radiofree.asia

Category: Indigenous

  • Bougainville wants independence. China’s support for a controversial mine could pave the way

    ANALYSIS: By Anna-Karina Hermkens, Macquarie University

    Bougainville, an autonomous archipelago currently part of Papua New Guinea, is determined to become the world’s newest country.

    To support this process, it’s offering foreign investors access to a long-shuttered copper and gold mine. Formerly owned by the Australian company Rio Tinto, the Panguna mine caused displacement and severe environmental damage when it operated between 1972 and 1989.

    It also sparked a decade-long civil war from 1988 to 1998 that killed an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 civilians and caused enduring traumas and divisions.

    Industry players believe 5.3 million tonnes of copper and 547 tonnes of gold remain at the site. This is attracting foreign interest, including from China.

    Australia views Bougainville as strategically important to its “inner security arc”. The main island is about 1500 km from Queensland’s Port Douglas.

    Given this, the possibility of China’s increasing presence in Bougainville raises concerns about shifting allegiances and the potential for Beijing to exert greater influence over the region.

    Australia’s tangled history in Bougainville
    Bougainville is a small island group in the South Pacific with a population of about 300,000. It consists of two main islands: Buka in the north and Bougainville Island in the south.

    Bougainville has a long history of unwanted interference from outsiders, including missionaries, plantation owners and colonial administrations (German, British, Japanese and Australian).

    Two weeks before Papua New Guinea received its independence from Australia in 1975, Bougainvilleans sought to split away, unilaterally declaring their own independence. This declaration was ignored in both Canberra and Port Moresby, but Bougainville was given a certain degree of autonomy to remain within the new nation of PNG.

    The opening of the Panguna mine in the 1970s further fractured relations between Australia and Bougainville.

    Landowners opposed the environmental degradation and limited revenues they received from the mine. The influx of foreign workers from Australia, PNG and China also led to resentment. Violent resistance grew, eventually halting mining operations and expelling almost all foreigners.

    Under the leadership of Francis Ona, the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) fought a long civil war to restore Bougainville to Me’ekamui, or the “Holy Land” it once was.

    Australia supported the PNG government’s efforts to quell the uprising with military equipment, including weapons and helicopters.

    After the war ended, Australia helped broker the Bougainville Peace Agreement led by New Zealand in 2001. Although aid programmes have since begun to heal the rift between Australia and Bougainville, many Bougainvilleans feel Canberra continues to favour PNG’s territorial integrity.

    In 2019, Bougainvilleans voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum. Australia’s response, however, was ambiguous.

    Despite a slow and frustrating ratification process, Bougainvilleans remain adamant they will become independent by 2027.

    As Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama, a former BRA commander, told me in 2024:

    “We are moving forward. And it’s the people’s vision: independence. I’m saying, no earlier than 2025, no later than 2027.

    “My benchmark is 2026, the first of September. I will declare. No matter what happens. I will declare independence on our republican constitution.”

    Major issues to overcome
    Bougainville leaders see the reopening of Panguna mine as key to financing independence. Bougainville Copper Limited, the Rio Tinto subsidiary that once operated the mine, backs this assessment.

    The Bougainville Autonomous Government has built its own gold refinery and hopes to create its own sovereign wealth fund to support independence. The mine would generate much-needed revenue, infrastructure and jobs for the new nation.

    But reopening the mine would also require addressing the ongoing environmental and social issues it has caused. These include polluted rivers and water sources, landslides, flooding, chemical waste hazards, the loss of food security, displacement, and damage to sacred sites.

    Many of these issues have been exacerbated by years of small-scale alluvial mining by Bougainvilleans themselves, eroding the main road into Panguna.

    Some also worry reopening the mine could reignite conflict, as landowners are divided about the project. Mismanagement of royalties could also stoke social tensions.

    Violence related to competition over alluvial mining has already been increasing at the mine.

    More broadly, Bougainville is faced with widespread corruption and poor governance.

    The Bougainville government cannot deal with these complex issues on its own. Nor can it finance the infrastructure and development needed to reopen the mine. This is why it’s seeking foreign investors.

    Panguna, Bougainville's "mine of tears"
    Panguna, Bougainville’s “mine of tears”, when it was still operating . . . Industry players believe 5.3 million tonnes of copper and 547 tonnes of gold remain at the site, which is attracting foreign interest, including from China. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report

    Open for business
    Historically, China has a strong interest in the region. According to Pacific researcher Dr Anna Powles, Chinese efforts to build relationships with Bougainville’s political elite have increased over the years.

    Chinese investors have offered development packages contingent on long-term mining revenues and Bougainville’s independence. Bougainville is showing interest.

    Patrick Nisira, the Minister for commerce, Trade, Industry and Economic Development, said last year the proposed Chinese infrastructure investment was “aligning perfectly with Bougainville’s nationhood aspirations”.

    The government has also reportedly made overtures to the United States, offering a military base in Bougainville in return for support for reopening the mine.

    Given American demand for minerals, Bougainville could very well end up in the middle of a struggle between China and the US over influence in the new nation, and thus in our region.

    Which path will Bougainville and Australia take?
    There is support in Bougainville for a future without large-scale mining. One minister, Geraldine Paul, has been promoting the islands’ booming cocoa industry and fisheries to support an independent Bougainville.

    The new nation will also need new laws to hold the government accountable and protect the people and culture of Bougainville. As Paul told me in 2024:

    “[…]the most important thing is we need to make sure that we invest in our foundation and that’s building our family and culture. Everything starts from there.”

    What happens in Bougainville affects Australia and the broader security dynamics in the Indo-Pacific. With September 1, 2026, just around the corner, it is time for Australia to intensify its diplomatic and economic relationships with Bougainville to maintain regional stability.The Conversation

    Dr Anna-Karina Hermkens is a senior lecturer and researcher in anthropology, Macquarie University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

  • The transfer of a sacred site to a copper mine is delayed once again

    A federal judge issued an injunction Friday that further delays the transfer of Oak Flat, an Indigenous religious site in Arizona, to a multi-national company that would make it one of the largest copper mines in the world.

    More than a week ago, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in the case, allowing a lower court order to stand that approved the transfer. The district court judge in Phoenix called for a 60-day delay to allow advocates for Oak Flat to review an upcoming U.S. Forest Service environmental impact statement. 

    The motions for the delay came from the San Carlos Apache Tribe and a coalition of organizations such as the Center for Biological Diversity, a local Sierra Club Chapter, and Arizona’s Inter-Tribal Association.

    The struggle over Oak Flat’s future has been going on for a decade. The final  environmental review was released during the first Trump administration, but then halted during the Biden administration. Back in April, the current Trump administration said it would reissue its environmental review, expected June 16. 

    The review is necessary for the transfer of the land to Resolution Copper, a project from  Rio Tinto and BHP, multinational mining companies. 

    There has been an issue with accessing this review before its publication. According to Marc Fink, an attorney for the Center of Biological Diversity, it’s customary to see such documents in a legal process.

    That hasn’t been the case with Oak Flat. 

    “In my 30 years, I have never seen this occur,” he said. 

    The withholding of the review is seen by observers as a sign that the Trump administration wants to fast-track the mine, which would sit directly on top of sacred sites and would mine a thousand feet inside the earth. 

    The land in question is about 40 miles east of Phoenix in the Tonto National Forest. The Apaches consider it their land, based on the 1852 treaty signed between the nation  and the U.S. government, as an outcome of the Mexican-American War a few years earlier.

    Amid a current trade war between the United States and  China, as indicated by Trump’s tariffs, proponents for Oak Flat are scratching their heads at conflicting national security interests. In a press release by the San Carlos Apache Tribe, chairman Terry Rambler, says that, “Resolution Copper is a major threat to U.S. national security given China’s significant financial influence over BHP and Rio Tinto.” 

    The United States has only two copper smelters — in Utah and Arizona — and both are at total capacity. Critics surmise that Resolution Copper will likely send raw material to China, where the world’s largest copper refineries exist.

    Whether the profit margin is acceptable for Resolution Copper is also a question for the mining corporations. A feasibility study, which looks at whether the costs will scale for net profit gain, hasn’t been conducted yet according to Resolution Copper and can take years.  However, if companies identify expenditures as too costly, it is unlikely they would return the title back to Apache homeland under the Forest Service.

    The tribal organization Apache Stronghold also filed a separate injunction in the same Arizona court; it was their suit the Supreme Court declined to hear. 

    Luke Goodrich, Vice President at Becket, a religious rights legal institute who has represented Apache Stronghold, said the fight is far from over. 

    “The Apaches are never going to stop defending Oak Flat ,” he said. “And we’re continuing to press every possible opportunity in the courts, Congress, and with the President to make sure that this tragic destruction never takes place.” 

     “The Trump Administration is once again planning to violate federal laws and illegally transfer Oak Flat to the two largest foreign mining companies in the world,” said San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler in a press release.

    . Back in April, the Trump administration announced they will reissue its final environmental impact statement, also known as EIS. The Biden administration halted the release of this review in 2021 but its publication is expected June 16. This controversial decision  is considered as the final step before finalizing the land transfer to private title. 

    There has been an issue with accessing this review before its publication. According to the Center for Biological Diversity’s attorney, Marc Fink, the final EIS study and a feasibility study, which looks at the practical costs and management plan has not been shared to Link (biological) and other lawyers. “In my 30 years, I have never seen this occur,” he said. 

    Aside from land claims, based on the 1852 treaty signed between the Apache Nations and U.S. government, as an outcome of the Mexican-American War a few years earlier. In this legal document, according to the federal government, this is Apache Land. 

    Amid a current trade war with China, as indicated by consistent tariff setting by the Trump Administration, alongside land title, all parties are scratching their heads at conflicting national security interests. In a press release by the San Carlos Apache Tribe, chairman Terry Rambler, says that, “Resolution Copper is a major threat to U.S. national security given China’s significant financial influence over BHP and Rio Tinto.” 

    The United States has only two copper refiners in Philadelphia and Phoenix and are at total capacity. This means that Resolution Copper will likely send refining to China, where the world’s largest copper refineries exist. In an op-ed in Real Clear Energy, the executive director of HECHO, known as Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting, and the Outdoors, she writes, “If reducing America’s reliance on hostile foreign powers for critical minerals is a national security priority—a goal that leaders across the political spectrum broadly support—then we should take a hard look at what’s happening at Oak Flat.”

    Whether the profit margin is acceptable for Resolution Copper and Rio Tinto is also a question for the mining corporations. A feasibility study, which looks at whether the costs will scale for net profit gain, hasn’t been conducted yet according to Resolution Copper themselves.  However, if companies identify expenditures as too costly, it is unlikely they will cease land title back to Apache homeland under the Forest Service.

    Apache Stronghold has also filed a separate preliminary injunction in the same Arizona court for a separate date. Luke Goodrich, Vice President at Becket, a religious rights legal institute who has represented Apache Stronghold, says the fight is far from over and they’re also pursuing avenues through every branch of government including Congress and the White House. “This is not over. The Apaches are never going to stop defending Oak Flat and we’re continuing to press every possible opportunity in the courts, Congress, and with the President to make sure that this tragic destruction never takes place.” 

    This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The transfer of a sacred site to a copper mine is delayed once again on Jun 6, 2025.


    This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Miacel Spotted Elk.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ‘They cannot block us,’ says activist on Madleen flotilla aid ship to Gaza

    Pacific Media Watch

    One of the 12 activists on board the Gaza Freedom Flotilla aid vessel Madleen has posted an update on their progress, saying the mission would not be deterred by Israel’s threats to block them.

    In a video posted to X, Thiago Ávila said the crew, which includes high-profile Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, was not intimidated by a message they had received from Israel on Thursday, reports Al Jazeera.

    He said Israeli authorities had said that the Madleen, which is carrying food and medical supplies, would be blocked from entering Gaza — and that if they attempted to deliver them, they would come under attack.

    “It’s important that we understand that [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and any other repressive regime throughout history, they actually fear the people, we do not fear them,” he said.

    “We know that this is part of a global uprising much larger than this humble mission of 12 people on a small boat. It will not be through force that they will make a way to defeat us.”

    While crossing international waters in the Central Mediterranean on its way to Gaza yesterday, the Madleen received a mayday call relayed through one of the Frontex drones operated by Europe’s border security agency.

    With no other vessel able to respond, the Madleen diverted to the distressed vessel, where it found 30 to 40 people trapped in a rapidly deflating dinghy.

    While the crew of the Madleen were attempting a rescue of their own, they were approached at speed by a unit of the Libyan Coast Guard, specifically one belonging to the Tareq Bin Zayed brigade, which Al Jazeera has previously reported upon.

    On realising that the approaching vessel belonged to the Libyan Coast Guard, four dinghy passengers jumped into the water and swam to the Madleen, where they were rescued.

    The remainder were taken on board the Libyan Coast Guard’s vessel and presumably returned to Libya.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Marshall Islands nuclear legacy: report highlights lack of health research

    By Giff Johnson, editor, Marshall Islands Journal, and RNZ Pacific correspondent

    A new report on the United States nuclear weapons testing legacy in the Marshall Islands highlights the lack of studies into important health concerns voiced by Marshallese for decades that make it impossible to have a clear understanding of the impacts of the 67 nuclear weapons tests.

    The Legacy of US Nuclear Testing in the Marshall Islands, a report by Dr Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, was released late last month.

    The report was funded by Greenpeace Germany and is an outgrowth of the organisation’s flagship vessel, Rainbow Warrior III, visiting the Marshall Islands from March to April to recognise the 40th anniversary of the resettlement of the nuclear test-affected population of Rongelap Atoll.

    Dr Mahkijani said that among the “many troubling aspects” of the legacy is that the United States had concluded, in 1948, after three tests, that the Marshall Islands was not “a suitable site for atomic experiments” because it did not meet the required meteorological criteria.

    “Yet testing went on,” he said.

    “Also notable has been the lack of systematic scientific attention to the accounts by many Marshallese of severe malformations and other adverse pregnancy outcomes like stillbirths. This was despite the documented fallout throughout the country and the fact that the potential for fallout to cause major birth defects has been known since the 1950s.”

    Dr Makhijani highlights the point that, despite early documentation in the immediate aftermath of the 1954 Bravo hydrogen bomb test and numerous anecdotal reports from Marshallese women about miscarriages and still births, US government medical officials in charge of managing the nuclear test-related medical programme in the Marshall Islands never systematically studied birth anomalies.

    Committed billions of dollars
    The US Deputy Secretary of State in the Biden-Harris administration, Kurt Cambell, said that Washington, over decades, had committed billions of dollars to the damages and the rebuilding of the Marshall Islands.

    “I think we understand that that history carries a heavy burden, and we are doing what we can to support the people in the [Compact of Free Association] states, including the Marshall Islands,” he told reporters at the Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting in Nuku’alofa last year.

    “This is not a legacy that we seek to avoid. We have attempted to address it constructively with massive resources and a sustained commitment.”

    Among points outlined in the new report:

    • Gamma radiation levels at Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, officially considered a “very low exposure” atoll, were tens of times, and up to 300 times, more than background in the immediate aftermaths of the thermonuclear tests in the Castle series at Bikini Atoll in 1954.
    • Thyroid doses in the so-called “low exposure atolls” averaged 270 milligray (mGy), 60 percent more than the 50,000 people of Pripyat near Chernobyl who were evacuated (170 mGy) after the 1986 accident there, and roughly double the average thyroid exposures in the most exposed counties in the United States due to testing at the Nevada Test Site.
    Women from the nuclear test-affected Rongelap Atoll greeted the Rainbow Warrior and its crew with songs and dances as part of celebrating the 40th anniversary of the evacuation of Rongelap Atoll in 1985 by the Rainbow Warrior. Photo: Giff Johnson.
    Women from the nuclear test-affected Rongelap Atoll greeted the Rainbow Warrior and its crew with songs and dances as part of celebrating the 40th anniversary of the evacuation of Rongelap Atoll in 1985 by the Rainbow Warrior. Image: RNZ Pacific/Giff Johnson

    Despite this, “only a small fraction of the population has been officially recognised as exposed enough for screening and medical attention; even that came with its own downsides, including people being treated as experimental subjects,” the report said.

