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Pacific Briefs
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Posted on Nov 01 2000
Forum strengthens statement on West Papua
TARAWA, Kiribati – The final Pacific Islands Forum summit meeting communiqué has strengthened an initial statement on the tense situation in West Papua.
The statement still recognizes Indonesia as the sovereign authority in West Papua, which shares the island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea, but it says Forum leaders express deep concern about “past and recent violence and loss of life in West Papua.”
They urged Indonesia and the West Papua secessionists to resolve their difficulties peacefully through dialogue and consultation.
$9-M for Marshalls education project
MAJURO, Marshall Islands – The Ministry of Education and the Asian Development Bank have agreed on the funding of a $9 million project to expand and improve vocational education training.
The project, scheduled to get under way early next year, will focus primarily on women, youth and outer islands populations.
Plans call for the bank to loan $6.35 million and the government to finance $2.75 million of the vocational program, the Marshall Islands Journal reported.
Solomons seeks new Taiwan funding
HONIARA, Solomon Islands-Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare will travel to Taipei, Taiwan this week to request more than $300 million in new assistance.
The total includes 175 million dollars in grant assistance and about 129 million dollars in the form of a loan.
The government is seeking the assistance to meet its commitments under the recently signed Townsville Peace Agreement, which ended two years of ethnic unrest between militias from the capital island of Guadalcanal and neighboring Malaita.
