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Fight against crime in PNG’s Oro gains momentum – 22 suspects charged

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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Operation Stabilising Oro police in action
Operation Stabilising Oro police in action . . . “Families, women and girls were victims of the so-called ‘don’t care’ gang who robbed anyone anywhere and struck fear in the hearts of many residents." Image: PNG Post-Courier

By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby

Since the start of Papua New Guinea’s Operation Stabilising Oro last month, 22 rape, murder and armed robbery suspects have been to date charged — and more are to follow.

There is also an estimated backlog of 105 outstanding cases that will be attended to over the next three to four weeks with more arrests to follow.

“We have confiscated home brew equipment, home and factory-made firearms, wire catapults and large quantities of drugs,” Oro provincial police commander Chief Inspector Ewai Segi said.

“The fight against crime has commenced after several armed robberies, shootings and the tag of ‘cowboy country’ only fueled the rise in crime reports.

“Families, women and girls were victims of the so-called ‘don’t care’ gang who robbed anyone anywhere and struck fear in the hearts of many residents.

“Police have exhausted everything within their power to curb crime but failed miserably because of shortages in manpower and other resources, thus the entry of the support of the Water Police, NCD Forensics and police prosecution to rid crime and also move along criminal cases.

“Traffic enforcement using the latest charge sheet from the National Road Transport Authority are also in full swing where offenders face charges up to K2000 (NZ$890) and defaults of up to K10,000 (NZ$4,450) and or imprisonment and my orders are very concise.”

Joint operations briefing
Chief Inspector Segi made this observation during the joint operations briefing in Popondetta on Saturday, January 14, where he addressed members of the NCD contingent lead by Contingent Commander Justus Baupo and his special operations team.

Governor Gary Juffa who was with the team when they started operations two weeks ago also expressed his gratitude to the local police force for stepping up during very trying times to uphold the rule of law.

“I am proud of our local troops as despite very small numbers they continue to work tirelessly to uphold the law and maintain order in Oro,” Juffa said.

“With this additional support from NCD [National Capital District], I am confident our local troops will be able to triple their current efforts and rid our rural communities and urban settlements of ruthless criminal elements and regain the confidence of the wider community.”

According to Governor Juffa, there are plans already afoot to have support from NCD specific to Forensic and Prosecution to see through a lot of outstanding cases which the PPC had highlighted earlier.

“Operation Stabilising Oro is a full-scale operation where we deployed a traffic team, an Investigative Task Force (ITF) unit backed by an armed team from Water Police,” Chief Inspector Segi Segi said.

“I am very pleased to announce we have made a record number of arrests and charges laid successfully on perpetrators who had been on the run for some time and continuous raids on hotspot areas confiscating home brew implements, home and factory-made firearms, the infamous wire catapult and large quantities of drugs.

Rallied community support
“I have rallied the support of the wider community, especially clans and tribal chiefs, to stand with me and the Governor Gary Juffa to ensure Oro is stabilised and returned to normalcy before the first quarter of 2023 concludes.

“On the investigative task force front, we have made available full support to the joining ITF team through collaboration to reduce the vast number of pending and outstanding cases back some five years or more.

“Our collaboration in terms of information and intel sharing and interview records and access to our case database are priority areas and I am confident we will see successful prosecution in the coming days and weeks.”

Provincial Administrator Trevor Magei confirmed also that a lot of the ongoing criminal challenges were caused by the same known criminal elements.

“They continue to cause havoc because we lacked proper resourcing within our ITF and prosecution, but from my monitoring there is hope for Oro as we have a very good composition of police support from police headquarters,” he said.

Magei is also head of the provincial law and order working committee and has assured Chief Inspector Segi and staff from outside Oro of more collaboration as they continue in the coming weeks.

“The business community, the local chamber of commerce, our Chinese business association together with major employer Sime Darbie are all backing this special operation with whatever support and logistics they can contribute,” he said.

Miriam Zarriga is a senior PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

The hatred and vitriol NZ’s Jacinda Ardern endured ‘would affect anybody’

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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Nasty personal attacks - often about her appearance - were ever-present in the comments under posts on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's social media accounts
Nasty personal attacks - often about her appearance - were ever-present in the comments under posts on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's social media accounts. Image: RNZ News

“History will judge Jacinda Ardern as a remarkable leader. She is genuinely kind and has an incredible intellect, she’s made more of a contribution than she will ever appreciate. I can’t help but feel like we need to find better ways to support women and mothers in politics.” – union lawyer, columnist and mother Fleur Fitzsimons

By Anusha Bradley, RNZ News investigative reporter

Within hours of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation announcement in Napier, a small crowd gathered outside the city’s conference centre.

Unlike the steady stream of shocked Labour MPs still coming to terms with the news, these folks were celebrating.

“Ding dong the witch is gone,” a placard read.

Online, there have been similar sentiments to be found among groups bitterly opposed to Ardern. The Freedom and Rights Coalition even takes credit for Ardern’s departure in a post on Facebook: “We can now celebrate the departure of this leader of division. We did it!”

The comments on the post are unfit to repeat here.

Entering what would have been her sixth year, Ardern is the longest-serving Labour Prime Minister after Peter Fraser and Helen Clark. But in an emotional speech to her caucus in Napier she revealed she “no longer had enough in the tank” to do the job.

“It’s time,” she said.

“As much as I have taken great joy in this job, I would be giving a disservice to this country and to the Labour Party if I continued, knowing that I just don’t have enough in the tank for another four years.”

Violent abuse
While it wasn’t explicitly stated, it’s hard to imagine the increasingly violent abuse directed at her was not part of the reason.