    Women reported adverse outcomes
    “In interviews and one 1980s country-wide survey, women have reported many adverse pregnancy outcomes,” said the report.

    “They include stillbirths, a baby with part of the skull missing and ‘the brain and the spinal cord fully exposed,’ and a two-headed baby. Many of the babies with major birth defects died shortly after birth.

    “Some who lived suffered very difficult lives, as did their families. Despite extensive personal testimony, no systematic country-wide scientific study of a possible relationship of adverse pregnancy outcomes to nuclear testing has been done.

    “It is to be noted that awareness among US scientists of the potential for major birth defects due to radioactive fallout goes back to the 1950s. Hiroshima-Nagasaki survivor data has also provided evidence for this problem.

    “The occurrence of stillbirths and major birth defects due to nuclear testing fallout in the Marshall Islands is scientifically plausible but no definitive statement is possible at the present time,” the report concluded.

    “The nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands created a vast amount of fission products, including radioactive isotopes that cross the placenta, such as iodine-131 and tritium.

    “Radiation exposure in the first trimester can cause early failed pregnancies, severe neurological damage, and other major birth defects.

    No definitive statement possible
    “This makes it plausible that radiation exposure may have caused the kinds of adverse pregnancy outcomes that were experienced and reported.

    “However, no definitive statement is possible in the absence of a detailed scientific assessment.”

    Scientists who traveled with the Rainbow Warrior III on its two-month visit to the Marshall Islands earlier this year collected samples from Enewetak, Bikini, Rongelap and other atolls for scientific study and evaluation.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ‘HIV shouldn’t be death sentence in Fiji’ – call for testing amid outbreak

    By Christina Persico, RNZ Pacific bulletin editor

    Fiji’s Minister for Health and Medical Services has revealed the latest HIV numbers in the country to a development partner roundtable discussing the national response.

    The minister reported 490 new HIV cases between October and December last year, bringing the 2024 total to 1583.

    “Included in this number are 32 newborns diagnosed with HIV acquired through mother-to-child transmission,” Dr Atonio Rabici Lalabalavu said.

    Fiji declared an outbreak of the disease in January. The Fiji Sun reported around 115 HIV-related deaths in the January-September 2024 period.

    Fiji’s Central Division reported 1100 new cases in 2024, with 427 in the Western Division and 50 in the Northern Division.

    Of the newly recorded cases, less than half — 770 — have been successfully linked to care, of which 711 have been commenced on antiretroviral therapy (ART).

    Just over half were aged in their twenties, and 70 percent of cases were male.

    Increase in TB, HIV co-infection
    Dr Lalabalavu said the increase in HIV cases was also seeing an increase in tuberculosis and HIV co-infection, with 160 individuals in a year.

    He said the ministry strongly encouraged individuals to get tested, know their status, and if it was positive, seek treatment.

    Dr Atonio Lalabalavu
    Fiji Minister for Health and Medical Services Dr Atonio Lalabalavu . . .  strongly encourages individuals to get tested. Image: Ministry of Health & Medical Services/FB/RNZ Pacific

    And if it is negative, to maintain that negative status.

    “I will reiterate what I have said before to all Fijians – HIV should not be a death sentence in Fiji,” he said.

    In the Western Pacific, the estimated number of people living with HIV (PLHIV) reached 1.9 million in 2020, up from 1.4 million in 2010.

    At the time, the World Health Organisation said that over the previous two decades, HIV prevalence in the Western Pacific had remained low at 0.1 percent.

    However, the low prevalence in the general population masked high levels of HIV infection among key populations.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • [Winona LaDuke] Rights of Nature: An Indigenous View

    Indigenous peoples often see themselves as an integral part of nature, not separate from it, and recognize the interconnectedness of all living beings and nature. Indigenous perspectives on the rights of nature emphasize a deep spiritual bond with the natural world, viewing it as a sacred entity and an essential part of their cultural and social fabric. Many Indigenous cultures believe that nature has inherent rights and that humans have responsibilities to respect, protect and maintain the health of the environment for the well-being of future generations.  Indigenous communities are increasingly at the forefront of the rights of nature movement, working to incorporate their values and beliefs into legal frameworks and policies.


    This content originally appeared on AlternativeRadio and was authored by info@alternativeradio.org.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Punishment for Te Pāti Māori over Treaty haka stands – but MPs ‘will not be silenced’

    RNZ News

    Aotearoa New Zealand’s Parliament has confirmed the unprecedented punishments proposed for opposition indigenous Te Pāti Māori MPs who performed a haka in protest against the Treaty Principles Bill.

    Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi will be suspended for 21 days, and MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke suspended for seven days, taking effect immediately.

    Opposition parties tried to reject the recommendation, but did not have the numbers to vote it down.


    Te Pati Maori MPs speak after being suspended.  Video: RNZ/Mark Papalii

    The heated debate to consider the proposed punishment came to an end just before Parliament was due to rise.

    Waititi moved to close the debate and no party disagreed, ending the possibility of it carrying on in the next sitting week.

    Leader of the House Chris Bishop — the only National MP who spoke — kicked off the debate earlier in the afternoon saying it was “regrettable” some MPs did not vote on the Budget two weeks ago.

    Bishop had called a vote ahead of Budget Day to suspend the privileges report debate to ensure the Te Pāti Māori MPs could take part in the Budget, but not all of them turned up.

    Robust, rowdy debate
    The debate was robust and rowdy with both the deputy speaker Barbara Kuriger and temporary speaker Tangi Utikare repeatedly having to ask MPs to quieten down.

    Flashback: Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipa-Clarke led a haka in Parliament on 14 November 2024
    Flashback: Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipa-Clarke led a haka in Parliament and tore up a copy of the Treaty Principles Bill at the first reading on 14 November 2024 . . . . a haka is traditionally used as an indigenous show of challenge, support or sorrow. Image: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone/APR screenshot

    Tākuta Ferris spoke first for Te Pāti Māori, saying the haka was a “signal of humanity” and a “raw human connection”.

    He said Māori had faced acts of violence for too long and would not be silenced by “ignorance or bigotry”.

    “Is this really us in 2025, Aotearoa New Zealand?” he asked the House.

    “Everyone can see the racism.”

    He said the Privileges Committee’s recommendations were not without precedent, noting the fact Labour MP Peeni Henare, who also participated in the haka, did not face suspension.

    Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris speaking during the parliamentary debate on Te Pāti Māori MPs' punishment for Treaty Principles haka on 5 June 2025.
    MP Tākuta Ferris spoke for Te Pāti Māori. Image: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone

    Henare attended the committee and apologised, which contributed to his lesser sanction.

    ‘Finger gun’ gesture
    MP Parmjeet Parmar — a member of the Committee — was first to speak on behalf of ACT, and referenced the hand gesture — or “finger gun” — that Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer made in the direction of ACT MPs during the haka.

    Parmar told the House debate could be used to disagree on ideas and issues, and there was not a place for intimidating physical gestures.

    Greens co-leader Marama Davidson said New Zealand’s Parliament could lead the world in terms of involving the indigenous people.

    She said the Green Party strongly rejected the committee’s recommendations and proposed their amendment of removing suspensions, and asked the Te Pāti Māori MPs be censured instead.

    Davidson said the House had evolved in the past — such as the inclusion of sign language and breast-feeding in the House.

    She said the Greens were challenging the rules, and did not need an apology from Te Pāti Māori.

    Winston Peters says Te Pāti Māori and the Green Party speeches so far showed "no sincerity".
    Foreign Minister and NZ First party leader Winston Peters called Te Pāti Māori “a bunch of extremists”. Image: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone

    NZ First leader Winston Peters said Te Pāti Māori and the Green Party speeches so far showed “no sincerity, saying countless haka had taken place in Parliament but only after first consulting the Speaker.

    “They told the media they were going to do it, but they didn’t tell the Speaker did they?

    ‘Bunch of extremists’
    “The Māori party are a bunch of extremists,” Peters said, “New Zealand has had enough of them”.

    Peters was made to apologise after taking aim at Waititi, calling him “the one in the cowboy hat” with “scribbles on his face” [in reference to his traditional indigenous moko — tatoo]. He continued afterward, describing Waititi as possessing “anti-Western values”.

    Labour’s Willie Jackson congratulated Te Pāti Māori for the “greatest exhibition of our culture in the House in my lifetime”.

    Jackson said the Treaty bill was a great threat, and was met by a great haka performance. He was glad the ACT Party was intimidated, saying that was the whole point of doing the haka.

    He also called for a bit of compromise from Te Pāti Māori — encouraging them to say sorry — but reiterated Labour’s view the sanctions were out of proportion with past indiscretions in the House.

    Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick says this "would be a joke if it wasn't so serious".
    Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the prime minister was personally responsible if the proposed sanctions went ahead. Image: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone

    Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the debate “would be a joke if it wasn’t so serious”.

    “Get an absolute grip,” she said to the House, arguing the prime minister “is personally responsible” if the House proceeds with the committee’s proposed sanctions.

    Eye of the beholder
    She accused National’s James Meager of “pointing a finger gun” at her — the same gesture coalition MPs had criticised Ngarewa-Packer for during her haka. The Speaker accepted he had not intended to; Swarbrick said it was an example where the interpretation could be in the eye of the beholder.

    She said if the government could “pick a punishment out of thin air” that was “not a democracy”, putting New Zealand in very dangerous territory.

    An emotional Maipi-Clarke said she had been silent on the issue for a long time, the party’s voices in haka having sent shockwaves around the world. She questioned whether that was why the MPs were being punished.

    “Since when did being proud of your culture make you racist?”

    “We will never be silenced, and we will never be lost,” she said, calling the Treaty Principles bill a “dishonourable vote”.

    She had apologised to the Speaker and accepted the consequence laid down on the day, but refused to apologise. She listed other incidents in Parliament that resulted in no punishment.


    NZ Parliament TV: Te Pāti Māori Privileges committee debate.  Video: RNZ

    Maipi-Clarke called for the Treaty of Waitangi to be recognised in the Constitution Act, and for MPs to be required to honour it by law.

    ‘Clear pathway forward’
    “The pathway forward has never been so clear,” she said.

    ACT’s Nicole McKee said there were excuses being made for “bad behaviour”, that the House was for making laws and having discussions, and “this is not about the haka, this is about process”.

    She told the House she had heard no good ideas from the Te Pāti Māori, who she said resorted to intimidation when they did not get their way, but the MPs needed to “grow up” and learn to debate issues. She hoped 21 days would give them plenty of time to think about their behaviour.

    Labour MP and former Speaker Adrian Rurawhe started by saying there were “no winners in this debate”, and it was clear to him it was the government, not the Parliament, handing out the punishments.

    He said the proposed sanctions set a precedent for future penalties, and governments might use it as a way to punish opposition, imploring National to think twice.

    He also said an apology from Te Pāti Māori would “go a long way”, saying they had a “huge opportunity” to have a legacy in the House, but it was their choice — and while many would agree with the party there were rules and “you can’t have it both ways”.

    Rawiri Waititi
    Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi speaking to the media after the Privileges Committee debate. Image: RNZ/Mark Papalii

    Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said there had been many instances of misinterpretations of the haka in the House and said it was unclear why they were being punished, “is it about the haka . . . is about the gun gestures?”

    “Not one committee member has explained to us where 21 days came from,” he said.

    Hat and ‘scribbles’ response
    Waititi took aim at Peters over his comments targeting his hat and “scribbles” on his face.

    He said the haka was an elevation of indigenous voice and the proposed punishment was a “warning shot from the colonial state that cannot stomach” defiance.

    Waititi said that throughout history when Māori did not play ball, the “coloniser government” reached for extreme sanctions, ending with a plea to voters: “Make this a one-term government, enrol, vote”.

    He brought out a noose to represent Māori wrongfully put to death in the past, saying “interpretation is a feeling, it is not a fact . . .  you’ve traded a noose for legislation”.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Analyst condemns US ‘utter isolation’ after fifth Israel veto at UN Security Council

    Asia Pacific Report

    Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, has highlighted the growing isolation of the United States at the United Nations over its defiant stance over Gaza.

    He emphasised the contrast between Washington’s support for Israel and mounting global criticism, with 14 members of the UNSC voting for a resolution calling for an immediate permanent and unconditional ceasefire.

    Even close allies like the UK voted for the resolution 14-1 and condemned the American position, suggesting that the US has acted as a dam blocking ceasefire resolutions five times since October 23.

    But, Bishara said, that barrier was beginning to crack — the US was “utterly isolated”, Al Jazeera reports.

    With rising international and domestic pressure, he sees a swelling current of opposition that may soon challenge US policy at the UNSC.

    The acting US Ambassador, Dorothy Shea, blamed the crisis on the Palestine resistance movement Hamas and said Israel was “defending Gaza from Iran”, a stance ridiculed by Bishara.

    The US vetoed the UNSC resolution calling for a permanent and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, the release of captives and the unhindered entry of aid.

    It was the fifth time since October 2023 that the US has blocked a council resolution on the besieged Strip.

    ‘No surprise’
    In remarks before the start of the voting, Acting Ambassador Shea made the US opposition to the resolution, put forward by 10 countries on the 15-member council, painfully clear, which she said “should come as no surprise”.

    “The United States has taken the very clear position since this conflict began that Israel has the right to defend itself, which includes defeating Hamas and ensuring they are never again in a position to threaten Israel,” she told the council.

    Washington was the only country to vote against the measure, while the 14 other members of the council voted in favour.

    A Hamas statement said: “This arrogant stance reflects [the US] disregard for international law and its complete rejection of any international effort to stop the Palestinian bloodshed.”


    US isolated in UN Security Council.             Video: Al Jazeera

    ‘Human abattoir’
    Meanwhile, former UN Palestine relief agency UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness slammed the Israeli-US aid operation as turning Gaza into a “human abattoir”, or slaughterhouse.

    He was condemning the four distribution sites operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

    “Hundreds of civilians are herded like animals into fenced-off pens and are slaughtered like cattle in the process,” Gunness told Al Jazeera.

    The GHF announced two full day’s closure on Wednesday, saying that operations would resume after the completion of maintenance and repair work on its distribution sites.

    This come after Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians seeking aid, killing at least 27 people and injuring about 90, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

    The former UN official cast doubt on the reason for the suspension, saying its work had been halted “because it has rightly sparked international outrage and condemnation”.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Internal tensions throw PNG anti-corruption body into crisis

    By Scott Waide, RNZ Pacific PNG correspondent

    Three staffers from Papua New Guinea’s peak anti-corruption body are embroiled in a standoff that has brought into question the integrity of the organisation.

    Police Commissioner David Manning has confirmed that he received a formal complaint.

    Commissioner Manning said that initial inquiries were underway to inform the “sensitive investigation board’s” consideration of the referral.

    That board itself is controversial, having been set up as a halfway point to decide if an investigation into a subject should proceed through the usual justice process.

    Manning indicated if the board determined a criminal offence had occurred, the matter would be assigned to the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate for independent investigation.

