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Homosexuality, Gay, Lesbians, Pornography

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God. (De 22:5 )

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. (Le 18:22)

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (Le 20:13 )

Council helps pay for gay and lesbian fair
05 JANUARY 2001

Auckland's Hero Parade may struggle for sponsorship but Wellington's 16th annual Gay and Lesbian Fair has no such worries thanks to the gay-friendly Wellington City Council.

The council has announced it will give a community grant of $1685 to this year's event.

"It's just like any other festival taking place in town," said grants committee chairman Rob Goulden.

"The first thing we look for is that it's a meaningful event that adds to the vitality of the community".

Organiser Peter Gordon said he was thrilled by the donation. "We decided to apply for the money but it's still come as a real surprise."

The fair will be held at Newtown School on March 10.

"Wellington is a very, very gay-friendly city. There are a number of specifically gay bars and, of course, Mark Blumsky is the patron of the Gay and Lesbian Professional Association," Mr Gordon said.

He expects a good turnout for the fair and hopes non-gay people will help with stalls and entertainment.

"We get a lot of families and non-gay people coming along too."

"It's such a good day out," Mr Gordon said.

An all-night dance party will also be held on March 10.

Mr Gordon said he hoped that would attract people to the fair.

Last year more than a thousand people attended the party, he said.

Dominatrix float whipped out of Hero parade
13 FEBRUARY 2001

Organisers of Auckland's Hero Festival have banned a float featuring whipping and bondage from this weekend's parade, for fear of offending spectators.

It is the first time a float has been forced out of the parade.

The Hero Trust is concerned about public reaction after complaints in previous years about excessive sexual displays in the parade.

The ban has sparked criticism from sections of the gay community, who say the trust is discriminating against them.

But trust chairwoman Anne Speir said the parade was about celebrating diversity, not alternative sex.

She said it had taken years to rebuild a relationship with the Auckland community following past controversy.

"We are really conscious of wanting to put on a fabulous parade and not jeopardising our future."

Miss Speir said the trust allowed only simulated sexual acts in the parade and was not convinced that people on the banned float would adhere to the rules and merely pretend to use their whips.

In 1997 a woman on a float was whipped throughout the parade along Ponsonby Rd, drawing complaints from observers.

The organiser of this year's banned float, known as Kerry or Mistress Dominic Manners, said she was furious about the banning, after the float had been accepted two weeks ago.

While she understood some people might be offended by bondage and discipline, she said the float would have been tame.

"We would have been stepping gently because of the trouble in the past. It certainly wouldn't have been a full-on public flogging," said the 43-year-old professional dominatrix.

Former Hero Parade organiser Julia Durkin said the trust had discriminated against a sector of the gay community by banning the bondage and discipline float.

"What next? No fat, unpierced, unwigged, pink flag-waving queers allowed?"

Foster International New Zealand marketing manager Keith Edwards said it was up to parade organisers to decide what was acceptable. Foster's Carlton Cold brand is a parade sponsor.

"We wouldn't be seeking to influence the parade."

However, it would be a shame if the parade was "blanded down" as everyone was "looking for some colour" in the event.

Union gays head for hero parade
13 FEBRUARY 2001

Gay trade unionists from Wellington will enter their first float in Auckland's annual gay extravaganza, the Hero Parade, this weekend.

Council of Trade Unions spokeswoman Lyndy McIntyre said 12 Wellingtonians would travel to Auckland to take part in the parade, expected to draw a crowd of 200,000 people in central Auckland on Saturday night.

"The people taking part are trying to show that unions are there to represent all workers, including queer workers."

People on the float would be dressed to represent a variety of industries, reflecting the diverse unions in which gay and lesbian workers were members.

So, is it sex or politics?
16 FEBRUARY 2001

By MARYVONNE GRAY
A gay activist and overseas parade organiser is backing calls to get the whipping and bondage float reinstated at tomorrow's Hero Parade.

Bill Woods, who came from Hawaii for Auckland's gay celebrations, said it was a backwards step for the gay movement.

