Nauru Government Wins Supreme Court Case
11 April 2008 - Source: Nauru Government Release

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Nauru has handed down his ruling that unequivocally overturns the opposition’s attempts to amend the country’s Citizenship Act, which would have made two senior ministers ineligible to take their seats in parliament.

The attempt to change the Act was made during a meeting of opposition members on Easter Saturday night, which the opposition had earlier claimed was a lawful sitting. The government successfully argued that the meeting lacked a proper quorum and therefore any motion passed should be deemed invalid.

The speaker, David Adeang has consistently contended that the amendment to the Citizenship Act was valid and has tried unsuccessfully on three occasions to exclude the ministers from resumed parliamentary sittings.

However, Chief Justice, Justice Robin Millhouse made it patently clear in his judgment handed down today that the meeting of Parliament on the 22nd of March attended only by the Opposition members was not in quorum, and that therefore all business conducted during that meeting was and is invalid. Moreover, the Chief Justice also ruled that under Nauru’s Constitution, only the Supreme Court could resolve any question of a member’s eligibility, as argued by the government’s legal counsel, Kristen Walker on Friday.

President Marcus Stephen has welcomed the court’s finding, saying it will go a long towards bridging some of the gaps in Nauru’s system of governance.

“Unfortunately, previous parliaments have been guilty of side-stepping the will of the Nauruan people under their constitution, especially when it involves the question of appropriate quorum numbers.

“Their failure to heed the people’s will for fully representative decisions have created a weakness in the integrity of our system. Thankfully the ruling today by the Chief Justice has protected the constitution from any further misrepresentation or misuse.

“Today is a bright day for Nauru as we bury another flaw of our past,” President Stephen said.

The president also strongly criticized suggestions by speaker David Adeang, who has hinted that he would not necessarily abide by the Supreme Court ruling.

“He does not have any choice whatsoever other than to accept the ruling from the country’s highest court. Nor did he and his supporters ever have the right to make any determination in the dual citizenship matter,” President Stephen said.
 

Nauru court rules Easter parliament null and void
07 April 2008 - Source: ABC Radio Australia

The Supreme Court on the Pacific Island nation of Nauru has declared an Easter Saturday sitting of the country's parliament null and void.

During the meeting, which was only attended by opposition MPs, new legislation was passed barring the entry into the house of any MP with dual citizenship.

Two Nauru government ministers are dual Nauru, Australian citizens.

Our Pacific correspondent, Campbell Cooney, says the court has upheld a government challenge to the validity of the meeting.

The government's legal counsel, Kristen Walker, says Chief Justice Robin Millhouse's ruling means any laws and rules introduced during the Easter Saturday meeting cannot be enforced.

"Anything that it purported to do, without a quorum, is simply invalid and void," Kristen Walker said.

Parliament speaker, opposition MP David Adeang, had maintained it was up to the speaker to decide if there were enough members to make up a quorum in parliament.

Mr Adeang says he will be studying the decision, and seeking advice, before responding to it.
 

Nauru Supreme Court to sit on Friday on controversial dual citizenship law change
03 April 2008 - Source: Radio New Zealand International

Both sides in the Nauru political crisis say they are focussing on a Supreme court sitting due on Friday to consider the constitutionality of moves by the Speaker, Opposition MP, David Adeang.

Two weeks ago, Mr Adeang engineered changes to the Citizenship Act, making it illegal for MPs to hold dual citizenship.

The changes could give the Opposition a majority in the Parliament - something Mr Adeang has failed to achieve in two subsequent sittings.

The Government says the changes lack validity and spokesman, Justice Minister, Mathew Batsiua, says they are waiting for the Supreme Court to sit and hear their challenge.

“The Chief Justice will be coming to Nauru, arriving Friday morning, and he will be immediately seeking submissions and hearing submissions from the various people interested to make submissions on the matter, with a view to having a decision soon after that.”

Mathew Batsiua.

David Adeang says he may also delay calling Parliament until after the Chief Justice has made a decision.
 

Nauru MPs debate ban on dual citizenship politicians
30 March 2008 - Source: ABC Radio Australia

New laws and regulations governing Nauru's members of parliament are due to be introduced in the island nation's parliament.

Radio Australia's Pacific correspondent Campbell Cooney reports Nauru's speaker of parliament opposition MP David Adeang, has called for a resumption of the house at 4.30pm local time.

Mr Adeang's said the two government ministers with dual Australian/Nauru citizenship, finance minister Doctor Kieran Keke and commerce minister Frederick Pitcher will be barred from entering parliament.

