Flashback to Nuku'alofa 2006 ... Pacific-wide fear of rioting, fuelled by jobless youth. Photo: SMH

THE 42nd Pacific Islands Forum came and went, but Pacific youth advocates are pleading with leaders to wake up to the increasing number of young people involved in crime and violence in the Pacific.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Christopher Chang

At 3:30pm on 16 November 2006, the first stone was thrown in Nuku’alofa, Tonga. Within three hours, rioters had tipped over cars and looted shops.

The Pacifica Royale hotel and ANZ Bank crackled under the blaze of fire. Eight people were killed.

The rioters were of all ages, but most were young males. It is a situation that Pacific youth advocates are still fearful of, five years on. Read more »

Young Tongan fans in the kingdom's colours ... Tonga scored one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history by defeating France 19-14.

Pacific Scoop:
Commentary – By Edwin Puni

Manu Samoa, Ikale Tahi and the Flying Fijians have all checked out of their International Rugby Board- funded hotels at RWC2011 and are already on their way home.

For many of the players who have contracts in Europe, the call to return to rugby duties is immediate without the opportunity to return to the Islands.

The final pool games saw mixed results for our Pacific teams with Wales yesterday overpowering the Flying Fijians to win 66-0. Read more »

An earlier blockade in New Caledonia. Photo: France 24

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Patrick Antoine Decloitre

Twelve days after rival armed clans clashed on New Caledonia’s north-eastern island of Maré, leaving four dead and 30 wounded, the territorial government and protesters have signed a deal marking a truce in one of the identified causes of the unrest, namely the perceived excessive cost of domestic airline tickets.

The issue late last month prompted a blockade on New Caledonia’s outer islands airports, including those of Maré, Lifou and Ouvéa in the Loyalty Islands group.

The blockade was also regarded as being a major contributing factor in the deadly August 6 clashes between pro and anti-blockade groups. Read more »

Pacific's Raphaël Lakafia ... first cap for France against Ireland this weekend in a World Cup warm-up match. Photo: Irish Independent

While the lure of lucrative contracts may pull Island players away from their home countries, Pacific rugby fans will next month be treated to their best athletes going toe-to-toe for the William Webb Ellis trophy, rugby’s grandest prize.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Christopher Chang

When the All Blacks worked out their haka against Tonga in the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia, the atmosphere was electric. As Tonga responded with their own challenge, the noise from the spectators became thunderous.

Rugby World Cup chief executive Martin Sneddon used the video of the two rugby sides performing haka to promote the tournament coming to New Zealand.

Four South Pacific teams are competing at this year’s World Cup – Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and hosts New Zealand. Read more »

French Overseas Territories Minister Marie-Luce Penchard ... mediator bid for solution on Maré Island in New Caledonia. Photo: Le Figaro

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Patrick Antoine Decloitre

France’s Minister for Overseas Territories Marie-Luce Penchard is sending in mediators to Maré Island in New Caledonia’s north-eastern Loyalty Islands following armed indigenous clashes between rival clan factions that left 4 dead and 23 wounded at the weekend.

In a short statement to French media after a crisis meeting yesterday, Penchard said both conflicting sides and chiefly clans on Maré had agreed to the notion of religious envoys being sent there in the coming days in order to restore dialogue and prevent further outbreaks of armed violence.

The mediators are understood to be from outside the island and would also intervene on neutral ground. Read more »

At the heart of the "two flags" controversy: The French Tricolore and the Kanak pro-independence flag. Photo: PMC archive

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Patrick Antoine Decloître

The French government and Parliament is tidying up perceived loose ends in the institutional and electoral systems in its two major Pacific territories – New Caledonia and French Polynesia, -where instability has been undermining economic performance.

In New Caledonia, where governments have constantly been toppled due to the resignation of one component party (which was using a provision of the Nouméa Accord promoting multiparty executive and therefore deemed as one party resigning meant the whole government was considered to have resigned), the French National Assembly (Lower House) on Thursday endorsed the final step of a revamp of the French Pacific territory’s organic law.

The changes, which the French government has recently insisted on not calling “amendments”, mean in essence that the former provision is now replaced by a new rule, introduced to strengthen stability: any newly elected government by New Caledonia’s Congress now has a minimum immunity period of 18 months before any motion of no confidence can be lodged. Read more »

Oxfam launched its GROW campaign for the Pacific in Auckland. Featured in the street theatre are "trader" Tim McPoland and "farmer" Maria Vai. Photo: Glenn Welch

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Yvonne Brill

The Pacific region is at risk of falling victim to a “broken food system” with supplies being hit by environmental crises such as climate change, says Oxfam in a new global campaign.

Barry Coates, executive director of Oxfam New Zealand, said there was a growing global crisis in the world’s food system.

This view was supported by evidence from a new report released yesterday in conjunction with the launch of Oxfam’s GROW campaign. Read more »

Fiji's Voreqe Bainimarama: Kava ... and a Melanesian slap in the face for Australia. Photo: Graham Davis/Grubsheet

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Graham Davis

Australia’s impotence in influencing events in its own backyard is being demonstrated in dramatic fashion this week as the Fijian dictator, Voreque “Frank” Bainimarama, fulfils his long-held ambition to assume the chairmanship of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

All of the other Melanesian leaders – from Papua New Guinea, the Solomons, Vanuatu plus the Kanak FLNKS from New Caledonia – are joining Bainimarama for the MSG summit in Suva on Thursday.

It’s also being attended by official representatives from Indonesia, East Timor and – strangely – the European Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which has no Pacific interest whatsoever in the normal course of events but is also about to deliver its own slap in the face to Australia. But more on that later. Read more »

Japan Ground Self-Defence Force soldiers gear up to wash away radioactive material emitted from Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant. Photo: AP

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Patrick Antoine Decloitre

The French government is sending a stock of iodine tablets to its overseas territories of the Pacific – as a “preventive measure” in response to the Japanese nuclear power plant crisis.

In a statement, the French Ministry for Overseas said the decision was made to send a consignment of iodine tablets to New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia, mainly because of the shipping delays associated with the remoteness of these French islands and because no suck quantities of iodine tablets are permanently stocked there.

The tablets, once delivered, would be stocked, but the need for a distribution to the population has so far been ruled out. Read more »

Cars swept away in dramatic tsunami scenes in Sendai, north-eastern Japan. Photo: RT

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Pacific Media Watch

Many South Pacific countries and territories have lifted tsunami warnings after Japan’s catastrophic 8.9 magnitude earthquake, but Tahiti is still ordering many residents to stay ashore.

The death toll from Friday’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake reached 202 on Saturday in nine prefectures, including Tokyo, with the toll likely to rise to well over 1000 as some areas suffered devastating damage, according to the National Police Agency.

Emergencies were declared at two nuclear power plants crippled by the quake. Read more »