But float organiser Mistress Dominique Manners has refused to fight the ban, saying: "It's a bit like flogging a dead horse."

Woods, who has been referred to as "the father of Hawaii's Gay Rights Movement", told Truth: "We can't start following the games straights have been playing with us for thousands of years."

He said: "I contacted the trust chairwoman and her reply was that a lot of people don't like this group because she (Manners) was heterosexual.

"I mean, there's a penis in the parade which offends people but that stays in, yet a bit of spanking by a heterosexual, that's been pulled."

But Manners, who says she is bisexual not heterosexual, says she will not take it further.

"I've been tried and sentenced without them even speaking to me. As far as I'm concerned I'm over the Hero Parade - it's been poorly handled."

Manners believes a comment she made during the making of a doco on the festivities was taken out of context.

She had said she might get excited and start flogging her victims for real. That was merely a joke, but worries over past years' displays had made them take her seriously.

"You couldn't have genitals on view and no simulated or actual sex was allowed, which was common sense really and we weren't even attempting to."

A float from previous parades had a woman dressed in leather bondage gear with her legs in stirrups being flogged by a hooded mistress while another woman licked her nipples.

But Manners said their float would have been quite tame. "There were to be three mistresses with a sea of bottoms to make a good image and we would play it cleanly and quietly and hopefully broaden people's minds a bit."

She said the whole thing was hypocritical given the comments made by the parade's (heterosexual) producer Heather Lee in this month's Metro magazine.

Says Manners: "Heather said it's about sex, vibrancy diversity and that she fully expected there to be leather and whipping on the floats.

"She even said if you think you'll be disturbed don't turn up - and then this happens."

Hero Parade call for care
16 FEBRUARY 2001

By JULIAN SLADE
Two hundred thousand spectators are expected at the Hero Parade along Ponsonby Rd tomorrow, with organisers of the safe-sex celebrations urging precautions.

Parade producer Heather Lee appeals to spectators to behave responsibly during the parade, asking people not to climb on to verandas and awnings and to leave glass bottles and their cars at home.

Ms Lee says spectators are often tempted to climb on to vantage viewing points such as advertising signs and overhanging verandas but warns this can endanger others.

"Awnings and verandas are often not structurally sound enough to support the weight of spectators and the likelihood of people getting injured if they collapse is high."

The parade route can cope with the expected 200,000 as long as people are considerate and obey the parade marshals, says Ms Lee.

The parade features 70 colourful floats and starts from the Crummer Rd end of Ponsonby Rd at 8.45pm. It is expected to finish an hour and a half later at Pompallier Tce.

About 100 police will be on duty to support 200 parade marshals and a clean up crew afterwards.

Collectors will take donations for the Hero Charitable Trust and five organisations that help HIV positive people, Herne Bay House, the Burnett Centre, Body Positive, the Quilt Project and Treatment Actions Group.

Organisers hope to raise $100,000. Hero festival publicist Amanda Timperley says the campaign has been boosted by a $2000 donation from a pharmeceutical company.

Ponsonby Intermediate, Richmond Rd Primary and Freemans Bay Primary are providing car parking in fundraising ventures and a Link bus will run along Ponsonby Rd until 7.30pm.

The Hero Parade is followed by the Hero Party, at the Auckland Town Hall, from 11pm to 8am.

Ole – and gay
17 FEBRUARY 2001
By JENNIFER HAWKES
The Waikato is heading to Hero in true Mooloo style. Brian Garland and Vinnie Paul of Shag (Sexy Hamiltonians And Gay) are helping create Hamilton's first float in the annual gay and lesbian parade on Auckland's Ponsonby Rd tonight.

The float has a farming theme, featuring a farm-bike and trailer hauling three plywood cows.