“It is no surprise to me at all … she could not, not be affected by this,” says Disinformation Project director Kate Hannah.

Ardern probably tops the list for the amount of vitriol endured by any political leader in this country, Hannah believes.

“In the earlier parts of her first term we got sort of commentary about her looks and her lack of perceived experience. The fact that sort of she was, you know, well spoken, and really good at communicating complex issues was kind of a slur against her.”

Jacinda Ardern was commonly depicted as a tyrant
Jacinda Ardern was commonly depicted as a tyrant – even compared to the worst genocidal leaders in world history. Image: Phil Smith/VNP/RNZ News

But in the last two years the misogyny and violence directed towards Ardern has not only increased in volume, but also become more dangerous, says Hannah, who studies online hate speech and disinformation.

“The language and imagery used to talk about the Prime Minister has become more violent, more vulgar, more crude and repetitive.”

According to a recent study, published just before Christmas, which charts the rise of misogynistic language towards female leaders and women in the public sphere, the most prevalent word used to describe the Prime Minister in these circles is “the C word, and the most prevalent visual image is of witchcraft”.

“And this is old data. This is data from the middle of last year. So it’s actually got worse.”

Grim factoid
Another grim factoid from the paper shows the word “Neve” – referring to Ardern’s pre-school daughter — is also on the most prevalent list.

In June, it was revealed the number of threats towards Ardern has almost tripled in the past three years.

Hannah, who herself has been subjected to similar abuse — including death threats — says she presented the paper’s findings to Ardern and a range of MPs late last year.

How did Ardern react?

“As we all do . . . trying to laugh it off and saying the job is more important . . . and you just have to get on with the job,” says Hannah.

But this is no laughing matter, she says. This new virulent brand of misogyny is on the rise and it affects all women.

“The international disinformation, far right, pro-Putin community is incredibly misogynistic.

‘Incredibly abusive’
“It is incredibly abusive and derogatory, and what it does is attempts to reduce a person to their basic self, and in doing so signals to every other person who shares characteristics with that individual who has been targeted that they are equally worthless, equally base, equally loathed.

“So has this purpose of both targeting individually her as a woman, her role as prime minister, and then all women or all people who share some of those characteristics with her,” says Hannah.


Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s biggest moments.    Video: RNZ News

Massey University senior lecturer Dr Suze Wilson, who studies leadership and has examined the vitriol aimed at Ardern, says even the coining of “Jacindamania”, referring to her meteoric rise in popularity as leader served as an early warning of what was to come.

“As if somehow people were losing their heads to be excited by the prospect of a potential Prime Minister, who was young and female and articulate, through to the last couple of years where it’s become increasingly violent, the kind of abuse to which she’s been subjected.”

While the pandemic has been a factor, research also shows that generally it is becoming more challenging for women to be taken seriously, says Wilson.

“Particularly if they are younger and particularly if they don’t cleave to a masculine style, which Ardern does not.”

Worryingly, misogynistic sentiment is also on the rise globally. The latest Reykjavik Index for leadership tracks views about whether a man or woman would be more suitable to a certain position.

Backwards trend
“The most recent data came out just before Christmas, and it is showing that in some countries for the first time that there was actually some backwards moving trends,” says Wilson.

“It was showing, alarmingly, that it’s particularly among younger men, and those are the ones that are being exposed to the likes of Jordan Petersons and Andrew Tates of the world who are learning from them a really just disrespectful and antagonistic view towards women.”

Wilson says she first started noticing a shift in sentiment towards Ardern during the first 2020 lockdown. But it didn’t come from the dark corners of the anti-vax movement, but on the mainstream business social networking site LinkedIn.

‘”I started seeing people, you know like business leaders, using words like tyrant and dictator to describe the prime minister, and I was kind of quite disturbed by that.

“The fact that they can make those kinds of statements and think that somehow that would be a credible statement, tells you kind of something about the shifting norms of what’s considered an OK way to talk about our prime minister.”

'No jab no job no Jacinda say the mob'. Mob is an interesting self-description. Often when people protest against what they see as facism they draw a diagonal through a swastika. At this protest there were many but I saw none crossed out.
These protesters against a requirement to be vaccinated against covid-19 compared Jacinda Ardern’s government to the Nazis. Image: Phil Smith/VNP/RNZ News

Dr Wilson believes this must have taken its toll on Ardern.

“It’s hard to believe that it wouldn’t affect you, right? I mean, it would affect anybody . . . Having people talk about wanting to hang her, wanting to harm her child, the persistent rumours about her partner. She’s human, of course it’s going to take quite a toll.”

‘Look in the mirror’
Ardern herself has rarely acknowledged the abuse publicly. Wilson can understand why.

“I can understand why she doesn’t want to highlight it, because it would be, perhaps for those that are engaged in that behaviour, some kind of reinforcement that what they’re doing is having an effect.

“But really, they should just look in the mirror and be deeply ashamed of their conduct.”

Hannah says it’s also worrying the violent rhetoric towards the prime minister is now considered the “new normal”.

“This type of language and abuse is now so normalised that it’s very hard to pull back from. When people have become accustomed to using the C word, as the most commonly used word to describe the prime minister, then, you know, I just don’t know how we come back from that in any kind of quick way.”

For some, the issue was so pervasive it defined the way they viewed the announcement of her resignation. A number of public figures referred to it in posts on Twitter:

And on the streets of Auckland, kilometres away from the dwindling crowd outside Napier’s conference centre, an emotional Tessa Williams from Taupō, perhaps summed up the view of those most disturbed by the vitriol Ardern received.

