Nouvelle demande de levée d'immunité du sénateur Gaston Flosse

PARIS, 5 mars 2014 (AFP) - Le bureau du Sénat a reçu une demande de levée de l'immunité parlementaire du sénateur et président de la Polynésie française Gaston Flosse (ex-UMP), déjà poursuivi dans plusieurs affaires et qui vient d'être mis en examen pour détournement de fonds publics, a-t-on appris mercredi à la présidence du Sénat.

Cette demande qui permettrait de le placer en garde à vue est arrivée ce weekend, a-t-on précisé au cabinet du président Jean-Pierre Bel, confirmant une information du Monde.

M. Flosse, 82 ans, a été mis en examen courant février dans cette affaire, tout comme le président de l'Assemblée de la Polynésie française, Edouard Fritch.

Ils sont soupçonnés d'avoir fait supporter à la commune de Pirae, dont ils ont tous deux été le maire, l'approvisionnement en eau de la villa de Gaston Flosse, située sur une commune voisine, Arue. Cette villa, construite sur une zone à l'époque dépourvue d'eau potable, a été raccordée à une réserve située à Pirae, six kilomètres plus loin et en contrebas.

Le pompage de cette eau pour l'acheminer vers la villa de Gaston Flosse, puis vers 22 autres villas bâties par la suite, ont généré "des frais d'électricité et d'entretien colossaux", selon la Chambre Territoriale des comptes, une émanation locale de la Cour des Comptes.

De source proche de la mairie, ils sont estimés à environ 10 millions de francs Pacifique par an, soit 84.000 euros, en plus des travaux initiaux.

Gaston Flosse a été maire de Pirae de 1965 à 2001, et Edouard Fritch, son ex-gendre et son dauphin en politique, lui a succédé jusqu'en 2008.

L'actuel maire de Pirae, Béatrice Vernaudon, a facturé l'adduction d'eau aux maisons concernées. Depuis 2012, elles sont raccordées au réseau de leur commune, Arue.

M. Fritch, qui brigue la mairie de Pirae, s'était étonné de sa convocation par le juge "à la veille d'élections communales".

M. Flosse est aussi poursuivi pour complicité de détournement de fonds publics dans l'affaire de l'atoll Anuanuraro, qui sera jugée en juin.

Il a déjà été condamné en appel à quatre ans de prison avec sursis, 125.000 euros d'amende et trois ans d'inéligibilité, pour prise illégale d'intérêts et détournement de fonds publics, dans une affaire d'emplois fictifs.

Il a enfin été condamné à 5 ans de prison ferme, 83.800 euros d'amende et 5 ans d'inéligibilité, pour trafic d'influence passif et corruption active dans l'affaire des annuaires de l'OPT. Il n'a pas épuisé tous ses recours judiciaires dans ces différentes affaires et n'a pas été placé sous mandat de dépôt.

Le sénateur, qui désormais siège parmi les non-inscrits à la Haute Assemblée, avait été réélu président de la Polynésie française le 17 mai 2013.

Sollicité par la justice, le Sénat a à plusieurs reprises dans le passé levé l'immunité du parlementaire.

French interference in 'free press' in New Caledonia

New Caledonia Journalists Slam ‘Political Interference,’ Staff Cuts

Pacific Scoop

Nouvelles Calédoniennes editor influenced by Paris: Association

By Anna Majavu

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (Pacific Scoop, March 4, 2014) – Journalists from the daily newspaper Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes have accused their editorial board of buckling under political pressure from the French High Commissioner, who they claim had interfered with editorial independence.

A statement by Nouvelles Calédoniennes Journalists’ Association said that journalists were "at the end of their tether and their energy" after High Commissioner Jean-Jacques Brot had allegedly insisted that the newspaper’s editorial board publish an article he wrote attacking the newspaper’s journalists.

Translated from the French, the association statement said the newspaper directors were "buckling under repeated pressure from Brot".

It also lashed out at the company director, Philippe Demazel, for failing to explain the incident to journalists when asked.

