Asia Times: Pacific Islands Report


	September 27, 2001	atimes.com

Oceania

PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Guam warns against contaminated seafood
HAGATNA, Guam - Tissue samples from fish and shellfish found in waters near an old US Navy landfill at Orote Point have high levels of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls. Residents have been warned not to eat the seafood as PCBs are suspected of causing a wide variety of health problems, including cancer. The Navy announced on Saturday that the fish and shellfish are contaminated with "pesticides and other chemicals" after receiving results from tests conducted in June. the Navy said that the source of the contamination is not yet known and that it is working with Guam EPA officials on how to proceed.

Ethnic Indian to become Fiji cabinet minister
SUVA, Fiji Islands - Member of Parliament George Shiu Raj will be made a full minister, becoming the only ethnic Indian in the Laisenia Qarase-led government. Raj will be sworn in on Wednesday at Government House as the new Minister for Multi Ethnic Affairs. The move is seen as deflecting criticism over the non-inclusion of the Fiji Labor Party in the multi-party Cabinet. Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry, an ethnic Indian, was deposed as prime minister following the May 2000 coup. Meantime, the first Cabinet meeting of the new government took place on Tuesday in the parliament building under tight security.

Waigani Convention to come into force
SUVA, Fiji Islands - A Pacific region agreement to ban the importation and control the movement of hazardous and radioactive wastes within the South Pacific region will come into force on October 21, as a result of Tuvalu acceding to the Waigani Convention this week. The Convention was opened for signature and ratification on September 16, 1995, with an agreement that it would take effect 30 days after ratification or accession by ten parties to the agreement. Tuvalu is the tenth signatory. The Apia, Samoa-based South Pacific Regional Environment Program is the convention's secretariat.

Thousands flee villages in Irian Jaya
SYDNEY, Australia - Thousands of villagers in the remote Indonesian province Irian Jaya on the island of New Guinea have fled their homes. They fear reprisal killings by Indonesian security forces, a human rights worker said on Tuesday. John Rumbiak, program supervisor at the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy (ELSHAM), said that a crackdown began in the Wasior district, after rebels seeking independence killed five policemen on June 13. Since then, there had been 12 related killings. An estimated 5,000 villagers have fled to nearby mountains, Rumbiak said.

The complete PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT is available on the Internet at: http://pidp.ewc.hawaii.edu/PIReport.

Pacific Islands Report is a service of the East-West Center and the University of Hawaii. For news in depth, link to the PIR website: http://pidp.ewc.hawaii.edu/pireport