal government, to test the systems they had in place to transport and store it, which went well, he said.
“There is a first-priority group that will receive the vaccine first and they are the healthcare workers, first responders, high-risk patients and seniors.
Congressman and Northern Mariana Islander Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, had volunteered to be injected in public, and the governor Ralph Deleon Guerrero Torres also said he and his family were available to be vaccinated to demonstrate confidence in the vaccine, if they were asked to.
NZ offers vaccines to six Pacific countries New Zealand now has agreements in place to secure enough vaccines to vaccinate everyone in the country, as well as everyone in Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Niue, and the Cook Islands, if the governments of those countries accept the offer.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made the announcement this week, saying that if the vaccines are proven to be safe and effective, then the government’s first priority will be to vaccinate border workers, essential staff and their household contacts.
The arrangements are for 750,000 courses of vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech, 5m from Janssen, 3.8m from AstraZeneca and 5.36m from Novava.
And Minister for Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta said $75 million of development assistance had been set aside to support global access to the vaccines, and roll-out.
That included a $10m donation to the COVAX programme aiming to provide vaccinations to countries that might otherwise struggle to afford it.
COVAX is co-led by the World Health Organisation and Gavi, and alliance of governments, drug companies, charities and aid organisations. It aims to deliver two billion vaccine doses by the end of next year, which could be provided to 20 percent of the most vulnerable people in 91 countries.
The programme relies on cheaper vaccines that haven’t been approved yet, instead of frontrunners like the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, and while it has non-binding supply agreements with three major vaccine developers, all have had significant trial delays.
Solomon Islands seeks vaccines for half its population The Solomon Islands had applied for enough vaccines for about half their population through the COVAX programme, said Solomons Ministry of Health spokesperson Pauline McNeil.
An application was made for more than 360,000 people, and if successful, this would be co-financed by the Solomon Islands Government.
“[We’ve] conducted a national cold chain capacity assessment, to check the available vaccine storage capacity, and identified gaps to be addressed prior to receiving Covid vaccine,” McNeil said.
The country has also set up a coordinating committee and technical working group, which were being supported by technical advisors at the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and the World Bank.
Tonga working through WHO plan Tongan Ministry of Health chief executive Dr Siale ‘Akauola said the country had been working with development partners “for a long time” to prepare for the vaccines.
The kingdom had also applied to COVAC for vaccines, and was awaiting a response.
“We are conscious of the efforts by all countries to get their population vaccinated,” ‘Akauola said.
“The Pfizer vaccine is a fairly high tech vaccine that requires a very sophisticated way of cooling them and I think it maybe beyond the capacity of Tonga to use that type of vaccine, but we will continue to watch and plan what’s best for Tonga.”
Authorities were working through a plan developed by WHO and UNICEF to help countries roll out the vaccine, and it was being developed to fit the Tongan needs.
This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.
Many houses in Fiji’s Vanua Levu have been destroyed, some families sheltered under beds and tables in their houses and others in cane plantations, as Cyclone Yasa wreaked havoc in many parts of the Northern Division, Fiji Village reports.
Buildings and crops were been destroyed in Fiji’s second largest island and there’s been widespread flooding and landslides.
Fiji had earlier declared a state of natural disaster.
Yasa is heading south through the Southern Lau Island group.
In Bua, some people had to flee as their houses disintegrated in the wind.
In Koro, destructive winds and heavy rain are being felt in Nasau Village and people have been relocated to two evacuation centres.
Panapasa Nayabakoro, who lives in Koro, said 32 people are sheltering at the Nasau Health Centre and the rest are in a school. He said most of their houses are flooded and some were houses blown away.
A teacher at Nacamaki District School in Koro, Ilisabeta Daurewa, said they are experiencing damaging winds and several kitchen sheds in the village have been blown away.
She said more than 100 people are taking shelter in six classrooms at the school.
Taveuni, where more than 1,400 people spent the night in evacuation centres, is still being hit by winds.
Emergency personnel will be able to assess the scale of the damage once it is safe for crews to go out, the National Disaster Management Office says.
Vodafone towers in Taveuni are down, only DIGICEL works in the area. Major damage all across Cakaudrove and Bua. Trying to reach folks in Udu Poidi, Nate’s and Buca Bay to check for casualties. If you’ve made contact please comment below. #TCYasa#FijiNewspic.twitter.com/0Ym27lEPyp
Yasa shows signs of weakening
Yasa is showing signs of weakening after striking overnight, but it remains a category five storm.
Sakeasi Waibuta from Fiji’s Met Service said the storm sat over Vanua Levu for three hours.
“It remains …a category 5, but intensity-wise for the winds, it has dropped from 240 kilometres per hour to 200 kilometres per hour.
“On satellite it is showing signs of initial weakening.”
Waibuta said the were still waiting on full reports on damage, and storm surges had also been expected.
Suva is waking up after stormy night. Still strong combined with . While it appears #TCYasa have largely spared the capital city, it showed its brute force elsewhere, the extent of which we will only know shortly. We stand by with and Fijians in these difficult times. pic.twitter.com/5aenmy2T9y
The uproar over the recent fisticuffs between Chinese and Taiwanese diplomats in Fiji may have subsided, with the Fijian police declaring the case closed, but the incident has left analysts in the Pacific concerned about what they called Beijing’s increasingly hostile tactics in the region.
The altercation took place on October 8 when Chinese diplomats tried to gatecrash an event marking Taiwan’s national day. Violence ensued and a Taiwanese diplomat was hospitalised with a head injury.
Analysts say it was just one outcome of the intensifying geostrategic competition in the Pacific pitting China against the United States and its allies.
“With the increased United States presence in the region, China is concerned about losing any hard-gained ground, especially over Taiwan,” said Dr Shailendra Singh, head of the University of the South Pacific’s (USP) journalism programme.
“When the ‘prize’ is Taiwan, the stakes are very high and China will fight very hard,” Dr Singh said.
Ties between the US and China are at their lowest in decades over disputes ranging from trade, the coronavirus pandemic and Beijing’s actions in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and the South China Sea.
Amid the plummeting relations, Washington has stepped up its support for Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing considers a renegade province, recently approving the potential sale of more than $3 billion worth of arms to the territory.
The US-China rivalry in the Pacific – a region that is home to four of the 15 countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan – is also drawing in other Washington allies, including Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, according to Singh.
The US and its allies are increasing development aid to the island nations of the Pacific to counter China’s growing economic clout in the region, while a newly formed bipartisan caucus in the US Congress has introduced a draft law seeking to boost Washington’s presence in the region.
China’s influence in the South Pacific. Video: Al Jazeera
If passed, the Blue Pacific Act will allocate $1 billion in funding for each of the next five years with the aims of increasing maritime security cooperation as well as supporting regional economic and social development.
China, meanwhile, is the third-largest donor to the region, behind Australia and New Zealand, and has used economic incentives such as grants and concessional loans to woo Pacific countries, including lobbying them to cut off relations with Taiwan.
‘Dominant relationship’
For many analysts, the Taiwan-China kerfuffle in Fiji evoked memories of China’s brazenness at the 2018 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG). That summit ended without a communique, a first in the forum’s 30-year history, amid growing tensions between China and the US.
The Taiwan-China kerfuffle in Fiji evoked memories of China’s brazenness at the 2018 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Port Moresby. Map: Al Jazeera
Throughout the meeting, the Chinese delegation was accused of trying to pressure the hosts and the others into acceding to their demands, with sections of the media describing Beijing’s tactics as “tantrum diplomacy”.