The journalists have gone on strike regularly over the past eight months over instability on the newspaper which allegedly began after the newspaper’s former editor, Xavier Serre, left in July 2013.

According to the association, Serre was replaced by two people who resigned in rapid succession.

The association claimed the first replacement editor, Veronique Palomar, had more business than journalism experience while the second, Fabrice Rouard, was more qualified as a "clairvoyant" than a journalist.

Rouard had only stayed in the job for two months, during which time he took a position against printing the flag of the indigenous Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste on the front page of the newspaper, even though it is one of the territory’s two official flags.

This restriction was very unpopular with the journalists who believed that equitable political coverage should be given to all sides in New Caledonia.

Although Rouard had left on 14 February 2014, journalists had not been officially informed of this.

The paper had been without an editor for the past three weeks and journalists were taking it in turns to do the job, the association said.

Almost half of the paper’s journalists – 19 out of 44 – had quit during this period of uncertainty.

Virginie Grizon, a former journalist on the newspaper who resigned along with 18 others after a 15 day strike, told Pacific Media Watch that there were just two journalists left to cover all the news in the capital city.

Bureau chiefs had not been replaced when they resigned and there was no proper plan to cover the election.

"We don’t understand the choice of the shareholders and they didn’t answer our questions. This daily newspaper is the only one here, so this is very disturbing for the country," said Grizon.

"One month out from the municipal elections and less than three months from the provincials – major days of reckoning for the country – the only daily newspaper in New Caledonia now finds itself without an editor in chief, soon without an assistant editor in chief, and without a Noumea bureau head.

"Journalists are finding it necessary to work with these constraints, having to sacrifice quality, something which they deplore" said the association.

Although they had asked the directors of the newspaper to explain the situation, they had maintained a "stony silence", the association said.

New Zealand filmmaker Jim Marbrook has been working in New Caledonia for the last six years shooting a feature documentary project.

He said he was "shocked that journalists at the local daily now seem to be bound by the political will of the major shareholders of the paper".

Marbrook said this would impact on balanced coverage of politics.

"There are moves to reframe the terms of the Noumea Accord, expanding an electorate and diminishing the Kanak vote. With shareholders in the company directly linked to major mining concerns these debates risk being glossed over or forgotten altogether," Marbrook said.

The Noumea Accord was supposed to give New Caledonia and the indigenous people there, the Kanaks, political power in the lead up to this year’s referendum, when citizens of New Caledonia will decide whether to become independent or remain a territory of France.

But indigenous Kanak people have voiced concern that their votes will be "drowned out" by French citizens who have moved to New Caledonia in large numbers in recent years.

Niue as freely associated state ratifies treaty banning nuclear weapons

Niue ratifies the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

Press Release

Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO)

NIUE RATIFIES THE COMPREHENSIVE NUCLEAR-TEST-BAN TREATY

Vienna, 5 March 2014

Niue ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), becoming the 162th country to do so. Niue’s ratification follows the country’s signature on 9 April 2012. Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), said: “I welcome Niue’s ratification of the CTBT. This consolidates the anti-testing norm in a region that has suffered so much from nuclear testing and sets an example for other States in the region and beyond.”

The long-term effects from nuclear testing such as the Castle Bravo h-bomb test in the Marshall Islands 60 years ago continues to haunt the lives of our fellow islanders. All forms of nuclear testing need to be outlawed to protect future generations in the Pacific and elsewhere.

Toke Tufukia Talagi, Prime Minister of Niue

The island nation of Niue is located in the South Pacific, where France, the United States and the United Kingdom conducted a total of 263 mostly atmospheric nuclear tests. Commemorations for islanders affected by the 15 megatonCastle Bravo test 60 years ago, on 1 March 1954, were held this week at the Marshall Islands.

The region has shown a strong commitment to banning nuclear weapons and their testing by creating a nuclear-free zone for the South Pacific. This was established through the Treaty of Rarotonga, which was signed in 1985 and entered into force in 1986.