“She’s put up with a lot of really tough stuff. I mean, I was surprised that she has hung in kind of as long as she did,” Williams said.

“It was pretty rough how she’s been treated. Yeah, I think it’s a good decision. It was so hard for her. She did a really good job.

“It’s sad that people were so mean to her.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Ardern’s resignation as NZ prime minister a game changer for 2023 election

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with fellow MPs after announcing her resignation today in Napier. Image: Getty Images/The Conversation

ANALYSIS: By Grant Duncan, Massey University

New Zealanders will have a new prime minister by February 7 and will go to the polls on October 14, after two-term Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced her resignation today to spend more time with her family.

“For me, it’s time,” she said, speaking from the Labour Party’s retreat. “I just don’t have enough in the tank for another four years.”

Ardern said she would stay on until April as a local MP.

Beyond that, I have no plan. No next steps. All I know is that whatever I do, I will try and find ways to keep working for New Zealand and that I am looking forward to spending time with my family again – arguably, they are the ones that have sacrificed the most out of all of us.

Ardern’s resignation will come as a shock to many New Zealanders, and especially to people overseas — given the international reputation she earned as prime minister over the past five years.

But this is less of a surprise for close watchers of New Zealand politics. Back in November 2021, I wrote in The Conversation: “Might Jacinda Ardern stand down?”, after Labour changed its rules to make it easier for the party’s leader to be replaced.

A game changing move before the election
Ardern’s rise to power in 2017 was a game changer in New Zealand politics. Now she’s surprised everyone again with today’s decision to stand down, this could be a game changer for the October election.

Ardern is still higher in the preferred PM polls, ahead of National’s Christopher Luxon. So it’s not imperative for Labour to change their leader.


NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announcing her resignation on 19 January 2023.

But up until this moment, everyone has been picking a likely change in government to a rightwing National/Act coalition later this year.

Now that Labour is starting to trail in the polls, having a refresh of the leadership does not necessarily ruin the party’s chances of winning in October.

The social and economic fallout of the pandemic has been so profound that having a fresh new face could help Labour’s chances.

Former National Prime Minister John Key did a similar thing back in 2016, invoking the same “not enough in the tank” line as Ardern today, when he surprised everyone and stood down, handing over to Bill English.

English and National actually did well in the following year’s election, gaining 44 percent of the vote. It was only because of overall arithmetic that National was unable to form government and that Ardern went on to become prime minister.

Ardern’s replacement could be known within days
Ardern made herself world famous for her management of the pandemic, and she did an extremely good job as a leader over that period.

But covid-19 also completely derailed her prime ministership, meaning she was stymied in pursuing many of the key social objectives such as child poverty and housing that she would have liked to put more effort into.

I know Ardern personally, and what you see on TV is what you get in real life. She is a genuine person and politician, and you can understand the reasons she has given about wanting more time with her fiancé and daughter.

My sense is that Labour knows who will take over. Front runners to be leader could include Minister of Justice Kiri Allan, who is a rising star and could be the first Māori PM, though she is relatively new to politics. Minister for Education and Leader of the House Chris Hipkins was a high-profile and hard-working MP during COVID, and he and Allan could make a formidable team.

Housing, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods is also an experienced and senior member of the party, so could also be in the mix.

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson won’t be contesting the leadership, and Labour caucus has agreed that a vote will happen in three days’ time, on January 22.

A successful candidate will need more than 60 percent of the caucus vote, otherwise the party must go to a primary-style process with the Labour membership, which could be messy, so it will want to avoid that.The Conversation

Dr Grant Duncan is an associate professor, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

‘Today, facts win, truth wins, justice wins’, says Ressa over court victory

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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Nobel laureate and Rappler Holdings Corporation president Maria Ressa
Nobel laureate and Rappler Holdings Corporation president Maria Ressa arrives at the Court of Tax Appeals in Quezon City yesterday for the promulgation of four tax cases vs RHC. Image: Jire Carreon/Rappler

By Lian Buan in Manila

The Philippines’ Court of Tax Appeals has acquitted Nobel laureate Maria Ressa and Rappler Holdings Corporation (RHC) of four charges of tax evasion that were filed in 2018 by the previous Duterte government.

The CTA 1st Division decided yesterday to acquit Ressa and RHC, Rappler’s holding company, in the Duterte government’s charge that it evaded tax payments when it raised capital through its partnership with foreign investors North Base Media (NBM) and Omidyar Network (ON).

This involved the issuance to the two entities of Philippine Depositary Receipts or PDRs, financial instruments commonly used even among media companies like ABS-CBN and GMA Network.

In an 80-page decision, the court ordered the acquittal of Ressa and RHC for “failure of the prosecution to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt’.

The decision was signed by Associate Justices Catherine Manahan, Jean Marie Bacorro-Villena, and Marian Ivy Reyes-Fajardo. Presiding Justice Roman del Rosario inhibited from the proceedings but certified the decision.

The victory ends more than four years of trial of a case filed in March 2018, two months after the Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission issued a closure order against Rappler on the basis of the Duterte government’s charge that it broke the law by being foreign-owned.

Rappler is a 100 percent Filipino company, a point asserted by the company in its appeal of the SEC order at the Court of Appeals (CA).

An emotional Ressa said after the verdict: “Today, facts win, truth wins, justice wins,” calling for freedom of detained former senator Leila de Lima and jailed journalists like Frenchie Mae Cumpio.

De Lima will begin her seventh year in prison in February, while Cumpio will begin her fourth year also in February.