This included unprecedented scenes with police called in following an attempt by the Chinese delegates to storm the PNG foreign minister’s office, reportedly as part of a bid to influence the draft of the summit communique.
PNG played down the 2018 incident, just as Fiji did this year, failing to rebuke or reprimand China’s diplomats and the Fiji police closing the case by merely stating that two parties had resolved the matter “amicably”.
This has left China-watchers in the region worried that Beijing’s increasingly “aggressive” tactics to pursue its interests in the Pacific, including isolating Taiwan, may actually be working in its favour.
Professor Vijay Naidu, a senior Fiji sociology academic, said China was able to get away with the clash over Taiwanese diplomats because of their “dominant relationship” with Suva.
Fiji recognises the “One China” policy and does not have formal relations with Taiwan.
“The assertive behaviour of the People’s Republic of China is not new with regards to Taiwan,” Dr Naidu said. “Beijing sees Taiwan as a subordinate part of China, and in time, as is happening in Hong Kong, attempts will be made to make this a reality.”
Dr Naidu said Pacific countries were mindful of not offending China given Beijing’s significant economic clout. China’s concessional loans and grants in the Pacific amounted to $1.5 billion between 2006 and 2017, compared with Taiwan’s $271 million, according to figures from the Sydney-based Lowy Institute.
That was why “a tiff between diplomats of China and Taiwan is no big deal” for the Pacific islands, said Naidu.
‘Quid pro quo’
According to Dr Sandra Tarte, head of school and director of politics and international affairs at the University of the South Pacific (USP), Taiwan has been a casualty of the strengthening relations between China and Fiji, particularly when Fiji was isolated following a coup in 2006 led by Voreqe Bainimarama, who was elected as prime minister in 2014 and again in 2018.
“You could say it has been a kind of quid pro quo,” said Dr Tarte. “In exchange for China’s political and economic support, Fiji downgraded its ties with Taiwan, including closing its trade mission in Taipei and forcing the name change of the Taiwan trade office in Fiji.”
China’s ongoing determination to further isolate Taiwan was evident last year when it tried to court Tuvalu, which turned down a $400 million offer from various Chinese companies to build artificial islands against rising sea levels.
Instead, Tuvalu signed a historic investment agreement with the US in October, giving it access to debt and equity financing for infrastructure projects, seen as a reward for sticking with Taiwan.
“For Taiwan’s other allies in the Pacific, who knows what will happen? But you can expect that the US – for one – will seek to ensure they remain tied to Taiwan and not be tempted to switch like Kiribati and Solomons recently did,” Dr Tarte said.
For Taiwan’s other allies in the Pacific – such as Tuvalu – who knows what will happen? Map: Al Jazeera
In addition to Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Experts say that there is also the potential for foreign policy matters to affect local politics and cause instability, as seen in the Solomon Islands after it switched ties from Taiwan to China in December 2019.
The country’s largest province, Malaita, which remains loyal to Taiwan, has refused to recognise the switch and pledged to hold an independence vote, a move that the central government has rejected.
China will also be a factor in the upcoming renegotiation of The Compacts of Free Association between the US and the Marshall Islands, Palau and Federated States of Micronesia. The Compacts have existed since the 1980s, giving the US military unfettered access to the region’s waters, land and airspace in exchange for development assistance.
More leverage
Dr Gordon Nanau, a senior lecturer at USP’s School of Government, Development and International Affairs, said China’s presence meant the three Micronesian states had some leverage to extract more concessions from the US.
“In the recent past, USA indicated its interest to move into a trust fund kind of arrangement with its Micronesian friends, a move not really favoured by the Compact states,” Dr Nanau said.
“With the increasing Chinese influence, I am sure the Compact states will have more space to negotiate a better arrangement or to continue with the current Compact arrangement with US.”
He added that the “important thing for all Pacific island states would be to properly understand and be able to manage each of these diplomatic relationships the best they could”.
These developments and ever-changing scenarios bring challenges and opportunities for Pacific Island countries, which have demonstrated a desire to ensure their unique development challenges are taken into account at the global level.
They increasingly want to have a say in the programmes that are implemented in their names, supposedly for their benefit.
“Given the geopolitical interests of various powers in the region, we must not fall into the anti-Asian, anti-China, and anti-Taiwan prejudices and racism,” said Professor Naidu.
“It is critical that [Pacific island countries] see what is in their best interest, meaning the interest of their citizens and not a few elements of the elite.”
Sheldon Chanelis a freelance journalist based in Fiji and a graduate of the University of the South Pacific journalism programme. This article was originally published by Al Jazeera today and has been republished with permission.
The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior happened 35 years ago this year. The event had ramifications across the Pacific, and politicised a generation of New Zealanders. But in this age of climate change and global pandemic, have Kiwis held onto the lessons they learnt on that winter’s night in 1985? Matthew Scott investigates.
The sale of Stuff returned the country’s largest digital news platform and 12 national and regional newspapers to local ownership. Image: The Conversation/Shutterstock
When Bauer Media announced the closure of its New Zealand magazine operation just a week into level 4 lockdown in early April, things looked ominous for local media. Revenues and newsrooms were already contracting. It was hard to see things improving.
However, while the full picture is still unclear, it seems most of New Zealand’s TV, radio and print outlets have come through the covid-19 crisis bruised and battered — but alive. Sadly, an estimated 637 media jobs have disappeared in the process.
In short, 2020 has left the New Zealand media market profoundly restructured.
Perhaps most significantly, as the 10th New Zealand Media Ownership Report shows, there are now more independent news outlets in the market than at any time in the past decade.
That trend was underscored by Australian Nine Entertainment selling (for NZ$1) its New Zealand subsidiary Stuff to CEO Sinead Boucher. The sale returned the country’s largest digital news platform and 12 national and regional newspapers to local ownership.
The magazine massacre Many of these structural changes in the country’s media might have happened anyway, but the pandemic certainly accelerated some decisions.
A case in point was Bauer. The company blamed its closure on “the severe economic impact of covid-19”, but it had been facing declining advertising revenue well before the pandemic hit. This was made worse when magazines were not included among essential goods and services during the lockdown in March and April.
Bauer also closed titles in Australia, but in June the company’s Australasian magazines were sold to Australian private equity group Mercury Capital. The new owner resumed publication of Woman’s Day, New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, Australian Women’s Weekly NZ, Your Home & Garden, NZ Listener and Kia Ora.
Later, flagship current affairs titles North & South and Metro were sold to independent publishers and relaunched in November.
#BREAKING Bauer Media is set to close —the publisher of the Listener, Woman’s Day, NZ Woman’s Weekly, North & South is closing its doors permanently.https://t.co/wxDykUxLB5
A government lifeline You might say the country’s media survived the pandemic with a little help from friends — and even frenemies: the government, readers and Google.
In April, the government announced a $50 million media crisis support package — the lion’s share went to broadcasting.
But most of the country’s news outlets received support from the government’s wage subsidy scheme, including NZ Media and Entertainment (NZME) and Stuff, the two largest print and online news publishers.
Without that government support it’s clear many news outlets would have been more severely affected. The NZ Herald received $8.6 million in wage subsidy and Stuff $6.2 million. State-owned broadcaster TVNZ received $5.9 million and the private equity-owned MediaWorks $3.6 million.
The scheme also kept many smaller digital news outlets afloat, and some even expanded.
The Google factor Some news outlets received additional funding from Google’s Journalism Emergency Relief Fund — slightly ironic, given the impact of the digital giant on traditional media advertising revenues (hence the “frenemy” tag).