Amongst the 16 Members of the Pacific Islands Forum (Australia, Cook Islands, Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu), now only two have yet to ratify the CTBT: Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, while two others have yet to sign and ratify: Tonga and Tuvalu.

Although the CTBT has been signed by 183 countries of which now 162 have also ratified, it can only enter into force after it has been ratified by the eight remaining nuclear capable countries: China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States. Click here for an interactive map of the Treaty’s status.

The CTBT bans all nuclear explosions. The CTBTO is building a verification regime to monitor the planet for compliance with the Treaty. Over 85% of the global network of 337 facilities to monitor underground, the oceans and the atmosphere for nuclear explosions have already been established. Around 25 stations are located in the South Pacific Ocean, most of which are fully operational. The stations closest to Niue are located in Samoa, the Cook Islands and Fiji. Verification data from the stations can also be used for disaster mitigation such as tsunami warning. The island of Niue has been struck repeatedly by tsunamis and cyclones in the past.

For further information, please see www.ctbto.org your resource on ending nuclear testing, or contact

Thomas Mützelburg, CTBTO Public Information

T    +43 1 26030 6421  

E    thomas.muetzelburg@.ctbto.org

M    +43 699 1459 6421

The untold story of the Pacific Islands

Papua New Guinea Mine Watch Dan Gay* | The Guardian (UK) Climate change and sinking beneath the waves isn't the only danger the islands face. Unless poor policy is addressed, they also risk a homemade environmental and energy crisis A dead pig lolls among the flotsam on South Tarawa beach. No children play in the water – unusual in the Pacific islands, where a childhood spent splashing in the ocean is an age-old rite. In Kiribati's capital, years of poor waste disposal coupled with overpopulation and a limited supply of water have polluted the lagoon, making it too dirty to swim in. Over 50,000 people crowd into 2,500 acres, a population density twice as high as that of New York. Although the Pacific islands are well-known as the first casualties of climate change, a tale less often told is of the environmental and energy crisis at home. Years of mismanagement and poor policy have led to ecological and energy calamities across the region. Until this year no Pacific island country had an official trade policy. Few have national energy strategies. In many countries a lack of planning meant that the default policy was to exploit natural resources at an unsustainable rate. In the Solomon Islands, natural forests have been logged so uncontrollably that exports are expected to cease by around 2015. Local communities have long relied on logging as their only source of income and it has been one of only a handful of viable exports since independence. Mining has a particularly bad record in the Pacific. A watershed moment came in 1999 when BHP, the former owner of the Ok Tedi gold and copper mine in Papua New Guinea, admitted that the mine caused "major environmental damage". Up to 80m tonnes of contaminated waste were discharged into the river each year, displacing 50,000 people downstream and killing or poisoning fish as well as damaging staple crops. In September, the government said it would nationalise Ok Tedi to force BHP to pay more compensation. Government policy makers, not just in departments of environment or energy but also in the bigger departments like finance and trade, are only just beginning to acknowledge these domestic crises, realising that if they're asking the rest of the world to cut carbon emissions, then they should be tackling problems within their own borders. The key to this new realisation must be an improvement in governance. The word has come to be associated with corruption, and this undoubtedly needs to be tackled. But governance also needs to be understood more broadly – as the ability of local people to control and shape their economies and environments. The already tiny governments of the Pacific islands have long been told that good economics means shrinking the state and lowering public expenditure. But this has diminished the ability of these countries to manage public affairs, depriving them of the resources to limit the exploitation of natural habitats, to manage waste or to build efficient energy infrastructures. Some international agencies have been complicit in this anti-state message, encouraging the idea that market forces will generate economic prosperity and that the private sector will look after the environment. The Asian Development Bank, for example, conducted structural adjustment programmes across the region in the late 1990s that led to swinging public-sector cuts, trade liberalisation and privatisation. Vanuatu was typical: the programme caused a recession, increased public debt and crippled the government's ability to perform everyday functions including environmental protection. Donors need to acknowledge that ecological management requires a strong state, and that governments need to be allowed to learn from their mistakes. Aid has often encouraged dependency, with policymakers often deferring to donors instead of