Posts Tagged ‘Solomon Islands’
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
Rory Callinan; 28/4/10
Hostility has developed between Solomon Islands police and their mostly Australian advisers over everything from cultural traditions to access to cars, boats and even photocopying paper. Some islanders want the armed foreign officers and their military counterparts, who together make up the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, to be gradually withdrawn and deployed only for the most serious circumstances. The problems were uncovered in a comprehensive review of the policing component of the mission, which costs Australia about $120 million a year and has been deployed since 2003. Last year’s review involved four experts assessing the effectiveness of RAMSI’s Participating Police Force, which includes 224 Australian Federal Police out of a total of 283 officers helping to rebuild the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force.
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Tags: Australia, Human Rights, Solomon Islands
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Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
Rowan Callick, 22/4/10
An Australian Pacific imperium is on view today – in a benign version – in Solomon Islands. It has cost more than $1 billion across six years. But unlike the more expensive aid program to Papua New Guinea, it is working, and still winning applause. Military vehicles run around the capital, Honiara, with the word army stencilled next to the image of a kangaroo. Flights to the country are crammed with Australian experts, keeping the hotels so busy that the King Solomon is building a special club room for them. The Solomon Islands government shifts into caretaker mode this weekend in readiness for a June election, when almost half the 50 MPs may lose their seats. But every political leader and 88 per cent of the 600,000 population, according to a new survey, insist that the highly visible Australian presence must continue.
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Tags: Australia, Human Rights, Solomon Islands
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Thursday, January 7th, 2010
7/1/10
Landslides and a tsunami have destroyed the homes of about one-third of the population on one of the islands in the Solomons, but lives were spared as residents fled quickly to higher ground. From the air, extensive damage could be seen on a remote western island yesterday after a 7.2-magnitude tremor triggered the landslides in the Solomon Islands, said disaster management office director Loti Yates. Officials said no injuries were reported some 30 hours after the biggest in a series of quakes churned a tsunami that was up to 3m high as it ploughed into the coast. But more than 1000 people have been affected after about 200 houses were destroyed on Rendova, an island 300km from the capital, Honiara. Only 3600 people live on Rendova.
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Tags: Environment, Solomon Islands
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Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
5/1/10
About 500 homes have been destroyed or damaged by a powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake that rocked the Solomon Islands, causing panic but no major injuries, disaster officials say. The National Disaster Management Office said it was possible that thousands of people could be homeless, but an exact assessment could not be made until ground parties were able to reach remote islands today. The US Geological Survey said the epicentre was 103km from the earthquake-prone island town of Gizo in the western Pacific archipelago, and local officials said it triggered a small tsunami. It was the largest of a swarm of tremors centred on the area, ignited by a 6.5 magnitude quake on Monday morning and with eight strong aftershocks between magnitude 4.9 and 5.7 over the following 12 hours.
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Tags: Environment, Solomon Islands
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Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
16/12/09
Former Solomon Islands attorney-general Julian Moti has won a battle to have child sex charges against him dropped. Mr Moti was arrested at Brisbane International Airport on December 27, 2007, and charged with seven counts of engaging in sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16. The charges related to the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl in Noumea and Vanuatu in 1997. Since his return to Australia Mr Moti has fought to have the charges thrown out.
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Tags: Australia, Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands
Posted in Australia, Health & Children, PNG / West Papua, Solomon Islands | No Comments »
Friday, November 27th, 2009
Rowan Callick; 27/11/09
Twemty-five Solomon Islands students will fly to Cuba next week to train as doctors, accompanied by two health officials, thanks to about $107,000 paid by the Iran government for their travel costs. The money was transmitted earlier this month by the Iranian embassy in Canberra via the ANZ Bank branch in Honiara, the Solomons capital. But ANZ, which acts as the Solomon Islands government’s bank, sent it back, said a bank spokesman, “as part of ANZ’s economic and trade sanctions policy”, which prevents remittances or transactions involving Iran, Sudan, Syria, North Korea, Burma or Cuba.The standoff was resolved by the Iranian embassy giving the Solomons high commission in Canberra the aid directly, enabling the latter to use it to pay in Australia for the students’ travel.
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Tags: Cuba, health, Iran, Solomon Islands
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Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Rowan Callick; 12/11/09
Israel is sending a foreign ministry official to the Solomon Islands next week to seek an explanation as to why it was the only country in Oceania to vote at the UN for the Goldstone report condemning Israel’s assault on Gaza. Solomon Islands’ Foreign Minister William Haomae a year ago flew to Iran, following a meeting at the UN in New York with counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki, to explore the prospect of formalising diplomatic relations, and of benefiting from Iranian aid. Prime Minister Derek Sikua also held talks with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when both were attending the UN General Assembly in September last year. Mr Haomae said at the time that Iran’s assistance might be helpful in dam construction, training for the oil and gas industries – for which the Solomons hopes to attract exploration – and trade in general.