COW TOWN: Brian Garland and Vinnie Paul are helping create Hamilton's first float in the annual gay and lesbian parade on Auckland's Ponsonby Rd tonight. STEPHEN BARKER/Waikato Times

Gay Hamiltonians will sport Waikato rugby jerseys and gumboots, taking a rural flavour to an event which attracts up to 250,000 people each year. Huntly, slightly ahead of Hamilton in Hero history, will have a float again. Gay GP John Gates of Huntly says the float will include a miniature Huntly power station and a surgical theme. This year's parade is being promoted as a family event after past controversy. Sexual acts will be toned down as organisers aim to rebuild a relationship with the Auckland community. In 1997 a woman on a bondage and discipline float was whipped throughout the parade. Hero Trust chair Anne Speir said the parade was about celebrating diversity, not alternative sex.

A centrepiece of this year's parade will be a float dedicated to the memory of Aids victims and the fight against HIV.

Dialogue: I'm staying away from Fiji until ...

17.02.2001
NZ Herald

Fiji is daily drifting further and further away from being the civil society it could have become had it not been for deep-dyed racism within the indigenous Fijian tribal establishment.

Some blame for the situation may be traced back to the insensitivities of British colonialism that lasted for 96 years. Britain allowed the country to become a sugar plantation and condoned the importation of foreign labour to work the fields. And in my experience the British administration was offensively paternalistic right to the end.

But what a shame the indigenous Fijians did not have the stature and generosity to overcome this adversity and rescue their country once they had control of it. The task now seems far beyond them and the danger to New Zealand is we could have a Sri Lanka-style country as a near neighbour.

During the 1960s, on the eve of its independence, I twice went to Fiji on assignment for the now defunct New Zealand Weekly News, then known and avidly read nationally as the Auckland Weekly. Mass international tourism had arrived at the beginning of that decade with commercial jet aircraft - the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC8 but, because their range was limited, trans-Pacific flight to and from New Zealand and Australia had to stop for refuelling at Nadi. Overnight stopovers introduced thousands to the balmy holiday climate.

My first visit was to collect information for a travel supplement. I talked with British civil servants and was depressed at their patronising attitude towards both the indigenous Fijians and the Indo-Fijians and the lack of adequate programmes to ready them for the inevitable independence. They held in their heads stereotypical images of laughing, happy-go-lucky and, yes, childish indigenous Fijians and shrewd, introverted people of Indian origin.

A year or so later, I stayed again for a few days during one of the most enjoyable journeys I've made in my life, in a New Zealand Civil Aviation DC-3 aircraft travelling around the South Pacific calibrating navigational equipment at the various international airports.

In the Fijian hotels, I noticed more than ever that the indigenous Fijians were living up to the Sambo image the British had imposed on them, but scratch the surface and you discovered deep resentment at those whom they still considered foreigners after two or three generations of living there.

So now we have an interim administration in Fiji that may have ousted that ridiculous, strutting little peacock, George Speight, but which reveals almost daily its inability to understand how a free, democratic society works and which shows a callous disregard for the fate of Indo-Fijians.

And, excepting some brave and competent journalists, the local media are often an impediment to the march to Fiji enlightenment.

At the end of last week a transcription of an Australian documentary on the plight of Indo-Fijian cane growers was widely published on Pacific websites, including in Fiji. (It would not, of course, be shown on Fijian television.)

The Interim Minister for Information and Communications, Ratu Inoke Kubualoa, retorted: "The truth of the matter is that it is the landowners who are the real victims of exploitation. They are the truly poor of the sugar industry. The farmers have been the winners." Nothing to support that extraordinary remark.

But then he went after the messengers. Australian documentary journalist Mark Davis and New Zealand South Pacific specialist Michael Field were attacked by Kubualoa and Prime Minister's Office Permanent Secretary Jioji Kotobavalu, with the help of the Times and the Daily Post, which ran stories uncluttered by other points of view.

Last December, New Zealand-born journalist and author David Robie presented a paper to a journalism education conference in Australia, criticising coverage by some sectors of Fiji's media of George Speight's coup and the events preceding and succeeding it. Fiji Times editorial staff tried to have him sacked as the journalism programme coordinator at the University of the South Pacific but, courageously, the university upheld academic freedom and firmly opposed this deplorable attempt at censorship by journalists.