Rappler CEO Maria Ressa talks to the media.                                        Video: Rappler

The CTA voted 3-0 to decide the “non-taxability of the issuance of PDRs to North Base Media and Omidyar Network.” The court added, “No gain or income was realised by accused in the subject transactions.

“Since accused is not required to pay the income tax and VAT on the PDR transactions for the taxable year 2015, the elements of Sections 254 and 255 of the 1977 NIRC as amended, are rendered nugatory and without legal support. The plaintiff therefore failed to prove the guilt of accused beyond reasonable doubt,” said the CTA decision.

The CTA also said, “There is nothing in the wordings of the PDR instruments and the PDR subscription agreements that would show the foreign entities NBM and ON will become owners of the shares of stock of Rappler.”

Ressa’s lawyer Francis Lim, the former president of the Philippine Stock Exchange, said that if PDRs were declared to be taxable income just to convict Ressa and Rappler, every business seeking to raise capital would be affected.

“At the end of the day, it’s our economy, it’s our people through job generation that will benefit. Imagine if Maria was convicted, the repercussions,” said Lim.

‘Keep the faith’
Lim also said: “We had no doubt this day would come. I told them keep the faith, because in our hearts we knew an acquittal would come. We trust our judiciary, everybody knew where this case came from.”

It was former Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) commissioner Caesar Dulay, a Duterte appointee, who initiated the lightning tax probe into Rappler on January 24, 2018; he filed the criminal complaints two months later, in March, before the justice department then headed by Menardo Guevarra, another Duterte appointee.

Guevarra charged Ressa and RHC at the CTA in November 2018.

The CTA’s acquittal of RHC and Ressa is expected to affect a related case that was filed by the Duterte government against the two before the Pasig City Regional Trial Court, which handles tax cases involving less than P1 million (about NZ$28,500).

Rappler is about to wrap up its presentation of evidence for that case; the facts are identical to the four charges that the CTA junked yesterday.

In general, an acquittal cannot be appealed against because of the right against double jeopardy.

Three cases left
With the junking of the four CTA cases, there remain only three active court cases against Rappler and Ressa: the appeal of Ressa and former researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. in their conviction for cyber libel pending at the Supreme Court, the lone tax case at the Pasig City RTC, and the appeal on the closure of Rappler pending at the CA.

The mother case, the SEC’s closure order that is pending at the appeals court, accuses Rappler of violating the constitutional requirement that Filipino media companies must be 100 percent Filipino-owned. The alleged violation was supposedly committed when it issued PDRs to foreign investor ON.

The court previously said that Rappler was entitled to a curing period, and that ON’s donation of the PDRs to Filipino managers had removed the problem. But the SEC in the last two days of the Duterte term in June 2022, stood firm on its order to close down Rappler — triggering another round of litigation at the appellate court which is still ongoing.

In the CTA cases, Rappler’s lawyers said that in the last 20 years, the BIR has treated PDRs as derivatives of stock for which only documentary stamp tax was due to be paid.

“This case exemplifies how the power of taxation can be used as a tool to cause a thousand cuts to our democracy. Rappler Inc., which has been at the forefront of providing independent journalism in the Philippines, caught the ire of the Duterte Government,” Rappler and Ressa said in a final memorandum submitted to the CTA before yesterday’s judgment.

“As a result, and for the first time in Philippine history, the BIR classified a holding company that issued PDRs as a dealer in securities and required the payment of income tax and VAT.

“The government’s targeted attack and investigations against Rappler Inc.’s parent company, accused Rappler Holdings Corporation and RHC’s president Maria Ressa, presents a clear example of how the law can be bent to the point that it is broken,” said Rappler’s memorandum.

Lian Buan is a senior Rappler journalist. Republished with permission.

Probe into officers’ actions after one person killed in West Papua shooting

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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Arrested Papuan Governor Lukas Enembe
Arrested Papuan Governor Lukas Enembe . . . he had been increasingly critical of Indonesian "colonial" policies. Image: Johnny Blades/RNZ Pacific

RNZ Pacific

Police officers in West Papua will be investigated over shootings during a provincial governor’s controversial arrest.

One person died after the struggle that followed the arrest of Papua Governor Lukas Enembe over allegations of bribery.

As many as 19 people were detained by the police for allegedly attacking security forces.

Papua police chief Mathias Fakhiri has ordered the head of the Internal Affair Division and director of Criminal Investigation of the Papua Police to immediately investigate the actions taken by police officers.

He asked his staff to approach families and religious, community and traditional leaders, so that the arrest of Governor Lukas Enembe would not create unrest.

“I ask for the report today. If there is indeed a wrong handling, I ensure there will be law enforcement against members who do not comply with the standard operating procedures,” he said.

“I urge all parties not to spread hoaxes or information that does not match the facts,” he said.

“Let us provide moral support so that the legal process runs as it is.”

Wenda calls for governor’s release
A West Papuan independence leader, Benny Wenda, has called for the immediate and unconditional release of Governor Enembe.

Wenda said the arrest follows the governor’s “criminalisation” in September 2022, when he was accused of corruption and banned from travelling abroad for essential medical treatment.

The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) leader said Enembe’s treatment could not be separated from his increasingly vocal stance against Indonesia’s colonial policies in West Papua.