The ban, based on laws and standing orders, was passed at an Easter Saturday sitting of parliament, attended by Nauru's opposition members.

The validity of the sitting is being challenged in Nauru's Supreme Court.

In a statement President Marcus Stephen's says any decision made on Easter Saturday is "unconstitutional, and he's clearly indicated both ministers affected by the ruling will be in parliament, and voting on government bills.
 

Nauru parliament meets in torchlight
26 March 2008 - Source: ABC Radio Australia

The president of Nauru, Marcus Stephen, has asked the speaker of parliament to give some certainty about when parliament will sit.

Last Thursday opposition MP David Adeang was appointed as the speaker of parliament, two days after the government-aligned speaker Riddell Akua stood down to stall a vote of no confidence in President Stephen.

The series of events has led to concerns another motion will be tabled without the government members being notified.

Pacific correspondent Campbell Cooney reports that with three government ministers out of the country over the weekend, on Easter Saturday the newly appointed speaker, opposition MP David Adeang, called a meeting of parliament.

The remaining government MPs refused to attend, and it is understood that although power to parliament had been disconnected, the meeting went ahead under torchlight and the government is refusing to accept it as a legitimate sitting of parliament.

Nauru's 18 member parliament is split nine per side, but with Mr Adeang as speaker the opposition has only eight votes.

But the speaker can call parliament at any time.

The uncertainty has already led to the foreign minister, Dr Kieran Keke, cancelling his attendance at Wednesday's forum ministerial meeting on Fiji, in Auckland.
 

Nauru pleas for more money and aid from Australia
22 March 2008 - Source: TV3 News

Nauru is pleading with Australia for more aid and money, after the island's detention centre was closed down.

While refugee activists applaud the decision to shut the facility, it has left a hundred workers out of a job and families battling to buy food.

Labor closed the immigration processing centre earlier this year. honouring an election promise.

It employed one hundred islanders, including Philip Diau.

The father of six now has no work and is struggling to feed his family.

"The kids just wake up in the morning went to school," Philip Diau said. "They haven't got any breakfast at all."

Nauru's government says the Australian-run detention centre injected $5 million a year into the local economy.

"To lose twenty percent at this fragile time is of significant consequence for us," Dr Kieren Keke said.

And now the world's smallest island nation is buckling under a thirty percent unemployment rate.

"Trying to find avenues to provide employment for our people is not the easiest, given our economy," Dr Keke said.

Philip Diau wants the detention centre to reopen as a training facility, funded by Australia.

"It's up to the Australian government," Mr Diau said. "So we can't say anything. I really want the camp to continue, because it's really helped all the people on the island."

The Australian government is talking to Nauru about how it can help fill the economic void. A spokesman for foreign minister, Stephen Smith says that is likely to provide aid and other assistance.
 

Nauru's riches to rags decline
18 March 2008 - Source: Aljazeera.net

Thirty years ago the tiny Pacific island of Nauru was one of the richest in the world.

For years, the population of roughly 9,000 lived off profits from the export of phosphate, a key ingredient in fertiliser.

Today though the island which covers just 21 square kilometres is gripped by financial catastrophe.

It is thought more than a billion dollars was squandered and now the phosphate mines are closed.

Six years ago nearby Australia saved Nauru from bankruptcy by establishing a controversial refugee processing centre on the island.

But a new Australian government elected last year has carried out its pledge to close the centre.

It was a victory for human rights advocates but for Nauru it marked an abrupt end to an economic lifeline.

The Nauru detention centre was different to the facilities on Australian soil that had been despised by human rights groups.

There was no razor wire and the refugees were free to wander around the island.

The centre created jobs, government revenue and also brought in foreign workers – together injecting more than $5m a year into the economy, about 20 per cent of Nauru's GDP.

With the centre now falling to the sledgehammer the government of Nauru is left with a gaping hole in its already thin budget.

Unemployment is rife, and the national bank has been shut for a decade.
 

Tough times for Nauru as money runs out
14 March 2008 - Source: Telegrapgh.co.uk

The world's smallest republic is facing financial catastrophe after Australia decided to close a detention centre for asylum seekers that was the lifeblood of its economy.

Nauru, a Pacific island whose perpetual sunshine and slender palm trees lend it the air of a South Seas paradise, will receive a devestating blow to its already faltering economy when the annual input of millions of Australian dollars evaporates when the centre shuts later this month.

The 100 Nauruans it employs as cooks, guards and administrators will be made redundant, with the loss of their salaries that have supported upwards of 1,000 family members — a tenth of Nauru's population.