making their own decisions. Pacific islanders are per capita the highest recipients of aid in the world, at $469 in 2011 according to the World Bank, over 20 times the world average. Donors have often failed to stump up promised funds, breeding uncertainty. The last time I was in Tuvalu, in late 2010, the then prime minister told me that he didn't soon expect to access the $100m promised to poor countries for national adaptation plans at the UN climate summit the previous month in Cancún. Critical though the global warming agenda is, it has also encouraged the perception that environment equals climate change, when domestic challenges are equally if not more important. Strapped for cash, policymakers aren't in a good position to easily manage their own energy or environmental policies. In Vanuatu the lack of an energy policy means that French monopoly Suez Unelco still has 40 years left on its concession agreement. Energy prices remain among the highest in the world and the country continues to rely heavily on imported diesel (although some coconut oil is used as fuel instead of exported). Suez Unelco has indicated that it may refuse to act as supplier-of-last-resort to any company generating its own wind or solar power. Yet despite their mixed records, foreign companies and international agencies are beginning to wake up to the regional crisis in the making – and given the meagre resources of Pacific states, the international community must play a critical role. Regional organisations like the Secretariat of the Regional Environment Programme, based in Samoa, have begun turning their attention to improved energy efficiency. The World Bank increasingly emphasises the importance of good governance in mining and energy usage, and the message is spreading in the region, supported by a host of international organisations. The International Council on Mining and Metals, an industry group comprising of 21 major mining and metals companies as well as 35 national and regional mining associations, aims to encourage due diligence on social and environmental issues. Work includes social and economic development, environment and climate change, health and safety and recycling. The Framework for Responsible Mining is a joint initiative of NGOs, retailers, investors, insurers, and technical experts working in the minerals sector outlining environmental, human rights, and social issues associated with mining. The framework recommends no-go zones for mining; develops criteria for environmentally responsible mining; tries to ensure that mines benefit affected communities; and puts in place principles of good governance. Earthworks is a US-based non-profit organisation which aims to protect communities and the environment from the impacts of irresponsible mineral and energy development. Its strategy aims to improve corporate and government behaviour whilst aiming to improve the benefits to communities and the environment. The initiative for responsible mining assurance involves mining companies, downstream users of mining products such as jewellers, non-government organisations, communities and workers to put in place standards and verification of good practice in mining. In 2015 the initiative will start certifying mine sites. Global climate change is threatening the very existence of many of the islands. But sinking beneath the waves isn't the only danger. Unless they put domestic and international resources to good use, the Pacific islands risk drowning in an energy and environmental crisis with its origins closer to home. * Dr Daniel Gay is a political economist specialising in trade policy. You can find his blog here, and follow him on Twitter @dangay

Virgin CEO Richard Branson Vows to Turn Caribbean Islands Green

Brandon Baker 

While Sir Richard Branson is preparing to make the $13.6 million Moskito island his new “family complex,” the billionaire says the move can impact a lot more than just his luxurious profile.

Along with Necker island, which Branson rents for nearly $55,000 a night, Moskito will userenewable energy for 75 to 80 percent of its electricity, according to The Guardian. Using technical and financial blueprints from his green business group, Carbon War Room, and the Rocky Mountain Institute, Branson will offer advice to help all Caribbean governments cut diesel imports and switch to renewable sources. He believes the two properties can become models for islands around the world. 

“This is personal and global,” said Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, which consists of about 400 businesses. “We know that islands will suffer the most from climate change and sea-level rise. Reefs will be devastated, and wildlife decimated.”

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Bonaire Government requests U.N. listing as non self-governing territory

Infobonaire.com

The Island Council of Bonaire has voted to request the United Nations to list the dependency as a non self-governing territory. Bonaire is a partially integrated "public entity" of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The political status resulted from the dismantling of the former autonomous country of the Netherlands Antilles, creating two autonomous countries of Curacao and Sint Maarten, and three "public entities of Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius.