    Local news media reported PNG Prime Minister James Marape was being kept informed of the developments.

    Marape has issued a statement acknowledging the internal tensions within ICAC and reaffirming his government’s commitment to the institution.

    Long-standing goal
    The establishment of ICAC in Papua New Guinea has been a long-standing national aspiration, dating back to 1984. The enabling legislation for ICAC was passed on 20 November 2020, bringing the body into legal existence.

    Marape said it was a proud moment of his leadership having achieved this in just 18 months after he took office in May 2019.

    The appointments process for ICAC officials was described as rigorous and internationally supervised, making the current internal disputes disheartening for many.

    Marape has reacted strongly to the crisis, expressing disappointment over the allegations and differences between the three ICAC leaders. He affirmed his government’s “unwavering commitment” to ICAC.

    These developments have significant implications for Papua New Guinea, particularly concerning its international commitments related to combating financial crime.

    PNG has been working to address deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) framework, with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) closely monitoring its progress.

    Crucial for fighting corruption
    An effective and credible ICAC is crucial for demonstrating the country’s commitment to fighting corruption, a key component of a robust AML/CTF regime.

    Furthermore, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) often includes governance and anti-corruption measures as part of its conditionalities for financial assistance and programme support.

    Any perception of instability or compromised integrity within ICAC could hinder Papua New Guinea’s efforts to meet these international requirements, potentially affecting its financial standing and access to crucial development funds.

    The current situation lays bare the urgent need for swift and decisive action to restore confidence in ICAC and ensure it can effectively fulfill its mandate.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Independent Pacific media face reckoning after US aid cuts

    By Ben McKay

    America’s retreat from foreign aid is being felt deeply in Pacific media, where pivotal outlets are being shuttered and journalists work unpaid.

    The result is fewer investigations into dubiously motivated politicians, glimpses into conflicts otherwise unseen and a less diverse media in a region which desperately needs it.

    “It is a huge disappointment … a senseless waste,” Benar News’ Australian former head of Pacific news Stefan Armbruster said after seeing his outlet go under.

    Benar News, In-depth Solomons and Inside PNG are three digital outlets which enjoyed US support but have been hit by President Donald Trump’s about-face on aid.

    Benar closed its doors in April after an executive order disestablishing Voice of America, which the United States created during World War II to combat Nazi propaganda.

    An offshoot of Radio Free Asia (RFA) focused on Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Benar kept a close eye on abuses in West Papua, massacres and gender-based violence in Papua New Guinea and more.

    The Pacific arm quickly became indispensable to many, with a team of reporters and freelancers working in 15 countries on a budget under A$A million.

    Coverage of decolonisation
    “Our coverage of decolonisation in the Pacific received huge interest, as did our coverage of the lack of women’s representation in parliaments, human rights, media freedom, deep sea mining and more,” Armbruster said.

    In-depth Solomons, a Honiara-based digital outlet, is another facing an existential threat despite a proud record of investigative and award-winning reporting.

    Last week, it was honoured with a peer-nominated award from the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan for a year-long probe into former prime minister Manasseh Sogavare’s property holdings.

    “We’re just holding on,” editor and co-founder Ofani Eremae said.

    A US-centred think tank continues to pay the wage of one journalist, while others have not drawn a salary since January.

    “It has had an impact on our operations. We used to travel out to do stories across the provinces. That has not been done since early this year,” Eremae said.

    A private donor came forward after learning of the cuts with a one-off grant that was used for rent to secure the office, he said.

    USAID budget axed
    Its funding shortfall — like Port Moresby-based outlet Inside PNG — is linked to USAID, the world’s biggest single funder of development assistance, until Trump axed its multi-billion dollar budget.

    Much of USAID’s funding was spent on humanitarian causes — such as vaccines, clean water supplies and food security — but some was also earmarked for media in developing nations, with the aim of bolstering fragile democracies.

    Inside PNG used its support to build an audience of tens of thousands with incisive reports on PNG politics: not just Port Moresby, but in the regions including independence-seeking province Bougainville that has a long history of conflict.

    “The current lack of funding has unfortunately had a dual impact, affecting both our dedicated staff, whom we’re currently unable to pay, and our day-to-day operations,” Inside PNG managing director Kila Wani said.

    “We’ve had to let off 80 percent of staff from payroll which is a big hit because we’re not a very big team.

    “Logistically, it’s become challenging to carry out our work as we normally would.”

    Other media entities in the region have suffered hits, but declined to share their stories.

    Funding hits damaging
    The funding hits are all the more damaging given the challenges faced by the Pacific, as outlined in the Pacific Islands Media Freedom Index and RSF World Press Freedom Index.

    The latest PFF report listed a string of challenges, notably weak legal protections for free speech, political interference on editorial independence, and a lack of funding underpinning high-quality media, in the region.

    The burning question for these outlets — and their audiences — is do other sources of funding exist to fill the gap?

    Inside PNG is refocusing energy on attracting new donors, as is In-depth Solomons, which has also turned to crowdfunding.

    The Australian and New Zealand governments have also provided targeted support for the media sector across the region, including ABC International Development (ABCID), which has enjoyed a budget increase from Anthony Albanese’s government.

    Inside PNG and In-depth Solomons both receive training and content-focused grants from ABCID, which helps, but this does not fund the underpinning costs for a media business or keep on the lights.

    Both Eremae, who edited two major newspapers before founding the investigative outlet, and Armbruster, a long-time SBS correspondent, expressed their dismay at the US pivot away from the Pacific.

    ‘Huge mistake’ by US
    “It’s a huge mistake on the part of the US … the world’s leading democracy. The media is one of the pillars of democracy,” Eremae said.

    “It is, I believe, in the interests of the US and other democratic countries to give funding to media in countries like the Solomon Islands where we cannot survive due to lack of advertising (budgets).

    As a veteran of Pacific reporting, Armbruster said he had witnessed US disinterest in the region contribute to the wider geopolitical struggle for influence.

    “The US government was trying to re-establish its presence after vacating the space decades ago. It had promised to re-engage, dedicating funding largely driven by its efforts to counter China, only to now betray those expectations,” he said.

    “The US government has senselessly destroyed a highly valued news service in the Pacific. An own goal.”

    Ben McKay is an AAP journalist. Republished from National Indigenous Times in Australia.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji coup culture and political meddling in media education given airing

    Pacific Media Watch

    Taieri MP Ingrid Leary reflected on her years in Fiji as a television journalist and media educator at a Fiji Centre function in Auckland celebrating Fourth Estate values and independence at the weekend.

    It was a reunion with former journalism professor David Robie — they had worked together as a team at the University of the South Pacific amid media and political controversy leading up to the George Speight coup in May 2000.

    Leary, a former British Council director and lawyer, was the guest speaker at a gathering of human rights activists, development advocates, academics and journalists hosted at the Whānau Community Centre and Hub, the umbrella base for the Fiji Centre and Asia Pacific Media Network.

    She said she was delighted to meet “special people in David’s life” and to be speaking to a diverse group sharing “similar values of courage, freedom of expression, truth and tino rangatiratanga”.

    “I want to start this talanoa on Friday, 19 May 2000 — 13 years almost to the day of the first recognised military coup in Fiji in 1987 — when failed businessman George Speight tore off his balaclava to reveal his identity.

    She pointed out that there had actually been another “coup” 100 years earlier by Ratu Cakobau.

    “Speight had seized Parliament holding the elected government at gunpoint, including the politician mother, Lavinia Padarath, of one of my best friends — Anna Padarath.

    Hostage-taking report
    “Within minutes, the news of the hostage-taking was flashed on Radio Fiji’s 10 am bulletin by a student journalist on secondment there — Tamani Nair. He was a student of David Robie’s.”

    Nair had been dispatched to Parliament to find out what was happening and reported from a cassava patch.

    “Fiji TV was trashed . . . and transmission pulled for 48 hours.

    “The university shut down — including the student radio facilities, and journalism programme website — to avoid a similar fate, but the journalism school was able to keep broadcasting and publishing via a parallel website set up at the University of Technology Sydney.

    “The pictures were harrowing, showing street protests turning violent and the barbaric behaviour of Speight’s henchmen towards dissenters.

    “Thus began three months of heroic journalism by David’s student team — including through a period of martial law that began 10 days later and saw some of the most restrictive levels of censorship ever experienced in the South Pacific.”

    Leary paid tribute to some some of the “brave satire” produced by senior Fiji Times reporters filling the newspaper with “non-news” (such as about haircuts, drinking kava) as an act of defiance.

    “My friend Anna Padarath returned from doing her masters in law in Australia on a scholarship to be closer to her Mum, whose hostage days within Parliament Grounds stretched into weeks and then months.

    Whanau Community Centre and Hub co-founder Nik Naidu
    Whanau Community Centre and Hub co-founder Nik Naidu speaking at the Asia Pacific Media Network event at the weekend. Image: Khairiah A. Rahman/APMN

    Invisible consequences
    “Anna would never return to her studies — one of the many invisible consequences of this profoundly destructive era in Fiji’s complex history.

    “Happily, she did go on to carve an incredible career as a women’s rights advocate.”

    “Meanwhile David’s so-called ‘barefoot student journalists’ — who snuck into Parliament the back way by bushtrack — were having their stories read and broadcast globally.

    “And those too shaken to even put their hands to keyboards on Day 1 emerged as journalism leaders who would go on to win prizes for their coverage.”

    Speight was sentenced to life in prison, but was pardoned in 2024.

    Taeri MP Ingrid Leary speaking
    Taeri MP Ingrid Leary speaking at the Whānau Community Centre and Hub. Image: Nik Naidu/APMN

    Leary said that was just one chapter in the remarkable career of David Robie who had been an editor, news director, foreign news editor and freelance writer with a number of different agencies and news organisations — including Agence France-Presse, Rand Daily Mail, The Auckland Star, Insight Magazine, and New Outlook Magazine — “a family member to some, friend to many, mentor to most”.

    Reflecting on working with Dr Robie at USP, which she joined as television lecturer from Fiji Television, she said:

    “At the time, being a younger person, I thought he was a little bit crazy, because he was communicating with people all around the world when digital media was in its infancy in Fiji, always on email, always getting up on online platforms, and I didn’t appreciate the power of online media at the time.

    “And it was incredible to watch.”

    Ahead of his time
    She said he was an innovator and ahead of his time.

    Dr Robie viewed journalism as a tool for empowerment, aiming to provide communities with the information they needed to make informed decisions.

    “We all know that David has been a champion of social justice and for decolonisation, and for the values of an independent Fourth Estate.”

    She said she appreciated the freedom to develop independent media as an educator, adding that one of her highlights was producing the groundbreaking documentary Maire about Maire Bopp Du Pont, who was a student journalist at USP and advocate for the Pacific community living with HIV/AIDs.

    She later became a nuclear-free Pacific parliamentarian in Pape’ete.

    Leary presented Dr Robie with a “speaking stick” carved from an apricot tree branch by the husband of a Labour stalwart based in Cromwell — the event doubled as his 80th birthday.

    In response, Dr Robie said the occasion was a “golden opportunity” to thank many people who had encouraged and supported him over many years.

    Massive upheaval
    “We must have done something right,” he said about USP, “because in 2000, the year of George Speight’s coup, our students covered the massive upheaval which made headlines around the world when Mahendra Chaudhry’s Labour-led coalition government was held at gunpoint for 56 days.

    “The students courageously covered the coup with their website Pacific Journalism Online and their newspaper Wansolwara — “One Ocean”.  They won six Ossie Awards – unprecedented for a single university — in Australia that year and a standing ovation.”

    He said there was a video on YouTube of their exploits called Frontline Reporters and one of the students, Christine Gounder, wrote an article for a Commonwealth Press Union magazine entitled, “From trainees to professionals. And all it took was a coup”.

    Dr Robie said this Fiji experience was still one of the most standout experiences he had had as a journalist and educator.

    Along with similar coverage of the 1997 Sandline mercenary crisis by his students at the University of Papua New Guinea.

    He made some comments about the 1985 Rainbow Warrior voyage to Rongelap in the Marshall islands and the subsequent bombing by French secret agents in Auckland.

    But he added “you can read all about this adventure in my new book” being published in a few weeks.

    Taieri MP Ingrid Leary (right) with Dr David Robie and his wife Del Abcede
    Taieri MP Ingrid Leary (right) with Dr David Robie and his wife Del Abcede at the Fiji Centre function. Image: Camille Nakhid

    Biggest 21st century crisis
    Dr Robie said the profession of journalism, truth telling and holding power to account, was vitally important to a healthy democracy.

    Although media did not succeed in telling people what to think, it did play a vital role in what to think about. However, the media world was undergoing massive change and fragmentation.

    “And public trust is declining in the face of fake news and disinformation,” he said

    “I think we are at a crossroads in society, both locally and globally. Both journalism and democracy are under an unprecedented threat in my lifetime.

    “When more than 230 journalists can be killed in 19 months in Gaza and there is barely a bleep from the global community, there is something savagely wrong.

    “The Gazan journalists won the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize collectively last year with the judges saying, “As humanity, we have a huge debt to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression.”

    “The carnage and genocide in Gaza is deeply disturbing, especially the failure of the world to act decisively to stop it. The fact that Israel can kill with impunity at least 54,000 people, mostly women and children, destroy hospitals and starve people to death and crush a people’s right to live is deeply shocking.

    “This is the biggest crisis of the 21st century. We see this relentless slaughter go on livestreamed day after day and yet our media and politicians behave as if this is just ‘normal’. It is shameful, horrendous. Have we lost our humanity?

    “Gaza has been our test. And we have failed.”

    Other speakers included Whānau Hub co-founder Nik Naidu, one of the anti-coup Coalition for Democracy in Fiji (CDF) stalwarts; the Heritage New Zealand’s Antony Phillips; and Multimedia Investments and Evening Report director Selwyn Manning.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • PNG’s Namah calls for tighter bio controls, patrols on Indonesian border

    By Scholar Kassas in Port Moresby

    A Papua New Guinea minister has raised concerns about “serious issues” at the PNG-Indonesia border due to a lack of proper security checkpoints.

    Culture and Tourism Minister Belden Namah, who is also the member for the border electorate Vanimo-Green, voiced these concerns while supporting a new Biosecurity for Plants and Animals Bill presented in Parliament by Agriculture Minister John Boito.

    He said Papua New Guinea was the only country in the Pacific Islands region that shared a land border with another nation.

    According to Namah, the absence of proper quarantine and National Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection Authority (NAQIA) checks at the border allowed people bringing food and plants from Indonesia to introduce diseases affecting PNG’s commodities.

    Minister Namah, whose electorate shares a border with Indonesia, noted that while the PNG Defence Force and police were present, they were primarily focused on checking vehicles coming from Indonesia instead of actively patrolling the borders.

    He clarified the roles, saying, “It’s NAQIA’s job to search vehicles and passengers, and the PNGDF’s role is to guard and patrol our borders.”

    Namah expressed concern that while bills were passed, enforcement on the ground was lacking.

    Minister Namah supported the PNG Biosecurity Authority Bill and called for consistency, increased border security, and stricter control checks.

    Republished from the PNG Post-Courier with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Human Rights Watch warns renewed fighting threatens West Papua civilians

    Asia Pacific Report

    An escalation in fighting between Indonesian security forces and Papuan pro-independence fighters in West Papua has seriously threatened the security of the largely indigenous population, says Human Rights Watch in a new report.

    The human rights watchdog warned that all parties to the conflict are obligated to abide by international humanitarian law, also called the laws of war.