The tiny coral speck is accustomed to hardship. A century of phosphate mining has left its interior ravaged and the government is saddled with debts of around £460 million after squandering a fortune earned from the industry.

Just when it seemed that nothing much else could go wrong, the new Labour government in Canberra has kept to on an election pledge the islanders were dreading.

The camp dates from 2001, when the former Australian prime minister John Howard sought out a site for depositing asylum seekers whose leaky boats were being intercepted on their way from Indonesia.

The so-called "Pacific Solution" was condemned as cynical buck-passing by human rights groups, but it was a boon for the desperate Nauruans, bringing jobs and an injection of cash from hundreds of Australian police, officials and contractors.

The facility came to account for a fifth of the nation's revenue. The last batch of refugees had their asylum applications granted last month.

Nauru's newly elected president, Marcus Stephen, 37, a former Commonwealth Games gold-medalist in weightlifting, said: "It will leave a very substantial hole.

"We're having to rebuild the nation again. It was our father's generation that was given all the wealth. Now we find there's nothing left. I do sometimes think 'how did we end up here?' "

Sue Diau, 46, a caterer at the centre and mother of five, said: "My whole family relies on me, so I don't know what we're going to do."

Named Pleasant Island by John Fearn, the captain of a British whaling ship in 1798, Nauru hardly lives up to the moniker today.

The road which encircles the oyster-shaped island is fringed by dilapidated homes, abandoned shops, burning rubbish and wrecked cars.

The narrow coastal strip supports neither crops nor livestock, aside from a pungent piggery paid for by the Taiwanese.

Political tensions on the island erupted into violence at the weekend, when the island's police station was burned down by a mob. It could all have been so different.

Nauruans once enjoyed the second highest per capita income in the world, thanks to their island consisting of almost pure phosphate, a mixture of ancient coral and millions of years of seabird droppings.

After independence from the joint colonial rule of Britain, Australia and New Zealand in 1968, Nauru earned billions of pounds from exporting phosphate, used in the production of fertiliser.

Nauruans sat back and waited to be paid royalty cheques for the exploitation of their land, employing other Pacific islanders to do the hot, dirty work of digging out the phosphate from between pinnacles of fossilized coral

They went on a giddy spending spree, chartering planes to take them on shopping trips to Hawaii, Guam and Singapore.

In spite of the island's 25mph speed limit, a chief of police bought a yellow Lamborghini, then found himself too fat to fit behind the wheel.

"From the 1970s to the 1990s we were showered with riches but we didn't know how to handle them," said Evi Agir, 40, playing his guitar in the shade of a tree as children scampered around his feet. "Hardly anyone thought of investing the money."

Manoa Tongamalo, 43, who is about to lose his job as a detention centre guard, said: "A lot of stupid things happened. People would go into a shop, buy a few sweets, pay with a A$50 note and not take the change. They'd use money as toilet paper."

Conmen descended on the island, persuading the cash-rich government to invest in a succession of bizarre projects.

Islanders also funded a short-lived West End musical about the life of Leonardo da Vinci. The money eventually ran out.

Bankrupt by 2000, Nauru was handed a lifeline by John Howard's government.

Despite its latest woes, it is determined to clamber out of the hole it dug for itself.

An old guard of discredited politicians was turfed out of power in 2004 and replaced by a government of Australian-educated technocrats in their thirties. Phosphate mining has resumed, and a tuna cannery is planned.

Doneke Kepae, 44, a prominent landowner, said: "We must not make the same mistakes as in the first 40 years of Nauru's existence. When we had money, it was like partying every day and no one thought of the future. Now we are dead serious about the future." 
 

Police call on kids to help quell violence in Nauru
10 March 2008 - Source: news.com.au

Australian police in Nauru were forced to deputise teenage children over the weekend to quell an outbreak of violence that resulted in the country's main police station being destroyed by fire.

The police station was set alight early on Saturday morning by a 100-strong mob who had been protesting earlier in the evening at the loading of a phosphate ship in the country's port.

The police station houses the country's only jail and six prisoners had to be moved to the former Australian detention centre on the 21 sq km island northeast of Papua New Guinea.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said there was a possibility of more violence and said Australians in Nauru had been warned to stay indoors at night.

The situation was reportedly calm yesterday afternoon, but Nauru's police force, which is headed by an Australian Federal Police officer, Robert Lehman, took no chances on Saturday and swore in as many as 100 civilians, including several high school students.