A total of 76 news organisations across the Pacific benefited from Google’s “short-term relief”. While smaller publishers welcomed it, the money spent per outlet was unlikely to make any serious dent in Google’s budget — it was more a gesture of goodwill.
For example, Queenstown-based non-profit media outlet Crux received $5000. To put that in context, in the first half of 2020 search engines — mainly Google — received $361 million in digital advertising revenue in New Zealand, along with the social media platforms gobbling up 72 percent of the country’s total digital advertising spend.
For its part, Google says it has done more for the country’s journalism than providing financial aid, and has “trained almost 600 journalists in dozens of newsrooms across the country”.
Higher traffic and increased donations News companies also got by with a little help from their readers during the pandemic. The NZ Heraldreported “overall print-digital readership […] at record levels and newspaper readership [at] its highest in almost a decade”.
Independent digital news outlets Newsroom and The Spinoff also reported spikes in readership and donations or subscriptions. Web analytics confirm overall news site traffic increased quite substantially during the pandemic.
According to data analysts SimilarWeb, total visits to the NZ Herald website grew from 36.5 million in May to 46.4 million in August. Similarly, total visits to the Stuff site went from 39.7 million in May to 43 million in August, while The Spinoff grew from 2.4 million in May to 2.9 million in July.
These positive developments were offset by plenty of negatives, however. Many commercial newsrooms shrank substantially, with hundreds of jobs lost. The full effects of the pandemic will not be known for some time, and what the industry will look like in 12 months is hard to predict.
What is clear, though, is that more government support will be needed in the coming years if New Zealand wants a healthy media system as part of its democracy.
The US detonated its largest nuclear bombs around the Marshall Islands in the 1940s and 50s – but the Marshallese are still campaigning for adequate compensation.
The Marshall Islands are two chains of 29 coral atolls in the middle of the Pacific Ocean between Papua New Guinea and Hawai’i.
Following the tests, whole islands ceased to exist, hundreds of native Marshallese had to be relocated off their home islands and many were affected by fallout from the testing.
In 1977, US authorities put the most contaminated debris and soil into a huge concrete dome called the Runit Dome, which sits on Enewetak Atoll and houses 88,000 square metres of contaminated soil and debris.
It has recently received media attention as it appears to be leaking, due to cracking and the threat from rising sea levels, while some Marshallese have fears it may eventually collapse.
However, American officials have said it is not their problem and responsibility falls on the Marshallese, as it is their land.
The US has cited a 1986 compact of free association, which released the US government from further liability, which will go up for renegotiation in 2023.
Meanwhile, the Marshallese continue to campaign for adequate compensation from the US.
First hand experience
Giff Johnson, editor of the country’s only newspaper, Marshall Islands Journal, and a RNZ correspondent, has experienced the unfolding legacy of US nuclear testing first hand. His wife Darlene Keju, an outspoken advocate for test victims and nuclear survivors, herself died of cancer in 1996.
The Runit Dome was constructed in 1977 on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands to temporarily store radioactive waste produced from nuclear testing by the US military during the 1950s and 1960s. Image: RNZ
While Johnson said said suggestions that the Rumit Dome – nicknamed “The Tomb” by locals – was about to collapse were alarmist, there were still major concerns surrouding it.
“I wouldn’t say the dome is on the verge of collapse, there’s concern about its leaking, about cracks, and also about the overall contamination of that atoll,” he said.
“The issue is it’s got plutonium, which has a half-life of 24,000 years, and how long does concrete last?”
Describing the structure as a “symbol of the nuclear legacy here”, Johnson said that US government scientists had reported there was already so much contamination in the area that it would be difficult to find what leakage from the dome had added.
The United States has continued to refuse to accept responsibility for the Runit Dome’s condition, despite its history of nuclear testing in the country.
In 1954, the US carried out their first nuclear weapon test, Castle Bravo, at Bikini Atoll in 1954 – which resulted in the contamination of 15 islands and atolls. Only three years later, residents on the affected atolls of Rongelap and Utirik were encouraged to return to their homes, so researchers could study the effects of radiation.
Full compensation never paid
“The nuclear weapons test legacy is the overriding issue in the Marshall Islands with the United States and it remains a festering problem, because US compensation and medical care and so forth was only partial for what was needed,” Johnson said.
The first compact to free association between the Marshall Islands and the US contained a compensation agreement, including the establishment of a nuclear claims tribunal to adjudicate all claims. While it determined there was a large amount of compensation due to Marshallese on various atolls, this has never been paid out, apart from funding of $150 million in 1986.
Since then, the US has accepted no more liability on nuclear compensation, as the compact resulted in the Marshall Islands being an independent country, able to join the United Nations.
However, Johnson said the US Congress had taken a different position on this.
“For example, while the US executive branch would say, well the Marshall Islands is in charge of all the former nuclear test sites, the US Congress a few years back passed legislation requiring the US Department of Energy to monitor the Runit Dome, where so much radioactive waste is stored.”
There have also been big differences in the treatment of Marshallese nuclear victims and those in the United States
“The US used Bikini and Enewetak to test its biggest hydrogen bombs,” Johnson said.
“While it maintained a nuclear test site in Nevada, it only tested relatively small nuclear devices there, because it simply could not test hydrogen bombs in the continental United States – Americans wouldn’t have stood for it.”
Not long after the 1986 free association compact ended American responsibility for nuclear compensation in the Marshall Islands, the US Congress enacted a radiation compensation act for Americans – which Johnson said really emphasised the unfairness of the situation.
‘Long story short’
“Long story short, they appropriated $100 million and then they ran out, the US Congress appropriated more, again ran out, appropriated more and fast-forward to 2020 and they’re over $2 billion in compensation awarded to American nuclear victims.
“Then the question comes, that if they’re willing to just keep recapitalising the compensation fund for American nuclear victims, why aren’t they able to reinstitute the compensation fund for Marshallese, who were exposed to far more nuclear fallout than the downwinders in Utah and Nevada?”
Johnson also had concerns about the lack of a baseline epidemiological study by the US, following the tests. Studies on the affects of radiation centred around thyroid issues, but many islanders have reported cancer, miscarriages and stillbirths in the years following.
His wife Darlene Keju died of breast cancer, which also affected her mother and father – she grew up on one of the islands in the downwind zone of the tests.
The US had never looked at rates of cancer, or studied the differences between low fallout and high fallout areas, he said.
Johnson hoped the nuclear legacy between the countries could be worked out amicably, but he was not too optimistic.
“The original compensation agreement was negotiated in a period of the Cold War and the US did it in an adversarial way with the Marshall Islands, which had no standing because it wasn’t a country at the time, information was withheld, they didn’t know what they know today, and it needs to be worked out, a suitable decent fair agreement needs to be sorted out.”
An aerial shot of the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, after it was used for the first ever hydrogen bomb test. Image: RNZ/AFP/US Department of Energy
‘Black mark’ on good relationship Despite this tension, Johnson said the Marshallese did not harbour anti-American sentiment and the compensation issues were a “black mark on an otherwise good relationship” between the two countries.
He said around 30 to 40 percent of all Marshallese were living in the US.
“The Marshall Islands, since WWII, has had a very long standing high regard and strong relationship with the US that came out of the end of the Japanese period of militarism and the execution of many islanders and privation, into a period where the US fostered democratic institutions, created opportunities for education, providing scholarships, opening the door to people going to the US and the unpacked treaty really put this together, in terms of the relationship that’s of benefit to both sides.”
However, ongoing tensions between the US and China may help the Marshall Islands in their push for further compensation.