Wenda said Enembe opposed Indonesia’s division of West Papua into new provinces, which the exiled leader described as a “divide and rule” tactic designed to steal the region’s natural resources and allow further militarisation of villages.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

West Papuan independence campaigner Benny Wenda
West Papuan independence campaigner Benny Wenda at the Pacific Islands Forum summit in Tuvalu, 2019. Image: Jamie Tahana/RNZ Pacific

Fiji military chief’s sharp criticism of ‘ambition, speed’ of changes sparks anxiety

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Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai
Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai . . . an extraordinary warning over "security" but he later declares support for government. Image: Fijivillage News

Pacific Media Watch

Fiji’s military commander stirred a wave of anxiety today with an extraordinary statement claiming concern over the “ambition and speed” of political changes since last month’s election that could have “fateful” security consequences.

Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai, commander-in-chief of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF), said in the statement that the military played a “guardian role” under the Constitution and “new assaults” on Fiji’s democracy would “not be tolerated”.

But he was summoned by Home Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua for a meeting this afternoon and Major-General Kalouniwai denied to news media that the military planned any takeover.

Fiji has had four coups in less than four decades, carried out by either the military or rogue soldiers.

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka staged the first two coups in 1987, but he was the elected prime minister 1992-99, while businessman George Speight supported by rogue troops carried out the third in 2000, and then military commander Voreqe Bainimarama seized power in 2006 with a “coup to end all coups”.

Bainimarama has held power for the past 16 years, half of them as the elected leader, but narrowly lost his FijiFirst party majority in last month’s election.

All four coups have been marked by allegations of ethnic tension between indigenous iTaukei Fijians and Indo-Fijians.

RFMF ‘backs democracy’
However, in an exclusive interview this afternoon with Fijivillage News, Major-General Kalouniwai stressed that the RFMF would continue to stand for democracy, the rule of law and honour, and the government.

Fiji Home Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua
Fiji Home Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua . . . reassured the military commander that the coalition government was following the law and the Constitution. Image: FijiOne News

Home Affairs Minister Tikoduadua said after their meeting he had reassured the commander that all the actions of the new People’s Alliance-led coalition government had been guided by the law.

The minister also claimed that the commander’s statement had been “sensationalised” by media and he was concerned that state-run FBC News was “inciting and misrepresenting” what Major-General Kalouniwai had said.

Tikoduadua said the news had been “corrected” by the commander.

Major-General Kalouniwai’s statement and reaction have been widely carried by news media in Fiji.

According to The Fiji Times, Major-General Kalouniwai had raised concern in his statement over some of the rapid changes the government had undertaken in “just 16 days in office”.

He said that section 131 of the Constitution stipulated “the RFMF plays a guardian role where the excesses of the past are not repeated and any new assaults on Fiji’s emerging democracy are not tolerated”.

‘Creating shortcuts’
Major-General Kalouniwai said: “The RFMF has quietly observed with growing concern over the last few days, the ambition and speed of the government in implementing these sweeping changes are creating shortcuts that circumvent the relevant processes and procedures that protect the integrity of the law and the Constitution.

“Whilst the RFMF recognises the justifications by the current government to establish these changes, the RFMF believes that trying and failing to democratise in adverse circumstances has the potential to bring about fateful, long-term national security consequences.

“The RFMF is concerned whether these rapid changes are being pursued without a full understanding of the process and procedures or intentionally done to challenge the integrity of the law and the Constitution of this land.”

Major-General Kalouniwai said the RFMF firmly believed the separation of powers between the executive and the judicial arms of the state must be respected, reports The Fiji Times.

“It must be important to understand and appreciate that a strong rule of law is built on respect for and adherence to a clear separation of powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.

“Whatever the reasons may be, the RFMF feels that such actions and decisions is putting at risk the very nature of the law and the separation of powers that clearly demarcate the independence of the three arms of government.”

Major-General Kalouniwai said section 131 of the Constitution also ensured the values and principles of democracy, including the checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution, were not undermined.

‘No takeover plan’
FBC News reports that Major-General Kalouniwai said he did “not plan to take over the government”.

The commander said he would not make any further comments about his earlier statement and Minister Tikoduadua would brief Fijians about their meeting this afternoon.

Major-General Kalouniwai told Fijivillage News that RFMF had spoken in defence of democracy and the rule of law before, during and after the 2022 general elections.

The commander said that today’s statement focused on ensuring that the government followed proper procedures and processes when making changes.

He said the “rule of law must be paramount”.

Home Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua, who is also Minister of Defence, said he had reassured Major-General Kalouniwai that all the government’s actions had been guided by the law, reports Fijivillage News.

He added that he had had a “cordial meeting” with the commander, who had assured him that he would no longer be making any public statement such as the one earlier today.

Tikoduadua said he had discussed two main issues with the commander — concerns over the government plan for sacked Fiji Airways and Air Terminal Services staff to be rehired, and over the future of Fiji diplomats abroad.

In May 2020, 758 Fiji Airways and 258 ATS staff lost their jobs due to covid-19.

Tikoduadua said the major-general had pledged support for the government.

Owen Wilkes, the intellect behind New Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance

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Peace researcher Owen Wilkes
Owen Wilkes speaking at a protest at the US base at Christchurch Airport (Harewood) in 1973. Wilkes is wearing a Halt All Racist Tours (HART) badge. The Harewood demonstration was a key event in the later government decision to cancel a proposed Springbok tour in New Zealand. Image: Walter Logeman/Peacemonger

A new book about one of New Zealand’s foremost peace activists offers insight into Owen Wilkes, the man described as the intellect behind New Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance.

REVIEW: By Pat Baskett

In the days before mobile phones and emails, there were telephone trees. They grew and spread messages like leaves, thriving on the fertile ground of common beliefs and support for a particular cause.

