Vanuatu's Malvatumauri (National Council of Chiefs) has called on Pacific leaders to protect custom land, endorsing a regional declaration on indigenous land tenure in Melanesia.
Vanuatu’s Malvatumauri (National Council of Chiefs) has called on Pacific leaders to protect custom land, endorsing a regional declaration on indigenous land tenure in Melanesia.
Chief Selwyn Garu, Secretary General of the Malvatumauri announced that the council of chiefs had unanimously endorsed the Mele Declaration on Land in Melanesia.
The declaration, prepared at a regional meeting last June, states: “We are opposed to any form of alienation of land from customary landowners, whether by outright sale or through leases which remove landowners’ capacity to effectively control, access and use their land.”
The declaration also calls for the overhaul of land administration in Melanesia and rejects “all policies which require that customary land be registered as a precondition for business or development activities.”
The Malvatumauri, a national body which unites chiefs from 20 island councils and two urban councils, is meeting in Port Vila this week.
Chief Selwyn Garu said: “The declaration was presented before the Council of Chiefs this morning. The members of the Council of Chiefs talked about it and in the end of the discussion we unanimously endorsed it.”
The Mele Declaration was prepared by the Melanesian Indigenous Land Defence Alliance (MILDA), a network of landowner, cultural and community groups concerned with land tenure and development across the Melanesian region.
MILDA was founded at a meeting in Madang, Papua New Guinea in 2009. Their second meeting at Mele village in Vanuatu last June brought together a range of organisations “to strategise a regional response to the persistent pressure for registration and leasing of customary land.”
The Mele Declaration was prepared at the June meeting, which brought together chiefs, church leaders, members of women’s and youth groups and other participants from Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Australia.
Changing land use for tourism
In Melanesian nations like Vanuatu, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, over 90 per cent of land is held by customary land and resource owners.
For Selwyn Garu: “When we talk about land in Melanesia, you can’t separate land from custom. If you lose land, you lose custom. If you lose custom, you lose land.
“Custom defines the use of land, but custom cannot be practiced on alienated land – it can only be practiced on custom land,” he stated. “Land continues to be the main source of employment for the people in the villages. With land, we have all that we need.”
Vanuatu’s Constitution states that “All land in the republic of Vanuatu belongs to the indigenous custom owners and their descendants.” It also states that “only indigenous citizens of the republic of Vanuatu who have acquired their land in accordance with a recognised system of land tenure shall have perpetual ownership of their land.”
In spite of this, many land owners on Vanuatu’s main island of Efate have granted long-term leases to overseas investors for tourist projects and private strata title developments, which have effectively alienated much of the shoreline along the coast.
Landowners must compensate the leaseholder for improvements to the land if they wish to reclaim their land at the end of the lease. For this reason some villagers will find it difficult to reclaim leased land after decades of construction or improvement on land provided under long term leases.
Action by Forum leaders
The chiefs’ decision comes as government leaders from around the region have gathered in Vanuatu for the 41st Pacific Islands Forum.
After endorsement by the Malvatumauri on Wednesday morning, the declaration was launched at the Chiefs’ Nakamal in Port Vila by Chief Selwyn Garu, Joel Simo of MILDA and Ralph Regenvanu, the Member of Parliament for Port Vila.
Regenvanu, one of the co-founders of MILDA, called on Forum leaders to protect land rights as the basis of the Melanesian economy: “We would like this Declaration to inform what the Forum is doing and the decisions that they’ll take in the next few days. We are urging our leaders of government, we are urging international financial institutions (including donor countries) but especially our own leaders to move away from policies that talk about land registration as a prerequisite for gaining credit.”
Regenvanu added: “Over the last couple of years, we’ve managed to get the concept of the ‘traditional economy’ on to the agenda in Vanuatu, in the Melanesian Spearhead Group and in the Forum. But we need to have our leaders seriously taking this concept, this reality on board - the traditional economy continues to be the main source of sustenance for people in much of Melanesia.”