    The security forces’ military operations in the densely forested Central Highlands areas are accused of killing and wounding dozens of civilians with drone strikes and the indiscriminate use of explosive munitions, and displaced thousands of indigenous Papuans, said the report.

    The National Liberation Army of West Papua, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, has claimed responsibility in the killing of 17 alleged miners between April 6 and April 9.

    “The Indonesian military has a long history of abuses in West Papua that poses a particular risk to the Indigenous communities,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

    “Concerned governments need to press the Prabowo [Subianto] administration and Papuan separatist armed groups to abide by the laws of war.”

    The fighting escalated after the attack on the alleged miners, which the armed group accused of being targeted soldiers or military informers.

    Operation Habema
    The Indonesian military escalated its ongoing operations, called Operation Habema, in West Papua’s six provinces, especially in the Central Highlands, where Papuan militant groups have been active for more than four decades.

    On May 14, the military said that it had killed 18 resistance fighters in Intan Jaya regency, and that it had recovered weapons including rifles, bows and arrows, communications equipment, and Morning Star flags — the symbol of Papuan resistance.

    Further military operations have allegedly resulted in burning down villages and attacks on churches. Papuan activists and pastors told Human Rights Watch that government forces treated all Papuan forest dwellers who owned and routinely used bows and arrows for hunting as “combatants”.

    Information about abuses has been difficult to corroborate because the hostilities are occurring in remote areas in Intan Jaya, Yahukimo, Nduga, and Pegunungan Bintang regencies.

    Pastors, church workers, and local journalists interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that Indonesian forces had been using drones and helicopter gunships to drop bombs.

    “Civilians from the Korowai tribe community, known for their tall treehouse dwellings, have been harmed in these attacks, and have desperately fled the fighting,” said the Human Rights Watch report.

    “Displaced villagers, mostly from Intan Jaya, have sought shelter and refuge in churches in Sugapa, the capital of the regency.”

    Resistance allegations
    The armed resistance group has made allegations, which Human Rights Watch could not corroborate, that the Indonesian military attacks harmed civilians.

    It reported that a mortar or rocket attack outside a church in Ilaga, Puncak regency, hit two young men on May 6, killing one of them, Deris Kogoya, an 18-year-old student.

    The group said that the Indonesian military attack on May 14, in which the military claimed all 18 people killed were pro-independence combatants, mostly killed civilians.

    Ronald Rischardt Tapilatu, pastor of the Evangelical Christian Church of the Land of Papua, said that at least 3 civilians were among the 18 bodies. Human Rights Watch has a list of the 18 killed, which includes 1 known child.

    The daughter of Hetina Mirip said her mother was found dead on May 17 near her house in Sugapa, while Indonesian soldiers surrounded their village. She wrote that the soldiers tried to cremate and bury her mother’s body.

    A military spokesman denied the shooting.

    One evident impact of the renewed fighting is that thousands of indigenous Papuans have been forced to flee their ancestral lands.

    Seven villages attacked
    The Vanuatu-based United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) reported that the military had attacked seven villages in Ilaga with drones and airstrikes, forcing many women and children to flee their homes. Media reports said that it was in Gome, Puncak regency.

    International humanitarian law obligates all warring parties to distinguish at all times between combatants and civilians. Civilians may never be the target of attack.

    Warring parties are required to take all feasible precautions to minimise harm to civilians and civilian objects, such as homes, shops, and schools. Attacks may target only combatants and military objectives.

    Attacks that target civilians or fail to discriminate between combatants and civilians, or that would cause disproportionate harm to the civilian population compared to the anticipated military gain, are prohibited.

    Parties must treat everyone in their custody humanely, not take hostages, and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.

    The Free Papua Movement has long sought self-determination and independence in West Papua, on the grounds that the Indonesian government-controlled “Act of Free Choice” in 1969 was illegitimate and did not involve indigenous Papuans.

    It advocates holding a new, fair, and transparent referendum, and backs armed resistance.

    Vast conflict area
    Human Rights Watch reports that the conflict areas, including Intan Jaya, are on the northern side of Mt Grasberg, spanning a vast area from Sugapa to Oksibil in the Pegunungan Bintang regency, approximately 425 km long.

    Sugapa is also known as the site of Wabu Block, which holds approximately 2.3 million kilos of gold, making it one of Indonesia’s five largest known gold reserves.

    Wabu Block is currently under the licensing process of the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

    “Papuans have endured decades of systemic racism, heightening concerns of further atrocities,” HRW’s Asia director Ganguly said.

    “Both the Indonesian military and Papuan armed groups need to comply with international standards that protect civilians.”

    Republished from Human Rights Watch.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pasifika recipients say King’s Birthday honours not just theirs alone

    By Teuila Fuatai, RNZ Pacific senior journalist, Iliesa Tora, and Christina Persico

    A New Zealand-born Niuean educator says being recognised in the King’s Birthday honours list reflects the importance of connecting young tagata Niue in Aotearoa to their roots.

    Mele Ikiua, who hails from the village of Hakupu Atua in Niue, has been named a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to vagahau Niue language and education.

    She told RNZ Pacific the most significant achievement in her career to date had been the promotion of vagahau Niue in the NCEA system.

    The change in 2023 enabled vagahau Niue learners to earn literacy credits in the subject, and receive recognition beyond “achieved” in the NCEA system. That, Ikiua said, was about continuing to increase learning opportunities for young Niue people in Aotearoa.

    “Because if you look at it, the work that we do — and I say ‘we’ because there’s a lot of people other than myself — we’re here to try and maintain, and try and hold onto, our language because they say our language is very, very endangered.

    “The bigger picture for young Niue learners who haven’t connected, or haven’t been able to learn about their vagahau or where they come from [is that] it’s a safe place for them to come and learn . . . There’s no judgement, and they learn the basic foundations before they can delve deeper.”

    Her work and advocacy for Niuean culture and vagahau Niue has also extended beyond the formal education system.

    Niue stage at Polyfest
    Since 2014, Ikiua had been the co-ordinator of the Niue stage at Polyfest, a role she took up after being involved in the festival as a tutor. She also established Three Star Nation, a network which provides leadership, educational and cultural programmes for young people.

    Last year, Ikiua also set up the Tokiofa Arts Academy, the world’s first Niue Performing Arts Academy. And in February this year, Three Star Nation held Hologa Niue — the first ever Niuean arts and culture festival in Auckland.

    Niuean community in Auckland: Mele Ikiua with Derrick Manuela Jackson (left) and her brother Ron Viviani (right). Photo supplied.
    Niuean community members in Auckland . . . Mele Ikiua with Derrick Manuela Jackson (left) and her brother Ron Viviani. Image: RNZ Pacific

    She said being recognised in the King’s Birthday honours list was a shared achievement.

    “This award is not only mine. It belongs to the family. It belongs to the village. And my colleagues have been amazing too. It’s for us all.”

    She is one of several Pasifika honoured in this weekend’s list.

    Others include long-serving Auckland councillor and former National MP Anae Arthur Anae; Air Rarotonga chief executive officer and owner Ewan Francis Smith; Okesene Galo; Ngatepaeru Marsters and Viliami Teumohenga.

    Cook Islander, Berry Rangi has been awarded a King’s Service Medal for services to the community, particularly Pacific peoples.

    Berry Rangi has been awarded a King's Service Medal for services to the community, particularly Pacific peoples.
    Berry Rangi has been awarded a King’s Service Medal for services to the community, particularly Pacific peoples. Image: Berry Rangi/RNZ Pacific

    Lifted breast screening rates
    She has been instrumental in lifting the coverage rates of breast and cervical screening for Pacific women in Hawke’s Bay.

    “When you grow up in the islands, you’re not for yourself – you’re for everybody,” she said.

    “You’re for the village, for your island.”

    She said when she moved to Napier there were very few Pasifika in the city — there were more in Hastings, the nearby city to the south.

    “I did things because I knew there was a need for our people, and I’d just go out and do it without having to be asked.”

    Berry Rangi also co-founded Tiare Ahuriri, the Napier branch of the national Pacific women’s organisation, PACIFICA.

    She has been a Meals on Wheels volunteer with the Red Cross in Napier since 1990 and has been recognised for her 34 years of service in this role.

    Maintaining a heritage craft
    She also contributes to maintaining the heritage craft of tivaevae (quilting) by delivering workshops to people of all ages and communities across Hawke’s Bay.

    Another honours recipient is Uili Galo, who has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the Tokelau community.

    Galo, of the Tokelau Aotearoa Leaders Council, said it is very gratifying to see his community’s efforts acknolwedged at the highest level.

    “I’ve got a lot of people behind me, my elders that I need to acknowledge and thank . . .  my kainga,” he said.

    “While the award has been given against my name, it’s them that have been doing all the hard work.”

    He said his community came to Aotearoa in the 1970s.

    “Right through they’ve been trying to capture their culture and who they are as a people. But obviously as new generations are born here, they assimilate into the pa’alangi world, and somehow lose a sense of who they are.

    “A lot of our youth are not quite sure who they are. They know obviously the pa’alangi world they live in, but the challenge of them is to know their identity, that’s really important.”

    Pasifika sports duo say recognition is for everyone
    Two sporting recipients named as Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the King’s Birthday Honours say the honour is for all those who have worked with them.

    Pauline-Jean Henrietta Luyten, who is of Tongan heritage, has been involved with rugby at different levels over the years, and is currently a co-chair of New Zealand Rugby's Pacific Advisory Group. Pauline with Eroni Clarke of the Pasifika Rugby Advisory group.
    Pauline-Jean Henrietta Luyten with Eroni Clarke of the Pasifika Rugby Advisory group. Image: RNZ Pacific

    Pauline-Jean Henrietta Luyten, who is of Tongan heritage, has been involved with rugby at different levels over the years, and is currently a co-chair of New Zealand Rugby’s Pacific Advisory Group.

    Annie Burma Teina Tangata Esita Scoon, of Cook Islands heritage, has been involved with softball since she played the sport in school years ago.

    While they have been “committed” to their sports loves, their contribution to the different Pasifika communities they serve is being recognised.

    Luyten told RNZ Pacific she was humbled and shocked that people took the time to actually put a nomination through.

    “You know, all the work we do, it’s in service of all of our communities and our families, and you don’t really look for recognition,” she said.

    “The family, the community, everyone who have worked with me and encouraged me they all deserve this recognition.”

    Luyten, who has links in Ha’apai, Tonga, said she has loved being involved in rugby, starting off as a junior player and went through the school competition.

    Community and provincial rugby
    After moving down to Timaru, she was involved with community and provincial rugby, before she got pulled into New Zealand Rugby Pacific Advisory Group.

    Luyten made New Zealand rugby history as the first woman of Pacific Island descent to be appointed to a provincial union board in 2019.

    She was a board member of the South Canterbury Rugby Football Union and played fullback at Timaru Girls’ High School back in 1997, when rugby competition was first introduced .

    Her mother Ailine was one of the first Tongan women to take up residence in Timaru. That was back in the early 1970s.

    As well as a law degree at Otago University Luyten completed a Bachelor of Science in 2005 and then went on to complete post-graduate studies in sports medicine in 2009.

    Pauline-Jean Henrietta Luyten with Sina Latu of the Tonga Society in South Canterbury.
    Pauline-Jean Henrietta Luyten with Sina Latu of the Tonga Society in South Canterbury. Image: RNZ Pacific

    She is also a founding member of the Tongan Society South Canterbury which was established in 2016.

    Opportunities for Pasifika families
    On her rugby involvement, she said the game provides opportunities for Pasifika families and she is happy to be contributing as an administrator.

    “Where I know I can contribute has been in that non-playing space and sort of understanding the rugby system, because it’s so big, so complex and kind of challenging.”

    Fighting the stereotypes that “Pasifika can’t be directors” has been a major one.

    “Some people think there’s not enough of us out there. But for me, I’m like, nah we’ve got people,” she stated.

    “We’ve got heaps of people all over the show that can actually step into these roles.

    “They may be experienced in different sectors, like the health sector, social sector, financial, but maybe haven’t quite crossed hard enough into the rugby space. So I feel it’s my duty to to do everything I can to create those spaces for our kids, for the future.”

    Call for two rugby votes
    Earlier this month the group registered the New Zealand Pasifika Rugby Council, which moved a motion, with the support of some local unions, that Pasifika be given two votes within New Zealand Rugby.

    “So this was an opportunity too for us to actually be fully embedded into the New Zealand Rugby system.

    “But unfortunately, the magic number was 61.3 [percent] and we literally got 61, so it was 0.3 percent less voting, and that was disappointing.”

    Luyten said she and the Pacific advisory team will keep working and fighting to get what they have set their mind on.

    For Scoon, the acknowledgement was recognition of everyone else who are behind the scenes, doing the work.

    Annie Scoon, of Cook Islands heritage, has been involved with softball since she played the sport in school years ago.
    Annie Scoon, of Cook Islands heritage, has been involved with softball since she played the sport in school years ago. Image: RNZ Pacific

    She said the award was for the Pasifika people in her community in the Palmerston North area.

    Voice is for ‘them’
    “To me what stands out is that our Pasifika people will be recognized that they’ve had a voice out there,” she said.

    “So, it’s for them really; it’s not me, it’s them. They get the recognition that’s due to them. I love my Pacific people down here.”

    Scoon is a name well known among the Palmerston North Pasifika and softball communities.

    The 78-year-old has played, officiated, coached and now administers the game of softball.

    She was born in the Cook Islands and moved with her family to New Zealand in 1948. Her first involvement with softball was in school, as a nine-year-old in Auckland.

    Then she helped her children as a coach.

    “And then that sort of lead on to learning how to score the game, then coaching the game, yes, and then to just being an administrator of the game,” she said.

    Passion for the game
    “I’ve gone through softball – I’ve been the chief scorer at national tournaments, I’ve selected at tournaments, and it’s been good because I’d like to think that what I taught my children is a passion for the game, because a lot of them are still involved.”

    A car accident years ago has left her wheelchair-bound.

    She has also competed as at the Paraplegic Games where she said she proved that “although disabled, there were things that we could do if you just manipulate your body a wee bit and try and think it may not pan out as much as possible, but it does work”.

    “All you need to do is just try get out there, but also encourage other people to come out.”

    She has kept passing on her softball knowledge to school children.

    In her community work, Scoon said she just keeps encouraging people to keep working on what they want to achieve and not to shy away from speaking their mind.

    Setting a goal
    “I told everybody that they set a goal and work on achieving that goal,” she said.

    “And also encouraged alot of them to not be shy and don’t back off if you want something.”

    She said one of the challenging experiences, in working with the Pasifika community, is the belief by some that they may not be good enough.

    Her advice to many is to learn what they can and try to improve, so that they can get better in life.

    “I wasn’t born like this,” she said, referring to her disability.

    “You pick out what suits you but because our island people — we’re very shy people and we’re proud. We’re very proud people. Rather than make a fuss, we’d rather step back.

    “They shouldn’t and they need to stand up and they want to be recognised.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

  • How Israel manufactured a looting crisis to cover up its Gaza famine

    By Muhammad Shehada

    Since the onset of its genocide, Israel has persistently pushed a narrative that the famine devastating Gaza is not of its own making, but the result of “Hamas looting aid”.

    This claim, repeated across mainstream media and parroted by officials, has been used to deflect responsibility for what many human rights experts have called a deliberate starvation campaign.

    Even after Israel fully banned the entry of food, water, fuel, and medicine on March 2, Tel Aviv continued to maintain that Hamas looting, not Israeli policy, was to blame for the humanitarian catastrophe.

    But that narrative has now been discredited by Israel’s internal reporting. Last week, the Israeli military admitted internally that out of 110 looting incidents they documented, none were carried out by Hamas.