It worked like this: one member of a group phoned 10 others who phoned another 10, each of whom phoned 10 more. On and on . . . The caller was never anonymous, relationships were established — or you simply said, “no thanks”.

The task of spreading information, before the internet, was time-consuming and labour intensive. Photocopiers, which became widely used only in the late 1970s, replaced an invaluable machine called a duplicator. You cranked the handle, one turn for each page, hoping the paper wouldn’t stick. How long did it take to do a thousand?

Next came the mail-out — folding, stuffing envelopes, sticking on stamps if funds allowed, or delivering them by hand into letterboxes.

The process was convivial, the days were busy but there was always time. There needed to be, because the issue was urgent.

The Cold War, that period of perilous mistrust between the communist Soviet Union and the “free” West, led by the United States, engulfed us in fear of a nuclear holocaust. Barely a generation separated us from the end of World War II when nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

The mutually assured destruction (MAD) these weapons promised was a fragile pseudo peace. In our neighbourhood peace groups, we understood the devastation a nuclear winter would bring and we worked out the radius of death and damage from a bomb dropped on our own cities.

An essential step

Yet more than nuclear weapons was, and still is, at stake. The movement was called the Peace Movement because banning nukes was considered the essential step in ensuring world peace.

The stockpile of nuclear weapons held by each side was more than enough to eradicate all, or most, life on earth — and it still is.

Those existential threats have a familiar ring, though the cause we face today adds another dimension. So far, the benefits of almost instant communication and dissemination of information haven’t enabled the world to devise for climate disruption what activists, uniquely in New Zealand, achieved — the 1986 nuclear weapons-free legislation.

Passed by the Labour government of David Lange, it prohibits not just weapons but nuclear-powered warships — including those of our former ANZUS allies, namely the United States.

There has never been any question of rescinding this act. It remains in safe obscurity — to such an extent that I wonder how many of our Gen X contemporaries are aware of its existence.

Yet more than nuclear weapons was, and still is, at stake. The movement was called the Peace Movement because banning nukes was considered the essential step in ensuring world peace.

In 1984, 61 percent of the population were living in 86 locally declared nuclear-weapons-free zones. Academic activists came together to form Scientists Against Nuclear Arms (SANA) and Engineers for Social Responsibility (ESR – this group now focuses on the climate disruption).

The medical fraternity formed a local branch of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW).

Extraordinary sleuthing talent
Much of the information which fuelled the work of all these groups was brought to light by the extraordinary sleuthing talent of one man. Owen Wilkes is described as ” . . . the intellect behind New Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance” in a recent book, Peacemonger: Owen Wilkes international peace researcher, published by Raekaihau Press in association with Steele Roberts Aotearoa.

The book consists of 12 essays by friends and collaborators, themselves experts in their individual fields and who leave their own legacies of contribution to the knowledge that led to the anti-nuclear legislation.

Peacemonger cover
Peacemonger . . . the first full-length account of peace researcher Owen Wilkes’ life and work. Image: Raekaihau Press

They include physicist Dr Peter Wills who was instrumental in setting up SANA and Auckland University’s Centre for Peace Studies; investigative journalist and researcher Nicky Hager; and veteran peace and human rights activist Maire Leadbeater. Two contributions are by Wilkes’s colleagues at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo Norway, Dr Ingvar Botnen and Dr Nils Petter Gleditsch.

Wilkes spent six years from 1976 working in Oslo and also at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The work is edited by Mark Derby and Wilkes’s partner May Bass. While a traditional biography with a single author may have avoided the repetition of information, the various personal anecdotes and responses result in the portrayal of an unconventional, highly talented individual.

In his introduction, Derby sums up Wilkes’s life: “Although invariably non-violent, politically non-aligned and generally law-abiding, Owen encountered official opposition, harassment and intimidation in various forms as he became internationally known for the quality and impact of his peace research.”

Wilkes was born in Christchurch in 1940 and died in Kawhia in 2005. In his early adult years he worked as an entomologist on various projects supported by the US military, including at McMurdo base in the Antarctic. These, he discovered, were connected with a US military germ warfare project.

Using official information laws
His gift was to see through, and behind, the information government made public about our relationship to our official allies, essentially the US. To do this he used our own official information laws and the American equivalent, plus any public reports to congress and US budget reports he could lay hands on.

Rubbish bags also feature in a couple of accounts.

What now may be stored as megabytes of information consists of boxes and folders of carefully catalogued material, the bulk of which is lodged at the Alexander Turnbull Library (with information also at the university libraries of Auckland and Canterbury).

The truth Wilkes was committed to appears, in retrospect, somehow simpler than that of the struggle towards a fossil-free future and a liveable planet for all. Peace is a part of this and the nukes are still there.

Wilkes documented how in many cases what was billed as civilian also had profound military implications. This was nowhere more clear than in the anti-bases campaign which Murray Horton chronicles — bases being sites in remote locations for monitoring or receiving satellite information, some of which new technology has rendered obsolete.

These include Mt St John near Lake Tekapo and Black Birch near Blenheim, and those still operating at Tangimoana in the Manawatu and at Waihopai, also near Blenheim.

Wilkes’s unconventional appearance and lifestyle — he famously wore shorts in sub-zero temperatures when skiing in Norway — made him a target for accusations of being a communist, a not uncommon slander of the peace movement.

Having sharp eyes
Maire Leadbeater, in her account of his long investigation by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, suggests his only “crime” was “to have sharp eyes and the ability to put two and two together”.

Yet there were more conventional sides to his interests. One was archaeology, beginning in his 1962 when he worked as a field archaeologist for the Canterbury Museum. This continued after he left the peace movement in the early 1990s and worked for the Waikato Department of Conservation in a variety of jobs including filing archaeological and historical records.