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Tags: Israel, Solomon Islands, Terrorism, UN, USA
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Monday, October 26th, 2009
26/1/09
The problems of intensive forestry in the Solomons are long standing and increasingly desperate. A mix of Government corruption and a lack of other economic opportunities has meant the Solomons have been heading towards a collapse in its logging industry, rampant environmental destruction and the end of many Islander livelihood. Greenlines was reminded recently that a helpful person had passed on a couple of interesting internal AusAID reports which have so far been unpublished. The most recent of these reports, a September 2008 review of the forestry programs in Australia’s aid program, is perhaps a touch dated. But the reports neatly outline the issues, and provide some frankly shocking information on the state of over logging in the native forests of the Islands.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Solomon Islands, Trade
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Saturday, September 12th, 2009
Adam Morton; 12/9/09
Solomon Islanders often tell Jenny Riesz they know little about climate change, but they know they are witnessing something out of the ordinary. They can list the shifts seen in recent years: beaches gradually disappearing, a less predictable wet season, more crop failures. ”When you eat what you grow, these things are a matter of having food or not,” Ms Riesz says from Honiara. ”They may not know about climate change, but when it is explained to them, they really understand instantly what it means, in practical terms.”
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Tags: Environment, Solomon Islands
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Thursday, August 27th, 2009
Sarah Elks; 27/8/09
Former Solomon Islands attorney-general Julian Moti will rely on experts in deportation law rather than Solomons politicians in his fight to have child sex tourism charges against him halted. In a review of the case in the Queensland Supreme Court yesterday, lawyers for Mr Moti, a Fijian-born Australian citizen facing child sex charges in Australia, said it was unlikely Solomon Islands opposition leader Manasseh Sogavare and other foreign politicians would be called on in the case. Mr Moti is preparing an application to have the charges against him dropped, and has foreshadowed calling as witnesses politicians including Mr Sogavare, the former Solomons prime minister. Mr Sogavare, a friend of Mr Moti’s, rejected several Australian requests to extradite Mr Moti, and claimed the pursuit was politically motivated.
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Tags: Australia, Pedophilia, PNG, Solomon Islands
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Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
28/7/09
A Western Provincial leader, Ronald Ziru, has called on the new Premier of the Province to review the provincial administration in view of moving the province forward. Dr Ziru says the Provincial capital, Gizo and the province as a whole had been unable to see any positive development in the delivery of services to the people over the years. He says there is much stagnancy in the various divisions in the provincial administration. Dr Ziru says he has nothing personal against officers working in the province, but he says the officers’ conduct must be measured against their performances. He says many of the current provincial employees who provide advice to provincial members, and provide date to the provincial executive are business people. Dr Ziru says those public officers often leave the work to the Provincial Executive and do work beneficial to them.
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Tags: Solomon Islands, Western province
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Friday, July 17th, 2009
17/6/09
Temporary Special Measures Working Committee has expressed disappointment in former Governor General, Sir Nathaniel Waena, for his negative remarks towards the concept of special measures for women. In a statement, the Working Committee says Sir Nathaniel’s departing comments on the special measures for women in parliament being undemocratic has come as a great disappointment. The Committee says there are concrete examples around the Pacific in which affirmative action has been taken using special measures for women.
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Tags: Solomon Islands, Womens Rights
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Thursday, July 16th, 2009
16/7/09
A court in Solomon Islands has for the first time ruled on the customary ownership of the land below the high water mark or foreshore. The ruling is contained in a judgment handed down by Chief Magistrate Leonard Maina last week on a dispute over the Auki seafront. In his ruling, Mr. Maina said the court has found that the people’s customary practices and continuous use or occupation from time immemorial on the land below the high water mark or foreshore, established or vested in them the right to own in custom the Auki foreshore. Chief Magistrate Leonard Maina’s decision and judgment relates to an Acquisition Appeal from five groups of people who claimed ownership of the Auki seafront.
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Tags: Land Rights, Solomon Islands
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Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
14/6/09
The Western Province Acting Director for Health Service, Gunter Kittel, has appealed to striking staff of the Gizo Hospital to return to work. Dr. Kittel says the situation in which only a skeleton staff is working at the Gizo Hospital is unacceptable. Dr. Kittel says while he himself is still feeling fit and strong as do other colleague doctors, it will be impossible to avoid patients being affected by the situation. He says he cannot allow the few dedicated staff members to work 16 hours a day and taking night calls.
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Tags: health, Solomon Islands
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Friday, July 3rd, 2009
3/7/09
Senior officials from Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands concluded their 3rd Joint Border Committee Meeting in Buka, Bougainville in Papua New Guinea last week. The meeting brought together Senior Government officials, Border officials, Law Enforcement Officials and traditional chiefs of the two countries and discussed cooperative issues in jointly managing their common border. In opening the meeting, Acting President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Patrick Nisira stated that the developments along the common border, especially illegal activities, are of common concern for the Autonomous Bougainville Government.
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Tags: PNG, Solomon Islands
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Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
23/6/09
In what appears to be a strong push by conservatives within the current government, Caucus has decided to drop the Temporary Special Measures, TSM, seeking ten reserved seats for women in parliament. The SIBC reports that TSM Working Group met with Prime Minister Dr Derek Sikua last week and “he had informed them of the Caucus final decision to drop the proposal to get the additional reserved seats.” Prime Minister Sikua also informed the Working Group that the only compromise Caucus has made in terms of giving an opening for women parliamentarians is to leave the ten percent women quota in the political party integrity bill. The Working Group is yet to receive official feedback from Caucus on the decision but have accepted Prime Minister Sikua’s announcement “as confirmation.”
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Tags: Solomon Islands, Womens Rights
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