Mr Lehman would not comment on the situation and referred The Australian to Rod Henshaw, a Brisbane consultant who advises the Nauru Government. Mr Henshaw was in Nauru yesterday but could not be located for comment.

An Australian staying in Nauru, who did not want to be identified, said that, after swearing an oath on the Bible, the police inductees were given blue hats to identify them as police officers and stationed on the streets to deter any further unrest. He said several were local high school students.

The Australian understands the mob was made up of land owners from the district of Aiwo and were in dispute with the Nauru Government over some money they said they were owed. The group also claimed to be suffering adverse health from the resumption of phosphate mining on Nauru as part of Australian-sponsored rehabilitation of the small country.

Nauru's consul in Melbourne Clarissa Jeremiah told The Australian yesterday they were themselves waiting for a report on what had happened.

The country's President, Marcus Stephen, is in Melbourne and would not comment on the unrest.

DFAT was continuing to monitor the situation.

"I can confirm reports of unrest on the evening of March 7," a DFAT spokeswoman said.

"The police station was burnt down following a local commercial dispute.

"No people were harmed or injured, all government services continue to function normally and no other national infrastructure has been damaged. The Nauru Government has moved quickly to fully relocate policing services to a new safe location in one of the offshore processing centre buildings with the assistance of Australian government agencies and officials."

She said Nauru police had received a warning of more violence on Saturday afternoon.

"The Nauru police received credible information about possible violent clashes between rival groups over he next few days," the spokeswoman said.

"Accordingly the Australian Consulate-General in Nauru issued a consular bulletin advising Australians in Nauru to remain indoors at night and avoid large gatherings or important infrastructure sites," she said.

The country's 100-strong police force was out in strength on Friday night due to the potential for the protest at the phosphate ship loading to turn violent.

Police were stationed at significant public buildings, but left their police station relatively unguarded and vulnerable to attack.

Nauruans were once among the richest people in the world but political instability and financial losses have left the country reliant on aid money.

The island built up considerable wealth from the mining of phosphate rock, which accounted for a large part of its land mass. But corruption and failed investments resulted in the loss of the money.

As the supply of phosphate available to be mined dwindled, the country took Australia to the International Court of Justice alleging its main natural resource had been plundered.

Australia settled out of court and offered to begin rehabilitation, which has now begun.

Part of the rehabilitation involves levelling the island's land and in the process mining residual phosphate.

While John Howard was prime minister, Nauru became home to an offshore detention centre for asylum seekers.

The centre went on to contribute 20 per cent of the nation's revenue.
 

Nauru wants to be fishing trawler service center
06 March 2008 - Source: Mariana's Variety

Nauru’s Foreign and Finance Minister Kieren Keke says Australia might help the island become a center for fishing vessel maintenance and servicing, reports Radio New Zealand International.

He said this was one of the ideas discussed in talks he had last week in Canberra with Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, following the closure of the detention center on the island.

Keke said Smith showed willingness to share views of a range of issues aimed at minimizing the economic impact of the center’s shutting down.

He said Nauru is not looking for aid handouts but help to get the island back onto its feet through practical assistance.

Keke said they talked about the revitalized phosphate industry and other sectors they are trying to develop.

“Such as fisheries or, more specifically, setting up Nauru as a site that can service fishing vessels in the region. As well as some other ideas we have got in the private sector — small business development and attracting foreign manufacturing into Nauru,” Keke said.
 

Nauru seeking compo over detention centre closure
02 March 2008 - Source: ABC News

Members of the Nauru Government will meet Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith to discuss details of a compensation package over Australia's decision to close its detention centre on the island.

The detention centre was set up by the Howard government to house asylum seekers being processed under its so-called Pacific solution.

Nauru's Foreign Minister Dr Kieren Keke says the centre contributed about 20 per cent of the nation's gross domestic product.

He says a compensation package from Australia would help develop other longer-term industries.

"The kinds of things we've been discussing and trying to identify projects or activities that will set up a longer term on-going sustainable source of economic activity," he said.

"Certainly we are not looking for one-off cash grants, which aren't really going to help us into the future."
 

Nauru airline hopes to get go-ahead to fly Micronesia-Fiji route
27 February 2008 - Source: Radio New Zealand International

Nauru’s struggling carrier, Our Airline, will receive a huge boost if the Fiji government gives it the go-ahead to resume flights to Fiji acting as the Marshall Islands national carrier.

Nauru and the Marshall Islands signed an air agreement as part of an effort to resume flights into Fiji by Nauru’s Our Airline.

Last year, Fiji rebuffed Our Airline’s efforts to resume the Nadi to Kiribati route.