The truth Wilkes was committed to appears, in retrospect, somehow simpler than that of the struggle towards a fossil-free future and a liveable planet for all. Peace is a part of this and the nukes are still there.

A year on, we know why the Tongan eruption was so violent – it’s a spectacular wake-up call

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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Tonga's violent eruption in 2022 was caused by a volcano that lies under hundreds of metres of seawater
Remarkably, Tonga's violent eruption in 2022 was caused by a volcano that lies under hundreds of metres of seawater. Image: Sung-Hyun Park/Korea Polar Research Institute

ANALYSIS: By Shane Cronin, University of Auckland

The Kingdom of Tonga exploded into global news on January 15 last year with one of the most spectacular and violent volcanic eruptions ever seen.

Remarkably, it was caused by a volcano that lies under hundreds of metres of seawater. The event shocked the public and volcano scientists alike.

Was this a new type of eruption we’ve never seen before? Was it a wake-up call to pay more attention to threats from submarine volcanoes around the world?

The answer is yes to both questions.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano was a little-known seamount along a chain of 20 similar volcanoes that make up the Tongan part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”.

We know a lot about surface volcanoes along this ring, including Mount St Helens in the US, Mount Fuji in Japan and Gunung Merapi of Indonesia. But we know very little about the hundreds of submarine volcanoes around it.

A map of the Pacific Ring of Fire
Scientists have good understanding of land-based volcanoes along the Pacific Ring of Fire, but far less so about seamounts. Image: Getty Images/The Conversation

It is difficult, expensive and time-consuming to study submarine volcanoes, but out of sight is no longer out of mind.

Tongan eruption breaks records
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption has firmly established itself in the record books with the highest ash plume ever measured and a 58km aerosol cloud “overshoot” that touched space beyond the mesosphere. It also triggered the largest number of lightning bolts recorded for any type of natural event.

The injection of large amounts of water vapour into the outer atmosphere, along with “sonic booms” (atmospheric pressure waves) and tsunami that travelled the entire world, set new benchmarks for volcanic phenomena.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption has firmly established itself in the record books with the highest ash plume ever measured.

Covid hampered access to Tonga during the eruption and its aftermath, but local scientists and an international scientific collaborative effort helped us discover what drove its extreme violence.

Eruption creates a giant hole
A team from the Tongan Geological Services and the University of Auckland used a multi-beam sonar mapping system to precisely measure the shape of the volcano, just three months after the January blast.

We were astonished to find the rim of the vast submarine volcano was intact, but the formerly 6km diameter flat top of the submarine cone was rent by a hole 4km wide and almost 1km deep.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai crater and caldera before and after the eruption
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai crater and caldera before and after the eruption. Graphic: Sung-Hyun Park/Korea Polar Research Institute, CC BY-SA

This is known as a “caldera” and happens when the central part of the volcano collapses in on itself after magma is rapidly “pumped out”. We calculate over 7.1 cubic kilometres of magma was ejected. It is almost impossible to envisage, but if we wanted to refill the caldera, it would take one billion truck loads.

It is hard to explain the physics of the Hunga eruption, even with the large magma volume and its interaction with seawater. We need other driving forces to explain especially the climactic first hour of the eruption.

Mixed magmas lead to chain reaction
Only when we examined the texture and chemistry of the erupted particles (volcanic ash) did we see clues about the event’s violence. Different magmas were intimately mixed and mingled before the eruption, with contrasts visible at a micron to centimetre scale.

Isotopic “fingerprinting” using lead, neodymium, uranium and strontium shows at least three different magma sources were involved. Radium isotope analysis shows two magma bodies were older and resident in the middle of the Earth’s crust, before being joined by a new, younger one shortly before the eruption.

The mingling of magmas caused a strong reaction, driving water and other so-called “volatile elements” out of solution and into gas. This creates bubbles and an expanding magma foam, pushing the magma out vigorously at the onset of eruption.

This intermediate or “andesite” composition has low viscosity. It means magma can be rapidly forced out through narrow cracks in the rock. Hence, there was an extremely rapid tapping of magma from 5-10km below the volcano, leading to sudden step-wise collapses of the caldera.

The caldera collapse led to a chain reaction because seawater suddenly drained through cracks and faults and encountered magma rising from depth in the volcano. The resulting high-pressure direct contact of water with magma at more than 1150℃ caused two high-intensity explosions around 30 and 45 minutes into the eruption. Each explosion further decompressed the magma below, continuing the chain reaction by amplifying bubble growth and magma rise.

After about an hour, the central eruption plume lost energy and the eruption moved to a lower-elevation ejection of particles in a concentric curtain-like pattern around the volcano.

This less focused phase of eruption led to widespread pyroclastic flows – hot and fast-flowing clouds of gas, ash and fragments of rock – that collapsed into the ocean and caused submarine density currents. These damaged vast lengths of the international and domestic data cables, cutting Tonga off from the rest of the world.

This map shows the sites of ongoing venting after the eruption.
This map shows the sites of ongoing venting after the eruption. Graphic: Marta Ribo/AUT, CC BY-ND

Unanswered questions and challenges
Even after long analysis of a growing body of eyewitness accounts, there are still major unanswered questions about this eruption.

The most important is what led to the largest local tsunami — an 18-20m-high wave that struck most of the central Tongan islands around an hour into the eruption. Earlier tsunami are well linked to the two large explosions at around 30 and 45 minutes into the eruption. Currently, the best candidate for the largest tsunami is the collapse of the caldera itself, which caused seawater to rush back into the new cavity.

