NEWSROOM 29 May
2009

(Photos: New Zealand Government)

NEW ZEALAND: Education, housing, health for Pacific people

(Photo: Samoa Government)

SAMOA: Parliamentary Updates
Source: Government Press Secretariat Press Release

Samoa attends WTO meeting

Cabinet has approved the participation by the Samoa Delegation of WTO meeting,Geneva, 25 - 29 May 2009.

While members of the WTO are scheduled to meet this whole week, reports for countries that are preparing to become members including Samoa will be looked at. This review is scheduled for May 29, where Samoa will be evaluated by the current members of the WTO on the following issues:
• Prohibition on the Importation of Turkey Tails,
• Prohibition on the Importation of Left Hand Drive (LHD) Vehicles,
• Prohibition on the Importation of Motor Vehicles more than 12 years old,
• Customs Laws
• and others

The Samoa Delegations include ACEO from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Auelua Samuelu Enari, Senior Officer Nella Tavita-Levy and Trade Officer Fiona Lene.


SIFA main Sponsor for the 2009 Classic Golf Pro-Am Tournament

Cabinet has approved the decision by the SIFA Board of Directors for SIFA to become the main sponsor for the 2009 Classic Golf Pro-Am Tournament.

SIFA was the main sponsor for this Tournament in 2008, which was called SIFA Samoa Classic. With the successful effort made by SIFA in handling this event, the Samoa Golf Inc is again asking SIFA for assistance.

This Tournament is scheduled for June 17 - 21, 2009.


Telecommunication Tribunal

Cabinet has approved the selection of Hon. Chief Justice Patu F.M Sapolu, John Haydon, Telecom Regulatory Advisor of Australia and Kester Gordon, Senior Advisor Telecom Policy from New Zealand, as the three members to form up the Telecommunication Tribunal.

This Tribunal will review the petition filed by the SamoaTel against the Interim Order from the Regulator regarding interconnection rates between the two Telephone Companies in the Country.


NIWA Awarded Contract

Cabinet has approved Contract awarded to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd (NIWA) to put together an Evaluation Report for the National Adaptation Programme of Action Project (NAPA) at the total amount of US$441,500.00 for four years.

An invitation for Bids was advertised and only one Company submitted an application. The application was then assessed by the Sub-Committee according Tenders’ Board guidelines. The Sub-Committee consists of senior personnel from the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Health.
 

(Photos: Sagaia Su’e Family)

USA: Justice sought for the wrongful killing of Roketi Su'e
Source: Sagaia Su’e Family Press Release

Pack the Court Room in Long Beach, for the wrongful killing of Roketi Su’e.
Court Trial commences; May 26th, 2009 (7 day trial)
Superior Courthouse,
415 W. Ocean Blvd (Ocean Blvd and Magnolia),
Dept H. (5th Floor) Long Beach,
California
Legal Representative: Cochran Law Firm, Los Angeles
 

Sagaia Su'e, 83 year old surviving mother of 46 year old Roketi Su'e and family invites you to show your support by attending the 7 day Civil Lawsuit trial commencing May 26th, 2009.

Roketi Su'e was shot 6 times to death in front of his home and neighbourhood children by the Long Beach City Police. He was unarmed, 120 lbs, shirtless, and on the ground with his hands up in the air at the time he was being tazored, beaten and shot to death in the back 6 times.

Come and join us at the Courthouse Long Beach alongside distinguished members and representatives of the Samoan and Pacific Island community, including the public, church leaders, high chiefs, family members, Human Rights groups and media in the fight against Police brutality.

We welcome all your support in the fight for justice of Roketi Su'e and all victims of Police violence.

Contact the Sagaia Su’e Family; 310 997 5404, or via email [email protected]


Photo Caption: Roketi Su'e was a quiet peaceful Samoan who was the main care giver of his 83 year old mother. He also nursed his late wife until she died in Texas, and he was well known to the neighbourhood in the area as loving and gentle and didn't have an ounce of hatred in his heart.
 

(Photo: Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme)

FIJI: Climate change funds in the Pacific
Source: Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme Press Release

Bringing the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) closer to the homes of Pacific islanders is one of the key happenings at a gathering in Fiji this week.

Close to forty participants from throughout the Pacific African-Caribbean-Pacific (PACP’s) countries are attending a regional capacity building workshop on the Clean Development Mechanism at the IUCN Oceania headquarters in Suva.

The CDM is an important term in the context of the international climate change negotiations. It allows for developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by carrying out climate-friendly projects in developing countries.