“In the current situation where we have the US continuing to be in an uproar over China … that has elevated the strategic importance of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau – the three north Pacific countries that are all in free association with the US. It does give the Marshall Islands a bit more leverage in negotiating and talking with Washington.
“Possibly the changing geopolitical situation out here might offer an opening to get some interest to try to amicably do something to resolve the whole thing,” Johnson said.
But the nuclear legacy is not the only issue affecting the island – climate change is looming large and reports by US scientists have said that the Marshall Islands could be uninhabitable by the 2030s, due to rising sea levels.
“Because the Marshall Islands has such little land, these are really small islands, it magnifies the importance of land to Marshallese people,” Johnson said.
“I think people care about their islands and want to find a way to make them liveable for the long term, but that may depend on the world community to a great extent now.”
This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.
Ivy Mike (yield 10.4 mt) – an atmospheric nuclear test conducted by the US at Enewetak Atoll on 1 November 1952. It was the world’s first successful hydrogen bomb. Image: RNZ
A Pacific Climate Warrior today told of personal struggles that impact on island people in the region and how this inspires them to take action for climate justice.
But Wellington coordinator of the Pacific warriors Mary Moeono-Kolio appealed to politicians and policy leaders to take real action fast – before it is too late for the world’s children.
She was making an acceptance speech on behalf of the laureates for the Pax Christi International Peace Prize 2020 at the St Columba community centre in Ponsonby in a livestream broadcast organised by the local chapter Pax Christi Aotearoa.
The audience was called into the community hall by the blowing of a conch shell, followed by a mihi whakatau.
“Climate change is more than just an environmental issue, but a manifestation of the much larger ecological crisis not of our making – one that the Pacific are evidently the first ones to suffer from,” said Moeono-Kolio.
“In my own home of Falefa in Samoa, my dad – who is here today with my mother – has seen within a period of just 50 years, his primary school grounds disappear under the waves.
“His mother’s village of Ti’avea – where he grew up as a young boy playing with his friends – is today, essentially deserted due to the frequent severe weather events such as cyclones and floods that have rendered the village uninhabitable.
‘Our lives are being destroyed’
“For me and my fellow Warriors here today and around the world, examples such as this is why climate change is so personal.
“It’s personal because it is the lives and livelihoods of our families that are being destroyed and continue to suffer due to the consequences of inaction by some and the complicit silence of so many others.”
The Pacific Climate Warriors introduced themselves in turn, and global messages of congratulations and hope were broadcast along with a video of the young campaigners saying how climate changes had impacted on them.
The Pacific Climate Warriors – linked to the global non-governmental climate action organisation 350.org- is a vibrant network of young people who live in 17 Pacific island nations and diaspora communities in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
Their mission is to peacefully raise awareness of their communities’ vulnerability to climate change, to show their people’s strength and resilience in the face of extraordinary challenges, and to nonviolently resist the fossil fuel industry whose activities damage their environment.
Past winners of the international peace award have included Brazilian Farmworkers Union president Margarida Maria Alves (1988), the Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace in Tokyo (2007), music peace ambassadors Pontanima (2011), and European Lawyers in Lesbos (2019).
Pacific Climate Warriors and family … celebrating the peace award for their struggle on behalf on Pacific Islanders and people impacted on by the climate crisis. Image: PMC
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape has rejected opposition leader Belden Namah’s call for him to resign.
Namah’s call came after the Supreme Court yesterday ordered Parliament to sit next Monday, quashing the government’s recent adjournment of Parliament until April.
The court ruled that the Speaker’s move to overrule an earlier adjournment allowed by his deputy and recall Parliament last month, when the opposition was not present, was unconstitutional.
Welcoming the ruling outside the court in Port Moresby, Namah told media that his group was ready to form government.
“We are ready to go into Parliament. We are ready to deliver the government to the people of PNG. We have the majority already,” he said.
“I’m now calling on the Honourable James Marape to do the right thing by the people of this country, to resign as the prime minister effective as of today.”
Marape, who lost his majority a month ago but has since clawed back support from several MPs, said he understood the opposition was preparing for a vote of no-confidence.
‘Proper place is no-confidence vote’ “Some are asking for my resignation. At no instance will I resign from office. I don’t see any legitimate reasons for my resignation,” he said.
Opposition leader Belden Namah … says his group is ready to form a new government. Image: Alex Smith/RNZ
“If you want to get me out of office, then the proper place is contest through a vote of no-confidence process on the floor of Parliament.”
Parliament appears evenly split, with Marape saying he had the support of 55 of the 111 MPs.
Marape said the MPs with him could “not be bought or sold”, characterising the opposition’s move to remove him as driven by some MPs’ personal interest to be prime minister.
But his government is under significant parliamentary pressure, as the Supreme Court ruling rendered all Parliamentary business on November 17 invalid.
That included the government’s passing of the 2021 budget, which will have to be tabled again – although this time the opposition MPs will be present.
The opposition has not revealed who its nomination for alternative prime minister would be.
O’Neill key player The former prime minister Peter O’Neill, who filed the successful Supreme Court challenge, remains a key player in efforts to remove Marape.
Last year, Marape led moves to oust O’Neill, who resigned before a Parliamentary vote elevated his former close ally to the leadership.
O’Neill said that Marape should do what he did when he had lost a clear majority and resign.
Marape has meanwhile appealed for the public to remain calm, despite the political turbulence.
This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.
In a nutshell, the commission concluded no one was solely to blame. It was a collective failure, divided between the security agencies, the police and a population lacking social cohesion and with a fear of speaking out.
The failure of the security agencies was unremarkable in the commission’s analysis. They were alienated, under-resourced and overly focusing counter-terrorism resources on the threat of Islamist extremism.
While the agencies were aware of right-wing extremism, their intelligence was underdeveloped — but even if it had been better, the outcome may not have been different.
The primary reason the terrorist was not detected, the commission concludes, was due more to
the operational security that the individual maintained, the legislative authorising environment in which counter terrorism operates, and the limited capability and capacity of the counter terrorism agencies.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and senior cabinet ministers talk to media outside Nga Hau E Wha National Marae in Christchurch, ahead of the report of the royal commission being made public. Image: The Conversation/GettyImages
Intelligence and police failures
So, there was “no plausible way he could have been detected except by chance”. And apparently, this failure to detect was “not in itself an intelligence failure”. In fact, no security agency failed to meet required standards or was otherwise considered to be at fault.
Views will differ on that, but the culpability of the police is clearer. The report concludes their administration of the firearms licensing system did not meet required standards, due to a lack of staff guidance and training, and flawed referee vetting processes.
This intersected with the regulation of semi-automatic firearms which was “lax, open to easy exploitation and was gamed by the individual”.
Even so, the commission concluded it was possible, perhaps likely, that the terrorist would eventually have been able to obtain a licence. Beyond that is supposition: an effective licensing regime may have delayed his preparation, but whether it would have changed his mind about the attack, the target, the weapons, or even the country he was in, will always be unknown.
Whether these failings are sufficient for ministerial and/or agency accountability is a matter of debate. The last time anything comparable happened was after the Cave Creek disaster in 1995, when the responsible minister resigned over the systemic failure at the Department of Conservation.
Preventing another attack
Official accountability aside, the commission sets out the road map to prevent such an attack happening again. Fixing the firearms licence process will be the easiest. The six recommendations calling for enhanced standards and improved quality control dovetail with laws put in place after the attack.
The type of firearms used in the attack are largely prohibited and those who show “patterns of behaviour demonstrating a tendency to exhibit, encourage, or promote violence, hatred or extremism” can no longer be considered fit and proper to possess a firearm.
