MPs ridicule rule of law observer mission

YAREN – More Nauru MPs are asking why the Commonwealth Secretariat’s observer mission didn’t seek out opposition voices during a recent visit to the troubled island nation.

A two-man mission concluded the rule of law was being upheld in Nauru, despite condemnation by the New Zealand government, deported judges, and elected Nauru MPs.

And despite the observer’s programme schedule listing meetings with the two opposition MPs that remain in parliament, they never met them.

The opposition member Squire Jeremiah who was charged alongside three other MPs for being involved in a protest outside parliament in June last year and have have also their passports cancelled said the Commonwealth observers – Albert Mariner from the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Foreign Affairs Minister of Solomon Islands, Milner Tozaka – were “unprofessional”.

“Disappointing and ridiculous, I would say. No one was aware that they were visiting. And I thought it would be important for them to speak to the opposition, other than the government themselves.”

Another of the MPs critical of the observers’ mission is Roland Kun. He is stuck on Nauru and can’t reach his family who live in New Zealand, because despite not being charged, his passport remains cancelled.

And his application in the courts was denied for being “out of time”, entirely due to legal delays by the government’s lawyers.

Kun says he approached the observers on the final night of their stay and was granted a hearing by them.

Observer Milner Tozaka said the other MPs should have “done the same if they wanted their say”. But another suspended MP, Mathew Batsiua, says that is senseless.

“It was supposed to be a fact-finding mission on the claims that there are breaches of the rule of law in Nauru, and you would think that the common sense thing to do would be go straight to the source who are making those claims.

“But they didn’t bother to include us in the programme. Maybe they were discouraged by the government not to meet with us, I’m not sure.”

Ahead of next year’s election, Batsiua has accused the government of courting the public with public funds.

He says it’s abusing inaugural flights to send voters on junkets.

“They give them free flights, free accommodation, allowances, spending money to destinations all across the Pacific.

“We accept that there are a concept of inaugural flights, you know when you fly a new route, that’s acceptable to have inaugural flights to celebrate the opening of that new route, but to repeat the inaugural flights three or four times with plane-loads of people?”

Nauru’s President, Baron Waqa, released his Christmas greeting this week, slamming international media for spreading lies. - Dateline Pacific