For Chief Selwyn Garu: “I’d like to say that land is a living thing. It gives life. It empowers life and you can’t reduce the value of land the way it is being done nowadays in many parts of Melanesia.”
Showing newest posts with label Vanuatu. Show older posts
Showing newest posts with label Vanuatu. Show older posts
2/24/09
VETE & THE STRUGGLE FOR LAND RIGHTS IN VANUATU
Thanks to Engage MediaThe Vete Association takes direct action to reclaim their customary lands from the Vanuatu Government and foreign investors, occupying vacant lands and graffitying on 'private property'. 85 of their members are currently summoned to court as yet without charges, and plan to contest based on Vanuatu's constitution article 73 which states 'All land in the Republic of Vanuatu belongs to the indigenous custom owners and their descendants.
4/26/08
West Papua Leaders Summit: April 2008: Port Vila, Vanuatu
http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/75296/index.php
West Papua shares the island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea, on the western rim of the Pacific. A former colony of the Dutch, it was taken over by Indonesia in the 1960s. West New Guinea, as it was then known, had already held national elections and inaugurated its own New Guinea Council in April 1961. The Morning Star flag of the proposed new nation of West Papua was raised next to the Dutch Tri-colour on 1st December 1961.
But Indonesia gained Western support for its claim and was granted control of the territory on the condition that an act of self determination would be held. A fraudulent “Act of Free Choice” in which less than 1% of the West Papuan voted under duress was held in 1969. The West Papuans have never stopped struggling for their freedom even though they have paid dearly in the loss of more than 100,000 lives. Today the people are repressed by a heavy military and militia presence and outsiders have limited access. West Papua now suffers a HIV/AIDS epidemic and many of its tribal communities are under threat from illegal logging.
The West Papua leaders summit held outside the country in Port Vila, Vanuatu was a historic step for a broad movement which has not always achieved unity of strategy and aims.
The 28 groups represented included the Free Papua Movement, or OPM, the human rights group ELSHAM, and coalitions representing tribal organisations, students, women and former political prisoners. The gathering achieved a higher degree of unity among the political organisations and the NGOs as well as a strong plan of action in the diplomatic arena. The representatives reaffirmed their commitment to the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL) formed last year.
Photo journalist, writer and Pacific expert Ben Bohane who follows West Papua closely said this meeting could be the most significant summit held since 1964 when the OPM was formed.
The groups have common goals and despite their different backgrounds and approaches all hope to see a peaceful dialogue between Indonesia and the West Papuan people on the issue of self-determination.
At some levels the international climate can be considered weighted against the West Papuan cause and hopes for negotiations; for example in the post 9/11 atmosphere it seems that the label of ‘separatist’ is an effective way to dismiss West Papuan aspirations. Indonesia has been boosted by renewed military support from Australia (the Lombok Treaty) the US and New Zealand, and Indonesia’s leadership may be risk averse in the run up to the 2009 Presidential elections.
However, on the positive side the newly assertive Melanesian Spearhead Group (Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and the Indigenous FLNKS political party in New Caledonia) offers a ray of hope. According to Dr John Ondawame, the Vice Chair of the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL), the upcoming Melanesian Spearhead Group leaders’ summit in Vila this May represents the best chance yet to get observer status for West Papuans at the MSG. The Government of Vanuatu has undertaken to take the issue of self-determination to the MSG Summit following an important meeting of the West Papuan leaders with Vanuatu’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, George Wells. Mr Wells said he wants to see West Papua ultimately given Observer status in the MSG as well as the Pacific Islands Forum.
The West Papuans also met with Prime Minister Ham Lini and visited the Vanuatu Parliament where President Kalkot Mataskelekele said the struggle for West Papuan freedom is always in the hearts of the people of Vanuatu.
