PACIFIC BRIEFS

Fiji sugar pact reached

SUVA, Fiji – An agreement was reached between the Fiji Sugar Corporation and the Fiji Sugar and General Workers Union to allow the union to go into a business partnership with the corporation.

Union General Secretary Felix Anthony said FSC would provide a capital of $461,000 to start off the business.

The FSC would also provide personnel to run the business for the first 18 months.

Anthony said the deal would provide employment opportunities for workers and financially strengthen the union.

PNG to host Pacific naval symposium

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea – Papua New Guinea will host the 8th annual Western Pacific Naval Symposium next year.

Navy chiefs from 15 member countries attending this year’s symposium in Auckland, New Zealand unanimously voted in favor of PNG as the host nation for the workshop in September 2001.

The symposium’s goal is to increase naval cooperation in the Western Pacific among navies by providing a forum to discuss regional and global maritime issues.

Indonesia’s Wahid visits W. Papua

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesia’s President Wahid flew to West Papua, also known as Irian Jaya, to attend Christmas celebrations.

President Abdurrahman Wahid’s visit in the provincial capital Jayapura, is aimed at calming calls for independence.

Separatist leaders say they have not received an invitation to attend, nor have they requested to meet with the president.

Papuan Presidium Council Mediator Willy Mandowen said presidium members will not hold talks with the president until Jakarta develops a coherent policy on dealing with the people of Papua.

Swiss journalists of torture in W. Papua jails

JAKARTA, Irian Jaya – A Swiss journalist, recently released from prison in West Papua, told a Swiss newspaper that he saw Indonesian police torture Melanesians detained in the same cell.

Oswald Iten, a reporter for the daily Neue Zuericher Zeitung, spent 10 days in jail for illegally working under a tourist visa.

Iten was in the West Papuan capital of Jayapura early this month for the anniversary celebrations by pro-independence Papuan separatists.

He says he was in the same jail as five members of the separatist movement, including their leader Theys Eluay. (Pacific Islands Report)