China pledges to cut fleet sizes

CHINA has pledged to reduce its fleet of medium- and large-sized vessels by 8300, and its total fishing fleet by 20,000 vessels. The move comes after the announcement of a raft of policies aimed at controlling over-fishing. Late last year China came under fire at a meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fishing Commission at Denarau, Fiji for its failure to limit the extent of its operations in the region.

Similar sentiments were expressed 12 months earlier at Bali, Indonesia and were also aimed at Taiwan, Japan and the European Union. Small Pacific states have long argued that Distant Fishing Water Nations – basically the large countries which fish in the Pacific – have not done enough to ensure sustainable fisheries.

This means that they are an existential threat to regional economies, livelihoods and lifestyles. The large nations have consistently refused to acknowledge this. But a Chinese government document published by the Fisheries Department of China’s Ministry of Agriculture said the most recent policy was in response to “extensive problems due to exploitation of fisheries resources”.

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Police seize freedom symbol

ONE phone from the Indonesian Embassy in Suva was all it took for Fiji’s security apparatus to go into overdrive. Police officers descended on the Pacific Conference of Churches Secretariat and seized a Morning Star flag which had been raised in direct view of Jakarta’s Suva mission.

Around the same time the prime ministers of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji were meeting in Honiara. On the agenda were decolonisation and independence – including the right to self-determination in West Papua. Back in Suva, civil society organisations had organised activities in support of West Papua’s bid for full membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

On July 12 the Morning Star flag – symbol of West Papuan independence from the Netherlands in 1961 – was raised on PCC property. The next day young activists took part in a display of poetry and art at the Fiji Museum under the auspices of the Pacific Network on Globalization (PANG). Indonesia responded by sending officials to the museum to take pictures of the artwork and the activists.

Fijian Ministry of Defence officials also took pictures at the museum. Minutes earlier the Indonesian Embassy had made an official complaint to the Foreign Affairs Ministry which in turn called Defence. Later in the day intelligence officers watched from across the road as young people gathered at a peace vigil to pray for the people of West Papua and an end to human rights abuse.

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Police seize freedom symbol

ONE phone from the Indonesian Embassy in Suva was all it took for Fiji’s security apparatus to go into overdrive. Police officers descended on the Pacific Conference of Churches Secretariat and seized a Morning Star flag which had been raised in direct view of Jakarta’s Suva mission.

Around the same time the prime ministers of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji were meeting in Honiara. On the agenda were decolonisation and independence – including the right to self-determination in West Papua. Back in Suva, civil society organisations had organised activities in support of West Papua’s bid for full membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

On July 12 the Morning Star flag – symbol of West Papuan independence from the Netherlands in 1961 – was raised on PCC property. The next day young activists took part in a display of poetry and art at the Fiji Museum under the auspices of the Pacific Network on Globalization (PANG). Indonesia responded by sending officials to the museum to take pictures of the artwork and the activists.

Fijian Ministry of Defence officials also took pictures at the museum. Minutes earlier the Indonesian Embassy had made an official complaint to the Foreign Affairs Ministry which in turn called Defence. Later in the day intelligence officers watched from across the road as young people gathered at a peace vigil to pray for the people of West Papua and an end to human rights abuse.

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