The West Papuan leaders and NGOs settled on a new unified leadership for their self-determination efforts. WPNCL voted Rex Rumakiek of the Free Papua Movement, or OPM, as Secretary-General, and hopes its new international drive for discussion on Papua will be helped by a unified structure.
Vanuatu has come under pressure from Jakarta and Canberra but has not abandoned its independent foreign policy - the legacy of its own independence struggle. Vanuatu achieved independence from Britain and France in 1980. It was only Pacific nation to join the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War.
Vanuatu has a strong West Papua Support Association and the Vanuatu people consider themselves brothers and sisters to the West Papuan people.
As the Australian West Papua Association newsletter expresses it:
“Vanuatu is the only country in the world where everybody knows about West Papua and supports the right of the people of West Papua to self-determination. A courageous people, a courageous country.”
Maire Leadbeater: Indonesia Human Rights Committee
West Papua shares the island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea, on the western rim of the Pacific. A former colony of the Dutch, it was taken over by Indonesia in the 1960s. West New Guinea, as it was then known, had already held national elections and inaugurated its own New Guinea Council in April 1961. The Morning Star flag of the proposed new nation of West Papua was raised next to the Dutch Tri-colour on 1st December 1961.
But Indonesia gained Western support for its claim and was granted control of the territory on the condition that an act of self determination would be held. A fraudulent “Act of Free Choice” in which less than 1% of the West Papuan voted under duress was held in 1969. The West Papuans have never stopped struggling for their freedom even though they have paid dearly in the loss of more than 100,000 lives. Today the people are repressed by a heavy military and militia presence and outsiders have limited access. West Papua now suffers a HIV/AIDS epidemic and many of its tribal communities are under threat from illegal logging.
The West Papua leaders summit held outside the country in Port Vila, Vanuatu was a historic step for a broad movement which has not always achieved unity of strategy and aims.
The 28 groups represented included the Free Papua Movement, or OPM, the human rights group ELSHAM, and coalitions representing tribal organisations, students, women and former political prisoners. The gathering achieved a higher degree of unity among the political organisations and the NGOs as well as a strong plan of action in the diplomatic arena. The representatives reaffirmed their commitment to the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL) formed last year.
Photo journalist, writer and Pacific expert Ben Bohane who follows West Papua closely said this meeting could be the most significant summit held since 1964 when the OPM was formed.
The groups have common goals and despite their different backgrounds and approaches all hope to see a peaceful dialogue between Indonesia and the West Papuan people on the issue of self-determination.
At some levels the international climate can be considered weighted against the West Papuan cause and hopes for negotiations; for example in the post 9/11 atmosphere it seems that the label of ‘separatist’ is an effective way to dismiss West Papuan aspirations. Indonesia has been boosted by renewed military support from Australia (the Lombok Treaty) the US and New Zealand, and Indonesia’s leadership may be risk averse in the run up to the 2009 Presidential elections.
However, on the positive side the newly assertive Melanesian Spearhead Group (Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and the Indigenous FLNKS political party in New Caledonia) offers a ray of hope. According to Dr John Ondawame, the Vice Chair of the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL), the upcoming Melanesian Spearhead Group leaders’ summit in Vila this May represents the best chance yet to get observer status for West Papuans at the MSG. The Government of Vanuatu has undertaken to take the issue of self-determination to the MSG Summit following an important meeting of the West Papuan leaders with Vanuatu’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, George Wells. Mr Wells said he wants to see West Papua ultimately given Observer status in the MSG as well as the Pacific Islands Forum.
The West Papuans also met with Prime Minister Ham Lini and visited the Vanuatu Parliament where President Kalkot Mataskelekele said the struggle for West Papuan freedom is always in the hearts of the people of Vanuatu.
The West Papuan leaders and NGOs settled on a new unified leadership for their self-determination efforts. WPNCL voted Rex Rumakiek of the Free Papua Movement, or OPM, as Secretary-General, and hopes its new international drive for discussion on Papua will be helped by a unified structure.