Our Marshall Islands correspondent, Giff Johnson, says the hope is that Nauru can use the Marshall Islands pre-existing service agreement by acting as its national carrier for international service purposes.

He says says the route helps connect isolated islands to Fiji and airline officials say it’s critical to the economic survival of the carrier.

“It’s a hugely important route for these islands. I mean even though the numbers aren’t excessively large they will sustain air service two or three times a week. So, for ’Our Airline’ and Air Marshall Islands obviously it’s considered a money maker and is key to Our Airline’s financial health.”

The Marshall Islands are awaiting the Fiji government’s response to its request to revive the Marshall Islands air service agreement.
 

Marshalls, Nauru sign air deal
23 February 2008 - Source: Mariana's Variety

Nauru and the Marshall Islands have signed an air service agreement that is part of an effort to resume flights into Fiji, the major market in the South Pacific, by Nauru’s Our Airline.

The signing Thursday in Taipei by the Nauru and Marshall Islands foreign ministers also highlighted the multi-million dollar aid that Taiwan has supplied to national airlines of both nations in this little-serviced and sparsely populated sector of the Pacific. Taiwan in 2006 bought Our Airline’s Boeing-737 at an undisclosed cost, and has injected $3 million into Air Marshall Islands for the purchase of a 34-seat Dash-8 and maintenance.

Up to the end of 2005, Nauru linked four western Pacific nations with Australia and Fiji. But when Air Nauru’s single Boeing-737 was repossessed for lack of lease payments in December that year, Fiji’s national carrier Air Pacific stepped into the lucrative Nadi, Fiji-Tarawa, Kiribati route and has been operating two flights each week since.

Last year, Fiji rebuffed efforts by Nauru’s new carrier, Our Airline, to resume service to Fiji, said Nauru’s Foreign Minister Kieren Keke, who joined Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony deBrum in Taipei for the signing.

The business that Our Airline could generate from the Fiji route is critical to the economic survival of the struggling new carrier, airline officials say. Keke said Our Airline is covering its costs largely because of charter services it operates in Australia.

The Marshall Islands, however, has an air service agreement with Fiji, which it hasn’t used since halting flights to the South Pacific by its own airline, Air Marshall Islands, in the late 1990s.

The aim is to have Our Airline provide the service to Fiji for Air Marshall Islands, Keke said.

The Marshall Islands last month submitted a request to the Fiji government to revive its air service agreement utilizing Our Airline, but has not received a response, officials here say. “It is usually a regulatory formality to apply for the license to operate once you are ready to take up use of the rights,” Keke said.

But a return of Our Airline to servicing Fiji and Kiribati threatens to cut into Air Pacific’s monopoly on the Fiji-Kiribati route. Still, Marshall Islands and Nauru officials expressed optimism that the new service will get the okay from Fiji.

“The memorandum (signed Thursday in Taipei) will see the pooling of air service rights with the right aircraft types, in commercial code share agreements between Nauru’s and the Marshall Islands’ airlines,” Keke said at the ceremony in a prepared statement. “This high level of cooperation will result in an expansion of air services in our region again linking several of Taiwan’s allies together and with more destinations.”

Our Airline flies from Brisbane to Tarawa, with stops in Honiara, Solomon Islands and Nauru enroute twice a week. Mounting losses forced it to halt service to Majuro in mid-2007.
 

Nauru to continue receiving Australian aid
19 February 2008 - Source: Mariana's Variety

The Australian government says it will continue to aid Nauru despite the closure of an Australian refugee detention centre, reports Radio Australia.

The Australian parliamentary secretary for the South Pacific, Duncan Kerr, said Nauru gets more Australian aid, per head of population, than any other island country.

Kerr said aid arrangements may change in the Pacific, but Australia still has interests in a secure and stable Nauru.

He said Australia will maintain a solid support program for smaller island states like Nauru which have immediate problems.

“The ruling Labor Party made it very plain we were not going to use Pacific island neighbors as a dumping ground for refugees,” he said. “We decided, it was equally irrevocable to try everything we can to provide an on-going economic basis for good development opportunities throughout the Pacific.”
 

Event Polynesia to market and promote Toa Samoa RLWC campaign
15 February 2008 - Source: eventpolynesia.com

Samoa Rugby League has announced the appointment of Event Polynesia to market and promote Toa Samoa for the upcoming Rugby League World Cup, to be held in Australia starting in October. The arrangement includes marketing, promotion and fundraising, starting as soon as possible and includes all commercial arrangements from now up to and after the Rugby League World Cup. Details of the partnership are yet to be finalised, but the two parties are keen to work together for the betterment of Toa Samoa’s World Cup Campaign and commercial arrangements going forward.

