Category Archives: Pacific islands

Fears in Papua New Guinea over reports of China Mobile buying major phone carrier Digicel

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Speculation that the beleaguered mobile phone operator will be sold to Chinese telco has sparked security concerns

Speculation that mobile phone operator Digicel is considering selling the Papua New Guinea business that is considered the jewel in the financially troubled empire’s crown has sparked concern within the country over Beijing’s growing influence in PNG.

The Digicel conglomerate, which is controlled by Irish businessman Denis O’Brien, surprised many of its users in PNG by filing bankruptcy proceedings earlier this month in Bermuda and the US, where it owes billions of dollars.

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Papua New Guinea police arrest former PM Peter O’Neill over alleged corruption

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PNG police say O’Neill was arrested over the $14m purchase of two generators allegedly without parliamentary approval

Papua New Guinea police have arrested former prime minister Peter O’Neill over the alleged purchase of generators from Israel without parliamentary approval, according to the country’s assistant police commissioner.

O’Neill was arrested on Saturday at the main airport of Port Moresby, PNG’s capital, after returning from Australia, and brought in for questioning, assistant crimes commissioner Hodges Ette said in a statement.

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Rights groups call for Fiji to investigate alleged prison beatings and culture of intimidation

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Commissioner of corrections should be held accountable if reports of inhumane treatment prove correct, say rights advocates

International human rights groups have called on Fiji to launch an independent investigation into the commissioner of corrections, Francis Kean, after allegations from former officers that he routinely ordered the beating and mistreatment of prisoners.

The reports, published in the Guardian on Saturday, are based on detailed accounts from four former officers who have since come to Australia and claimed asylum.

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‘Take him down’: Fiji’s prison commissioner accused of ordering staff to beat inmates

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Exclusive: Four former prison officers seeking asylum in Australia claim Francis Kean, brother-in-law of Fiji’s PM, ran a brutal campaign of intimidation

Four former prison officers from Fiji are seeking asylum in Australia claiming the prime minister’s brother-in-law, who is the commissioner of the corrections service, routinely ordered the beating and mistreatment of prisoners and at one point ordered them to assault a fellow staff member.

Detailed accounts given to the Guardian by the four officers claim Francis Kean, a powerful figure inside Fiji, waged a brutal campaign of intimidation, coercion, bullying and violence on both prisoners and staff – which human rights campaigners say may amount to torture – with impunity.

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Politics and Porgera: why Papua New Guinea cancelled the lease on one of its biggest mines

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The announcement not to renew the goldmine lease is fraught but part of an attempt to ‘take back PNG’

Late in April, in the middle of a global pandemic and slow-boiling domestic economic crisis, the government of Papua New Guinea made the surprising announcement not to extend the mining lease on a goldmine that contributes roughly 10% of the country’s total exports.

The announcement not to renew the special mining lease for the Porgera mine was a shock, not least to the mine’s operator, Barrick Gold, and their joint venture partner Zijin Mining.

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Two piglets for a kayak: Fiji returns to barter system as Covid-19 hits economy

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Resurgence of bartering across the Pacific with similar Facebook pages in Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu, as people lose jobs

Two piglets for a pre-loved kayak, a taxi fare in exchange for fresh produce, hot cross buns for online tutoring, an old carpet for a professional photography session, vegetable seedlings for homemade pies, and offers to have backyards cleaned for prayers.

These are just a few examples of the hundreds of barter trades that are taking place across Fiji since a Facebook page “Barter for Better Fiji” was created a few weeks ago in response to sharp falls in employment due to coronavirus. The page now has more than 100,000 members, in a country of just under 900,000 people.

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If Australia and New Zealand restart travel, they should include the Pacific in their bubble | Michael Rose

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Many Pacific nations are Covid-free and their economies depend on tourism. Cautiously restarting travel there could be an important move

As Australia and New Zealand tentatively celebrate successes in their battles to bring Covid-19 under control, Winston Peters, New Zealand’s deputy prime minister, has raised the possibility of the two nations opening up travel to one another.

The mooted “trans-Tasman bubble” would allow travel between these two countries, which seem – for now – to have brought infection rates under control, while keeping their borders with the rest of the world closed or tightly managed.

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‘We were behind the eight ball’: Papua New Guinea’s health minister on Covid-19

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Jelta Wong had been in the job for just a few months when the coronavirus outbreak reached PNG

When Jelta Wong was appointed as Papua New Guinea’s health minister in November, he knew he had his work cut out for him.

The Pacific nation just north of Australia is dealing with outbreaks of malaria, dengue fever, drug-resistant tuberculosis and had a recent outbreak of polio. Its health system is notoriously fractured and underfunded.

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Pro-China Kiribati president loses majority over switch from Taiwan

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Party that switched recognition from Taiwan to China last year lost majority in elections this week over handling of the move

China’s diplomatic ambitions in the Pacific suffered a setback on Wednesday when the party that switched recognition from Taiwan to China last year lost its majority in parliament over its handling of the move.

In the second round of parliamentary elections, the governing party and allies won 22 seats out of 45, dealing a blow to President Taneti Maamau, who previously enjoyed a comfortable majority of 31.

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‘It’s catastrophic’: Fiji’s colossal tourism sector devastated by coronavirus

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Tourism employs about 150,000 people in the Pacific nation, but travel restrictions mean the work and the money are drying up

On a typical evening Suva’s Holiday Inn is packed with guests from all over the world. But tonight, the dining room of the hotel, one of the most popular in Fiji’s capital, which normally buzzes with the dinner rush, stands empty,

Looking lost amid the empty tables is waiter Samuela Yavala.