Decision of the Island Council of Bonaire

(unofficial translation from Papiamento)

 February 25, 2014

Considering that:

-The situation of the state structure and relation with Holland requires attention and priority;

-Since the country Netherlands Antilles has been dissolved on 10 October 2010, Bonaire has become a non-autonomous territory, qualified according to the United Nations (U.N.) as “Non Self Governing Territories”;

-Consequently it is necessary that Bonaire be put on the (U.N.) list of Non Self Governing Territories;

-After the referendum of September 10, 2004, Bonaire since 10 October 2010 (10-10-10) has been denominated as Public Entity according to article 134 of the Dutch constitution which has been interpreted as integration in Holland;

- The Island Council considers it necessary for the people of Bonaire have the opportunity to express its wishes thru a plebiscite on the future relation of Bonaire with Holland;

-to make the necessary preparations it is desirable to install a “Preparatory Commission”  to analyze and advise on all the necessary steps to start the process to realize a referendum;

Taking notice of:

-The Charter of the United Nations  in particular the covenants regarding “Non Self Governing Territories” and the concerned resolutions, particularly Resolution 1541;

Decides:

1. to appeal to President of the Island Council to approach formally the United Nations through the official channels with the request to put Bonaire on the “List of Non Self Governing Territories”;

.2 to form a “Preparatory Commission” for which every fraction can appoint a member to analyze and give advice to the Island Council on the best way to organize a referendum in accordance with Resolution 1541 of the United Nations, taking into consideration all related aspects and to report to the Island Council within 4 weeks

3. to agree that within 1 week the 4 fractions will appoint a member to the preparatory commission. The 4 members together will appoint a 5^th member to the preparatory commission

4. to appeal to the “griffier” (Council Secretary) to (let) give all necessary assistance to the “Preparatory Commission” to effect it's task.

*****

See also: 

Bonaire group petitions for self-determination referendum

Bonaire residents demonstrate against present status, governing Coalition falls

Latin American and Caribbean political parties call for U.N. examination of Bonaire as non self-governing territory

Cultural Impacts of Bonaire 'Integration' with Netherlands

Dutch constitutional amendment would legalise economic inequality in Caribbean ‘public entities’ of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba

Marshall Islands wants U.S. to resolve unfinished H-bomb legacy

AFP/PACNEWS

Marshall Islands President Christopher Loeak has called on the United States to resolve the “unfinished business” of its nuclear testing legacy in the western Pacific nation.

Compensation provided by Washington “does not provide a fair and just settlement” for the damage caused, he told a ceremony in the capital Majuro on Saturday marking the 60th anniversary of the devastating hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll which contaminated many islands with radioactive fallout.

“We remain the closest of friends with the United States, but there is unfinished business relating to the nuclear weapons testing that must be addressed.” Loeak said the unfinished business not only affected the four atolls that the United States acknowledged as exposed, but also many other islands throughout the country.

On March 1, 1954, the United States detonated a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb on Bikini Island. The blast was 1000 times more powerful than the explosion of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. 

The series of nuclear tests the U.S. conducted in the Marshall Islands in the 1950s vaporized several atolls and exposed thousands in the surrounding area to radioactive fallout.

Sixty years later, the Bikini Atoll is still so irradiated that it is uninhabitable. 

The surviving original residents of Bikini Atoll and their descendents have been displaced from their home island for six decades and are still unable to return due to dangerously high levels of radiation. 

In 1983, 29 years after the March 1, 1954 explosion, a compensation agreement was reached in which Washington provided the Marshall Islands with $150 million to settle all nuclear test claims.

But more than 10 years later, during then president Bill Clinton’s administration, formerly secret documents about the nuclear tests were released and confirmed dozens of islands were exposed to the fallout.

Loeak called this “dramatic new information” that had not been revealed to Marshall Islands negotiators.

“It is abundantly clear that the agreement was not negotiated in good faith and does not provide a fair and just settlement of the damages caused,” he said.