The other change will be harder. There are no fewer than 18 different recommendations aimed at the security agencies, starting with the creation of a new ministerial portfolio and establishment of a new national intelligence and security agency.
It will need to be well-resourced and empowered to meet a range of objectives, from developing a counter-terrorism strategy to creating a public-facing policy that addresses, prevents, detects and responds to extremism.
Also among the recommendations are greater information sharing between agencies, public outreach, the reporting of “threatscapes” and developing indicators identifying a person’s potential for violent extremism and terrorism.
All commendable goals, but how they will be reconciled with existing security agency remits, and whether there is a budget to meet such ambitions, is not clear at this stage.
Imam Gamal Fouda of Al Noor Mosque, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Muslim Association Canterbury President Mohamed Jama at the unveiling of a plaque honouring the 51 people who lost their lives in the Christchurch mosque terror attacks. Image: The Conversation/GettyImages
The need for social cohesion
Perhaps most surprising in the report is the suggestion that the likeliest thing to have prevented the attack would have been a “see something, say something” culture — one in which those with suspicions about another person could safely raise their concerns with authorities.
“Such reporting,” the commission says, “would have provided the best chance of disrupting the terrorist attack.” This is a remarkable sentence, both brilliant and unnerving. It suggests the best defence against extremism was (and is) to be found within ourselves, and in the robust and multicultural communities we must create.
However, successive governments have failed in this area through their reluctance to make counter-terrorism strategies more public, perhaps worried about alienating or provoking sections of the population.
It’s a paradox, to say the least, but the commission recommends several measures to enhance social cohesion, beginning with the need to support the ongoing recovery needs of affected family, survivors and witnesses.
These evolve into a variety of soft goals, ranging from the possibility of a new agency focused on ethnic communities and multiculturalism, to investing in young New Zealanders’ cultural awareness.
Again, these recommendation are commendable, but the proof will be in their resourcing and synchronising with existing work in this area.
Free speech and public safety
Greater immediate progress may be made in the prevention of hate speech and an extension of the censorship laws to prohibit material advancing racial hatred, discrimination and/or views of racial superiority.
Although New Zealand already has law in this area (covering discrimination and sentencing in crimes related to race, ethnicity or religion), there remains a large gap when it comes to what is and is not permissible speech.
It then becomes a vexed question of the limits of free expression, and would be difficult to craft into law. But if the government could do this, a significant advance will have been made.
So, after all of these words, will the vision of this royal commission make New Zealand safer in the future? The answer is yes, risks can be reduced — but it is a long road ahead.
Rabuka told Parliament his departure would pave the way for the President, Jioji Konrote, to ask Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama to work with the new leader of the opposition and party members.
Rabuka said he could not continue as opposition leader and an MP because the prime minister did not trust him enough to work with him.
But Dr Ratuva, director of the MacMillan Brown Pacific for Studies at the University of Canterbury, said there was more to it than that.
It also signalled more trouble for SODELPA, which has been rocked with months of tensions which split the party in April.
SODELPA was suspended by the Supervisor of Elections over breach of political rules and the party constitution.
The suspension was lifted 35 days later but factions within the party remain.
On November 27, Rabuka was replaced as leader by Gavoka who had supported his predecessor to remain as SODELPA leader.
Rabuka’s resignation ‘no surprise’ Ratuva said Rabuka’s resignation was no surprise to him.
“It was coming because of the leadership struggle within the party and the multi-layered tensions to do with vanua politics, regional loyalty, personality differences, gender ethnicity and the generational gap,” he said.
“They are all packed on top of each other and Rabuka had to resign as a result of all of these complex tensions within the party.
“The writings were on the wall.”
Ratuva said it was unfortunate because Rabuka had the biggest voter-pulling power in SODELPA.
That was evident at the 2018 election when Rabuka returned to politics and led SODELPA to win 21 seats in the 52-seat parliament, Ratuva said.
He was not sure if Gavoka had the same charisma and mana to pull the voters into SODELPA.
“But certainly Rabuka was [able to pull the voters],” he said.
“And Rabuka could have easily won the next election if he had continued with the leadership of the party.”
Rabuka was elected leader of SODELPA in 2016, succeeding high chief Ro Teimumu Kepa, who publicly disapproved of Rabuka’s nomination to replace her at the time.
On 26 November 2018, Rabuka was appointed as the leader of the opposition to Parliament following the party’s 2018 election defeat.
But this week, Rabuka – who led two coups in 1987 – announced he was leaving the august house.
No-one knows how long for – all Rabuka said was he would go away and ponder his next move.
Mixed reactions
Reactions have come fast and hard following Rabuka’s resignation, and they have been mixed.
New SODELPA leader Viliame Gavoka said he was shocked and saddened because he looked forward to contesting the 2022 polls with Rabuka by his side.
Gavoka said Rabuka had the firepower to help SODELPA win the election.
“This country needs a lot of institutions to be strengthened and someone like him is someone we can call up for help and he has agreed to do that.
“We are still trying to process this, no doubt at the end of the day we’ll know where we stand.”
Ro Teimumu said Rabuka had left a “huge gap” with his departure from parliament.
The Roko Tui Dreketi thanked Rabuka for his contributions, saying “his shoes would be difficult to fill”.
Ro Teimumu said it took a lot of courage for Rabuka to do what he did.
“He departs the opposition and the parliament with a clean heart and a clear conscious and he is a happy man believing that what he has done was the right thing to do.”
There’s no doubt that the future of SODELPA will determine Rabuka’s next move.
Prime Minister Bainimarama and the attorney-general acknowledged Rabuka’s contributions to the house.
Opposition whip Lynda Tabuya said she supported Rabuka’s move.
Tabuya lost the deputy leader position to Suva lawyer Filimoni Vosarogo when Rabuka was replaced.
MP Mosese Bulitavu said Rabuka’s resignation did not come as a surprise, saying he had “done the honourable thing”.
National Federation Party (NFP) leader Professor Biman Prasad said the NFP had always supported Rabuka and was sad to see him leave parliament.
Road to recovery Ratuva said SODELPA now had its work cut out, less than two years out from the general election.
SODELPA needed to maintain the support Rabuka had brought to the party, “which it is probably going to lose”, he said.
Although he has said he would remain with SODELPA, Rabuka had options elsewhere if he wanted to distance himself from the tensions within party, Ratuva said.
“He’s got a number of choices either to remain within the party – which means that his role will diminish significantly – or he moves on and joins perhaps the Fiji Unity Party which is growing in terms of its significance and attractiveness to voters at the moment.
“The Fiji Unity Party is the only party now which has a coherent plan for economic rehabilitation and development for the country.
“Led by the former governor of the reserve bank, the Unity Party is well positioned to welcome some of those supporters of SODELPA who are probably looking for alternatives.”
Ratuva said if Rabuka joined the Unity Party, he would take his voters with him and “some of his supporters have been with him since 1987”.
Rabuka was still “seen as a hero to some Fijians, although that may be misplaced… But they are that voting block that Rabuka still has some degree of control over.”
If that did happen, SODELPA would lose that group of voters and the Unity Party could come out on top, Ratuva said, adding that the Unity Party could be the only people who would gain from Rabuka’s departure from SODELPA.
This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.
Colonial Armed Constabulary units at Parihaka in 1881. Image: Alexander Turnbull Library
COMMENT: By Crosbie Walsh
Media giant Stuff, after a protracted study of its own history, announced this week that much that it has published on Māori has been racist. It has apologised for this and introduced guidelines (a Treaty of Waitangi-based charter) to improve its record.