    Instead, the looting was done by “armed gangs, organised clans” and, to a lesser extent, starved civilians.

    Those very gangs and clans are backed by Israel; they enjoy full Israeli army protection and operate in areas Israel deems “extermination zones”, where any Palestinian trying to enter would be killed or kidnapped on the spot.

    The gangs had vanished during the two-month ceasefire but conveniently re-emerged as soon as Israel was pressured into allowing a limited trickle of aid to enter. The timing is no coincidence; Israeli policy has deliberately weaponised anarchy to preserve the conditions for starvation.

    This pushed even the UAE to strongly condemn Israel after the army forced an Emirati aid convoy to drive through a “red zone” where Israel-backed gangs looted 23 out of 24 trucks.

    So why does Israel continue to cling to a demonstrably false narrative while openly engineering a looting crisis through its proxies? Because the myth of “Hamas looting” serves a critical strategic purpose: to whitewash and legitimise a new plan that institutionalises starvation for blackmail, ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, and mass internment through a shell Israeli organisation.

    This is coupled with another alarming tactic of recruiting warlords, drug dealers, and criminals to create a puppet “anti-terror” force.

    Israel’s looting myth
    The “looting” talking point is devoid of any logic, as Hamas would be able to do very little with thousands of tons of looted aid.

    Israel and US Ambassador Mike Huckabee both claim Hamas uses the looted aid to buy new weaponry. But where would they buy such weapons from when Gaza is fully sealed off by Israel, and Rafah — the city of smuggling tunnels — is under full Israeli control?

    Israel claims Hamas sells looted aid on the black market. But, again, what would they do with the money? Virtually nothing is allowed into Gaza except a trickle of food.

    Israel also claims Hamas uses looted aid to recruit new militants, but Hamas doesn’t operate this way. The group depends on utmost secrecy and discipline in its operations.

    Each new member passes through a long process of vetting, training, and tests to minimise the risk of infiltration. It would compromise Hamas to recruit people openly, whose only attachment to the group is bread rather than ideological commitment.

    Perhaps most damning is that Israel has never captured a single instance of Hamas looting aid, despite subjecting Gaza to the most meticulous surveillance on earth. Israeli predator drones cover every inch of the enclave every minute of the day, yet there is nothing to show for Israel’s claims.

    Hamas is also aware that hijacking and looting aid trucks could lead to Israel bombing the vehicles and diverting them from their predetermined route.

    The Israeli army has done this on countless occasions when it fired at or bombed humanitarian convoys under the pretext that Hamas policemen came near the trucks. Ironically, those law enforcement officials were actually trying to prevent looting when they were targeted.

    Israel’s allies reject the narrative
    Israel’s strongest supporters have refuted the “Hamas looting” claim. President Joe Biden’s humanitarian envoy, David Satterfield, admitted in February of last year that “no Israeli official has . . . come to the administration with specific evidence of diversion or theft of assistance delivered by the UN”.

    Satterfield reiterated last Tuesday that Israel has never privately alleged or offered evidence of Hamas stealing aid from the UN and INGO channels. Israel’s ambassador to the EU, Haim Regev, said in mid-October 2023 that “there’s no evidence EU aid went to Hamas”.

    Cindy McCain, World Food Programme’s chief and widow of one of the most pro-Israeli GOP senators, forcefully rejected Israel’s narrative on Sunday, saying that looting “doesn’t have anything to do with Hamas . . .  it has simply to do with the fact these people are starving to death”.

    The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported last week that “Israel has never presented evidence publicly or privately to humanitarian organisations or Western government officials to back up claims that Hamas had systematically stolen aid brought into Gaza”.

    An internal memo jointly drafted by UN agencies and 20 INGOs in April, and viewed by The New Arab, stated that “there is no evidence of large-scale aid diversion”.

    Gangs and scarcity are responsible for looting
    While Israel failed to show any evidence of Hamas stealing aid, the only documented organised systematic looting happening in Gaza right now is by Israeli-backed criminal gangs who enjoy full protection from the Israeli army, according to the Washington Post, Financial Times, Ha’aretz, and the UN.

    A UN memo said these gangs established a “military complex” in the heart of Rafah after Israel fully depopulated the city. Humanitarian officials say the looting often happens right in front of Israeli troops and tanks, less than 100m away, who take no action until the local police arrive, with Israeli troops then opening fire at them.

    Israel not only provides protection and backing to these criminal gangs but has created the perfect conditions for looting to thrive through scarcity and a collapsing state of law and order.

    Currently, a single bag of wheat flour sells for about 1,500 NIS ($425), which makes it profitable for gangs to loot and sell on the market. These astronomical prices are driven by scarcity after Israel banned all food from entering Gaza for nearly 80 days, then allowed less than 20 percent of what Gaza needs on a normal day for basic survival after intense international pressure.

    During the ceasefire, however, when Israel was allowing 600 trucks to enter per day, prices went back to normal and looting disappeared because it was no longer profitable due to the abundance of food, and because the police were able to resume their work.

    Manufactured crisis to advance genocide
    The engineered looting crisis has long served as a convenient excuse to cover up the deliberate weaponisation of starvation against Gaza’s entire population, allowing Israel to distract from its restrictions on the entry of aid and the spread of famine by saying Hamas is to blame for stealing aid.

    But now, this manufactured crisis is serving a second objective: to justify a dystopian ‘aid plan’ Israel is implementing in Gaza that has been condemned and boycotted by every UN agency and humanitarian organisation working in the enclave, as well as donor countries.

    A joint UN-INGO memo warned that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would facilitate the use of aid for forcible expulsion, by telling Gazans the only way they can receive food is by moving south to Rafah on Egypt’s border.

    GHF, which Israeli opposition leaders said was an Israeli shell funded by Mossad, began its operations last Tuesday after being rocked by two scandals in one day.

    GHF’s CEO had resigned on Sunday in protest of the organisation violating the principles of humanitarianism, while the organisation shut down its registered headquarters in Switzerland as soon as Swiss authorities launched an investigation.

    Images coming out of the GHF’s militarised aid distribution site were immediately likened to concentration camps, where hundreds of emaciated Gazans were crowded into metal cages like cattle under the boiling sun, surrounded by armed US mercenaries, Israeli troops, and sand dunes.

    Alarmingly, people who received aid noted the presence of Arabic speakers in addition to American mercenaries. Last week, the Israel-backed Islamic State-linked gang leader Yasser Abu Shabab emerged in Rafah again after a long disappearance.

    Abu Shabab, a drug dealer and wanted criminal previously arrested multiple times by the local police, was the primary suspect in the systematic looting of aid under Israeli protection. This time, however, he emerged in a brand new uniform and military gear and started a Facebook page promoting himself in English and Arabic to mark a new “anti-terror” force operating in Israel-controlled Rafah.

    Additional pictures viewed by The New Arab showed multiple armed men dressed in the same uniform as Abu Shabab armed with M-16s standing in front of a humanitarian convoy.

    The unravelling of Israel’s “Hamas looting” narrative lays bare a chilling truth: starvation in Gaza is not collateral damage — it is a calculated weapon in a broader campaign of collective punishment and displacement.

    By cultivating chaos, empowering criminal gangs, and then manipulating the humanitarian crisis they manufactured, Israel seeks to maintain extreme restrictions on aid, while externalising blame and avoiding accountability.

    It is the machinery of genocide disguised in bureaucratic language and carried out under the watchful eyes of the world.

    Muhammad Shehada is a Palestinian writer and analyst from Gaza and the European Union affairs manager at Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. The article was first published by The New Arab. On X at: @muhammadshehad2

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • French politicians in New Caledonia to stir the political melting pot

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    French national politicians have been in New Caledonia as the territory’s future remains undecided.

    Leaders from both right-wing Les Républicains (LR) and Rassemblement National (RN), — vice-president François-Xavier Bellamy and Marine Le Pen respectively — have been in the French Pacific territory this week.

    They expressed their views about New Caledonia’s political, economic and social status one year after riots broke out in May 2024.

    Since then, latest attempts to hold political talks between all stakeholders and France have been met with fluctuating responses, but the latest round of discussions earlier this month ended in a stalemate.

    This was because hardline pro-France parties regarded the project of “sovereignty with France” offered by French Overseas Minister Manuel Valls was not acceptable. They consider that three self-determination referendums held in 2018, 2020 and 2021 rejected independence.

    However, the last referendum, in December 2021, was largely boycotted by the pro-independence movement and its followers due to indigenous Kanak cultural concerns around the covid-19 pandemic.

    The pro-France camp is accusing Valls of siding with the pro-independence FLNKS bloc and other more moderate parties such as PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie), who want independence from France.

    Transferring key powers
    Valls is considering transferring key French powers to New Caledonia, introducing a double French/New Caledonian citizenship, and an international standing.

    The pro-France camp is adamant that this ignores the three no referendum votes.

    Speaking to a crowd of several hundred supporters in Nouméa on Tuesday evening, Bellamy said he now favoured going ahead with modifying conditions of eligibility for voters at local provincial elections.

    The same attempts to change the locked local electoral roll — which is restricted to people residing in New Caledonia from before November 1998 — was widely perceived as the main cause for the May 2024 riots, which left 14 dead.

    Bellamy said giving in to violence that erupted last year was out of the question because it was “an attempt to topple a democratic process”.

    Les Républicains, to which the Rassemblement-LR local party is affiliated, is one of the major parties in the French Parliament.

    Its newly-elected president Bruno Retailleau is the Minister for Home Affairs in French President Emmanuel Macron’s coalition government.

    Nouméa Accord ‘now over’
    Bellamy told a crowd of supporters in Nouméa that in his view the decolonisation process prescribed by the 1998 Nouméa Accord “is now over”.

    “New Caledonians have democratically decided, three times, that they belong to France. And this should be respected,” he told a crowd during a political rally.

    In Nouméa, Bellamy said if the three referendum results were ignored as part of a future political agreement, then LR could go as far as pulling out of the French government.

    Marine Le Pen, this week also expressed her views on New Caledonia’s situation, saying instead of focusing on the territory’s institutional future, the priority should be placed on its economy, which is still reeling from the devastation caused during the 2024 riots.

    The efforts included diversifying the economy.

    A Paris court convicted Le Pen and two dozen (RN) party members of embezzling European Union funds last month, and imposed a sentence that will prevent her from standing in France’s 2027 presidential election unless she can get the ruling overturned within 18 months.

    The high-profile visits to New Caledonia from mainland French leaders come within two years of France’s scheduled presidential elections.

    And it looks like New Caledonia could become a significant issue in the pre-poll debates and campaign.

    LFI (La France Insoumise), a major party in the French Parliament, and its caucus leader Mathilde Panot also visited New Caledonia from May 9-17, this time mainly focusing on supporting the pro-independence camp’s views.

    Macron invites all parties for fresh talks in Paris
    On Tuesday, May 27, the French President’s office issued a brief statement indicating that it had decided to convene “all stakeholders” for fresh talks in Paris in mid-June.

    The talks would aim at “clarifying” New Caledonia’s economic, political and institutional situation with a view to reaching “a shared agreement”.

    Depending on New Caledonia’s often opposing political camps, Macron’s announcement is perceived either as a dismissal of Valls’ approach or a mere continuation of the overseas minister’s efforts, but at a higher level.

    New Caledonia’s pro-France parties are adamant that Macron’s proposal is entirely new and that it signifies Valls’ approach has been disavowed at the highest level.

    Valls himself wrote to New Caledonia’s political stakeholders last weekend, insisting on the need to pursue talks through a so-called “follow-up committee”.

    It is not clear whether the “follow-up committee” format is what Macron has in mind.

    But at the weekend, Valls made statements on several French national media outlets, stressing that he was still the one in charge of New Caledonia’s case.

    “The one who is taking care of New Caledonia’s case, at the request of French Prime Minister François Bayrou, that’s me and no one else,” Valls told French national news channel LCI on May 25.

    “I’m not being disavowed by anyone.”

    Local parties still willing to talk
    Most parties have since reacted swiftly to Macron’s call, saying they were ready to take part in further discussions.

    Rassemblement-LR leader Virginie Ruffenach said this was “necessary to clarify the French state’s position”.

    She said the clarification was needed, since Valls, during his last visit, “offered an independence solution that goes way beyond what the pro-independence camp was even asking”.

    Local pro-France figure and New Caledonia’s elected MP at the French National Assembly, Nicolas Metzdorf, met Macron in Paris last Friday.

    He said at the time that an “initiative” from the French president was to be expected.

    Pro-independence bloc FLNKS said Valls’ proposal was now “the foundation stone”.

    Spokesman Dominique Fochi said the invitation was scheduled to be discussed at a special FLNKS convention this weekend.

    Valls’ ‘independence-association’ solution worries other French territories
    Because of the signals it sends, New Caledonia’s proposed political future plans are also causing concern in other French overseas territories, including their elected MPs in Paris.

    In the French Senate on Wednesday, French Polynesia’s MP Lana Tetuanui, who is pro-France, asked during question time for French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot to explain what France was doing in the Pacific region in the face of growing influence from major powers such as China.

    She told the minister she still had doubts, “unless of course France is considering sinking its own aircraft carrier ships named New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna”.

    French president Emmanuel Macron has been on a southeast Asian tour this week to Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore, where he will be the keynote speaker of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue.

    He delivers his speech today to mark the opening of the 22nd edition of the Dialogue, Asia’s premier defence summit.

    The event brings together defence ministers, military leaders and senior defence officials, as well as business leaders and security experts, from across the Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America and beyond to discuss critical security and geopolitical challenges.

    More specifically on the Pacific region, Macron also said one of France’s future challenges included speeding up efforts to “build a new strategy in New Caledonia and French Polynesia”.

    As part of Macron’s Indo-Pacific doctrine, developed since 2017, France earlier this year deployed significant forces in the region, including its naval and air strike group and its only aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle.

    The multinational exercise, called Clémenceau 25, involved joint exercises with allied forces from Australia, Japan and the United States.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Radical legal step towards ending impunity for Israel over killing Gaza journalists

    Pacific Media Watch

    Journalists have been targeted, detained and tortured by the Israeli military in Gaza — and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has now taken a new approach towards bringing justice these crimes.

    The Paris-based global media freedom NGO has submitted multiple formal requests to the International Criminal Court (ICC) asking that Palestinian journalists who are victims of Israeli war crimes in Gaza be allowed to participate as such in international judicial proceedings.

    If granted this status, these journalists would be able to present the ICC with the direct and personal harm they have suffered at the hands of Israeli forces, reports RSF.

    RSF has filed four complaints with the ICC concerning war crimes committed against journalists in Gaza and recently joined director Sepideh Farsi at the Cannes Film Festival to pay tribute to Fatma Hassoun, a photojournalist killed by the Israeli army after it was revealed she was featured in the documentary film Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.

    After filing the four complaints with the ICC concerning war crimes committed against journalists in Gaza since October 2023, RSF is resolutely continuing its efforts to bring the issue before international justice.

    The NGO has submitted several victim participation forms to the ICC so that Gazan journalists can participate in the legal process as recognised victims, not just as witnesses.

    Being officially recognised as victims is a first step toward justice, truth, and reparations — and it is an essential step toward protecting press freedom and journalistic integrity in conflict zones.

    Nearly 200 journalists killed
    Since October 2023, Israeli armed forces have killed nearly 200 journalists in Gaza — the Gaza Media Office says more than 215 journalists have been killed — at least 44 of whom were targeted because of their work, according to RSF data.

