PACIFIC BREIFS

ARRESTS PROMPTED BY ‘HIGH UP ORDERS’

FIJI – A former Fiji member of parliament arrested and detained last month for attending a meeting says he’s convinced the orders came from the country’s rulers. Police arrested six prominent people – two former prime ministers, a current MP, a trade union boss, the organiser of the meeting as well as former MP Tupeni Baba. He said the police were initially unsure of what they were interrogating the men about, and when asked, they said their instructions came from the “very top”. The Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama strongly defended the police actions, but the DPP now says police were too slow to take action and were too selective in who they arrested. Baba said it was clear who was behind it. “That was the same thing they said to us the whole two days we were there. Who will decide, and they pointed above. You know what I mean.”

TUVALU PM EXPLAINS PROTEST RESTRICTION

TUVALU – The Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Enele Sopoaga, has defended his decision to restrict a protest last week over the chief justice. A former prime minister Apisai Ielemia had been pushing for Chief Justice Charles Sweeney to be removed from his post because he had ruled Ielemia was not eligible to resume his seat in parliament. Ielemia had been convicted of corruption, charges that were quashed on appeal. But under constitutional rules the ban on resuming his seat in parliament remained in place. He had planned a protest but the prime minister restricted him to staging it on his property, rather the streets of Funafuti. Sopoaga says he had to take public order into account. “The petition message was there to remove the Chief Justice of Tuvalu. I didn’t see that allowing them to march would lead to any pragmatic solution to dealing with their grievances.”

CONCERNS OVER BROADBAND NETWORK

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – There are hopes that a major national broadband transmission network planned for Papua New Guinea will allow for competition. The Chinese telecommunications company Huawei has announced it will help PNG build a 5500 kilometre submarine cable network to connect 14 main cities and towns. Huawei says it expects that when completed, the network will cover 55 percent of the population and provide more than 70 per cent of PNG’s domestic bandwidth requirements. Paul Barker of PNG’s Institute of National Affairs said there are claims that the network will result in significant reductions in service costs. “PNG needs to sort of look carefully and also to make sure that competition remains in play, because we do know that over the years the main, incumbent service provider has used or to some extent misused its gateway control to restrict competition.”

MARCH FOR TRAFFICKING VICTIMS

AMERICAN SAMOA – American Samoans have marched against human trafficking in an attempt to spread awareness about the issue. Since the human trafficking law was signed two years ago, no one in the territory has been charged. The Walk for Freedom was to stand up for the 27 million people believed to be victims of modern day slavery around the world. Marchers dressed in black, and some had their mouths taped. One of the local organisers, Emma Toilolo, said the walk was not a protest. “Twenty seven million, when I heard that not only women, but men and children, you know it affects them,” she said. “So the black tape represents, you know we’re advocating for them who can’t talk.” Toilolo said she hopes her organisation can keep supporting vicitms and work with the community, but she also hopes there can be more prosecutions in the territory and abroad.

FOUR DEAD, THREE MISSING IN FLOODING

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Flooding in a region of Papua New Guinea’s Morobe province has reportedly killed at least four people. The lower Wautut area has experienced flooding since last night following heavy rain at the weekend. PNG’s EM TV reports that the bodies have been recovered of four victims from Pararura village, several kilometres from Lae City, with three others still missing. Several houses are understood to have been washed away, and main roads and access points have been hampered by the flooding.