“We are so delighted to be working with Event Polynesia for the World Cup and going forward" said SRL President Mr Peter Paul.

Toa Samoa RLWC Fundraising will kick-off in mid April with corporate fights pitching rugby league legends against those from other sports. It will also include fights between corporate professionals pitching CEO’s of the public and private sector against one another. This will be the first time for corporate Samoa to enjoy corporate fights, including wining and dining and cheering on a professional partner, while at the same time, contributing to and fundraising for Toa Samoa’s Rugby League World Cup campaign.

“It is such a relief for us to bring in a professional event company to take care of marketing and commercial matters whilst we concentrate on the administration side of things for the World Cup” said SRL Secretary General Fritz Tuiavii.

The local Samoa Rugby League competition kicks-off in early April, with trials set for July and the World Cup squad to be finalised in August. With the high interest and participation of our premier Samoan professional rugby league stars from all over the world, Toa Samoa stands a very positive chance to make the Semi Finals of the World Cup."
 

Govt 'understands' centre closure will impact Nauru
11 February 2008 - Source: ABC News

Immigration Minister Chris Evans says Australia is sympathetic to the financial plight of Nauru that will result from the closure of a controversial detention facility on the Pacific island.

The Nauruan Government says the closure of the offshore processing centre will hurt the tiny country's economy and put hundreds out of work.

Mr Evans says talks on any financial aid are yet to be finalised.

"Certainly the Rudd Labor Government understands the needs of Nauru," he said.

"They've been reliant to a large extent on the activity of the Immigration Department there and the detention centre, so clearly it's a matter of talking with them while making sure we close the detention centre."
 

Nauru detention to be formally shut down before the end of March
07 February 2008 - Source: Radio New Zealand International

The Nauru Government says it believes the Australian run detention camp on the island will be formally closed by the end of next month.

The Nauru Government is concerned at the economic impact of the closure and formal discussions with two Australian officials are underway on the island this week.

Nauru Foreign Minister, Dr Kieren Keke, says he has also invited his Australian counterpart to visit to see first hand the problems faced by the island.

Meantime he says the last asylum seekers, a group of 21 Sri Lankans, is expected to be flown to Australia within days.

“There’s a few remaining and I expect that probably within the week there will be no more asylum seekers left on Nauru. It is our understanding that the camp will be formally closed by the end of March if not earlier.”

The centre reportedly contributes about 20 per cent to the island nation’s $25 million US dollars GDP and employs about 100 locals.

Meanwhile, Australia’s other offshore processing centre at Manus Island has held no asylum seekers since 2004 and is expected to close by June.

A spokesman for the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, Duncan Kerr, said future unauthorised arrivals will be processed within Australia.

He said they will shortly be initiating discussions with the PNG Government on the future of the Manus facility.
 

Ten Samoan boxing pioneers receive honorary awards
03 February 2008 - Source: eventpolynesia.com

Ten recipients of the Samoa International Pro-Am Boxing Honorary Awards were presented their awards at the Pre-fight Cocktail on Friday 1st February 2008.

According to Mr. Puni, “It is fitting that the pioneers of Samoa boxing are honoured at the inaugural Samoa International Pro-Am Boxing event for their service in boxing. This weekend Samoa will not only host representatives from the four main world boxing bodies, but will make boxing history with local referee and judges officiating the WBO Oriental Cruiserweight title.”

“Contrary to what most think, it is very hard to raise funds in Samoa to promote boxing and especially to stage international fights here. This is the first and very likely to be the last time Event Polynesia Boxing will bring such an international boxing gathering here to Samoa.”

“Event Polynesia Boxing is committed to promoting Samoan boxers. However, the international title fights will have to be in Auckland where we stage our New Zealand fights because of the huge expenses that we incur to bring such events to Samoa.”

Mr. Puni and boxing officials made a courtesy call to personally thank the Prime Minister, Hon. Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi and to thank the Samoa Government for the financial assistance towards the amateur expenses of this event.

Mr. Reginald Leca, President of Oceania Boxing Association and representative for PABA and WBA at a media conference yesterday, compared Samoa to Cuba as a force in world boxing. But unlike Cuba, Samoa needs to move its amateur boxers to professional boxing earlier rather than very late as is the case with Maselino Masoe.