The current Fijian Government declared itself intellectually and spiritually bankrupt when spokesman Kotobavalu said of Field that as "a palagi" (outsider) he had "no understanding and appreciation of Fijian and Pacific Island culture." Virtue, you see, belongs only to the racially and culturally pure.

Perhaps the Fijian leadership should travel to Sheffield, England, for the next election there. It is about to become the largest British city with a majority of citizens of Asian origin.

Kotobavalu could watch these Asians casting their votes and reflect that most of them have been in Britain less time than the Indo-Fijians have been in their native country.

Now, let's remind Phil Goff of his brave words at the time of the coup in Fiji and treat him with the contempt he will deserve if he again allows any individual or group of people representing Fiji into this country, even if it is costly and inconvenient to us. I thought we'd sorted all that out when apartheid was still around.

Racism is a plague that infected the 20th century and caused devastating injustice and even genocide. I won't go near Fiji again until the indigenous establishment there demonstrates a refusal to make racism official policy; and neither should any other Kiwi with a social conscience.

Christian party troubled by Police involvement in Hero

17.02.2001 11:45

NZ Herald

The head of the Christian Heritage party says Police are jeopardising their moral authority by taking part in tonight's Hero Parade in Auckland. The parade is part of the festival which celebrates the gay, lesbian and transgendered community and their friends. Christian Heritage Party Leader Graham Capill understands uniformed police have been given permission to participate in the parade, and are likely to be joined by members of the fire and ambulance services. He says he objects to a tax payer funded organisation participating in what he describes as an immoral parade. Mr Capill says it should be remembered that just over 10-years-ago people could be arrested for homosexual behaviour even in their own homes. He wants the Commissioner of the Police and the heads of the Fire and Ambulance Services to rethink their decision. Between 200 and 300 people are expected to take part in the parade which begins just after 8:30 tonight on Ponsonby Road.

DRAG RACE: Polly Filla takes the lead during a race featuring drag queens and kings in Wellington’s Willis St.
ROB KITCHIN/ Evening Post

Friday February 16 8:06 AM ET
Polygamy Thrives Despite Ban

NAKORN PHATHOM, Thailand (Reuters) - Supat Teeraphapsakulwong has obviously never heard of the maxim ''don't mix business with pleasure.''

Inside his Thai meatball factory-cum-home just west of Bangkok, Supat jokes casually with employees -- his seven wives.

``I never thought I would marry more than once,'' says Supat who first tied the knot when he was 22 years old.

``It just happened. I met my first wife at school. My second wife was at the same school. She was heartbroken when I married, and her parents asked me to marry her as well.''

So, six weeks later, he did.

From then on, the family business just grew and grew. By the time Supat was 41, he had wed five more wives and had a total of 22 children -- all of whom have worked in the meatball factory. Supat, now 57, and his wives each have their own bedrooms inside the three-story building, where the family have run their business for the last 30 years.

``My wives take it in turns to spend the night with me. If I go away, I always remember who's next in line,'' Supat says.

Polygamy, outlawed in 1932, is alive and kicking in Thailand.

According to a study by Bangkok doctors, one in four Thai men have more than one wife despite the ban on polygamy.

While Thailand's form of Buddhism specifically condemns men who covet other men's wives, it lays down no firm guidelines on the shape of the family.

Peoples Coalition, it is time for political divorce
Friday, February 16, 2001

BY VICTOR LAL

WE had likened the inability of the Fiji Labour Party to act decisively over the rift between the Fijian Association Party (FAP) and the Party of National Unity (PANU), who made up Chaudhry’s Peoples Coalition Government, to that of ‘a castrated political bull’ in a ‘constitutional China shop’.

We had blamed the provisions of the 1997 Constitution of Fiji, with its provisions for mandatory power sharing, and the new electoral system, as the overreaching reasons for Chaudhry Government’s downfall, where the religious amorals met the political amorals from different political parties and races in a grand conspiracy to make Fiji, ‘The Way The World Shouldn’t Be’.