The workshop is part of a larger European Union funded project entitled, “Capacity Building related to Multilateral Environmental Agreements in African Caribbean Pacific Countries.” This is one of the special events coordinated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to mark 2009 as the Pacific Year of Climate Change.

Mr Epeli Nasome, the Director of Environment in Fiji opened the workshop in Suva this week.

In his statement, Mr Nasome noted that Carbon trading and the CDM has been at the center of discussion in international meetings and negotiations, and he welcomed the opportunity to discuss the issue in the Pacific.

Mr. Nasome challenged workshop participants to utilise the Clean Development Mechanism to result in the improved livelihoods of the communities of PACPs, especially resource owners.

Fiji was the first country in the world to sign the Kyoto Protocol and intends to play a leading role in implementing measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The CDM is fairly new in the African Caribbean Pacific countries. Currently there are only two registered Clean Development Mechanism projects in the Pacific region: the Wainikasaou and Vaturu hydropower project in Fiji and the Lihir Geothermal Power project in Papua New Guinea. The workshop will learn from the experiences from these two projects.

“The scarcity of projects clearly reflects the lack of capacity and awareness about the Clean Development Mechanism in the PACPs. The Kyoto Protocol imposes specific emission reduction targets on Annex 1 parties (developed countries to the treaty), which are binding under international law,” explained SPREP’s Solomone Fifita, who is coordinating and assisting with the conduct of the workshop.

“These reductions must be achieved during the Protocol’s first commitment period. The CDM is therefore one of the win-win mechanisms in the Kyoto Protocol designed to assist Annex 1 Parties to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as cost-effectively as possible while at the same time provide the much needed capital, jobs, trade opportunities and infrastructures to non-Annex 1 countries like the PACPs.”

Fifita believes the CDM enables developing countries to take advantage of low-cost opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in other countries rather than relying solely on domestic emission reduction measures, which may be more expensive.

The United Nations Environment Programme RISOE Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development in Denmark is responsible for implementing the CDM capacity-building component with SPREP as the Pacific hub for the project.

The workshop will explore the current status and potential of the CDM activities in Pacific countries, and prepare a work plan based on the common and country-specific capacity building needs of the PACPs. The UNEP RISO Centre and SPREP will then implement this workplan over the next three years.

The workshop is attended by representatives from the power utilities, senior energy and environment officials from the PACPs, Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific agencies, the private sector and NGOs. The workshop will conclude on May 29th.

For more details please contact Solomone Fifita, Manager - Pacific Islands Greenhouse Gas Abatement through Renewable Energy Project;

E: [email protected] T: (685) 21929 F: (685) 20231 W: www.sprep.org

Photo Caption: Participants attending the regional capacity building workshop on the Clean Development Mechanism at the IUCN Oceania headquarters in Suva.
 

NEW CALEDONIA: Outgoing New Caledonia President back as speaker
Source: Oceania Flash via Pacific Islands Report

New Caledonia’s outgoing President of the government, Harold Martin, has been on Friday elected as the new Speaker of the French territory’s Congress, cupping 31 of the 54 votes.

Martin’s elections seems to confirm that all anti-independence parties (his own Avenir Ensemble [Future together], but also the Rassemblement-UMP headed by Pierre Frogier, the Calédonie Ensemble headed by Philippe Gomès and the Rassemblement pour la Calédonie [RPC] headed by veteran politician Jacques Lafleur) have joined votes as part of what has been referred to in past days as a "pact of stability" to secure power for the anti-independence camp.

Kanak Socialist national Liberation Front (FLNKS, the pro-independence umbrella consisting of Union Calédonienne and Kanak Liberation Party [PALIKA]) had put forward its former head, Roch Wamytan, who eventually received 20 of the 54 votes. However, the newly-formed Labour party, who claims to present an alternative to the other pro-independence parties, had decided to go it alone and present a newcomer, MP Rose Walalimoua.

She netted the three Labour votes.

Martin, who has been heading New Caledonia’s government, has also been a Speaker of the Congress twice before: the first time in 1999 and more recently, between July 2004 and July 2007.

He replaces Pierre Frogier, who was last week elected President of the legislative assembly of the affluent Southern Province.

Still as part of the so-called "stability pact" between pro-French parties, Calédonie Ensemble leader Philippe Gomès is also strongly tipped to become New Caledonia’s next head of government, a position until now held by Martin.

The local executive, which is designed to be a reflection, proportionally, of the Congress, is to take place within the next three weeks.

Speaking after his election on Friday, Martin stressed he was particularly satisfied with the outcome of the May 10 provincial elections, which have determined the Congress makeup and resulted in what he termed an "institutional stability".