Residents of the nearby Rongelap and Ailinginae atolls, which bore the brunt of the radioactive fallout, were evacuated three days later, but it was too late for many who had been exposed to near-lethal doses of radiation.

According to one document, the Rongelapese “quickly became test subjects of a U.S. government-sponsored program, Project 4.1, entitled The Study of Response of Human Beings Exposed to Significant Beta and Gamma Radiation Due to Fallout from High Yield Weapons.”

U.S. ambassador Thomas Armbruster, who delivered prepared remarks in both the English and Marshallese languages at the ceremony in Majuro, said “words are insufficient to express the sadness” of the 60th anniversary of the nuclear test.

The United States is continuing to work with the Marshall Islands to provide health care and environmental monitoring of several affected islands, he added.

Bikini Islander Hinton Johnson criticized the level of compensation the displaced Bikinians receive from the U.S.-provided funds.

“Today, each person receives $46 per month or a little over one dollar per day,” he said during the ceremony.

Although the Nuclear Claims Tribunal had awarded the Bikinians more than $560 million in compensation and nuclear test clean up funding, there was no fund to pay them from, he added.

“We ask the U.S. and Marshall Islands governments to provide the money for the tribunal’s award for the time we’ve been homeless and unable to return to our homeland,” Johnson said.

Around 1,800 people marched in Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture on Saturday to mark the 60th anniversary of the U.S. hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll, as Japan prepares to commemorate the Fukushima nuclear crisis three years ago, the Japan Times reported.

The 1954 test exposed residents on the Marshall Islands to massive amounts of radiation. The fallout also contaminated the Japanese tuna fishing boat Daigo Fukuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon No. 5), which was near the atoll when the H-bomb detonated.

The ship’s chief radioman, Aikichi Kuboyama, died of acute organ failure only seven months later at the age of 40, while 15 of the boat’s 23 other crew members later died of cancer and other causes.

While the precise cause of Kuboyama’s death has been disputed, the incident sparked an anti-nuclear movement in Japan nine years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were leveled by atomic bombs in the closing days of World War II.

On Saturday, some 1,800 people marched to Kuboyama’s grave in the port city of Yaizu. The city has held similar events to commemorate the incident for three decades, while the boat has been refitted and put on display at a memorial hall in Tokyo since 1976. It draws around 100,000 visitors every year.

“I want to see nuclear power abolished,” Akira Ibi, a 70-year-old Yaizu citizen, said in an interview, adding he also wants to get rid of the nearby Hamaoka atomic plant on the Pacific coast.

Three years after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011 killed or left missing around 18,500 people in Tohoku and sent three reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant into core meltdowns, tens of thousands of people remain stuck in temporary housing after fleeing the region.

The nation’s 50 nuclear reactors are all currently offline due to the crisis but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is taking steps to restart some if they are deemed safe for operation.

“The government is trying to restart reactors by overlooking the danger of nuclear power,” Kimiko Abe, 64, told the Mainichi Shimbun. “Nothing has changed after 60 years.”....

Dutch law set to restrict migration, trace and deport the Caribbean Dutch national

Anguilla News

Apartheid turning back? Dutch bill proposal to enact second class citizenship

The Dutch Lower House of Parliament is set to debate a motion concerning residency requirements for Dutch citizens originating from Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten on March 5 2014 (1830 hrs Dutch local time). If passed, the migration law will ensure that the economically and educationally deprived be legally restricted from settling in the Netherlands. The legislation would also create the possibility for persons – who “objectively meet the criteria” and “upon reasonable suspicion” – to be checked by police in order to establish their identities, nationalities as well as residency status should these persons be found to be infringing the residency requirements (e.g. insufficient education and insufficient command of the Dutch language). The legislation will result in the possible deportation of citizens from the aforementioned islands. These deprived Dutch citizens, who migrate to the Netherlands seeking employment opportunities, will, in turn be disadvantaged in their search for employment. 

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.