We now call upon the Fiji Labour Party to dissolve the Peoples Coalition and return to the negotiating constitutional table to iron out some of the defects in the 1997 Constitution of Fiji. Fiji’s future lies in the proliferation of multi-racial political parties and not in enforced marriages of convenience with racially based and overtly pseudo nationalistic Fijian and Indo-Fijian parties.

When the very first part of the series appeared, I received several abusive and death-threatening e-mails from cowards writing under pseudo names. They accused me of peddling the aims and objectives of the Fiji Labour Party (FLP).

To my detractors, I would like to inform you that I have never been a member of the FLP nor have voted for them in my life. I am not a banner wielding and ‘messianic fan’ of the deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Pal Chaudhry. He is partly to be blamed for the mess that we are in, but as we have argued in these columns, for totally different reasons.

As I had pointed out elsewhere, in response to my ‘misguided countryman’, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, and other like-minded individuals, who attacked me last year for my repeated calls for multi-party democracy in Fiji, I come from a political family who had carried in its veins the multi-racial philosophies of the Alliance Party, which I now find was a great sham and a cover to keep the other non-Fijian races out of political power.

In fact, the Alliance Party’s concept of multi-racialism, where power and privilege was to ultimately lie in the hands of the Fijian chiefly families, and the Fijian political elite, had failed to produce a truly multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multi-religious Fiji.

As regard to e-mails, I also received an overwhelmingly constructive ones. There were some, especially from the Fijian readers, which claimed that Fiji’s Fijian problems are the result of the over representation of ‘outlander Fijians’-those hailing from the outer islands-who dominate every aspect of our daily lives: in the civil service, the army and the machinery of government.

These people do not speak the languages of the ethnic minorities, have no first-hand experience of multi-racial living and multi-racial suffering, and in some instances had never seen what a ‘live’ Indo-Fijian or Chinese or European or for that matter another Fijian, looked like in real life.

Once they arrive on the mainlands, whether as politicians, workers, students, or businessmen, they want to jump the system to achieve everything in the shortest possible time, ‘by hook or crook’. It is these people, the Fijian e-mails claimed, who have caused the greatest suffering to the Fijian people, the nation and the non-Fijian races. Some even unjustly claimed that most of the criminality taking place against the Indo-Fijians throughout Fiji is the handiwork of these ‘outlander Fijians’.

A former Fijian soldier even claimed that one could draw the parallels with the plight of the Indo-Fijian villagers to that of the Bosnians: where Serbs from outside Bosnia were in the forefront of rape, hate, murder, looting and burning of the entire Bosnian nation.

These Serbs had only one thing in common: an imagined notion of community. Many who came to occupy the Bosnian homes, steal their cars and cows, rape their daughters, and murder their sons, had never set foot on the Bosnian soil. They had never contributed by sweat, toil, or tears to the development of Bosnia.

They had come with one mission in life: the advancement of a greater Serbia, to fulfil the dreams of the Serbian dictator Milosevic, the President of Serbia. It was pure ethnic cleansing based on race hatred, ignorance, and jealousy.

We are not qualified to comment on this aspect of the so-called ‘Fijian Problem’ because we have not made a detailed study on the matter but all we can say it that George Speight is not an ‘outlander’. He is however of mixed ancestry. We would also like to remind the e-mail readers that there are ‘outlander Fijians’, Rotumans, and peoples of mixed ancestry who have made enormous contribution to our nation, and continue to fight for an all inclusive Fiji. We personally do not subscribe to such generalisations about the ‘outlanders’., as some of our Fijian e-mail readers from the mainland are calling them.

Both, George Speight-now lounging on Nukultraz Island, and I, hail from Tailevu; in fact, we lived a stone’s throw from each other, and I have many happy memories playing with the children of his Naivicula village. Most of my ancestors are buried around the village. Speight and I however never met. We are products of two different generations and two competing visions of Fiji and its beautiful peoples of all races. His mission is to destroy Fiji. My vision is to re-build our beautiful Fiji.