“This requires amateur boxing to work together with professional boxing in Samoa in association with promoters such as Event Polynesia Boxing, who are helping Samoan professional boxers to get ranking for title fights.”

The 10 recipients of the Samoa International Pro-Am Boxing Honorary Awards are:
Hon Peter Paul – Promoter, Hon Sala Ulugia Suivai – Promoter / Coach,
Savaiinaea Malo Slade – Boxer / Trainer / Coach,
Oscar Meredith – Trainer / Coach,
Hon Fa’asootauloa Sam Saili – Promoter,
Galumalemana Afeleti Betham – Trainer / Coach / Promoter,
Hon Polataivao Fosi Schmidt – Boxer / Promoter / Coach,
Lesa Eric Fatupaito – Trainer / Coach,
Maposua Rudolf Keil – Promoter, and
Ulugia Elijah Stanley – Promoter.
 

Rescued Nauru fishermen drank shark's blood to survive
30 January 2008 - Source: AFP
 
Three Nauru fishermen lost at sea for 11 days said Sunday they survived on the blood and meat of a shark.

The men were found by a Taiwanese fishing boat off the coast of Papua New Guinea on January 13, about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) from where they were fishing when their runabout broke down earlier in the month.

Stevie Notte, 38, Gabriel Mwareow, 32, and Solomon Tom, 25, had only left the Pacific island of Nauru for a day's fishing and had little food and no water with them.

As they drifted helplessly for 11 days with only a small piece of board to hold up as protection from the sun, they caught one tuna and one shark for food, Notte said, adding, "we drank the blood of the shark, we were so thirsty."

When there was a brief shower of rain, he said, "we licked the boat to get water."

Nauru officials asked the Australian navy to assist with the initial search and Notte said that on the fourth and fifth days adrift they saw aircraft flying overhead, but could not attract the pilots' attention.

"What kept me alive was my children. I kept thinking about them. I couldn't die at sea with them waiting for me. I had to try my best to stay alive," Notte said.

On the 11th day, when they saw the Taiwan fishing boat in the distance, they started a small fire in their aluminum boat hoping the fishing boat crew would see the smoke.

"Tom and Gabriel held me up to wave at the fishing boat," Notte said.

They did not stop waving or put out the fire until the fishing boat got close and dropped a small boat over the side to rescue them.

The Fong Seong 767 kept the Naurans on board until it docked in Majuro in the Marshall Islands at the end of last week to offload its cargo of tuna.

Taiwan's ambassador in Majuro, Bruce Linghu, said the trio would get a VIP flight home on Thursday when visiting Taiwan Vice President Annette Lu flies from the Marshall Islands to Nauru.

Lu is visiting the Marshalls and Nauru as part of a sweep through Taiwan's handful of Pacific allies, who are among only 23 countries holding diplomatic ties with Taipei.
 

Special accommodation and rental car deals announced for boxing fans
26 January 2008 - Source: eventpolynesia.com
 
Overseas interest in the upcoming Samoa International Pro-Am Boxing event in Apia on Saturday 2nd February 2008 will see up to 200 boxing fans and supporters arriving in Samoa next week.

Many more are expected to book a ticket to Samoa with the announcement over the week end of special accommodation and rental car deals for boxing fans and supporters.

Hotel Kitano Samoa is offering an accommodation special $200 SAT per room per day for up to three people with ELAVA at Vaitele is offering $120 SAT per room per day up to two people with continental breakfast included.

Apia Rental is offering a 15% discount to all their vehicles with DAT Car Rentals is offering a special $165 per day for their Hyundai Tucson fleet.

This was confirmed by Mr. Teleiai Su’atapulolo’o Edwin Puni, Managing Director of Event Polynesia, “For the next two weeks, Hotel Kitano Samoa and ELAVA Resort will be the home of international boxing with Apia Rental and DAT Car Rentals as the preferred rental car service.”

The inaugural Samoa International Pro-Am Boxing is an initiative of Event Polynesia Boxing in association with SPBI and SABA to provide our Samoan boxers both amateur and professional a pathway to boxing world titles by setting up the needed top international competitions right here in Samoa.

Mr. Puni credits the support from media partners Samoa Observer, Le Samoa Post, SBC, TV3, Vaiala Beach TV and Radio Polynesia in promoting the upcoming fight.

Mr. Puni goes on to say, “Staging international title fights in Samoa is very good for tourism and local businesses and also allows for our people to see the action LIVE and up close.”

WBO Oriental Cruiserweight title contender and current IBF Australasian Cruiserweight champion Mr. Lawrence Tauasa arrived in Samoa on Sunday with his manager Mr. Lincoln Hudson to prepare for the upcoming fight.