Surprisingly, left-leaning journalist Chris Trotter has condemned these initiatives, saying apologising for your history is to admit you don’t understand it (with which I disagree) and that the apology is likely to result in a White backlash, with which, unfortunately, I cannot disagree.
But he appeared unconcerned or unaware of the ongoing Māori backlash evident since at least the 1950s. He did not mention Nga Tamatoa, Bastion Point, the Land March, the Raglan and Wanganui protests, the foreshore and seabed issues, or the creation of the Māori Party.
He wrote of rewriting history while failing to recognise that it had in fact already been rewritten, by commission and omission— by Pākeha.
Only relatively recently have the “Māori” Wars and the Wairau “Massacre” been renamed the Land Wars and the Wairau Affair.
Until relatively recently the Treaty of Waitangi was considered meaningless, and a number of influential Pākeha still think so.
What is more, Māori are still being held solely responsible for the consequences of the Pākeha rewriting and resultant marginalisation: their poor health and crime rates, poor education levels, family breakdown, child abuse, drug use, and on and on.
The appalling story of Parihaka Trotter wrote that to rewrite was to not understand, but the appalling story of Parihaka that he mentioned in passing was not even known to Pākeha until Dick Scott, who died this year aged 97, wrote The Parihaka Story (1954) and its expanded Ask that Mountain (1975).
Te Whiti-o-Rongomai … arrested and imprisoned without trial. Image: Crosbie Walsh blog
In 1881, some 1600 troops equipped with cannon invaded the village on the slopes of Mt Taranaki (Mt Egmont?) in response to Māori removing surveyor pegs and ploughing confiscated land. The ploughmen and leaders Te Whiti-o-Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi were arrested and imprisoned without trial. Te Whiti was arrested again in 1883 and 1886.
Today, if you see Taranaki women wearing white feathers in their hair it is in memory of Parihaka and Te Whiti whose repeated peaceful passive resistance has been likened to that of Mahatma Gandhi.
Not too long ago, no Māori language, cultural mores or history were taught in our secondary schools (indeed, there were few Māori teachers) and the universities were little better.
I well remember a quite heated argument with my history lecturer at Victoria, Mary Boyd, in the early 1960s. She maintained the Treaty had no validity or use. I only got a “B” in that paper!
I remember also the PPTA Journal article in 1970 concerning teachers’ college students who researched Wairau. They concluded Māori had ambushed the NZ Company, starting the killing, ignoring the fact that it was only after Te Rangihaeata’s wife had been killed that the Māori responded in earnest; the fact that the NZ Company had illegally provoked the affair, hoping to forestall Commissioner Spain’s enquiry that was likely to determine the NZ Company’s title was invalid.
Māori land was invaded It was Māori land that they had invaded.
This is not what those teachers’ college students were taught, or what they would teach to their pupils. I know because one of them was a young colleague of mine.
The Journal printed my response (“Another view of the Wairau Affair”) but much of the damage was already done. What was taught in our schools and universities, if it was taught at all, was this sort of a Pākeha version of history.
I’m sorry, Chris Trotter. We definitely need to rewrite history, if only to correct what little we know.
Thoughts on the Stuff’s Charter Stuff’s charter recognises the media’s “enormous impact in shaping public thought … and societal norms”. It claims to be “a brave new era for NZ’s largest media company”.
The intentions of the charter are commendable but there’s no mention in the charter of Māori editors, columnists and journalists, only a separate acknowledgement by the CEO to redress their under-representation.
Also, there appear to be no explicit Māori organisational structures within the organisation, and no mention of any Māori inputs to the charter. I wonder if any Māori helped to write the charter, or whether this is another example of well wishers hoping to do things to and for Māori?
Without these structures and “by Māori” inputs, good intentions may not amount to very much. We’ll have other Oranga Tamariki sagas.
But it’s a start in the right direction for which Stuff should be congratulated. I wonder how many other organisations will follow its example.
Indonesia’s Presidential Staff Office says it regrets the raising of the Morning Star flag – which is identified with Papuan independence – at the Indonesian Consulate General (KJRI) in Melbourne, Australia, this week.
Presidential Staff Office deputy for political, legal, security and human rights affairs Jaleswari Pramowardhani insisted that the area in and around the consulate must be respected.
Pramowardhani pointed to the stipulations in the Geneva Convention on respect for foreign consulates and international legal customs.
“The host country, in this case Australia, has an obligation based on international law to maintain security in the area of the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia,” said Pramowardhani.
“Above all breaking in or infiltrating without authorisation. So the incident which occurred at the Melbourne KJRI cannot be justified and conflicts with international law,” she added.
Earlier on Tuesday, December 1, a video of the Morning Star flag flying over the Melbourne consulate went viral on Twitter. The owner of the Twitter account @Tbuch2, Tim Buchanan, shared a video of six people standing on the Melbourne consulate’s roof.
Two of them were holding a banner with a picture of the Morning Star flag with the message “Free West Papua”, while four others held a Morning Star flag and a poster with the message, “TNI [Indonesian military] Out, Stop Killing Papua”.
Officials grappled with the protesters trying to prevent the flags and banner being unfurled.
LIVE RIGHT NOW! 5 People have scaled the walls of the Indonesian consulate in Melbourne & are currently on the roof, they have raised the Morning Star flag of the West Papuan independence movement & banners reading TNI OUT: Stop Killing Papuans & FREE WEST PAPUA” #FreeWestPapuapic.twitter.com/Pkwuv1A3bl
Pramowardhani has asked the Australian government to take a “firmer stand” so that a similar incident does not reoccur.
This is not the first incident of its kind. In 2017, a Free Papua Organisation (OPM) sympathiser also managed to climb the wall surrounding the Melbourne Indonesian consulate and raise the Morning Star flag.
A renewed declaration of independence by an exiled West Papuan leader has stirred a negative response from other Papuan independence fighters who are part of the West Papua liberation army force clashing with Indonesian security troops.
The rival fighters have rejected the peaceful unilateral claim of independence and in particular the claim that Benny Wenda is Papua’s provisional president, reports CNN Indonesia.
On December 1 – West Papua’s national flag day when protests across Indonesia and globally each year raise the banned Morning Star flag in defiance – the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) chairperson Benny Wenda declared Papuan independence.
He did not make the declaration on Papuan soil but rather through a press release
on the ULMWP’s official website.
In his declaration, Wenda said that he would no longer submit to the constitution and Indonesian law and that Papua will have its own laws and constitution.
Aside from declaring Papuan independence, Wenda also stated that he had been appointed as the interim president of the provisional administration of the republic of Papua.
“Today, we announce the formation of the West Papua provisional administration. We are ready to take over our territory, and we will no longer submit to Jakarta’s illegal military laws,” Wenda said.
“Starting today, December 1, 2020, we will begin to apply our own constitution and reclaim our sovereign land.”
Hot debate in news media
Indonesian news and current affairs programmes such as on TV One have hotly debated the diplomacy challenge raised by Wenda. Two prominent human rights advocates have spoken out in support of West Papuan right to self-determination.
Commentators on Indonesian television hotly dispute Benny Wenda’s diplomacy challenge over West Papua’s future. Image: TV One PMC screenshot
The declaration has been disputed by other Papuan independence fighters who are part of the West Papua National Liberation Army-Free Papua Organisation (TPNPB-OPM).
“Starting today December 2, 2020, we from the TPNPB-OPM National Committee Central Management Office declare a motion of no confidence in Benny Wanda,” said TPNPB-OPM spokesperson Sebby Sambon in a written release.
The OPM believes that the claim of independence announced by Wenda will actually damage the Papuan people’s unity who are in the midst of an immediate struggle.