Vanuatu has come under pressure from Jakarta and Canberra but has not abandoned its independent foreign policy - the legacy of its own independence struggle. Vanuatu achieved independence from Britain and France in 1980. It was only Pacific nation to join the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War.
Vanuatu has a strong West Papua Support Association and the Vanuatu people consider themselves brothers and sisters to the West Papuan people.
As the Australian West Papua Association newsletter expresses it:
“Vanuatu is the only country in the world where everybody knows about West Papua and supports the right of the people of West Papua to self-determination. A courageous people, a courageous country.”
Maire Leadbeater: Indonesia Human Rights Committee
5/4/07
Politics: ESCAPING THE ARC OF INSTABILITY
Vanuatu remains mostly harmonious
Daniel Gay
The latest eruption in the arc of instability reverberated around the world: “Children traumatised by riots in Vanuatu,” declared Radio Australia. “Two die in witchcraft battles”, screamed London’s Evening Standard.
The image was of a nation in meltdown, with armed gangs bent on wreaking the wreckage that has become such a Melanesian cliché.
There is no lie like a media lie, so I doubted whether the happy isles I had visited in late February—a week before the disturbances—had so quickly become such a conflict zone. It was clear that a riot had taken place and that over a hundred people had been arrested. Yet I suspected that it was too easy to leap to conclusions about the causes—a closer look usually shows that Vanuatu is much more stable than its neighbours in the alleged arc of instability.
A few friends took time off from drinking kava to reassure me that, sure enough, strangers still sing out goodnight and that the children are still smiling. No “witches” were involved, and three people died, not two. The faces under the Nabanga tree at the Chiefs’ Nakamal might look a bit more strained than usual, but that is all.
In truth Vanuatu is more politically stable than in over a decade. The government, led by Ham Lini, has been in power since 2004, before which there were nine governments in as many years. The rabble from the island of Tanna who clashed with their long-time Ambrym foes had no political designs.
Unlike in Fiji, there was no coup attempt. The Vanuatu Mobile Force remains true to its government. And in contrast to the Solomon Islands, where social schism fired Keke’s armed insurgency, the various islands groups in gun-free Port Vila remain mostly harmonious.
Papua New Guinea, a nation 40 times as populous, faces a social and economic challenge immeasurably more complex than Vanuatu’s.
The economic trajectories of these two countries are a stark illustration of why Vanuatu cannot be lumped with the rest of the region.
While Vanuatu is predicted to graduate from official Least Developed Country status within seven years, Port Moresby is applying to the United Nations for a downgrade.
Indeed political stability is helping Vanuatu’s economy grow faster than any of its neighbours and quicker than since the turn of the millennium.
More jobs and higher spending power are likely to help quell complaints about the government.
It is tempting to suggest that the economic upturn is driving urban drift and that a battle for land pushed the Tannese and Ambrym communities into conflict.
But a similar clash occurred in 1999, when the economy was in a far more parlous state and before the housing boom.
The murder rate remains roughly constant, and at around three per year, it remains low for a country with a population of over 200,000. For the same number of Americans, 12 are murdered annually. In the United Kingdom, the figure is four. Australia’s rate is about the same as Vanuatu’s.
Murder is murder, and no country would welcome three at once. But the latest killings happened for a definite reason—even if it was peculiar. Apparently an Ambrym islander had used Nakaimas, or black magic, to harm a Tannese man. To an outsider it might seem prehistoric to slaughter your neighbour for putting a curse on you. But in Vanuatu magic is real. Because it grabs headlines and is difficult to understand, the international media pounce on it. It seems that when ni-Vanuatu people aren’t worshipping John Frum or land-diving, they are casting spells on each other.
