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Pacific Briefs
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Posted on May 01 2001
Vanuatu PM rejects phone tapping claim
PORT VILA, Vanuatu (PIR) — New Prime Minister Edward Natapei has rejected claims that Australian federal police are tapping the private telephone of the man he replaced following a no confidence vote in Parliament two weeks ago.
Former Prime Minister, Barak Sope has alleged that a team of Australian police in Port Vila to investigate drug trafficking is instead interfering in Vanuatu’s internal affairs and he wants them expelled.
Natapei said the invitation to the police to come to Port Vila was issued while Sope was Prime Minister, and given the time period involved Sope is the only one who could have approved any tampering with the telephone system.
PNG airline wins Narita rights
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PIR) — The Japanese government has approved Air Niugini’s request to begin weekly service to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport starting in May 2002.
Air Niugini managing director Peter Roberts said the direct Port Moresby-Tokyo service will be used to transport the increasing quantities of tuna being exported from PNG to Japan and to link Japan, via the PNG capital, with other Melanesian destinations, including the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Currently, Air Niugini is authorized to fly one weekly flight between Port Moresby and Kansai Airport in Osaka.
Fiji exodus continues
SUVA, Fiji (PIR) — The Bureau of Statistics reports that the exodus from the country following last year’s attempted coup and the ouster of the elected government is continuing.
During the past 12 months, a total of 5,275 people moved overseas permanently, an annual increase of more than nine percent.
The peak month was December, when almost 500 people left the country, more than 80 per cent of them Indo-Fijians.
