Churches' Commission on Mission
Pacific Forum
Annual Report 2002
The Year in the Pacific.
Nations in the Pacific continue to face enormous problems, largely
ignored by the rest of the world, but two items of good news should be
recorded. On May 19th East Timor declared its independence and the
peace agreement negotiated on Bougainville and signed in August 2001 continued
to hold, even during the turbulent PNG election. There will be a referendum at
some date in the future to consider Bougainville’s independence. In the past,
this mineral-rich province subsidised the rest of PNG; now it is heavily
dependent on assistance from the national government and is having even more
difficulty than the rest of the country in attracting inward investment.
The Solomons Islands continues to face enormous domestic tensions.
Following a civil war instigated by ethnic gangs, a cease-fire was arranged and
elections took place in December. The new Prime Minister, Sir Allan Kemakeza,
had been sacked from cabinet only four months before his appointment and accused
of using $1.5 million in Taiwanese funds to compensate his family for property
losses. Corruption charges have also been levied against other members of the
government. The Solomon Islands economy is in free fall and attempts to recall
guns held by the warring factions have been only partially successful.
At the time of writing PNG is involved in an election in which a record
number of parties (45) and candidates (3150) is contesting 109 seats. Under the
terms of the Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates,
it is illegal for candidates to switch parties between an election but a
significant number are campaigning in this election as independents. The
election has been marked by violence and widespread irregularities. A number of
people have been killed and counting has been postponed in some electorates.
Sir Makere Morauta, who has held power since 1999, has been described by an
informed correspondent of the (Australian) Financial
Review as ‘the most honest and able Prime Minister since independence’, but
even under his leadership the economy has continued on a downhill track and the
country has been in recession for two years. Meanwhile the population continues
to soar by 3.1 per cent a year and it has recently been discovered that it now
stands at 5.1 million (rather than the 4.6 million the government had assumed).
In the Western half of the island of New Guinea, the Megawati
government in Jakarta has gone ahead and granted a substantial degree of
autonomy to a province it now calls ‘Papua’. However this in unlikely to
satisfy the majority of indigenous people living in a country they think of as
‘West Papua’ who continue to demand independence. Theys Eluay, chairman of the
Papua Council, who had brought rival groups together to campaign for
independence, was killed last November after a meal with soldiers. It has since
been confirmed that Special Forces were involved in his murder but the matter
has not been properly investigated and there is widespread suspicion that the
military leadership was in some way involved.
In Fiji George Speight, the leader of the recent coup, was found guilty
of treason and sentenced to life in prison. The Fiji Court of Appeal ruled that
Prime Minister Qarase should include Labour members in his cabinet but he
refused to do so, arguing he would lose control.
The churches continue to be active in all Pacific nations. The Holy See
established diplomatic relations with East Timor the day after independence.
The country has 750,000 Catholics served by two dioceses, 31 parishes and 43
priests. In West Papua the churches have taken a lead in calling for a full
investigation into the death of Theys Eluay while in both PNG and the Solomon
Islands they have been vocal in opposing corruption. The Melanesian Brothers
and other religious order have played a notable peacekeeping role in the
Solomon Islands.
Role of the Pacific Forum.
The forum has met twice in the course of the past year. In January we
sponsored a visit to London by Fr Neles Tebay, a Catholic priest from the
Diocese of Jayapura who is studying in Rome. In addition to addressing the
forum, Fr Tebay met with representatives of CAFOD, the Catholic Institute for
International Relations, Survival International, and Tapol. He went to the
Foreign Office to meet with officers on the Asian desk, visited to the House of
Commons and saw the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Human Rights Committee, and
addressed a meeting in Oxford sponsored by the West Papua Association and
attended by over 70 people. The Forum was represented at the first European
solidarity conference for West Papua held in Germany in October 2001. A second
conference is to take place in London in October 2002. The Forum continues to
be associated with the European Centre on Pacific Issues (ECSIEP) based in
Holland, which is planning a major survey of the impact of European fisheries
in the South Pacific.
Bishop Paul Richardson, Focal Person