    Not only are foreign journalists barred from entering the blockaded Palestinian territory, but local reporters have watched their homes and newsrooms be destroyed by Israeli airstrikes and have been constantly displaced amid a devastating humanitarian crisis.

    “The right of victims to participate in the ICC investigation is a crucial mechanism that will finally allow for the recognition of the immense harm suffered by Palestinian journalists working in Gaza, who are the target of an unprecedented and systematic crackdown,” said Clémence Witt, a lawyer at the Paris and Barcelona Bars, and Jeanne Sulzer, a lawyer at the Paris Bar and member of the ICC’s list of counsel.

    Jonathan Dagher, head of the RSF Middle East desk, said: “It is time for justice for Gaza’s journalists to be served. The Israeli army’s ongoing crimes against them must end.

    “RSF will tirelessly continue demanding justice and reparations. This new process in the ICC investigation is an integral part of this combat, and allowing journalists to participate as victims is essential to moving forward.

    “They should be able to testify to the extreme violence targeting Gaza’s press. This is a new step toward holding the Israeli military and its leaders accountable for the crimes committed with impunity on Palestinian territory.”

    Pacific Media Watch collaborates with RSF.

  • Samoa parliament to be dissolved in June, election date to come

    By Grace Tinetali-Fiavaai, RNZ Pacific journalist

    Its official. Samoa’s Parliament will be dissolved next week and the country will have an early return to the polls.

    The confirmation comes after a dramatic day in Parliament on Tuesday, which saw the government’s budget voted down at its first reading.

    In a live address today, Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa confirmed the dissolution of Parliament.

    The official notice of the dissolution of Samoa's Legislative Assembly. May 2025
    The official notice of the dissolution of Samoa’s Legislative Assembly. May 2025

    “Upon the adjournment of Parliament yesterday, I met with the Head of State and tendered my advice to dissolve Parliament,” she said.

    Fiame said that advice was accepted, and the Head of State has confirmed that the official dissolution of Parliament will take place on Tuesday, June 3.

    According to Samoa’s constitution, an election must be held within three months of parliament being dissolved.

    Fiame reassured the public that constitutional arrangements are in place to ensure the elections are held lawfully and smoothly.

    Caretaker mode
    In the meantime, she said the government would operate in caretaker mode with oversight on public expenditure.

    “There are constitutional provisions governing the use of public funds by a caretaker government,” she said.

    PM Fiame Naomi Mata'afa in Parliament yesterday
    PM Fiame Naomi Mata’afa in Parliament on Tuesday . . . Parliament will go into caretaker mode. Image: Samoan Govt /RNZ Pacific

    “Priority will be given to ensuring that the machinery of government continues to function.”

    She also took a moment to thank the public for their prayers and support during this time.

    Despite the political instability, Fiame said Samoa’s 63rd Independence Day celebrations would proceed as planned.

    The official programme begins with a Thanksgiving Service on Sunday, June 1, at 6pm at Muliwai Cathedral.

    This will be followed by a flag-raising ceremony on Monday, June 2, in front of the Government Building at Eleele Fou.

    The dissolution of Parliament brings to an end months of political instability which began in January.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Why NZ must act against Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide

    ANALYSIS: By Ian Powell

    When I despairingly contemplate the horrors and cruelty that Palestinians in Gaza are being subjected to, I sometimes try to put this in the context of where I live.

    I live on the Kāpiti Coast in the lower North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand.

    Geographically it is around the same size as Gaza. Both have coastlines running their full lengths. But, whereas the population of Gaza is a cramped two million, Kāpiti’s is a mere 56,000.

    The Gaza Strip
    The Gaza Strip . . . 2 million people living in a cramped outdoor prison about the same size as Kāpiti. Map: politicalbytes.blog

    I find it incomprehensible to visualise what it would be like if what is presently happening in Gaza occurred here.

    The only similarities between them are coastlines and land mass. One is an outdoor prison while the other’s outdoors is peaceful.

    New Zealand and Palestine state recognition
    Currently Palestine has observer status at the United Nations General Assembly. In May last year, the Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of Palestine being granted full membership of the United Nations.

    To its credit, New Zealand was among 143 countries that supported the resolution. Nine, including the United States as the strongest backer of Israeli genocide  outside Israel, voted against.

    However, despite this massive majority, such is the undemocratic structure of the UN that it only requires US opposition in the Security Council to veto the democratic vote.

    Notwithstanding New Zealand’s support for Palestine broadening its role in the General Assembly and its support for the two-state solution, the government does not officially recognise Palestine.

    While its position on recognition is consistent with that of the genocide-supporting United States, it is inconsistent with the over 75 percent of UN member states who, in March 2025, recognised Palestine as a sovereign state (by 147 of the 193 member states).

    NZ Prime Minister Christopher Luxon
    NZ Prime Minister Christopher Luxon . . . his government should “correct this obscenity” of not recognising Palestinians’ right to have a sovereign nation. Image: RNZ/politicalbytes.blog/

    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s government does have the opportunity to correct this obscenity as Palestine recognition will soon be voted on again by the General Assembly.

    In this context it is helpful to put the Hamas-led attack on Israel in its full historical perspective and to consider the reasons justifying the Israeli genocide that followed.

    7 October 2023 and genocide justification
    The origin of the horrific genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the associated increased persecution, including killings, of Palestinians in the Israeli occupied West Bank (of the River Jordan) was not the attack by Hamas and several other militant Palestinian groups on 7 October 2023.

    This attack was on a small Israeli town less than 2 km north of the border. An estimated 1,195 Israelis and visitors were killed.

    The genocidal response of the Israeli government that followed this attack can only be justified by three factors:

    1. The Judaism or ancient Jewishness of Palestine in Biblical times overrides the much larger Palestinian population in Mandate Palestine prior to formation of Israel in 1948;
    2. The right of Israelis to self-determination overrides the right of Palestinians to self-determination; and
    3. The value of Israeli lives overrides the value Palestinian lives.

    The first factor is the key. The second and third factors are consequential. In order to better appreciate their context, it is first necessary to understand the Nakba.

    Understanding the Nakba
    Rather than the October 2023 attack, the origin of the subsequent genocide goes back more than 70 years to the collective trauma of Palestinians caused by what they call the Nakba (the Disaster).

    The foundation year of the Nakba was in 1948, but this was a central feature of the ethnic cleansing that was kicked off between 1947 and 1949.

    During this period  Zionist military forces attacked major Palestinian cities and destroyed some 530 villages. About 15,000 Palestinians were killed in a series of mass atrocities, including dozens of massacres.

    Nakba Day in Auckland this week
    The Nakba – the Palestinian collective trauma in 1948 that started ethnic cleansing by Zionist paramilitary forces. Image: David Robie/APR

    During the Nakba in 1948, approximately half of Palestine’s predominantly Arab population, or around 750,000 people, were expelled from their homes or forced to flee. Initially this was  through Zionist paramilitaries.

    After the establishment of the State of Israel in May this repression was picked up by its military. Massacres, biological warfare (by poisoning village wells) and either complete destruction or depopulation of Palestinian-majority towns, villages, and urban neighbourhoods (which were then given Hebrew names) followed

    By the end of the Nakba, 78 percent of the total land area of the former Mandatory Palestine was controlled by Israel.

    Genocide to speed up ethnic cleansing
    Ethnic cleansing was unsuccessfully pursued, with the support of the United Kingdom and France, in the Suez Canal crisis of 1956. More successful was the Six Day War of 1967,  which included the military and political occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

    Throughout this period ethnic cleansing was not characterised by genocide. That is, it was not the deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying them.

    Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians
    Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians began in May 1948 and has accelerated to genocide in 2023. Image: politicalbytes.blog

    In fact, the acceptance of a two-state solution (Israel and Palestine) under the ill-fated Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995 put a temporary constraint on the expansion of ethnic cleansing.

    Since its creation in 1948, Israel, along with South Africa the same year (until 1994), has been an apartheid state.   I discussed this in an earlier Political Bytes post (15 March 2025), When apartheid met Zionism.

    However, while sharing the racism, discrimination, brutal violence, repression and massacres inherent in apartheid, it was not characterised by genocide in South Africa; nor was it in Israel for most of its existence until the current escalation of ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

    Following 7 October 2023, genocide has become the dominant tool in the ethnic cleansing tool kit. More recently this has included accelerating starvation and the bombing of tents of Gaza Palestinians.

    The magnitude of this genocide is discussed further below.

    The Biblical claim
    Zionism is a movement that sought to establish a Jewish nation in Palestine. It was established as a political organisation as late as 1897. It was only some time after this that Zionism became the most influential ideology among Jews generally.

    Despite its prevalence, however, there are many Jews who oppose Zionism and play leading roles in the international protests against the genocide in Gaza.

    Zionist ideology is based on a view of Palestine in the time of Jesus Christ
    Zionist ideology is based on a view of Palestine in the time of Jesus Christ. Image: politicalbytes.blog

    Based on Zionist ideology, the justification for replacing Mandate Palestine with the state of Israel rests on a Biblical argument for the right of Jews to retake their “homeland”. This justification goes back to the time of that charismatic carpenter and prophet Jesus Christ.

    The population of Palestine in Jesus’ day was about 500,000 to 600,000 (a little bigger than both greater Wellington and similar to that of Jerusalem today). About 18,000 of these residents were clergy, priests and Levites (a distinct male group within Jewish communities).

    Jerusalem itself in biblical times, with a population of 55,000, was a diverse city and pilgrimage centre. It was also home to numerous Diaspora Jewish communities.

    In fact, during the 7th century BC at least eight nations were settled within Palestine. In addition to Judaeans, they included Arameans, Samaritans, Phoenicians and Philistines.

    A breakdown based on religious faiths (Jews, Christians and Muslims) provides a useful insight into how Palestine has evolved since the time of Jesus. Jews were the majority until the 4th century AD.

    By the fifth century they had been supplanted by Christians and then from the 12th century to 1947 Muslims were the largest group. As earlier as the 12th century Arabic had become the dominant language. It should be noted that many Christians were Arabs.

    Adding to this evolving diversity of ethnicity is the fact that during this time Palestine had been ruled by four empires — Roman, Persian, Ottoman and British.

    Prior to 1948 the population of the region known as Mandate Palestine approximately corresponded to the combined Israel and Palestine today. Throughout its history it has varied in both size and ethnic composition.

    The Ottoman census of 1878 provides an indicative demographic profile of its three districts that approximated what became Mandatory Palestine after the end of World War 1.

    Group Population Percentage
    Muslim citizens 403,795 86–87%
    Christian citizens 43,659 9%
    Jewish citizens 15,011 3%
    Jewish (foreign-born) Est. 5–10,000 1–2%
    Total Up to 472,465 100.0%

    In 1882, the Ottoman Empire revealed that the estimated 24,000 Jews in Palestine represented just 0.3 percent of the world’s Jewish population.

    The self-determination claim
    Based on religion the estimated population of Palestine in 1922 was 78 percent Muslim, 11 percent Jewish, and 10 percent Christian.

    By 1945 this composition had changed to 58 percent Muslim, 33 percent Jewish and 8 percent Christian. The reason for this shift was the success of the Zionist campaigning for Jews to migrate to Palestine which was accelerated by the Jewish holocaust.

    By 15 May 1948, the total population of the state of Israel was 805,900, of which 649,600 (80.6 percent) were Jews with Palestinians being 156,000 (19.4 percent). This turnaround was primarily due to the devastating impact of the Nakba.

    Today Israel’s population is over 9.5 million of which over 77 percent are Jewish and more than 20 percent are Palestinian. The latter’s absolute growth is attributable to Israel’s subsequent geographic expansion, particularly in 1967, and a higher birth rate.

    Palestine today
    Palestine today (parts of West Bank under Israeli occupation). Map: politicalbytes.blog

    The current population of the Palestinian Territories, including Gaza, is more than 5.5 million. Compare this with the following brief sample of much smaller self-determination countries —  Slovenia (2.2 million), Timor-Leste (1.4 million), and Tonga (104,000).

    The population size of the Palestinian Territories is more than half that of Israel. Closer to home it is a little higher than New Zealand.

    The only reason why Palestinians continue to be denied the right to self-determination is the Zionist ideological claim linked to the biblical time of Jesus Christ and its consequential strategy of ethnic cleansing.

    If it was not for the opposition of the United States, then this right would not have been denied. It has been this opposition that has enabled Israel’s strategy.

    Comparative value of Palestinian lives
    The use of genocide as the latest means of achieving ethnic cleansing highlights how Palestinian lives are valued compared with Israeli lives.

    While not of the same magnitude appropriated comparisons have been made with the horrific ethnic cleansing of Jews through the means of the holocaust by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Per capita the scale of the magnitude gap is reduced considerably.

    Since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry (and confirmed by the World Health Organisation) more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed. Of those killed over 16,500 were children. Compare this with less than 2000 Israelis killed.

    Further, at least 310 UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) team members have been killed along with over 200 journalists and media workers. Add to this around 1400 healthcare workers including doctors and nurses.

    What also can’t be forgotten is the increasing Israeli ethnic cleansing on the occupied West Bank. Around 950 Palestinians, including around 200 children, have also been killed during this same period.

    Time for New Zealand to recognise Palestine
    The above discussion is in the context of the three justifications for supporting the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians strategy that goes back to 1948 and which, since October 2023, is being accelerated by genocide.

    • First, it requires the conviction that the theology of Judaism in Palestine in the biblical times following the birth of Jesus Christ trumps both the significantly changing demography from the 5th century at least to the mid-20th century and the numerical predominance of Arabs in Mandate Palestine;
    • Second, and consequentially, it requires the conviction that while Israelis are entitled to self-determination, Palestinians are not; and
    • Finally, it requires that Israeli lives are much more valuable than Palestinian lives. In fact, the latter have no value at all.

    Unless the government, including Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, shares these convictions (especially the “here and now” second and third) then it should do the right thing first by unequivocally saying so, and then by recognising the right of Palestine to be an independent state.

    Ian Powell is a progressive health, labour market and political “no-frills” forensic commentator in New Zealand. A former senior doctors union leader for more than 30 years, he blogs at Second Opinion and Political Bytes, where this article was first published. Republished with the author’s permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Israel bombs Gaza journalist’s home, kills 8 – shoots 3 at new ‘aid’ point

    Asia Pacific Report

    Eight people were reported killed and others wounded when the Israeli army bombed the home of journalist Osama al-Arbid in the as-Saftawi area of northern Gaza today, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.

    Al-Arbid reportedly survived the strike, with dramatic video showing him being pulled from the rubble of the house.

    Medical sources said that at least 15 people in total had been killed by Israeli attacks since the early hours of today across the Strip.

    Large crowds gathered in chaotic scenes in southern Rafah as the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) opened its first aid distribution point, with thousands of Palestinians storming past barricades in desperation for food after a three-month blockade.

    Israeli forces opened fire on the crowd during the chaos, with Gaza’s Government Media Office saying Israel’s military killed three people and wounded 46.

    A spokesman for the UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, said the images and videos from the aid points set up by GHF were “heartbreaking, to say the least”.

    The UN and other aid groups have condemned the GHF’s aid distribution model, saying it does not abide by humanitarian principles and could displace people further from their homes.

    People go missing in chaos
    Amid the buzz of Israeli military helicopters overhead and gunfire rattling in the background, several people also went missing in the ensuing stampede, officials in Gaza said.

    Gaza’s Government Media Office said Israeli forces around the area “opened live fire on starving civilians who were lured to these locations under the pretence of receiving aid”.

    The Israeli military said its soldiers had fired “warning shots” in the area outside the distribution site and that control was re-established.