French manipulation of New Caledonia electoral list threatens legitimacy of territorial elections

Speech by Roch Wamytan 

President of the Congress of New Caledonia 

Plenary meeting of the United Nations 

 Special Committee on Decolonisation 

30 January 2014 

"This (French) settlement colonisation policy is based in particular on population displacement and transfers...The objective of this settlement policy is to counter the independence of New Caledonia and the Kanak people, i.e. to keep New Caledonia French on behalf of the superior interests of the (French) State."

This speech, concerning the electorate problem in New Caledonia, has to be situated in the general context of French colonial policy and its methods. The current policy is a direct descendant of the well-known “false 

decolonisations”, including by the UN, which have been going on since the last world war of 1940/45, among others, since the Brazzaville conference in 1944. A policy initiated by General de Gaulle and still continued until now.

In this context, the current problem of the special electoral roll for the 2014 provincial elections is not just a technical problem, as the representatives of the French State assert. It is a political problem. This is why the FLNKS and the Labour Party have established a Policy and Citizenship Commission. The current result of their research reveals that a certain number of persons on this special electoral roll do not fulfil the 

applicable conditions provided by the Noumea Accord, the 1992 Organic Law and the Constitutional Law of 23 February 20073 Gradually finding anomalies, this Commission decided to concentrate its research on voters born outside New Caledonia and before 31 October 1980 (see annexed summary table) 4

. 

Today, this FLNKS and Labour Party Commission, after checking its research results, asserts that, on the one hand, 6,720 persons appearing on the special electoral roll for the provincial elections (out of a total of 150,482 voters on the special roll, i.e. 4.46% of those registered on this roll) do not fulfil the applicable required conditions and have thus been wrongly registered on the special electoral roll. In addition, nearly 1,900 Kanak persons are maintained on the annexed table of voters not allowed to vote in the next provincial elections, whereas they are born in New Caledonia, from the indigenous and colonised people, and most of them have never left New Caledonia.

READ FULL STATEMENT OF PRESIDENT WAMYTAN HERE.

le 1er Colloque international en France sur "les impacts humanitaires des essais nucléaires"

Ce lundi 20 janvier 2014 a eu lieu le 1er Colloque international en France sur "les impacts humanitaires des essais nucléaires" qui s'est tenue au Palais du Luxemourg, organisé sous le patronage officiel du Sénateur TUHEIAVA avec celui de la sénatrice Mme Leïla Aichi (Goupe EELV).

Vous trouverez ci dessous l'intervention du Sénateur.

Millennium Development Goals - Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Millennium Development Goals 

Statement

By DCRapaNui

United Nations Millennium Development Goals
Eighth session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals
Agenda Item
Rule of Law and Governance
Feb 7, 2014, 9:45 a.m.

Intervention delivered by Santi Hitorangi
Moana Nui/Rapa Nui

I am advocating for Moana Nui, a network of Pacific-wide rights-holders focusing on justice issues concerning resources, trade, militarization and indigenous rights.

In my capacity as a member of the Hitorangi clan from Rapa Nui, I am here to put forward ourmana’u over the eight Millennium Development Goals addressing poverty and hunger, universal education, gender equality, child mortality reduction, maternal health, access to medicines, environmental sustainability and the global partnership. These are all sectors of development that Rapa Nui has been denied, or has not adequately been provided for by Chile.

Otherwise known as Easter Island, Rapa Nui is 3,700 kilometers from the coast of Chile, and claimed as a territory in 1888 under fraudulent circumstances.[i] We are a nation struggling for self-determination, and seek to be recognized by the UN to be placed on the list of non-self-governing territories for decolonization.[ii] We represent an indigenous struggle, a human rights struggle, and a struggle to protect our traditional resources and ecological biodiversity throughout our Pacific island communities.

Chile is one of the original signatories of the Trans Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, or the TPP, and they are negotiating in the largest free-trade agreement in the world with 12 other countries.[iii] Together these 12 countries represent nearly 28 trillion dollars, about 40% of global GDP.[iv]

Read full report here.