He praised leaders from across the political spectrum for showing a strong sense of

"responsibility" "for the common good".

Martin said there was a need for this king of "institutional order in New Caledonia", because, he said, this was the driving force behind economic development and the confidence of investors and the French state.

He also told MPs in his view, both pro-French and pro-independence sides in New Caledonia are legitimate and hailed the pro-independence camp’s reunion within the FLNKS, "Because to avoid divisions within FLNKS, let’s not fool ourselves, is also contributing to New Caledonia’s institutional stability"

Another step in a long electoral renewal process

New Caledonia’s electoral process began on May 10, with the elections of new MPs for the French Pacific territory’s three provinces (North, South and Loyalty Islands).

Those provinces held their inaugural meeting last week, on Friday 15 May.

In the Southern province, Gomès’s Calédonie Ensemble and Rassemblement-UMP (headed by Pierre Frogier), which came out of the elections as the two main anti-independence forces, struck a de facto alliance to join forces and get Frogier elected President of the legislative assembly.

The next step in New Caledonia’s governance and executive renewal exercise is scheduled to take place in coming days when the 54-member Congress of New Caledonia is to reconvene to elect the members of the local government.

The Congress has to elect New Caledonia’s executive not later than June 12.

This government is supposed to reflect New Caledonia’s compulsory multiparty provisions.

The final step of the parliamentary and government repercussions of the May 10 vote will be for the local executive government members to choose their President and Vice-President, not later than June 17.

The Congress that came out of Sunday May 10 provincial elections, reflect the makeup of New Caledonia’s three provinces (North, South and Loyalty Islands).

Under the 1998 Nouméa Accord, the local executive is bound to be proportionally representative of the Congress make-up and therefore underline the values of power-sharing and "collegiality".

The Accord was signed in May 1998 between pro-French and pro-independence parties locally, as well as the French government.

It has since provided a blueprint for New Caledonia’s gradual autonomy process, with a scheduled transfer of powers from metropolitan France to local authorities and the prospect of a referendum on self-determination some time between 2014 and 2018.
 

(Photo: Giff Johnson, Marianas Variety)

WORLDWIDE: Japan’s Mori: Ties to Pacific are more than aid and trade

Source: Marianas Variety

While Japan and Pacific Island government officials opened a trade fair in Tokyo last week as part of the Pacific Leaders Meeting to showcase export products from the region, former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said Japanese ties to the region are deeper than the dollars and cents of aid and trade.

Mori’s father served in the Army in Truk, now known as Chuuk, in Micronesia during World War II. “Despite the painful experience of the war, the Truk islanders treated him kindly,” Mori said. “That was the reason that he felt strongly about Truk. My father had a special attachment to the Pacific Islands and I developed my own.”

Since chairing the PALM summit in 2000 when he was PM, Mori has championed Pacific issues and called for Japan to teach its younger generation about the longstanding ties with its Pacific neighbours.

Mori, who also chairs the Japan Rugby Association, said it is these ties that underpin relations with the Pacific and colour Japanese policy toward the islands. The PALM meeting and expanding aid to the islands “is not just to (get votes to) become a member of the United Nations Security Council,” Mori said. “This is not so short-sighted as that.”

The historical relationship and family ties between Japan and the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau and other islands in the Pacific is demonstrated by the presence at PALM of FSM President Emanuel Mori, who is related to a branch of the Mori family in Japan.

Former Prime Minister Mori’s remarks Thursday, which departed from his prepared speech, highlighted the opening at the Japan External Trade Organization building of a Pacific Islands Exhibition where most officials talked about the need for small islands to nurture trade opportunities with Japan.

Japan administered the Micronesian region between the two World Wars, and left its mark, a fact repeatedly noted by the former Japanese prime minister.

“I attended the inauguration (of Palau President Johnson Toribiong) in Palau in January,” former Prime Minister Mori said. “As I walked trough the crowd, someone called out to me, ‘Mr. Mori, Mr. Mori.’ I didn’t think anyone knew me there. It was an older woman in a wheelchair who turned out to be the mother of the president. She spoke to me in fluent Japanese.”

He believes these rich and long-standing ties to the islands should be part of school curriculum in Japan schools. “We should let the children know about this wonderful history and ties to the Pacific islands,” he said. “We need to educate the children.”

Photo Caption: Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, third left, joins Pacific island leaders and Japanese government officials to open a Japan External Trade Organization-sponsored Pacific Islands Exhibition in Tokyo last week.