This event has parallels only to the great 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia and has changed our perspective of the potential hazards from shallow submarine volcanoes. Work has begun on improving volcanic monitoring in Tonga using onshore and offshore seismic sensors along with infrasound sensors and a range of satellite observation tools.

All of these monitoring methods are expensive and difficult compared to land-based volcanoes. Despite the enormous expense of submarine research vessels, intensive efforts are underway to identify other volcanoes around the world that pose Hunga-like threats.The Conversation

Dr Shane Cronin is professor of earth sciences, University of Auckland.This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

Tonga volcano eruption: PM reflects ahead of one-year anniversary of disaster

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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The twin undersea volcano beneath the twin islands of Hunga-Ha’apai and Hunga-Tonga erupting as shown on Al Jazeera television
The twin undersea volcano beneath the twin islands of Hunga-Ha’apai and Hunga-Tonga erupting as shown on Al Jazeera television. Image: Al Jazeera English screenshot APR

By Finau Fonua

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the catastrophic volcanic eruption tomorrow, Tongan Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni spoke to RNZ Pacific’s Finau Fonua.

Hu’akavameiliku shared his experiences of the eruption and its aftermath, as well as some of the challenges left in the wake of the disaster.

Hu’akavameiliku was at home on 15 January 2022 when the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano exploded with a destructive power the world had not seen since the Krakatoa eruption of 1883.

Hu’akavameiliku was meeting with a local church community group when he heard what he had first thought was thunder. Within minutes he was notified of the volcano’s eruption.

Hu’akavameiliku recalls his first thoughts:

“It was scary. But at the same time, most of my time was just worrying about what’s happening, finding out what’s happening here, who’s affected, the scope of the problems and all that.

“But at the same time, we’re mindful that I’m there with my family, what will be the best course of action in terms of whether we are evacuating or staying home? But that’s what went through my mind.”

Communications cut off
For the next three days all communication services were down, and Tonga was effectively cut off from the world.

Hu’akavameiliku remembers sending people to determine the effects of the eruption in western Tonga, as well as boats to the islands who soon reported that tsunami waves were incoming.

It was later confirmed that three people had died in the disaster.

Although there was a need to determine exactly what had happened, that meant accessing satellite images of the eruption, which was not possible while communications were down.

Hu’akavameiliku explained how the priority remained with the affected people, both on Tongatapu and on the outlying islands.

“But those couple of days, it was more about finding out what’s happening and working out our response, making sure that families are safe, relocating some of the islands over down here. So that kept us busy, didn’t give us much time to worry about other stuff.”

Tongan Prime Minister Hu'akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni (right) with Health Minister Dr Saia Piukala
Tongan Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni (right) with Health Minister Dr Saia Piukala. Image: Iliesa Tora/NZ Pacific

Hu’akavameiliku expressed gratitude for the international assistance Tonga received in the wake of the disaster, particularly from New Zealand, Australia and its other Pacific neighbours. The food, drinking water and building materials received were vital for the survival of those most affected by the eruption.

Deserted islands
One year on from the cataclysmic eruption, the islands of Mango and ‘Atata are now deserted. Their populations have been completely evacuated and resettled in new communities, both on Tongatapu and ‘Eua.

An aerial photo of Mango island taken from a NZ Defence force P-3 Orion on January 16, 2022
An aerial photo taken from a New Zealand Defence force P-3 Orion on January 16, 2022, shows Mango island in Tonga with no houses left after impact from a tsunami. Image: NZDF/RNZ Pacific

Hu’akavameiliku said the decision to resettle the islanders was based on an understanding of how vulnerable their communities had become.

This relocation has been challenging for the people of Mango and ‘Atata: “Some of them are not used to where they are right now because they grew up in very small islands and now they are in Tongatapu or in ‘Eua, so helping them get hold of that and rebuilding their livelihood.

“The way they utilise will be different in the other islands than down here. So we are helping them. We adjust their way of life to the new environment they are in, that’s one of the biggest focuses, and on a higher level, the economics.

“We are reallocating some of the resources, we are just building not just houses but infrastructure.”

To mark the anniversary of the eruption an exhibition is being held. Hu’akavameiliku also noted that Tongans also reflected on the impact of the disaster through their strong spiritual communities.

“And, on the Sunday services, is to thank the Lord that we’re still here and to acknowledge our various partners. And we hope that things will keep getting better.”

Finau Fonua is an RNZ Pacific journalist. This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

David Robie – author, activist, journalist and media educator

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Cafe Pacific Publisher
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Café Pacific

Dr David Robie is a New Zealand author, journalist and media educator who has covered the Asia-Pacific region for international media for more than three decades.

He retired from AUT University as the founding director of the Pacific Media Centre and the university’s inaugural journalism professor at the end of 2020. He is now editor of Asia Pacific Report and deputy chair of the Asia Pacific Media Network.

Dr Robie is the author of several books on South Pacific media and politics and is an advocate for media freedom in the Pacific region through Pacific Media Watch. – Wikipedia

In 2015, he was presented with the AMIC Asian Communication Award in Dubai and in 2017 was on the Indonesian government-funded World Class Professor (WCP) programme with Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta.

Education: The University of the South Pacific

Affiliation: Auckland University of Technology

Professorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJnjUg8Fk84

Research interests: Asia Pacific Development Studies, Media freedom, Comparative International Journalism, Media Law and Ethics


Pacific Media Watch Project – The Genesis     Reporter: Sri Krishnamurthi

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