    Gaza had been under total Israeli blockade for close to three months, since March 2.

    Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamed Vall reported there was no evidence that Hamas had disrupted the aid distribution, as claimed by Israeli-sourced reports. He instead pointed to the sheer need — more than two million Palestinians live in Gaza.

    “These are the people of Gaza, the civilians of Gaza, trying to get just a piece of food — just any piece of food for their children, for themselves,” he said.

    More than 54,000 killed
    Aid officials said that moving Palestinians southwards could be a “preliminary phase for the complete ousting” of Gaza’s population.

    Last Sunday, hours before the GHF was due to begin delivering food, Jake Wood, the head of the controversial aid organisation, resigned saying he did not believe it was possible for the organisation to operate independently or adhere to strict humanitarian principles, reports Middle East Eye.

    According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 54,056 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war in October 2023, which humanitarian aid groups and United Nations experts have described as a genocide.

    Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for two missile attacks on Israel, saying they came in response to the storming of occupied East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound a day earlier by Israeli settlers.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Samoan PM Fiamē advises dissolution of parliament, calls for snap elections

    RNZ Pacific

    Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa has advised Samoa’s head of state that it is necessary to dissolve Parliament so the country can move to an election.

    This follows the bill for the budget not getting enough support for a first reading on yesterday, and Fiame announcing she would therefore seek an early election.

    Tuimaleali’ifano Va’aleto’a Sualauvi II has accepted Fiame’s advice and a formal notice will be duly gazetted to confirm the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly.

    Parliament will go into caretaker mode, and the Cabinet will have the general direction and control of the existing government until the first session of the Legislative Assembly following dissolution.

    Fiame, who has led a minority government since being ousted from her former FAST party in January, finally conceded defeat on the floor of Parliament yesterday morning after her government’s 2025 Budget was voted down.

    MPs from both the opposition Human Rights Protection Party and Fiame’s former FAST party joined forces to defeat the budget with the final vote coming in 34 against, 16 in support and two abstentions.

    Defeated motions
    Tuesday was the Samoan Parliament’s first sitting since back-to-back no-confidence motions were moved — unsuccessfully — against prime minister Fiame.

    In January, Fiame removed her FAST Party chairman La’auli Leuatea Schmidt and several FAST ministers from her Cabinet.

    In turn, La’auli ejected her from the FAST Party, leaving her leading a minority government.

    Her former party had been pushing for an early election, including via legal action.

    The election is set to be held within three months.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Plea for UN intervention over illegal PNG loggers ‘stealing forests’

    RNZ Pacific

    A United Nations committee is being urged to act over human rights violations committed by illegal loggers in Papua New Guinea.

    Watchdog groups Act Now! and Jubilee Australia have filed a formal request to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to consider action at its next meeting in August.

    “We have stressed with the UN that there is pervasive, ongoing and irreparable harm to customary resource owners whose forests are being stolen by logging companies,” Act Now! campaign manager Eddie Tanago said.

    He said these abuses were systematic, institutionalised, and sanctioned by the PNG government through two specific tools: Special Agriculture and Business Leases (SABLs) and Forest Clearing Authorities (FCAs) — a type of logging licence.

    “For over a decade since the Commission of Inquiry into SABLs, successive PNG governments have rubber stamped the large-scale theft of customary resource owners’ forests by upholding the morally bankrupt SABL scheme and expanding the use of FCAs,” Tanago said.

    He said the government had failed to revoke SABLs that were acquired fraudulently, with disregard to the law or without landowner consent.

    “Meanwhile, logging companies have made hundreds of millions, if not billions, in ill-gotten gains by effectively stealing forests from customary resource owners using FCAs.”

    Abuses hard to challenge
    The complaint also highlights that the abuses are hard to challenge because PNG lacks even a basic registry of SABLs or FCAs, and customary resource owners are denied access to information to the information they need, such as:

    • The existence of an SABL or FCA over their forest;
    • A map of the boundaries of any lease or logging licence;
    • Information about proposed agricultural projects used to justify the SABL or FCA;
    • The monetary value of logs taken from forests; and
    • The beneficial ownership of logging companies — to identify who ultimately profits from illegal logging.

    “The only reason why foreign companies engage in illegal logging in PNG is to make money,” he said, adding that “it’s profitable because importing companies and countries are willing to accept illegally logged timber into their markets and supply chains.”

    ACT NOW campaigner Eddie Tanago
    ACT NOW campaigner Eddie Tanago . . . “demand a public audit of the logging permits – the money would dry up.” Image: Facebook/ACT NOW!/RNZ Pacific

    “If they refused to take any more timber from SABL and FCA areas and demanded a public audit of the logging permits — the money would dry up.”

    Act Now! and Jubilee Australia are hoping that this UN attention will urge the international community to see this is not an issue of “less-than-perfect forest law enforcement”.

    “This is a system, honed over decades, that is perpetrating irreparable harm on indigenous peoples across PNG through the wholesale violation of their rights and destroying their forests.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • PSNA condemns NZ’s ‘indifference to mass murder’ as Israel blocks aid to starving Palestinians

    Asia Pacific Report

    New Zealand humanitarian aid for Gaza worth up to $29 million is being blocked by Israel on the border of the besieged enclave, says the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa.

    PSNA co-chair John Minto said in a statement today that this aid was loaded on some of the 9000 aid trucks sitting ready on the border with Gaza to try to lift the Israeli created famine.

    Israel cut off all food, medicine, fuel, and nearly all water supplies entering Gaza three months ago and the Gaza Health Ministry reports that the Palestinian death toll has now topped 54,000 since the war on the enclave began.

    New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said last week that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “simply intolerable”.

    Minto said that since then — while Israel had refused to allow more than a trickle of aid into Gaza, and escalated its already horrific military onslaught — the only public statement by Peters had been to offer condolences for the shooting of two Israeli diplomats in Washington.

    “Our government’s selective indifference to mass murder is making all of us complicit,” Minto said.

    Famine has begun and the UN has cited 14,000 babies are at imminent risk of starving to death.

    UN officials estimate 600 truckloads of aid a day are needed to feed the people in Gaza.

    Gaza’s own local food production has been destroyed by Israel.

    Some 70 percent of Gaza is already occupied by Israel or under Israeli evacuation orders.

    NZ ‘must take lead again’
    Minto said New Zealand had taken a lead in the past and must do so again.

    “Our government should be advocating internationally for the enforcement of a protective no-fly zone over Gaza, and a multinational military protection for aid convoys so they can go into Gaza whether Israel approves them or not,” he said.

    “At home we should be sending Israel an equally clear message. We must send the Israeli ambassador packing and immediately sanction Israel by ending all trade and other links.

    “As each day passes with no concrete action from New Zealand, our government is linking us with the most massive and ongoing war crime of the 21st century.

    “Our government will never live down it’s complicity but might salvage some credibility by acting now.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Motarilavoa Hilda Lini – strong, passionate fighter for decolonisation, nuclear-free Pacific

    By Stanley Simpson in Suva

    I am saddened by the death of one of the most inspirational Pacific women and leaders I have worked with — Motarilavoa Hilda Lini of Vanuatu.

    She was one of the strongest, most committed passionate fighter I know for self-determination, decolonisation, independence, indigenous rights, customary systems and a nuclear-free Pacific.

    Hilda coordinated the executive committee of the women’s wing of the Vanuatu Liberation Movement prior to independence and became the first woman Member of Parliament in Vanuatu in 1987.

    Hilda became director of the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (PCRC) in Suva in 2000. She took over from another Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) giant Lopeti Senituli, who returned to Tonga to help the late ‘Akilisi Poviha with the pro-democracy movement.

    I was editor of the PCRC newsletter Pacific News Bulletin at the time. There was no social media then so the newsletter spread information to activists and groups across the Pacific on issues such as the struggle in West Papua, East Timor’s fight for independence, decolonisation in Tahiti and New Caledonia, demilitarisation, indigenous movements, anti-nuclear issues, and sustainable development.

    On all these issues — Hilda Lini was a willing and fearless chief taking on any government, corporation or entity that undermined the rights or interests of Pacific peoples.

    Hilda was uncompromising on issues close to her heart. There are very few Pacific leaders like her left today. Leaders who did not hold back from challenging the norm or disrupting the status quo, even if that meant being an outsider.

    Banned over activism
    She was banned from entering French Pacific territories in the 1990s for her activism against their colonial rule and nuclear testing.

    She was fierce but also strategic and effective.

    "Hilda Lini was a willing and fearless chief taking on any government, corporation or entity
    “Hilda Lini was a willing and fearless chief taking on any government, corporation or entity that undermined the rights or interests of Pacific peoples.” Image: Stanley Simpson/PCRC

    We brought Jose Ramos Horta to speak and lobby in Fiji as East Timor fought for independence from Indonesia, Oscar Temaru before he became President of French Polynesia, West Papua’s Otto Ondawame, and organised Flotilla protests against shipments of Japanese plutonium across the Pacific, among the many other actions to stir awareness and action.

    On top of her bold activism, Hilda was also a mother to us. She was kind and caring and always pushed the importance of family and indigenous values.

    Our Pacific connections were strong and before our eldest son Mitchell was born in 2002 — she asked me if she could give him a middle name.

    She gave him the name Hadye after her brother — Father Walter Hadye Lini who was the first Prime Minister of Vanuatu. Mitchell’s full name is Mitchell Julian Hadye Simpson.

    Pushed strongly for ideas
    We would cross paths several times even after I moved to start the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) but she finished from PCRC in 2004 and returned to Vanuatu.

    She often pushed ideas on indigenous rights and systems that some found uncomfortable but stood strong on what she believed in.

    Hilda had mana, spoke with authority and truly embodied the spirit and heart of a Melanesian and Pacific leader and chief.

    Thank you Hilda for being the Pacific champion that you were.

    Stanley Simpson is director of Fiji’s Mai Television and general secretary of the Fijian Media Association. Father Walter Hadye Lini wrote the foreword to Asia Pacific Media editor David Robie’s 1986 book Eyes Of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Activists call for Pacific nuclear justice, global unity and victim support

    By Te Aniwaniwa Paterson of Te Ao Māori News

    Eighty years after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the Second World War, the threat of nuclear fallout remains.

    Last Monday, the UN Human Rights Council issued a formal communication to the Japanese government regarding serious concerns raised by Pacific communities about the dumping of 1.3 million metric tonnes of treated Fukushima nuclear wastewater into the ocean over 30 years.

    The council warned that the release could pose major environmental and human rights risks.

    Protest against the release of Fukushima treated radioactive water in Tokyo
    A protest against the release of Fukushima treated radioactive water in Tokyo, Japan, in mid-May 2023. Image: TAM News/Getty.

    Te Ao Māori News spoke with Mari Inoue, a NYC-based lawyer originally from Japan and co-founder of the volunteer-led group The Manhattan Project for a Nuclear-Free World.

    Recently, at the UN, they called for global awareness, not only about atomic bomb victims but also of the Fukushima wastewater release, and nuclear energy’s links to environmental destruction and human rights abuses.

    Formed a year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the group takes its name from the original Manhattan Project — the secret Second World War  US military programme that raced to develop the first atomic bomb before Nazi Germany.

    A pivotal moment in that project was the Trinity Test on July 16, 1945, in New Mexico — the first successful detonation of an atomic bomb. One month later, nuclear weapons were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing an estimated 110,000 to 210,000 people.

    Seeking recognition and justice
    Although 80 years have passed, victims of these events continue to seek recognition and justice. The disarmament group hopes for stronger global unity around the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and more support for victims of nuclear exposure.

    Mari Inoue attended the UN as a representative of the Manhattan Project for a Nuclear-Free World
    Mari Inoue attended the UN as a representative of the Manhattan Project for a Nuclear-Free World as an interpreter for an atomic bomb survivor. Image: TAM News/UN WebTV.

    The anti-nuclear activists supported the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which seeks to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Their advocacy took place during the third and final preparatory committee for the 2026 NPT review conference, where a consensus report with recommendations from past sessions will be presented.

    Inoue’s group called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to declare Japan’s dumping policy unsafe, and believes Japan and its G7 and EU allies should be condemned for supporting it.

    Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project
    Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project . . . The contaminated site once belonged to several Native American tribes. Image: TAM News/Jeff T. Green/Getty

    Nuclear energy for the green transition?
    Amid calls to move away from fossil fuels, some argue that nuclear power could supply the zero-emission energy needed to combat climate change.

    Inoue rejects this, saying that despite not emitting greenhouse gases like fossil fuels, nuclear energy still harms the environment.

    She said there was environmental harm at all processes in the nuclear supply chain.

    Beginning with uranium mining, predominantly contaminating indigenous lands and water sources, with studies showing those communities face increased cancer rates, sickness, and infant mortality. And other studies have shown increased health issues for residents near nuclear reactors.

    Protests at TEPCO, Tokyo Electric Power Company, on August 24, 2023
    Protests at TEPCO, Tokyo Electric Power Company, in Tokyo in August 2023. Image: bDavid Mareuil/Anadolu Agency

    “Nuclear energy is not peaceful and it‘s not a solution to the climate crisis,” Inoue stressed. “Nuclear energy cannot function without exploiting peoples, their lands, and their resources.”

    She also pointed out thermal pollution, where water heated during the nuclear plant cooling process is discharged into waterways, contributing to rising ocean temperatures.

    Inoue added, “During the regular operation, [nuclear power plants] release radioactive isotopes into the environment — for example tritium.”

    She referenced nuclear expert Dr Arjun Makhijani, who has studied the dangers of tritium in how it crosses the placenta, impacting embryos and foetuses with risks of birth defects, miscarriages, and other problems.

    Increased tensions and world forum uniting global voices
    When asked about the AUKUS security pact, Inoue expressed concern that it would worsen tensions in the Pacific. She criticised the use of a loophole that allowed nuclear-powered submarines in a nuclear-weapon-free zone, even though the nuclear fuel could still be repurposed for weapons.

    In October, Inoue will co-organise the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima, with 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo as one of the promoting organisations.

    The forum will feature people from Indigenous communities impacted by nuclear testing in the US and the Marshall Islands, uranium mining in Africa, and fisheries affected by nuclear pollution.

    Republished from Te Ao Māori News with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fiji can’t compete with Australia and NZ on teacher salaries, says deputy PM

    By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific presenter/bulletin editor

    Fiji cannot compete with Australia and New Zealand to retain its teachers, the man in charge of the country’s finances says.

    The Fijian education system is facing major challenges as the Sitiveni Rabuka-led coalition struggles to address a teacher shortage.

    While the education sector receives a significant chunk of the budget (about NZ$587 million), it has not been sufficient, as global demand for skilled teachers is pulling qualified Fijian educators toward greener pastures.

    Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Biman Prasad said that the government was training more teachers.

    “The government has put in measures, we are training enough teachers, but we are also losing teachers to Australia and New Zealand,” he told RNZ Pacific Waves on the sidelines of the University of the South Pacific Council meeting in Auckland last week.

    “We are happy that Australia and New Zealand gain those skills, particularly in the area of maths and science, where you have a shortage. And obviously, Fiji cannot match the salaries that teachers get in Australia and New Zealand.

    Pal Ahluwalia, Biman Prasad and Aseri Radrodro at the opening of the 99th USP Council Meeting at Auckland University. 20 May 2025
    USP vice-chancellor Professor Pal Ahluwalia, Fiji’s Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad and Education Minister Aseri Radrodro at the opening of the 99th USP Council Meeting at Auckland University last week. Image: RNZ Pacific/Lydia Lewis

    According to the Education Ministry’s Strategic Development Plan (2023-2026), the shortage of teachers is one of the key challenges, alongside limited resources and inadequate infrastructure, particularly for primary schools.