Sambon even accused Wenda of working in the interests of foreign capitalists from the European Union, the United States and Australia.
This, claimed Sambon, conflicted with the revolutionary principles of the Papuan nation.
“According to international law Benny Wenda declared and announced his state and claim in a foreign country, namely in the country of the British monarchy, this is totally wrong and cannot be accepted by any sensible person,” he said.
‘No significant impact’ says military
Wenda’s declaration of Papuan independence has not had any significant impact on the situation in Papua itself, claim Indonesian military leaders.
The spokesperson for the Indonesian military’s (TNI) Joint Defence Area Command III, Colonel Czi IGN Suriastawa who said that so far the situation in Papua was “still favourable”.
Suriastawa said that the declaration by Wenda is a matter for law enforcement officials and the TNI could only confirm that the situation in Papua was currently under control.
“It’s pretty smooth in Papua. Let the police deal with BW (Benny Wenda) because [his declaration] leans in the direction of makar [treason, rebellion, subversion],” he said.
Despite this, House of Representatives (DPR) Commission I member Sukamta has asked the administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo not to take Wenda’s declaration lightly.
According to Sukamta the government must immediately deal with this protracted problem through a comprehensive approach so that Papua did not suffer the same fate as East Timor which separated from Indonesia.
“Don’t treat this development lightly, we don’t want Papua to end up like East Timor.
“Shootings and attacks on the security forces and civil society are still continuing, showing that the situation in Papua is not yet stable,” said Sukamta.
Declaration of independence Although it is widely held that West Papua declared independence from Indonesia on 1 December 1961, this actually marks the date when the Morning Star (Bintang Kejora) flag was first raised alongside the Dutch flag in an officially sanctioned ceremony in Jayapura, then called Hollandia.
The first declaration of independence actually took place on 1 July 1971 at the Victoria Headquarters in Jayapura where the OPM raised the Morning Star flag and unilaterally proclaimed West Papua as an independent democratic republic.
Student protesters staged West Papuan flag-raising events across Indonesia with the banned Morning Star ensign of independence this week. Image: Arah Juang
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk
December 1 flag day protests have taken place in several cities around Indonesia including the capital Jakarta, Yogyakarta (Central Java), Ternate (North Maluku) and Sinjai (South Sulawesi), reports Arah Juang.
The actions were launched to commemorate West Papua Independence Day.
But even before the actions were launched, security forces attempted to thwart them by blocking protesters, breaking up rallies and arresting demonstrators.
The following are reports on the actions in Jakarta and Yogyakarta:
Jakarta In Jakarta, protesters from the Papuan Students Alliance (AMP), the Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-WP) and the Papuan Central Highlands Indonesian Student Association (AMPTPI) had began preparing to launch actions since 5.30am.
The protesters gathered at the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) in Central Jakarta holding banners reading “Reject Special Autonomy and Give the Right of Self-Determination to the West Papuan Nation” along with posters with similar demands.
The women demonstrators wore sali (traditional Papuan women’s clothing) while others painted pictures of the Morning Star independence flag on their faces and bodies.
The protesters then moved off in an orderly manner to the intersection near the Indonesian Alkitab Foundation before taking vehicles to the United States Embassy in Central Jakarta.
At 6am the demonstrators had gathered in front of the US Embassy and were giving speeches. AMP member Roland Levy said in a speech that Special Autonomy (Otsus) had failed to protect the Papuan people.
“Many Papuan people have been killed, evicted, discriminated against and labeled as separatists. Because of this the solution is independence for the West Papuan nation as a democratic solution”, he said while shouting “Referendum? Yes!”
Following this, the protesters moved off to the nearby Presidential Palace but were blocked by police from entering the National Monument from the west near the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle.
The demonstrators then gave speeches, made up games, performed the Wisisi dance (a traditional Papuan dance) and prayed together to commemorate the declaration of West Papuan independence on 1 December 1961.
One of the participants read out a poem about the Papuan people’s spirit of nationalism for December 1. One of the women then related how independence was the right of all nations.
A statement was read out at 9.30am and the action closed with a prayer.
At the end of the action as the protesters were to return to the starting point, they were provoked by a small group of unknown individuals. The demonstrators restrained themselves and did not respond, referring to the group as “1000 or so people”, meaning a group hired by the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).
Yogyakarta In Yogyakarta, thousands of students from the Free Papua December 1 Movement Alliance launched an action commemorating the declaration of independence in Papua.
The action, which started at 9am, involved a long-march from the Papuan student dormitory to the nearby Zero Kilometer point in front of the Central Post Office. During the march the protesters shouted slogans such as “Free West Papua”, “NKRI no” and “Referendum yes”.
They also took turns in giving speeches with Momiake Gresya saying, “We Papuan people constantly live under the shadow of death, being killed, tortured like animals, and all of this is perpetrated by the TNI [Indonesian military] and Polri [Indonesian police]”.
“An example of this is in Nduga [regency] today. For two years more than 40,000 people have fled seeking shelter and 240 have died as a result of Indonesian military operations,” said Gresya.
In another speech, FRI-WP representative Muhamad Iis explained about the ordinary Indonesian people’s support for the Papuan struggle for independence.
“Today we declare our full support for Papuan independence”, he said.
Iis said that colonialism in Papua was not supported by all the Indonesian people.
“Colonialism is not the position of the majority of Indonesian people, just a greedy handful of people,” he said.
Accompanied by the song “Let the Coordination Post be Torn Down”, at 1pm the protesters danced around the command vehicle waving two MorningStar flags.
This managed to incite security personnel who tried to move into the crowd but demonstrators succeeded in blocking them and the situation returned to normal.
The action ended at 2.30pm with the reading out of a statement and shouts of “Free West Papua, Free West Papua, Free West Papua”.
Other demands A number of other demands were also made during the demonstrations, including:
putting the perpetrators of human rights violations in Papua on trial;
the withdrawal of all organic and non-organic troops and an end to military operations;
an end to the theft of land and natural resources,
that the Indonesian government acknowledge that West Papua has been independent since 1961;
the closure of PT Freeport and other mining operations; for the UN to take responsibility for and be active in an act of self-determination;
the “straightening out” of history and resolving human rights violations in Papua;
allowing access for national and international journalists to report in Papua; an end to racial discrimination against Papuans;
the ratification of the Draft Law on the Elimination of Sexual Violence; and for
the government to revoke the recently enacted Jobs Law.
Declaration of independence Although it is widely held that West Papua declared independence from Indonesia on 1 December 1961, this actually marks the date when the Morning Star (Bintang Kejora) flag was first raised alongside the Dutch flag in an officially sanctioned ceremony in Jayapura, then called Hollandia.
The first declaration of independence actually took place on 1 July 1971 at the Victoria Headquarters in Jayapura where the OPM raised the Morning Star flag and unilaterally proclaimed West Papua as an independent democratic republic.
The Northern Marianas is ready for its allocation of covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer after acquiring 10 ultra-cold freezers from South Korea.
The acquisition of the freezers came as the CNMI waits for the Pfizer vaccines to get Emergency Use Authorisation approval from the US Food and Drug Administration.
Even though the vaccines had not arrived as initially planned, the CNMI had been working on preparing and securely setting up equipment.
The plan is to have two ultra freezers on Rota and two on Tinian, while the remaining six freezers would be located on Saipan.
Meanwhile, the Northern Marianas had already received 10 vials of Bamlanivimab, a treatment for mild-to-moderate covid-19, and would receive another 10 vials soon.
