By Sarah E. Treptow

Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa – The U.S. Interior Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report stating that physicians at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Medical Center (LBJ) in American Samoa are “left making guesses about patient diagnoses” due to a lack of medical specialists and critical equipment.  According to the report, one of the most serious problems the hospital has is recruiting and retaining physicians and overworking the ones it does have.  LBJ is the only hospital in American Samoa, which is home to 65,000 residents.

The report contains personal observations of the OIG and interviews of the staff members of the hospital, combining to provide an idea of the difficulties.

Togiola Tulafono, American Samoa’s Governor, claims the federal government should take part of the blame for the deteriorating standard of health care on the island.  The governor said the reason the hospital cannot hire specialists and buy critical equipment is a lack of funds.  Mr. Tulafono reported the hospital can only afford to pay specialists a third of the salary they would earn in Hawaii or the mainland.

The governor said the report was issued to coincide with the Health Summit sponsored by the government taking place this week in Honolulu.  The report and finding solutions to specific issues it has pointed out will be topics of discussion at the Summit.

The governor left Sunday and will return Thursday. He has promised to brief the community when he returns.

For more information, please see:

Pacific Magazine – Togiola Welcomes Critical U.S. Report on Territory’s Medical Care – 30 September 2008

Radio New Zealand International – American Samoa Governor blames US government for problems at medical centre – 29 September 2008

Pacific Islands Report – Scarcity of Doctors Hampers Pago Hospital – 29 September 2008

LBJ American Samoa Medical Center Authority

By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – Despite harsh criticism from the Pacific community, Fiji’s interim prime minister has told the United Nations that democratic elections will not be held next March as originally promised.

Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the interim prime minister, addressed the UN General Assembly in New York, saying that for democratic elections to occur, he must first rebuild his country. According to Bainimarama, a democratic election system cannot coexist with the “evils of self-interest, incompetence, intolerance, and greed.”

In addition, Bainimarama claims that his duty to rebuild his country may necessarily take precedent over adhering to Fiji’s constitutional laws:

“To-date, my Government, which remains in effective control of governance in Fiji, has done all within its power to adhere to the current Constitution. We recognize that this is the supreme law of our nation. At the same time, we have come to also recognize that the very foundation, on which we have been seeking to build our nation, has been shaky and weak.”

In his address, the prime minister also criticized Australia and New Zealand for imposing travel sanctions on Fiji following Bainimarama’s bloodless coup of the Federal government in 2006. Bainimarama explained that the sanctions hurt Fiji’s progress toward building a more democratic election process.

Last month, the Pacific Forum, a peacekeeping group of Pacific Nations, threatened to suspend Fiji from the union if the country did not follow through with its democratic elections in March 2009.

Last week, Bainimarama wrote the Pacific Forum asking for reinstatement. The Forum has yet to reply.

For more information, please see:
Fiji Times – Deeper into the quagmire – 29 September 2008

Radio New Zealand International – Fiji interim PM says he has done his best to adhere to constitution – 28 September 2008

ABC, Radio Australia – Fiji urges UN to help remove coup culture – 28 September 2008

UN News Centre – Fijian leader tells UN that planned parliamentary elections must be delayed – 27 September 2008

By Sarah E. Treptow

Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – By August, Fiji’s Ministry of Finance had only spent $15 million of the $162 million allocated for the entirety of 2008. A leading economist, Dr. Biman Prasad, the head of economics at the University of the South Pacific, criticizes the spending, “This is criminal negligence or downright incompetence. While our people are crying out for good roads, reliable water supply and better medical services, the Finance Ministry was sitting around twiddling its thumb.” The comments from Prasad were given at the Fiji Islands Council of Trade Unions third delegate’s conference at the Suva Civic Centre.

Prasad hopes that with the exit of the interim Finance Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, the 2009 national budget will include expenditure policies which will help stimulate the economy. He added, “such inertia in such a key ministry is shocking.”

Prasad says further, “Besides improving infrastructure, so much employment could have been created had the money been put to good use. The buck for this pathetic state of affairs stops with the interim Finance Minister.”

Also present at the conference was ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. Dr. Prasad highlighted the faults of Qarase’s government and said his party’s squandering of resources and reckless spending gave impetus for the coup that Prasad claims damaged the economy in 2006.

Interim Finance Minister Chaudhry has yet to respond to the accusations.

For more information, please see:

Fijilive – Economist slams Chaudhry’s policies – 27 September 2008

Pacific Magazine – Fiji Government’s Lack of Spending Criticized – 28 September 2008

The Fiji Times Online – Chaudhry exit ‘good for budget’ – 28 September 2008

By Ryan L. Maness
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Oceania

PAPUA, Indonesia – Amnesty International is calling on the Indonesian government to investigate the mistreatment of Ferdinand Pakage, a prisoner in Abepura Prison, after he was beaten by prison officers.

Pakage, who is currently serving a 15 year sentence after a dubious 2006 trial, was beaten by prison officers on 22 September.  The beating was witnessed by other prisoners and resulted in serious injury to Pakage’s hands, legs and left eye.  As of this writing there are no reports of Pakage’s current medical condition.  Prison officials began to beat Pakage after he was removed from solitary confinement.

In their report calling for the investigation, Amnesty International has reminded the Indonesia government that they are signatories to the United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment and that they are required to take effective measures to prevent torture and perform impartial investigations after torture is committed.

Amnesty International has also said that this beating, and others like it, have been allowed to continue because the Criminal Code has not been reformed.  They have said that the code must be reformed to provide a legal deterrent against beating and torturing prisoners during their detention.

For more information, please see:
Amnesty International – Ill-treatment of Papua prisoner must be investigated – 26 September 2008

Radio New Zealand International – Amnesty International calls on Indonesia authorities to act over detained Papuan – 26 September 2008

By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – After last month’s summit boycott, Fiji’s interim Prime Minister has expressed interest in resuming his country’s participation in the Pacific Forum.

The Pacific Islands Forum was originally founded in 1971 to promote peace, harmony, security and economic prosperity within the Pacific nations. Fiji was one of seven founding members. The group of independent and self-governing states is now sixteen strong.

Bainimarama’s request to re-engage with the Forum is surprising given the interim government’s recent attitude toward the Forum. In June, the interim government suspended discussions with the Forum Joint Working Group on Fiji. Last August, the Pacific Forum issued Fiji an ultimatum that either Bainimarama return his country to democratic rule by March 2009 or face suspension from the Forum. In addition, Bainimarama choose to boycott the Forum’s summit meeting in Niue last month.

In his letter to the Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, Niue’s Premier Toke Talagi, Bainimarama discussed proposals for Fiji’s return to democracy.

When interviewed, Talagi said the Forum was eager to continue their dialogue with Fiji:

“He wants to re-engage with the groups that have been working with them in the past, and that’s they joint consultative group and the ministerial contact group. And the Forum is pleased that he wants to do that because obviously we want to continue a dialogue to ensure that we can encourage them to hold elections by March as he promised.”

For more information, please see:
Fiji Times – Regime backs down, seeks Forum talks – 25 September 2008

Fiji Live – Fiji PM wins support from Cooks’ speaker – 25 September 2008

Radio New Zealand International – Pacific Forum chair welcomes Fiji moves to re-engage – 24 September 2008

Fiji Village – Revelations of Fiji Re-engaging In Forum – 24 September 2008

Pacific Islands Forum Website