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‘It sticks to me like a disease’: Fiji grapples with revenge porn as internet use booms

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In a small Pacific country, with close-knit communities and conservative attitudes, victims of this crime are punished

Crystal* remembers the day her life came crashing down.

Crystal, 23, a former student at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, had allowed her partner to take intimate pictures of her in 2014. It was a decision she would come to regret. Two years later, those pictures were published online in a public Dropbox folder, appearing alongside roughly 900 other images of young Fijian women.

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Calls for debt relief to help world’s poorest nations fight coronavirus

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Australia urged to use its influence to push for the permanent cancellation of all debt due from vulnerable countries in 2020

Low-income countries need their debts for 2020 forgiven, alongside billions in emergency grants to survive the Covid-19 crisis, civil society groups around the world have said, arguing the viral pandemic will hit hardest the poorest people in the poorest countries.

More than 100 civil society organisations internationally have called on creditor nations to permanently cancel all debt repayments as the “fastest way to keep money in countries and free up resources to tackle the urgent health, social and economic crises resulting from the Covid-19 global pandemic”.

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‘It’s all gone’: Cyclone Harold cuts a deadly path through Vanuatu

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The northern islands of the Pacific nation were hit by a category-5 cyclone on Monday, flattening buildings, cutting power and stripping trees

The once-lush forest cover of the island of Malo has been completely denuded. Nearly every tree lost major limbs. Many were snapped at the trunk. Even cyclone-adapted coconut trees were strewn about like matchsticks. Schools and homes were destroyed.

On Monday, the tiny Pacific island country of Vanuatu was rocked by Cyclone Harold, the second category-5 storm to hit the nation in five years. The cyclone, which formed off Solomon Islands and led to the deaths of 27 people who were swept off a ferry in rough seas, went on to flatten buildings and cause severe flooding in Fiji and Tonga. But it passed through the north of Vanuatu when it was at its strongest.

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Cyclone Harold batters Fiji on path of destruction through Pacific

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The tropical cyclone killed 27 people in Solomon Islands last week and has caused unknown destruction in Vanuatu

Cyclone Harold has levelled buildings and caused dangerous flooding across Fiji’s largest island of Viti Levu, after pummelling Vanuatu as a category-five storm on Monday.

The tropical cyclone was downgraded to category four before reaching Fijian waters. Fijian authorities ordered people to stay indoors and closed all roads on the island of Viti Levu, which is home to the country’s capital of Suva and the bulk of the Pacific nation’s population.

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‘If it comes, it will be a disaster’: life in one of the only countries without coronavirus

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The Pacific nation of Vanuatu is one of the few places that is coronavirus-free, but efforts to stop its arrival have been hampered by a category five cyclone

On Sunday morning, 62 guests prepared to check out of an idyllic resort, surrounded by palm trees and overlooking a lagoon, in Vanuatu’s capital of Port Vila.

But instead of taxis waiting to take them to the airport, familiar faces were anxiously waiting to take their loved ones back home.

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Communications down after category 5 Cyclone Harold hits Vanuatu

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Pacific nation lashed by heavy rain, flash flooding and ‘phenomenal seas’

A category five cyclone has made landfall on the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, causing damage across large parts of the country, as it tries to prepare for the coronavirus outbreak.

Cyclone Harold made landfall on the north and west of the country on Monday, after spending Sunday sitting off the country’s west coast, gathering strength.

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Scott Morrison calls the Pacific our ‘family’; Covid-19 is Australia’s chance to prove that | Pat Conroy

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It is Australia’s duty – and in our national interest – to respond to the health and economic challenges caused by coronavirus in the Pacific

The Covid-19 crisis has caused Australians to examine our hospital system with one question in mind: can it handle the coronavirus surge? There has been fierce debate about whether doubling our ventilators from 2,200 to over 4,000 is sufficient.

Australia currently has one ventilator and one Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed per 11,000 people. We have one doctor for every 285 Australians and one nurse for every 78.

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Australia’s food supply relies on migrant workers, many of whom are facing coronavirus limbo | Victoria Stead

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As borders close and social distancing increases, what are our responsibilities to the people who keep working?

Amid coronavirus-induced stockpiling and empty supermarket shelves, politicians have been quick to assure us of the reliability of Australia’s food supply systems.

Writing for the Guardian last week, agriculture minister David Littleproud slammed “ridiculous” panic-buying, saying: “It is important to understand that Australian farmers produce enough food for 75 million people: three times what we need”. Farmers, he continued, are “calmly going about the business of food production”, “preparing to sow and pick their crops and making sure their produce makes it to market”.

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Coronavirus fears and controversial passport sales: Vanuatu’s election explained

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A country with fractured and shifting political alliances, Vanuatu heads to the polls at a crucial moment in its history

In the coffee shops and kava bars of Vanuatu’s capital of Port Vila, there are two subjects that dominate conversation: Covid-19 and this week’s general elections, which will be held on Thursday.

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Coronavirus: cruise passengers stranded as countries turn them away

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Thousands in limbo around the world as vessels seek a port at which to dock

As countries scramble to close their borders in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic, thousands of cruise ship passengers are stranded on the high seas while their vessels seek a port at which to dock.

The Norwegian Jewel, sailing under the flag of the Bahamas, has been refused permission to dock in French Polynesia, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia, and is piloting to American Samoa to refuel.

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