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By Alan Boyd

SYDNEY, Australia (April 4, 2002 – Asia Times Online)---Guerrilla leader Sam Kauona Sirivi complained bitterly last year that Bougainvilleans felt like "pigs tied to a pole" in their impotent efforts to influence the course of autonomy talks with Papua New Guinea. "We are essentially asking an institution, the Papua New Guinea (PNG) parliament, Bougainville's No 1 enemy, to give Bougainvilleans their freedom. We are already negotiating on an unequal platform," he said.

Twelve months on, it is the detached and generally disinterested politicians in Port Moresby who have given the renegade province its first real sniff of freedom. Legislators unanimously approved two landmark bills that will elevate Bougainville to limited self-governing status and allow it to call a referendum on full independence within 10-15 years.

The catch is that this deal still has to be ratified by United Nations weapons inspectors, whose efforts to ease background tribal...

KOROR, Palau (April 2, 2002 – Radio Australia)---Palau has been given a technical assistance grant from the United States to transfer legal documents onto computers.

The U.S. Department of the Interior is providing about (US) $145,000 to enable national statutes, court cases and other legal information to be made available on computers for public and practitioners' use.

The funding from Washington will cover half the budget for the project.

A government spokesperson said through the sale of printed material, computer disks and website access fees, the computerization of Palau's legal records will pay for itself within three years.

For additional reports from Radio Australia, go to PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT News/Information Links: Radio/TV News/Radio Australia.

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (April 4, 2002 - PINA Nius Online)---New Minister of Finance Laurie Chan has revoked last week's 25 percent devaluation of the Solomon Islands dollar by now sacked Finance Minister Michael Maina, SIBC News has confirmed.

Mr. Chan is yet to announce the revocation publicly. But SIBC News confirmed with banks in Honiara this morning that they have instructions from the Central Bank to revoke the devaluation.

The banks said that the exchange rate of the Solomon Islands dollar has been re-adjusted to what it was before March 26.

This became effective at 10 this morning, SIBC News was told.

Mr. Maina's announcement of the devaluation took government colleagues and the nation by surprise.

But the Central Bank of Solomon Islands and the Economic Association of Solomon Islands strongly supported his move.

They said it was vital because of the country's fast depleting foreign reserves.

The Solomon Islands economy has...

HAWAI‘I SHOULD MAKE ITSELF THE GATHERING PLACE OF THE PACIFIC

By Dr. Wali Osman Bank of Hawai‘i Senior Fellow for Pacific Economies at the East-West Center

HONOLULU, Hawai‘i (March 31, 2002 – The Honolulu Advertiser)---It’s time to take a giant step forward on an idea that has been talked about for years with little real progress: Making Hawai‘i a true Geneva of the Pacific.

Both the U.S. and Japanese economies, our main support systems, are in recession. Job losses emanating from recession, the Sept. 11 attacks and other causes, all external, make the argument for diversification more urgent than ever.

Comparative economic advantages, both physical and intellectual, determine an economy’s vitality. At least in the short run, these advantages and disadvantages are unalterable.

That raises the question of how our economic future can be different from the past. Hawai‘i's greatest comparative advantage lies in becoming the gathering place of the...