But most people in Vanuatu aren’t so easily pigeonholed. They go about their lives in ordinary ways. And in any case the inhabitants of other nations regularly kill for peculiar reasons, such as one group of people being able to propel a piece of inflated leather across a field better than another: witness the Heysel or Hillsborough football riots. It is no excuse, but in Vanuatu, spiritual forces occasionally push people into acts almost as extreme.
As an example of the strength of spiritualism, I remember when I was working in the government and my boss one day evacuated the office so that a pastor could remove evil stones that had been placed under our office chairs. The following day we carried on our work, as if the incident were something as modern as a power cut or national holiday.
This uneasy mix between tradition and modernity is commonplace in Vanuatu. All nations suffer their ups and downs—and in Vanuatu, it just so happens that spiritualism is more important than in some other countries. Magic and custom seem as real to locals as money or football in the West. It would be a mistake to identify any conflict as a mysterious bout of Melanesian ‘flu’.
Disturbances in Sydney do not herald the emergence of a ‘semicircle of instability’, and they are rightly not considered reason to condemn the whole country. You wouldn’t avoid the Australian capital because of last year’s Cronulla race riots; and in the same way it would be silly to cancel a holiday in Port Vila because of the recent strife, where in the end only nine people were charged. It does not signal wider difficulties and did not affect many people.
It would be wrong to pretend that Vanuatu is guaranteed a stable future. Risks remain— such as the increasing split between a wealthy capital and the poorer islands. An influx of aid money and housing investment in Port Vila has sparked an unprecedented economic boom.
Many people in the outer islands continue to live at subsistence levels, while basic health and education remains poor. Sooner or later this schism must be addressed, or it risks boiling over into social conflict.
The Australian government’s travel advisory was of little help. By the end of March. Canberra was still warning travellers to “avoid protests and demonstrations as they may turn violent”. Yet so far this is just scaremongering. The children continue to smile and the sun still shines. The only arc is the course of the moon through the Nabanga tree on a starry night—and that is decidedly stable.
http://www.islandsbusiness.com
Daniel Gay
The latest eruption in the arc of instability reverberated around the world: “Children traumatised by riots in Vanuatu,” declared Radio Australia. “Two die in witchcraft battles”, screamed London’s Evening Standard.
The image was of a nation in meltdown, with armed gangs bent on wreaking the wreckage that has become such a Melanesian cliché.
There is no lie like a media lie, so I doubted whether the happy isles I had visited in late February—a week before the disturbances—had so quickly become such a conflict zone. It was clear that a riot had taken place and that over a hundred people had been arrested. Yet I suspected that it was too easy to leap to conclusions about the causes—a closer look usually shows that Vanuatu is much more stable than its neighbours in the alleged arc of instability.
A few friends took time off from drinking kava to reassure me that, sure enough, strangers still sing out goodnight and that the children are still smiling. No “witches” were involved, and three people died, not two. The faces under the Nabanga tree at the Chiefs’ Nakamal might look a bit more strained than usual, but that is all.
In truth Vanuatu is more politically stable than in over a decade. The government, led by Ham Lini, has been in power since 2004, before which there were nine governments in as many years. The rabble from the island of Tanna who clashed with their long-time Ambrym foes had no political designs.
Unlike in Fiji, there was no coup attempt. The Vanuatu Mobile Force remains true to its government. And in contrast to the Solomon Islands, where social schism fired Keke’s armed insurgency, the various islands groups in gun-free Port Vila remain mostly harmonious.
Papua New Guinea, a nation 40 times as populous, faces a social and economic challenge immeasurably more complex than Vanuatu’s.
The economic trajectories of these two countries are a stark illustration of why Vanuatu cannot be lumped with the rest of the region.
While Vanuatu is predicted to graduate from official Least Developed Country status within seven years, Port Moresby is applying to the United Nations for a downgrade.
Indeed political stability is helping Vanuatu’s economy grow faster than any of its neighbours and quicker than since the turn of the millennium.
More jobs and higher spending power are likely to help quell complaints about the government.
