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Pacific Briefs
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Posted on Apr 04 2000
People must decide on Tokelau independence
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Foreign Minister Phil Goff has announced that independence will not be imposed on Tokelau, even though it remains on the United Nations Decolonization Committee list.
He said that despite the wishes of the 1,7000 residents living on the territory’s three atolls to remain a part of New Zealand, they are being encouraged by the UN to pursue independence.
Goff said the existing political relationship will change only if the Tokelauans want change.
Tokelau is located 288 miles north of Samoa and has no airport or harbor. About 5,000 Tokelauans reside in New Zealand.
Tom Hanks’ Fiji film steers clear of beach blunders
SUVA, Fiji Islands – Conservationists have applauded the efforts of a Hollywood film crew to protect the environment while filming “Castaway,” a movie starring Tom Hanks, on Fiji’s Monuriki Island.
The Suva-based World Wildlife Fund’s South Pacific Program said it was concerned after about 100 film crew members and tons of equipment arrived on the island to film the production in which Hanks lives as a castaway.
The Fund said the producers hired a local consultant to carry out a detailed environmental impact assessment and are following his advice.
Last year, Twentieth Century Fox made “The Beach,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, on Thailand’s Phi Phi Island, where the producers were accused of uprooting trees, bulldozing beaches and ignoring laws governing national parks.
Yamamoto’s plane possible Bougainville tourist attraction
BUKA, Papua New Guinea – Efforts have begun to turn the wreckage of Japanese Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto’s World War II plane into a major tourist attraction.
The transport plane, with Yamamoto aboard, crashed in a Bougainville jungle after being shot down by an American pilot in 1945, killing the planner of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Bougainville chief Albert Sibin said the war relic holds major promise as a tourist attraction, especially for Japanese visitors. (Pacific Islands Report)