Bamlanivimab is an intravenous drug which is applicable for patients who are 12 years and older and weighing at least 40 kilogrammes and who are at high risk .
The drug will only be administered to those who are covid-19 patients who are at risk of becoming worse.
A total of 1310 doses of the drug had been allocated for US territories and freely associated states.
This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.
Papua New Guinea’s former Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, has been committed to stand trial for charges of misappropriation and official corruption
A Waigani Committal Court magistrate Tracey Ganaii yesterday found there was sufficient evidence on the two charges.
They relate to the state purchase of two generators from Israel seven years ago when O’Neill was prime minister.
Police allege that O’Neill directed payments for the purchase without proper procurement and tender processes, or parliamentary approval.
O’Neill told media outside court that he welcomed the chance to defend the case.
“There was no personal benefit on my part in this case. But there is a suggestion by some of the witnesses that it was official corruption and misappropriation of unbudgeted items. But we have not presented our evidence in court, which we will do in the National Court.”
O’Neill previously defended the US$14 million purchase of the generators as being a necessary step to addressing chronic electricity blackouts experienced in PNG’s main cities of Port Moresby and Lae.
The former prime minister insisted that the decision was approved by his cabinet, the National Executive Council.
“Largely, this is a NEC-endorsed decision. The purchase was endorsed by NEC.
“The court thought that there has been differences of timing, and there was sufficiency of that to bring the matter up to the National Court, and we look forward to defending it there.”
This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.
A Papuan self-determination protest … The Australia West Papua Association has protested to Foreign Minister Marise Payne condemning Indonesian police threats against Papuan protesters. Image: Antara
The West Papua regional police (Polda) have arrested 36 people in Manokwari and Sorong city following a demonstration commemorating the anniversary of the West Papua New Guinea National Congress (WPNGNC) at the weekend, reports CNN Indonesia.
West Papua regional police spokesperson Assistant Superintendent Adam Erwindi said that the people arrested on Friday were currently being questioned by police.
“The Manokwari Polres [district police] backed up by West Papua Polda Brimob [Mobile Brigade paramilitary police] have secured them and are taking information,” said Erwindi .
Erwindi said that the protesters did not provide prior notification of the rally with police. The police claimed they had the authority to break up the protest as a result.
In addition to this, Erwindi said, the protest action was disrupting public order and blocking roads so that road users were unable to pass.
“The substance of the demo violated Article 6 of Law Number 9/1998 [on demonstrations]”, he said.
This article stipulated that in conveying an opinion people must respect the rights and freedoms of others, respect morality and safeguard security and public order.
Protesters told to consider security Erwindi asked that those who wanted to hold protest actions pay attention to the security situation and public order. He also warned that all protest actions must be in accordance with regulations.
“If they’re not in accordance with the above then police in accordance with mandated laws are obliged to break them up,” he said.
At least two Brimob members were injured after being hit by stones when the rally was being broken up.
According to the Antara state news agency, the demonstrators refused to disperse and pelted police with stones and bottles until they were pushed back by teargas.
The demonstrators who were forced back became even more brutal and continued pelting police with rocks and bottles. They also ignited firecrackers and threw them at police.
The demonstrators shouted “Free Papua” as they threw stones in the direction of police.
Australia West Papua Association protest The Australia West Papua Association has protested to Foreign Minister Marise Payne, saying Indonesian police threats against Papuan protesters ahead of the December 1 flag-raising protests are of “grave concern”.
“I am writing to you concerning the issue of West Papua and in particular regarding comments made by the Indonesian national police spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Awi Setiyono on the 23 November 2020, which is of grave concern.
“Tempo News (24 November) reported the police spokesperson as saying that the “The Indonesian national police (Polri) together with the National Armed Forces (TNI) will conduct massive joint patrols ahead of the commemoration day of the 1 December. He also made an announcement that locals should not participate in the annual anniversary.
“I am sure you are aware that the 1st of December is West Papuan National day or National Flag day and it is of great importance to the West Papuan people. Fifty-nine years ago on the 1st of December in 1961, the Morning Star flag was flown for the first time officially beside the Dutch Tricolor. The Dutch were finally about to give the West Papuan people their freedom. However, it is one of the great tragedies that at their moment of freedom it was cruelly crushed and West Papua was basically handed over to Indonesia in 1963. After 6 years administration of the province, Indonesia held a sham referendum called the “Act of Free Choice” under UN supervision. The Papuans call this the’ act of no choice’.
“The West Papuan people continue to raise their flag as an act of celebration but also of protest against the injustices they suffer under Indonesian rule. They can face up to 15 years jail for doing so. Just two weeks ago 23 Papuans were given jail terms of between 1 and 2 years. They were arrested in December 2019 while on their way to take part in a flag raising ceremony on the 1 December (2019) in Fak Fak.
“The human rights situation in West Papua is deteriorating with the security forces conducting operations to intimidate local people. There is also an increase in violence towards villagers who the security forces suspect of supporting independence or to those they believe have what the security forces term “separatist” sympathies. There have been a number of killings and arrests by the security forces in the past few weeks in West Papua. Indonesian police arrested 54 participants at a public hearing organised by the Papuan People’s Council (MPR) in Merauke on the 17 November. They were arrested for alleged makar (treason). Yet all they participants were doing were holding a meeting to discuss Indonesia’s intention to extend the Special Autonomy laws. Although they were eventually released the arrests show there is no freedom of expression or freedom of assembly in West Papua.
“There have been reports that on 20-21 November 2020, 4 West Papuan school students aged between 13 and 19 and 1 West Papuan man aged 34 were shot by the Indonesian Security Forces. Eighteen year-old Manus Murib, who survived the shootings remains in a critical condition in hospital. When he was first shot Manus passed out and when he came to reported that he found that men wearing black uniforms, vests and helmets were placing guns across his chest and taking photographs. The troops were possible Detachment 88 troops which are trained by Australia.
“There have been ongoing security force operations in West Papua in the regencies of Nduga, Intan Jaya, Mimika and Puncak Jaya since the end of 2018 resulting in the loss of civilian life not only by armed conflict but also by sickness and malnutrition as these operations have created a large number of internal refugees who are reluctant to return to their villages because of their fear of the security forces.
“As recently as the 27 November 36 people were arrested by the police after being involved in rallies in Manokwari and Sorong. They were simply commemorating the anniversary of the West Papua New Guinea National Congress (WPNGNC).
“Twenty civil society organisations that are members of the Papua Civil Organisation, Solidarity (SOS), have called on the Indonesian president to“withdraw all organic TNI-Polri troops from the areas in Nduga Regency, Intan Jaya Regency, Mimika Regency and Puncak Jaya Regency which have given birth to serious human rights violations in the form of refugees and violations of the right to life”.
“I urge you to support the call by the West Papuan civil society groups and raise the matter of the human rights situation in West Papua with the Indonesian President.
“I also urge you to use your good offices with the Indonesian Government asking that it control its military in West Papua and asking it to inform the security forces that it should allow any rallies called to celebrate West Papuan National flag day to go ahead peacefully, without interference from the security forces.”
A map showing Tolukuma in Papua New Guinea’s Central Province. Image: PNG Bulletin/PNG Report
Rev Yeremia Zanambani … alleged to have been shot dead by the Indonesian military in Hitadiap village on September 19. Image: Suara Papua
(@kkufijimusic) 
combined with 
. While it appears 
Opposition leader Belden Namah … says his group is ready to form a new government. Image: Alex Smith/RNZ
Te Whiti-o-Rongomai … arrested and imprisoned without trial. Image: Crosbie Walsh blog
Tim
Buchanan
(@Tbuch2) 