The 1997 Constitution and Fijian Rights

When our house collapses from an earthquake, the building we called ‘home’ cannot be simply put together. We need a structural engineer to inform us whether the building needs minor repair or must be demolished and rebuilt altogether. In our case, as we are trying to re-emerge from the debris of the political earthquake caused by Speight and his shadowy masters of murder and mass destruction, we have to be realistic; we have to identify the defects; we have to correct it before we can call it our ‘home’ once again.

The 1997 Constitution is not, we agree, a perfect document. There are those who would argue, and quite rightly so, that it was not the Constitution that failed the people. It was opportunistic politicians masquerading as Fijian nationalists, and greedy Indo-Fijian businessmen (mahajans) who failed the Constitution. For example, the rights of the indigenous Fijians is comprehensively protected in the new Constitution.

Several prominent Fijians are increasingly speaking out against those who have been claiming that the 1997 Constitution did not protect their indigenous rights. The Constitutional Citizens Forum, spearheaded by the Rev Akuila Yabaki and SVT member Jone Dakuvula, have done us enormous service in this respect. They have gone out of their way to educate the Fijians of their rights as contained in the 1997 Constitution.

We have already pointed out elsewhere that the Constitution could be termed as the Fijians ‘Charter of Rights’. The most recent to speak out is the former Taukeist Filipe Bole, who has argued that Fijian political unity is only possible in theory.

He even argued that the Asesela Ravuvu led Constitutional Review Commission was an exercise in futility. We do not thinkg so, however. What we disagree with is that Ravuvu should not be chairing the CRC given his controversial past regarding the drafting of the 1990 Constitution. We need an independent chairman who is detached from national politics.

The Electoral System and Constitution

We have already examined the Alternative Vote System and its impact on the fortunes of the political parties. Professor Steward Firth of USP has rightly pointed out that ‘Labour was advantaged by the preferential system [AV]. In other words, you can’t claim that there is a Labour government today simply because of the new voter system. What you can claim at the moment is that the SVT lost heavily because of that system which was deliberately used against it by the Peoples Coalition and the VLP’.

Scott MacWilliams, also of the USP, however has cautioned us that the defeat of the SVT/NFP/UGP Coalition at the hands of the new electoral system must not be used by the losers to return Fiji to the past. We cannot revert back to the racist 1990 Constitution, which the International Commission of Jurists described as ‘bad as apartheid in South Africa’.

MacWilliams made the following observations: ‘The 1999 election, and the system under which it was conducted were flawed, in several respects. It was a national disgrace that the voting age was not lowered to include people 18-20 years of age, as in the case in most modern democracies. It was also a real pity that there was such mal-apportionment. A very substantial over-weighting of votes favouring people who represent Fiji’s past, the rural areas, over its future, urban and peri-urban areas.’

He, however, argued that it was Chaudhry ‘who sticks firmly to the liberal democratic idea of mandate’. His opponents ‘continue to show, some more enthusiastically than others, that they are no democrats’. One reader of our column wrote to us as follows: ‘Like all documents, it was imperfect. But, had the people been rational and understood how democratic governments function, they would have proposed amendments to the Constitution instead of mounting a coup. I found the voting system to be confusing. Perhaps it should not have been in the Constitution. It might have been better for the constitution to have enough flexibility to permit the voting system to be determined by laws enacted by parliament so that it could more easily be changed.’

Another USP academic, Satendra Prasad, has pointed out that the AV system had not worked as it was thought it would. ‘The political parties that contested the 1999 general elections attempted to maximise their strength by trying to win reserved seats. However, in trying to win such seats, while all the parties relied upon obtaining support from within particular ethnic communities, those that were successful may not have used an appeal to ethnic identity as the means of obtaining that support.

Rather, they may have used other forms of identity as the basis of electoral mobilisation. Thus, indigenous Fijian parties relied heavily upon provincial loyalties, while the FLP relied heavily upon its support base amongst Indo-Fijian farmers and workers. The possible weakness of ethnic politics in the reserved seats was not expected of the AV system.’

