Diplomatic issue for Australia, NZ and the US ... "how to contain China" in the Pacific. Photo: Global Times

Pacific Scoop:
Column – A Word From Afar – By Paul G. Buchanan

One of the interesting aspects of the leaked emails between Foreign Minister Murray McCully and MP John Hayes, a former diplomat, is the latter’s mention of the need to “resist” China’s growing presence in the South Pacific.

With that simple advice Hayes has revealed a much larger issue, one that undoubtedly has been discussed at length with New Zealand’s major allies, Australia and the US. The issue is how to contain China.

Along with nuclear deterrence, “containment” was at the heart of Western approaches to the Cold War. Read more »

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By PMC news desk

The United Nations regional human rights chief has hailed 2011 as a “significant year” for Pacific achievements with all outstanding national reviews being completed.

” It has been an excellent stocktaking exercise for the region and will now act as an important baseline from which to evaluate future progress over the next four years,” said Matilda Bogner, Regional Representative of OHCHR’s Pacific Office in  Suva.

Saturday 10 December marked International Human Rights Day. Read more »

New Solomon Islands PM Gordon Darcy Lilo ... pledges unchanged "core policies". Photo: SPREP

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Sharon Bhagwan Rolls

What did this week’s political protest riots in Honiara mean to women? Did they actively engage as protesters?

No, according to Koisau Sade, gender coordinator of World Vision Solomon Islands, who was close by.

“From what I saw [on Wednesday], the gender composition of protesters, I would say 98 percent were male. I only saw one young lady emerge from the crowd,” she said. Read more »

Oil being pumped off the stricken container ship Rena, grounded on the Astrolabe reef in the Bay of Plenty. Photo: Maritime NZ

WITH the Rena still precariously balanced on New Zealand’s Astrolabe Reef – an environmental catastrophe that has hit the Bay of Plenty coastline – it doesn’t take much imagination to envisage the sort of damage that could be done to fragile Pacific ecosystems in the wake of a similar disaster. Special report by Kim Austin for Pacific Scoop.

Although there has been much talk about the problem of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the Pacific over recent months, anti-landmine campaigners are worried the New Zealand government may be looking to downgrade its aid commitment to the region.

This, combined with pressure from the US government on the handful of Pacific nations yet to sign the Mine Ban Treaty, is causing concern for NGOs working in the Pacific.

At the recent Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in Auckland, a talk was given about the UXO problem that still plagues vast areas of the Pacific, especially in the North West. Read more »

Indonesian repression in West Papua. Cartoon: © Malcolm Evans / PJR

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By PMC news desk

The killing and abduction of journalists in Indonesian-occupied West Papua has been highlighted in a special new report on Pacific media freedom over the past year by Pacific Journalism Review.

“By far the most serious case of media freedom violations in the Pacific is in West Papua—far from international scrutiny,” says the journal in an editorial.

The 39-page report on the state of media freedom in the Pacific in 2011 notes that in August, in particular, “sustained repression has also hit the news media and journalists”. Read more »

Wreck diving among sunken World War II battleships has become a fashionable holiday pastime in the Pacific. But the flip side is the danger many of these hulks pose. Photo: National Geographic

APART from risking life and limb when digging a new taro patch, derelict weapons hamper economic development. Tourism cannot be properly developed until areas have been declared safe.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Kim Austin

World War II may have ended more than 60 years ago, but for those living in the Pacific “theatre of war” the legacy of death and devastation remains.

When fighting finally ceased in 1945, foreign military forces packed up and returned to their respective homelands, leaving a swath of destruction in their wake.

They also left piles of unexploded ordnance (UXO), which still plague the region today. Read more »

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 »

Joycelyn Lai of the Solomon Islands Young Womens' Christian Association at a seminar organised by WRAP at AUT University this week. Photo: Victoria Young / PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By the PMC news desk

AUT University student journalist Victoria Young filed a package of special reports about critical issues facing women in the region as part of her coverage of the Pacific Islands Forum this week.

Her stories were on both Pacific Scoop – published by AUT’s Pacific Media Centre – and Auckland University’s campus radio 95bFM.

Check out her reports: Read more »

Labour MP Carmel Sepuloni ... priority changes needed for women to have an impact on Pacific health issues. Photo: Victoria Young / PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Special report: The dominance of men at the Pacific Islands Forum is a“scandal” that highlights the absence of Parliamentarian women, say women’s groups. Victoria Young reports.

An Australian aid strategist has criticised the lack of women political representation in the Pacific, saying six of the 10 countries that have no female parliamentarians are in this region.

“It is a scandal that just under three percent of all elected leaders in the Pacific are women. This is the lowest percentage in the world,” says Dr Meredith Burgmann, president of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID),

“The Pacific region is now officially far worse on women’s parliamentary equality than the Gulf states.” Read more »

Director-General of the ADB's Pacific department Robert Wihtol signs the deal with Tongan Prime Minister Lord Tu'ivakano. Photo: Alex Perrottet / PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – by Henry Yamo

Tonga and the Solomon Islands were the happy beneficiaries today of sizeable donations and aid projects, pledged from donor countries and banks as the Pacific Islands Forum drew to a close.

The New Zealand government committed $35.6 million to support a range of development projects.

Out of this, $7.9 million was committed for construction of a photovoltaic solar plant in Tonga, $2.7 million to upgrade tsunami risk management in countries prone to natural disasters and $25 million to redevelop transport infrastructure in the Solomon Islands. Read more »