For more information contact Mr. Tuilagi Maiava Saipele Esera on (+685) 751-9458 or email: saipele@eventpolynesia.com.
 

Tough love key to Nauru's future
22 January 2008 - Source: The Australian

THE Rudd Government has an unparalleled opportunity to make a contribution to the evolution of real solutions for small Pacific islands by removing the asylum-seekers facility that delivers 20 per cent of Nauru's income.

Nauru's 21sqkm of land lies just south of the equator. Its nearest neighbour, Banaba Island in Kiribati, is also a mineral phosphate deposit, now abandoned. Fiji, New Caledonia and Australia are thousands of kilometres away. Nauru has a population of 13,000, about the same as Gunnedah shire in NSW.

Nauru's marine phosphate, to which it negotiated full access in 1963, gave it great potential wealth. If sensible management and investment advice had been followed, Nauruans could have been educated and lived well. Every Nauruan family could have had investments worth $1 million when the phosphate ran out.

Instead, more than $2.5 billion was wasted on pretensions to statehood, lost in investments that promised unrealistic returns and, more simply, was stolen.

Nauru has gone from being one of the richest communities in the world in per capita terms in the 1960s to being a mendicant living on Australian aid. Taiwan makes a significant contribution by keeping the uneconomic Nauru airline flying.

Living standards are abysmal. Educational levels have declined steeply. The population's fishing skills have been lost. Unlimited leisure and the consumption of highly processed foods have resulted in terrible health. Nauru has perhaps the highest level of diabetes in the world - evident in amputated limbs - compounded by obesity and alcoholism.

Some Nauruans have escaped to live and work in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the US. A reform government has been elected to try to put Nauru together, but totally unrealistic expectations persist.

Although Australian high commissioners were in Nauru for the 40 years of its existence as an independent state, Australian officialdom sat on its hands as Nauru's tragedy evolved. No nation that is dependent on aid can call itself independent.

An Australian finance team and an Australian police commissioner in effect run Nauru. They are attempting to restore services and balance the budget, but a Government and public service establishment way beyond the means of a Gunnedah shire make this impossible.

Nauruans are being treated like children by Australian officialdom, the UN and the 30 other international organisations that have signed the country up as a member. They are not being informed about their options, which are fairly straightforward because there are no economic possibilities on the horizon that could gainfully employ Nauru's population.

Nauru can opt to continue to live on aid, without meaningful jobs for most of its people. Few of the children and youngsters growing up there now will have fulfilling lives under this option. Worldwide experience suggests the dysfunctional effects of welfare dependence would continue to grow despite efforts to contain them. A few more lucky Nauruans would escape abroad.

But Nauru could negotiate an association status with Australia that would give its people access to work and residence in Australia. Aid would immediately be focused on education, perhaps including the technical college sought by Nauru's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kieren Keke, so that Nauruans could opt for permanent employment in and hence emigration to Australia.

This would not be a guest worker scheme that would give Nauruans only a few months in Australia followed by months of doing and earning nothing on Nauru. After finding work, Nauruans would be able to bring their families and settle in Australia, as do other Pacific island immigrants.

There would be a corresponding timetable for sharply reducing aid. Australian taxpayers would cease to fund Canberra-style government, international embassies and public services for what is in effect a country shire. The police commissioner's establishment would become a country cop shop. A shire engineer would be employed to run the public utilities. A voluntary council would run Nauru's affairs. This arrangement works extremely well on Norfolk Island, where living standards are 10 to 20 times better than those of the rest of the Pacific islands.

Many Nauruans living and working in Australia would no doubt wish to retain ties with their island and spend their holidays with their relatives. Remittances would flow back home. The Nauruan language and traditions would be preserved. Young people would have a future. There are many successful models to follow.

For example, there are more people of Maltese origin in Australia than in Malta. Australia would have contributed far more to Nauru by offering work opportunities that finally treated Nauruans as grown-ups than it can ever provide through aid.
 

Sri Lankan refugees arrive in Australia from Nauru
18 January 2008 - Source: ABC Radio Australia

Twenty-one Sri Lankan refugees being detained on the Pacific island of Nauru, have arrived in Brisbane for resettlement in Australia.

They're among 75 Sri Lankan refugees who passed their final health and character checks last week.

The Australian Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, says the resettlement is a significant step in the Government's promise to end the so-called 'Pacific Solution'.

The Government is expanding the detention facilities on Christmas Island as it winds up the centre on Nauru.