United Nations Dep. Secretary-General confirms legitimacy of the re-listing of French Polynesia as a non self-governing territory

    Deputy Secretary-General DSG/SM/748 GA/COL/3260

Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York

Decolonization Message Must Reach Wide Audience, Says Deputy Secretary-General

Applauding Special Committee’s Latest Efforts at Opening of 2014 Session

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson’s remarks at the opening of the 2014 session of the Special Committee on Decolonization:

I thank you for this opportunity to address the Special Committee, the “C‑24”, at the start of its work this year. 

We are now in the middle of the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism, and we have already seen encouraging signs of rejuvenation of the work of the Special Committee. For example, the General Assembly last year recognized that French Polynesia remains a Non-Self-Governing Territory. This effectively mandated the Special Committee to consider an additional item on the agenda. 

For the first time in many years, the Bureau held several meetings with each of the four administering Powers — France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as various other stakeholders, in order to identify next steps in the decolonization process. I welcome the intensification of the face-to-face talks among interested parties. I also appreciate that all administering Powers have given the green light in principle for visiting missions where appropriate. The voice of the C-24 is again becoming loud and clear. 

To the international community, colonialism is a historic aberration. Thus, all of us must take up the challenge of eradicating remaining forms of colonialism, in keeping with the principles of the Charter and relevant United Nations resolutions. 

The decolonization message needs to reach a wide audience. I call for inclusive, proactive and forward-looking efforts by the Special Committee, the administering Powers and the Non-Self-Governing Territories, on a case-by-case basis. This could help trigger a break in a deadlock on some cases, or encourage the Committee to become involved in situations between a Territory and its administering Power. 

The 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories look to the United Nations for comprehensive and sustained initiatives for the future. The Special Committee has begun to open a wider window of opportunities. Still, the pace of decolonization remains slow. I am confident that the year ahead will be a period of intensified diplomatic efforts on decolonization as the Committee continues to build on its recent steps forward in dialogue and consensus-building. These include the planned expansion of the Special Committee’s Bureau, with the addition of Indonesia, and the first visiting mission of the decade, to New Caledonia. 

The Special Committee is a unique platform to advance the historic decolonization mandate of the United Nations. The Secretariat will continue to support the Special Committee in its important work. 

I count on your leadership and I wish you success.

Bougainville President thinks a lot like our Australian colonial ‘masters’

Papua New Guinea Mine Watch by ramunickel Charles Barnes thought and spoke like John Momis on the issue of Panguna mine Brothers by other mothers? The now departed Minister for Territories, Charles Barnes, had a tad paler complexion, and hailed from rural Australia – but he certainly thought so much like the ABG’s current President, John Momis, you cant tell them apart. Here is what Charles Barnes said about mining on Bougainville in 1969, immediately after he had sent in the riot squads to beat up Bougainville’s protesting mothers: "The attitude of a handful of people [women landowners] may attract our sympathy, and we may go to considerable lengths to resolve their problems. But in the last resort, we cannot allow them to block this great prospect [Rio Tinto mine] and thus throw into doubt the policies on which the futures of more than two million people depend” “Mr Barnes said the people of the Territory had a choice of whether to drift in a primitive and backward situation depending on the generosity of the Australian taxpayer, or to advance as a modern State financed by its own sources”. And what does his long lost brother, Honest John Momis say now he is facing a revolt among the landowners of Panguna, who wont go along with his hand-picked ‘chiefs’ … well: “This minority of leaders risk destroying the positive partnership that landowners and the ABG have worked so hard to create and undermine preparations for negotiations with Bougainville Copper Limited and the National Government”. “The ABG supports re-opening Panguna, we see that as the most realistic way of contributing to broad-based economic growth, and generating the ABG revenues required to meet the needs of our people”. The colonial playbook is alive and well – tell the ‘natives’ the project is all about them, for their benefit, and only extreme and primitive outsiders would dare oppose ‘development’. Then take the ore, make the cash, and leave behind a smouldering wreck. Honest John and Barnes the Impaler you two are a match made in heaven.