It is tempting to suggest that the economic upturn is driving urban drift and that a battle for land pushed the Tannese and Ambrym communities into conflict.
But a similar clash occurred in 1999, when the economy was in a far more parlous state and before the housing boom.
The murder rate remains roughly constant, and at around three per year, it remains low for a country with a population of over 200,000. For the same number of Americans, 12 are murdered annually. In the United Kingdom, the figure is four. Australia’s rate is about the same as Vanuatu’s.
Murder is murder, and no country would welcome three at once. But the latest killings happened for a definite reason—even if it was peculiar. Apparently an Ambrym islander had used Nakaimas, or black magic, to harm a Tannese man. To an outsider it might seem prehistoric to slaughter your neighbour for putting a curse on you. But in Vanuatu magic is real. Because it grabs headlines and is difficult to understand, the international media pounce on it. It seems that when ni-Vanuatu people aren’t worshipping John Frum or land-diving, they are casting spells on each other.
But most people in Vanuatu aren’t so easily pigeonholed. They go about their lives in ordinary ways. And in any case the inhabitants of other nations regularly kill for peculiar reasons, such as one group of people being able to propel a piece of inflated leather across a field better than another: witness the Heysel or Hillsborough football riots. It is no excuse, but in Vanuatu, spiritual forces occasionally push people into acts almost as extreme.
As an example of the strength of spiritualism, I remember when I was working in the government and my boss one day evacuated the office so that a pastor could remove evil stones that had been placed under our office chairs. The following day we carried on our work, as if the incident were something as modern as a power cut or national holiday.
This uneasy mix between tradition and modernity is commonplace in Vanuatu. All nations suffer their ups and downs—and in Vanuatu, it just so happens that spiritualism is more important than in some other countries. Magic and custom seem as real to locals as money or football in the West. It would be a mistake to identify any conflict as a mysterious bout of Melanesian ‘flu’.
Disturbances in Sydney do not herald the emergence of a ‘semicircle of instability’, and they are rightly not considered reason to condemn the whole country. You wouldn’t avoid the Australian capital because of last year’s Cronulla race riots; and in the same way it would be silly to cancel a holiday in Port Vila because of the recent strife, where in the end only nine people were charged. It does not signal wider difficulties and did not affect many people.
It would be wrong to pretend that Vanuatu is guaranteed a stable future. Risks remain— such as the increasing split between a wealthy capital and the poorer islands. An influx of aid money and housing investment in Port Vila has sparked an unprecedented economic boom.
Many people in the outer islands continue to live at subsistence levels, while basic health and education remains poor. Sooner or later this schism must be addressed, or it risks boiling over into social conflict.
The Australian government’s travel advisory was of little help. By the end of March. Canberra was still warning travellers to “avoid protests and demonstrations as they may turn violent”. Yet so far this is just scaremongering. The children continue to smile and the sun still shines. The only arc is the course of the moon through the Nabanga tree on a starry night—and that is decidedly stable.
http://www.islandsbusiness.com
4/2/07
Earthquake Near Solomon Islands Sparks Pacific Tsunami Alert
April 2 (Bloomberg) -- An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 hit 45 kilometers (25 miles) off the coast of the Solomon Islands, spurring a tsunami warning for Australia, Indonesia and South Pacific island nations.
The quake occurred at 7:39 a.m. Solomon Islands time, close to the coastal settlement of Gizo, in the New Georgia archipelago. Its epicenter was 345 kilometers from the capital, Honiara, the U.S. Geological Survey said in an e-mailed alert.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert for the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Nauru, Chuuk, New Caledonia, Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands. There were no immediate reporters of damage or casualties.
A tsunami watch extends to Fiji, Guam, New Zealand, the Philippines, Japan and Samoa, the center said in an e-mailed statement.
``An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicenter within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours,'' the center said in an e-mailed statement. ``Authorities should take appropriate action in response to this possibility
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