    Hundreds of vacancies
    Reports in local media in August last year said there were hundreds of teacher vacancies that needed to be filled.

    However, Professor Prasad said there were a lot of teachers who were staying in Fiji as the government was taking steps to keep teachers in the country.

    “We are training more teachers. We are putting additional funding, in terms of making sure that we provide the right environment, right support to our teachers,” he said.

    “In the last two years, we have increased the salaries of the civil service right across the board, and those salaries and wages range from between 10 to 20 percent.

    “We are again going to look at how we can rationalise some of the positions within the Education Ministry, right from preschool up to high school.”

    Meanwhile, the Fiji government is currently undertaking a review of the Education Act 1966.

    Education Minister Aseri Radrodro said in Parliament last month that a draft bill was expected to be submitted to Cabinet in July.

    “The Education Act 1966, the foundational law for pre-tertiary education in Fiji, has only been amended a few times since its promulgation, and has not undergone a comprehensive review,” he said.

    “It is imperative that this legislation be updated to reflect modern standards and address current issues within the education system.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • While Pacific is target of geopolitics, many nations still fight for basic sovereignty

    Samoan-Kiwi filmmaker Tuki Laumea checks in with indigenous communities in 10 Pacific nations for a new Al Jazeera documentary series, reports RNZ Saturday Morning.

    RNZ News

    As the Pacific region becomes a battleground for global power-play, many island nations are still fighting for basic sovereignty and autonomy, says Pacific filmmaker Tuki Laumea.

    Pacific leaders are smart, well-educated and perfectly capable of making their own decisions, the Fight for the Pacific filmmaker told RNZ Saturday Morning, so they should be allowed to do that.

    “Pacific nations all want to be able to say what it is they need without other countries coming in and trying to manipulate them for their resources, their people, and their positioning.”


    Fight for the Pacific: Episode 1 – The Battlefield.       Video: Al Jazeera

    Laumea knew the Pacific was a “poor place” but filming Fight for the Pacific, he was shocked by the extreme poverty of New Caledonia’s indigenous Kanak population.

    While indigenous people generally have what they need in countries like Samoa and Tonga, it is a different story in Kanaky New Caledonia, Laumea says.

    Laumea and fellow journalist Cleo Fraser — who produced the series — discovered that the country was home to two divided worlds.

    In the prosperous French south, people sip coffee and smoke cigarettes and seem to be “basically swimming in money”.

    Pacific filmmaker Tuki Laumea
    Pacific filmmaker Tuki Laumea . . .Kanaky New Caledonia home to two divided worlds. Image: RNZ/Nine Island Media

    Living in extreme poverty
    But just over the hill to the north, the Kanak people — who are 172 years into a fight for independence from French colonisers – live in extreme poverty, he says.

    “People don’t have enough, and they don’t have access to the things that they really needed.”

    Kanak community leader Jean Baptiste
    Kanak community leader Jean Baptiste . . . how New Caledonia has been caught up in the geopolitical dynamics between the United States, China and France. Image: AJ screenshot APR

    “They’re so close to us, it’s crazy. But because they’re French, no-one really speaks English much.”

    The “biggest disconnect” he saw between life there and life in NZ was internet prices.

    “Internet was so, so expensive. We paid probably 100 euros [around NZ$190] for 8 to 10 gig of data.

    “These guys can’t afford a 50-cent baguette so we’re not going to get lots and lots of videos coming out of Kanaky New Caledonia of what their struggle looks like. We just don’t get to hear what they’ve got to say.”

    Over the years, the French government has reneged on promises made to the Kanak people, Laumea says, who just want what all of us want — “a bit of a say”.

    Struggling for decades
    “They’ve been struggling for decades for independence, for autonomy, and it’s been getting harder. I think it’s really important that we listen now.”

    With a higher rate of homelessness than any US state, the majority of dispossessed people on Hawai'i are indigenous
    With a higher rate of homelessness than any US state, the majority of dispossessed people on Hawai’i are indigenous. Image: RNZ/Nine Island Media/Grassroot Institute of Hawai’i

    With a higher rate of homelessness than any US state, the majority of dispossessed people are indigenous, he says.

    “You leave Waikiki — which probably not a lot of people do — and the beaches are just lined with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of homeless people, and they’re all sick, and they’re all not eating well.”

    Indigenous Hawai’ians never ceded national sovereignty, Laumea says. During World War II, the land was “just taken” by the American military who still reign supreme.

    “The military personnel, they all live on subsidised housing, subsidised petrol, subsidised education. All of the costs are really low for them, but that drives up the price of housing and food for everyone else.

    “It’s actually devastating, and we all need to maybe have a little look at that when we’re going to places like that and how we contribute to it.”

    Half of the Marshall Islands’ 50,000-strong population live in the capital city of Majuro
    Half of the Marshall Islands’ 50,000-strong population live in the capital city of Majuro. Image: Public domain/RNZ

    Treated poorly over nuclear tests
    Laumea and Fraser also visited the Marshall Islands for Fight for the Pacific, where they spoke to locals about the effects of nuclear testing carried out in the Micronesian nation between 1946 and 1958.

    The incredibly resilient indigenous Marshall Islanders have been treated very poorly over the years, and are suffering widespread poverty as well as intergenerational trauma and the genetic effects of radiation, Laumea says.

    “They had needles stuck in them full of radiation . . .  They were used as human guinea pigs and the US has never, ever, ever apologised.”

    Laumea and Fraser — who are also partners in life — found that getting a series made about the Pacific experience wasn’t easy because Al Jazeera’s huge international audience does not have much interest in the region, Laumea says.

    “On the global stage, we’re very much voiceless. They don’t really care about us that much. We’re not that important. Even though we know we are, the rest of the world doesn’t think that.”

    Journalist Cleo Fraser and filmmaker Tuki Laumea at work
    Journalist Cleo Fraser and filmmaker Tuki Laumea at work. Image: Matt Klitscher/Nine Island Media/RNZ

    To ensure Fight for the Pacific (a four-part series) had “story sovereignty”, Laumea ensured the only voices heard are real Pacific residents sharing their own perspectives.

    Sovereign storytellers
    “We have the skills, we’re smart enough to do it, and the only thing that people should really be acknowledging are sovereign storytellers, because they’re going to get the most authentic representation of it.”

    Being Pasifika himself, the enormous responsibility of making a documentary series that traverses the experiences of 10 individual Pacific cultures loomed large for Laumea.

    Editing hundreds of hours of footage was often very overwhelming, he says, yet the drive to honour and share the precious stories he had gathered was also his fuel.

    “That was the thing that I found the most difficult about making Fight for the Pacific but also probably the most rewarding in the end.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ‘Starving’ masked Palestine protesters condemn Luxon’s Gaza ‘appeasement’

    Asia Pacific Report

    Protesting New Zealanders donned symbolic masks modelled on a Palestinian artist’s handiwork in Auckland’s Takutai Square today to condemn Israel’s starvation as war weapon against Gaza and the NZ prime minister’s weak response.

    Coming a day after the tabling of Budget 2025 in Parliament, peaceful demonstrators wore hand-painted masks inspired by Gaza-based Palestinian artist Reem Arkan, who is fighting for her life alongside hundreds of thousands of the displaced Gazans.

    The “bodies” represented more than 53,000 Palestinians killed by Israel’s brutal 19-month war on Gaza.

    The protest coincided with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon addressing the Trans-Tasman Business Circle in Auckland.

    The demonstrators said they chose this moment and location to “highlight the alarmingly tepid response” by the New Zealand government to what global human rights organisations — such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch — have branded as war crimes and acts of collective punishment amounting to genocide.

    “This week, we heard yet another call for Israel to abide by international law. This is not leadership. It’s appeasement,” said a spokesperson, Olivia Coote.

    “The time for statements has long passed. What we are witnessing in Gaza is a humanitarian catastrophe, and New Zealand must impose meaningful sanctions.

    “Israel’s actions, including the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure, forced displacement, and obstruction of humanitarian aid, constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of which we are signatories.”

    A self-portrait by Palestinian artist Reem Arkan who depicts the suffering of Gaza - and the beauty - in spite of the savagery of the Israel attacks
    A self-portrait by Palestinian artist Reem Arkan who depicts the suffering of Gaza – and the beauty – in spite of the savagery of the Israel attacks. Image: Insta/@artist_reemarkan

    Green Party Co-Leader Chlöe Swarbrick challenged Prime Minister Luxon in Parliament over his government’s response earlier this week, saying: “We’ve had lots of words. We need action.”

    Luxon claimed that sanctions were in place — but the only measure taken has been a travel ban on 12 extremist Israeli settlers from the West Bank.

    “This is an action that does nothing to protect the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza who face daily bombardment, siege, and starvation,” Coote said.

    The protesters are calling on the New Zealand government to act immediately by:

    • Imposing sanctions on Israel; and
    • Suspending all diplomatic and trade relations with Israel until there is an end to hostilities and full compliance with international humanitarian law.

    “This government must not be complicit in atrocities through silence and inaction,” Coote said. “The people of Aotearoa New Zealand demand leadership as the world watches a genocide unfold in real time.”

    A street theatre protester demonstrates against starvation as a weapon of war as deployed by Israel in its brutal war on Gaza
    A street theatre protester demonstrates today against starvation as a weapon of war as deployed by Israel in its brutal war on Gaza. Image: APR

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Air New Zealand to resume Auckland-Nouméa flights from November

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    Air New Zealand has announced it plans to resume its Auckland-Nouméa flights from November, almost one and a half years after deadly civil unrest broke out in the French Pacific territory.

    “Air New Zealand is resuming its Auckland-Nouméa service starting 1 November 2025. Initially, flights will operate once a week on a Saturday. This follows the New Zealand Government’s decision to update its safe travel advisory level for New Caledonia”, the company stated in its latest update yesterday.

    “The resumption of services reflects our commitment to reconnecting New Zealand and New Caledonia, ensuring that travel is safe and reliable for our customers. We will continue to monitor this route closely.

    “Passengers are encouraged to check the latest travel advisories and Air New Zealand’s official channels for updates on flight schedules”, said Air New Zealand general manager short haul Lucy Hall.

    In its updated advisory regarding New Caledonia, the New Zealand government still recommends “Exercise increased caution” (Level 2 of 4).

    It said this was “due to the ongoing risk of civil unrest”.

    In some specific areas (the Loyalty Islands, the Isle of Pines (Iles de Pins), and inland of the coastal strip between Mont Dore and Koné), it is still recommended to “avoid non-essential travel (Level 3 of 4).”

    Warning over ‘civil unrest’
    The advisory also recalls that “there was a prolonged period of civil unrest in New Caledonia in 2024. Political tensions and civil unrest may increase at short notice”.

    “Avoid all demonstrations, protests, and rallies as they have the potential to turn violent with little warning”.

    Air New Zealand ceased flights between Auckland and the French territory’s capital, Nouméa on 15 June 2024, at the height of violent civil unrest.

    Since then, it has maintained its no-show for the French Pacific territory, one of its closest neighbours.

    Air New Zealand’s general manager international Jeremy O’Brien said at the time this was due to “pockets of unrest” remaining in New Caledonia and “safety is priority”.

    New Caledonia’s international carrier Air Calédonie International (Aircalin) is also operating two weekly flights to Auckland from the Nouméa-La Tontouta international airport.

    The riots that broke out on 13 May 2024 resulted in 14 deaths and more than 2.2 billion euros (NZ$4.1 billion) in damages, bringing New Caledonia’s economy to its knees, with thousands of businesses and jobs destroyed.

    Tourism from its main regional source markets, namely Australia and New Zealand, also came to a standstill.

    Specifically regarding New Zealand, local statistics show that between the first quarters of 2024 and 2025, visitor numbers collapsed by 90 percent (from 1731 to 186).

    New Caledonia’s tourism stakeholders have welcomed the resumption of the service to and from New Zealand, saying this will allow the industry to relaunch targeted promotional campaigns in the New Zealand market.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Punitive criminal libel charge against Samoan journalist draws flurry of criticism

    Pacific Media Watch

    A punitive defamation charge filed against one of Samoa’s most experienced and trusted journalists last week has sparked a flurry of criticism over abuse of power and misuse of a law that has long been heavily criticised as outdated.

    Talamua Online senior journalist Lagi Keresoma, who is also president of the Journalists Association of Samoa (JAWS), was charged with one count of defamation under Section 117A of Samoa’s Crimes Act 2013 on May 18.

    She was elected in 2021 as the first woman to hold the presidency.

    The charge followed an article she had published more than two weeks earlier on May 1 alleging that a former police officer had appealed to Samoa’s Head of State to have charges against him withdrawn.

    The accused was charged with “allegedly forging the signature of the complainant as guarantor to secure a $200,000 loan from the Samoa National Provident Fund”. He denies the allegation.

    It was reported that the complainant was another senior police officer.

    Police Commissioner Auapaau Logoitino Filipo reportedly said the officer had filed a complaint over the May 1 article, claiming its contents were false and amounted to defamation.

    Criminal libel removed, then restored
    The criminal libel law was removed by the Samoan government in 2013, but was revived four years later in 2017. It was claimed at the time that it was needed to deal with issues triggered by social media.

    JAWS immediately defended their president, saying it stood in “full solidarity” with Keresoma and calling for an immediate repeal of the law.

    The association said the provision was a “troubling development for press freedom in Samoa” and added that it “should not be used to silence journalists and discourage investigative reporting”.

    “It is deeply concerning that a journalist of Lagi Keresoma’s integrity and professionalism is being prosecuted under a law that has long been criticised for its negative effect on press freedom,” said the association.

    Talamua Online editor Lagi Keresoma
    Talamua Online senior journalist Lagi Keresoma . . . charged with criminal defamation over a report earlier this month. Image: Samoa Observer

    Keresoma told Talamua Online she had been summoned twice to the police station and the police suggested that she apologise publicly and to the complainant and the complaint would be withdrawn.

    However, she said: “To apologise is an admission that the story is wrong, so after speaking to my lawyer and my editor, it was decided to have the police file their charges, but no apology from my end.”

    Her lawyer also contacted the police investigating officer informing that her client was not making a statement but to prepare the charges against her.

    Keresoma was summoned to the police headquarters on Saturday and Sunday and the charges were only finalised on Monday morning before she was released.

    She is due to appear in court next month.

    Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson, the JAWS gender spokesperson with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), said in a statement Keresoma was a veteran Samoan journalist with “decades of service” to the public and media.

    ‘Outdated and controversial provision’
    “Her arrest under this outdated and controversial provision raises serious concerns about the misuse of legal tools to silence independent journalism. The action appears heavy-handed and disproportionate, and risks being perceived as an abuse of power to suppress public scrutiny and dissent,” Lagipoiva said.

    “The United Nations Human Rights Committee and UN Special Rapporteurs, particularly the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, have repeatedly called for defamation to be treated as a civil matter, not a criminal one.

    “The continued application of criminal defamation in Samoa contradicts international standards and poses a chilling threat to press freedom, particularly for women journalists who already face systemic risks and intimidation.”

    Pacific Media Watch notes: “This is a disturbing development in Pacific media freedom trends. Clearly it is a clumsy attempt to intimidate and silence in-depth investigation and reporting on Pacific governance.

    “For years, Samoa has been a beacon for media freedom in the region, but it has fared badly in the latest World Press Freedom Index and this incident involving alleged criminal libel, a crime that should have been struck from the statutes years ago, is not going to help Samoa’s standing.

    “Journalism is not a crime.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.