Archive _{- April 2003}

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (RNZI April 30) - A Solomon Islands
member of parliament has called for the immediate withdrawal of a police team
hunting rebel leader Harold Keke on the Weather Coast of Guadalcanal.

The call follows the killing yesterday of two special constables
pursuing Keke, said to have spread terror in the isolated Weathercoast region of
Southern Guadalcanal since forming the Guadalcanal Liberation Front four years
ago.

He is reported to have killed nearly 50 people, eight of them
police officers in pursuit of the renegade.

There is an increased police presence on the Weather Coast after
unconfirmed reports that Keke and his supporters had killed 21 people in the
past month.

But Y Sato says sending more police will only provoke Keke and
says the Government must take a different approach.

"Firstly immediately stop the operation hunting him,"
Y Sato said. "Secondly, the...

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (SIBC, April 29) - Vanuatu will be
sending its contingent to the South Pacific Games despite concerns raised by
other Pacific island countries such as Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands
about the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

The president of Vanuatu Olympic Committee, Joe Carlo,
re-affirmed the commitment in Honiara today following concerns raised by PNG and
Solomon Islands.

Carlo is accompanying, Kevin Gosper the Vice President of the
International Olympic Committee on a two-day visit to Solomon Islands.

Carlo said, precautionary measures taken at all entry points in
Fiji, Vanuatu, Australia, Papua New Guinea are necessary and hope SARS will be
contained.

Solomon Islands National Olympic Committee was to have met today
to make a decision whether or not to send a team to Fiji or call for a
deferment.

In other developments, Gosper, after arrival...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (RNZI April 30) - A bill has gone before
the Fiji parliament which makes it a criminal offence to use weapons in the
overthrow of an elected government.

The bill also seeks to criminalize the possession of military
type automatic and semi-automatic weapons.

The measure was introduced by the Minister For Home Affairs,
Joketani Cokanasiga, who said current laws are archaic and need upgrading.

Cokanasiga said present laws do not adequately address matters
related to internal security and the use of weapons in violent robberies and
disputes.

He also said the laws do not deal with the illegal import of
arms and ammunition, especially military type weapons, and their use in the
overthrow of governments.

Meanwhile, Radio FM-96 reports that police have begun collecting
witness statements regarding Vice-President Ratu Jope Seniloli assuming the
presidency as a usurper after...

SYDNEY, Australia (ABC Online, April 29) – Tonga’s banning
of the Times of Tonga newspaper has attracted condemnation from the
Press Councils of Australia and New Zealand, the Media Council of Fiji and the
Commonwealth Press Union (CPU).

In a joint statement released in Sydney, Wellington and Suva,
the media councils and the CPU say they have observed with growing apprehension
the reaction of the Tongan Government to the issues of free speech and the
rights of a free press.

The statement says the actions of the Tonga Privy Council have
been so hostile to the accepted standards governing free speech and the press in
the Pacific that the groups have, for the first time, united in a single voice
to condemn it.

It also says that to attempt to deal with opposition views by
way of censorship and legal prohibitions is wrong in principle.

Opposition, they contend, has a right to exist and be heard in...