By Sarah E. Treptow
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – A new council made up of six political parties met in Suva to express support for the interim government to hold elections in 2011.  The council is called the Peoples Movement for Political Reform (PEMPOR) and is demanding that Australia and New Zealand withdraw sanctions against Fiji.  PEMPOR also proposes elections be held only for the right reasons and not due to threats of isolation, they also call for respect for the integrity of the judicial system in Fiji.

The parties involved in PEMPOR are the General Voters Party, the Conservative Alliance / Matanitu Vanua Party, the Justice & Freedom Party, the National Allicance Party, the Party of National Unity, and Soqosoqo Ni Vakavulewa Ni Taukei.  The chair of the meeting, John Sanday of the General Voters Party, said Fiji People’s Party General Secretary, Charan Jeath Sing also indicated his support.

Sanday said, “We are formed to support the Presidential Dialogue Forum, and we will work with the interim Prime Minister to move the country forward and help restore democracy in Fiji.”  The council said that general elections could be held in three years because the country needs time to make their operations “clean and transparent.”

Sanday added, “Fiji has a legitimate Government and elections should not be held with guns held to our heads and comply with the threat to do it their way or be suspended from certain groups.”

PEMPOR expects five more parties to join and plans to hold a meeting with the interim government to discuss ways to help move the country forward.  PEMPOR secretary Meli Bogileka said the members highlighted the fact that major political parties were working towards their own agenda.

For more information, please see:

Fiji Times – Parties criticise move to suspend Fiji – 15 December 2008

Pacific Magazine – New Political Coalition Backs Fiji Elections in 2011 – 14 December 2008

Fijilive – Political parties back 2011 poll – 13 December 2008

By Ryan L. Maness

By Sarah E. Treptow
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji– Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama has said Fiji’s interim government will not be deterred no matter how cruel travel sanctions are to Fiji’s poor, young and innocent.  If the sanctions remain Bainimarama said his government will continue with their agenda.  Since the interim government seized power in 2006 the agenda has been to, “bring peace, durable stability and progress to Fiji.”  He told the foreign ministers from Australia and New Zealand this while urging their countries to life their “arbitrary travel bans.”

When discussing the bans Bainimarama said, “These sanctions have been harsh in their impact on us.”  He went on to say, “they have restricted the participation in Government from the pool of competent and non-political, and non-Military, Fiji people who are ready to take on appointments to serve on key institutions of the State including Government-owned entities and statutory bodies.  As a result, the nation as a whole is suffering and our efforts at service delivery and removal of corruption are being hindered.”

Bainimarama also highlighted the impact on education opportunities and bans on Fiji’s mens and womens sports teams.  He said, “I therefore appeal to you to re-examine the travel sanctions policy; and I urge you to use your influence to constructively assist Fiji, in more concrete ways, to help us move forward and to find durable solutions to our entrenched problems.”

New Zealand foreign minister Murray McCully and Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith said before the meeting with Bainimarama that their policies remain.

Bainimarama responded, “The Fiji Missions of both of these countries now only engage with those who are in opposition to the interim Government.  The two missions, by and large, do not engage with the Government at all.”

For more information, please see:

Fijilive – Travel ban forces state CEO out – 13 December 2008

Islands Business – Sanctions won’t stop us, says Bainimarama – 12 December 2008

Radio New Zealand International – Fiji’s interim Prime Minister says interim government won’t be deterred – 12 December 2008

By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – After meeting with members from Fiji’s interim government yesterday, the Pacific Island Forum is now threatening to suspend Fiji from the group.

On Thursday, leaders from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu met to discuss the political situation in Fiji. The Pacific Island Forum Ministers Contact Group expressed their dissatisfaction with Fiji’s efforts to uphold its promise to restore democracy.

At the meeting, Fiji’s Prime Minister, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, confirmed his plans to wait to hold elections until May 2009.

The meeting was called to discuss not only the date of the election, but also the possible outcomes and political consequences of a democratic election in Fiji.

Foreign Ministers from New Zealand and Australia, Murray McCully and Stephen Smith, say that the meeting was honest and constructive, but hope that the threat of suspension from the Pacific Forum will encourage Fiji to make good on its promises.

In 2006, Bainimarama led a military coup of Fiji’s Federal Government. Since that time, the ousted SDL Party has expressed growing concerns that the interim government will not make good on its promise to restore democracy. In October, a three judge court validated the 2006 coup, giving legitimacy to the interim government.

“The international community can’t and won’t sit idly by without seeing progress,” Smith said.

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International – Fiji faces prospect of suspension from Pacific Island Forum – 11 December 2008

BBC News – Fiji urged to hold elections soon – 11 December 2008

ABC News – Fiji hurt by political turmoil: Smith – 11 December 2008

By Sarah E. Treptow
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

MAJURO, Marshall Islands – The Nuclear Claims Tribunal based in Majuro announced last week that it will not provide any compensation payments for a third year in a row.  The announcement comes despite the fact that it owes more than $2 billion in already approved awards to Marshall Islanders for personal injuries, land damage, and nuclear clean-ups.

The Tribunal was established in the 1980’s by a Compact of Free Association between the U.S. and the Marshall Islands with a mandate to adjudicate and compensate personal injury and other claims coming out of the 67 nuclear tests the U.S. performed at Bikini and Enewetak atolls.  After a multi-year process of hearings, land appraisals and expert testimony, the Tribunal awarded Enewtak, Bikini and Rongelap more than $2 billion in land damage and clean-up funding.  Only $3.9 million of the land damage claims have been paid for lack of funds.

The fund that was once at $150 million is now down to a quarter of a million dollars which Tribunal Chairman Gregory Danz reports is barely enough to keep the Tribunal operational for a few more months.  Danz added that maintaining operations into the future is crucial to meet the needs of people who develop cancers from exposure to U.S. nuclear tests in the coming years.  The U.S. National Cancer Institute study from 2004 estimated that 531 cancers would result among Marshall Islanders exposed to fallout from the nuclear testing program and it said that over half of these cancers were not yet developed in the population.

President Tomeing has started to pressure U.S. government officials, seeking endorsement of a plan to use U.S. grant funding to provide $1.2 million annually for Marshall Islanders with approved but not paid personal injury awards.  He called this proposal an interim measure until a satisfactory compensation program can be put into place.

Almost half of the 2,000 islanders who have been awarded nuclear test compensation from the Tribunal have died before receiving their full award.

Mr. Danz calls the U.S. provided compensation funding “manifestly inadequate.”  The inability to provide 100 percent of its compensation awards “provides the best indication of (the) inadequacy (of nuclear test compensation from the U.S.) and the closure of the Tribunal would cripple the efforts of the Marshall Islands to obtain additional funding under (the Compact’s nuclear compensation) provision.”

For more information, please see:

Radio New Zealand International – For third year no compensation for Marshall Islands nuclear test victims – 08 December 2008

Pacific Magazine – No Compensation for N-Test Victims in 2008 – 07 December 2008

BBC News – Timeline: Marshall Islands