Pacific Briefs
Over 250 missing in ship sinking
MERAUKE, Irian Jaya, Indonesia—More than 250 people are reported missing and feared dead following the sinking of a passenger ferry off Irian Jaya province on the island of New Guinea.
The ship, the KM Bimas Raya II, was carrying about 300 passengers when it sank near Merauke.
“Only 26 out of some 300 passengers on the ship have been found,” a spokesperson for the ferry’s owner company, Bimas Raya, said.
Minutes before it sank, the ship’s captain sent an emergency radio message, saying that the vessel was in critical condition.
The cause of the sinking has not been determined.
Plutonium shipment to be probed
SUVA, Fiji Islands—The 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum has announced plans to organize a group of independent scientists to study the impact of nuclear waste shipments through the Pacific Ocean between Europe and Japan.
Fiji Foreign Affairs Minister Tupeni Baba said Forum secretariat representatives have begun formal meetings with member countries about implementing the proposal.
All Forum countries oppose the shipments.
Factory in Fiji eyed
SUVA, Fiji Islands—Kava industry representatives have recommended that the Ministry of Agriculture establish a kava processing factory.
The group’s report states that a processing facility will add more value to the product because processed kava lactones, used in sedatives and other medicines, sell for three times the price of the raw product in the U.S. and Europe.
Local and export earnings from kava last year totaled $47.29 million, of which $8.14 was earned from Europe and the U.S.
Autonomy vowed for Irian Jaya
JAKARTA, Indonesia—In a bid to quell secessionist sentiments, the People’s Consultative Assembly ruled on Tuesday that the new government must confer special autonomy status on mineral-rich Irian Jaya province, which shares the island of New Guinea with independent Papua New Guinea.
The country’s highest legislative body also ordered the government to immediately investigate human rights violations in the province, where there is an active independence movement.
“The special autonomy status will be arranged through a law,” Speaker Amien Rais told the assembly in a plenary session.
Two die in boat accident
KOROR, Palau—A boating accident, involving family members on a pleasure trip, claimed two lives last weekend.
U.S. Coast Guard officials in Guam reported that the boat, carrying at least 20 passengers, ran directly into one of the islands in the Rock Island chain.
The majority of the passengers remain in Palau National Hospital in serious condition. Palau national police are investigating the incident.