Prasad also touched upon the open seats: ‘Paradoxically, in open seats where one ethnic community dominated the voter population there was probably a wider political reliance upon ethnic identity as a central part of political mobilisation. This is probably true even as regards the most multiethnic of the major parties, the FLP. Granted, the FLP’s capacity to skilfully deploy its policy platform meant that its appeal to the Indo-Fijian vote in such seats did not have to be couched in ethnic terms.

Nonetheless, even the FLP did not have to try and increase its support amongst the indigenous Fijian community in these seats; it could rely upon its support amongst Indo-Fijian farmers and workers to win seats. Such an outcome was not what the FCRC (The Reeves Commission) had expected of the AV system. Moreover, such an outcome is obviously not in the long term interest of a class-based party such as the FLP:’

Finally, Prasad rightly argued, that in those open seats where no one community dominated the voter population, co-operation between parties was fostered in the form of efforts to share preferences. Thus, the AV system did indeed promote increased co-operation between parties. However, the type of co-operation between parties is also important to consider.

The SVT and the NFP, the two principal actors in the constitutional review process, entered, along with the UGP, into a formal coalition. The voters rejected this. The FLP, on the other hand, entered into an agreement with the PANU and the FAP regarding second preferences, and were rewarded handsomely. It can thus be cautiously argued that when given appropriate alliance structures and incentives, communities in Fiji may be willing to vote for parties other than those rooted in their own ethnic group.’

Prasad also pointed out the unfavourable impact of the AV system upon the principle of proportionality in parliamentary representation of the SVT and the NFP. ‘The SVT received 38 per cent of the first preferences from within the indigenous Fijian community. This translated into only 11 per cent of overall seats in the House of representatives. The NFP received 32 per cent of Indo-Fijian first preferences.

This translated into no parliamentary seats. It is ironic that both the SVT and the NFP, which actively opposed proportional systems of parliamentary representation during the review of the constitution, would have been better represented in parliament under proportional representation.

At the same time, the pooling preferences which initially went to smaller, more independent parties and candidates in favour of one of the constituent parts of one of the larger party groupings may contribute to a loss of confidence in parliamentary democracy.

Certainly, the AV system has severely weakened the parliamentary representation of the more extreme ethnic nationalist parties such as the NVTLP, and while a first reaction to such an outcome might be to welcome it, it is also necessary to be aware of potentially adverse consequences in the longer term should more extreme parties become disenfranchised from parliamentary representation as a consequence of the AV system.’

Prasad, in his conclusion, ‘Confronting the present and the future’, observed that Fiji’s 199 general elections were a national referendum on the 1997 Constitution. Given that the SVT, the NFP, the FLP, the FAP and the PANU all supported-albeit with some reservations-the1997 Constitution, the mandate that it has received form the peoples of Fiji is overwhelming.

However, despite this mandate, and despite the clear objectives of the Constitution in seeking to promote multiethnic politics in Fiji, it is clear that significant tensions remain between those who would use ethnicity as a primary means of political mobilisation.

While the AV system has been able to foster co-operation amongst the political parties, and while multiparty government may reinforce this co-operation, the AV system has not been able to expunge the recourse to ethnicity as a tool of political mobilisation. It has possibly permitted a ‘de-ethnicisation’ of politics in reserved seats. However, it is indeed ironic that under the AV system the use of ethnicity may have been reinforced in those seats specifically designed to foster the emergence of a multi-ethnic politics: the open seats. Moreover, where it has fostered cross-community co-operation, this has been amongst elites; it has not occurred amongst people.’

In this light, Prasad argued, two suggestions emerge: ‘The first is that Fiji would do well to critically reassess the suitability of AV system. Electoral systems which respect the proportionality of parliamentary representation are also capable of breaking down inter-ethnic boundaries, and perhaps these should be considered anew in the light of the outcome of the 199 elections. The second is that the ratio of open to reserved seats must be re-examined and possibly reversed if Fiji is to move decisively towards a less ethnically base system of politics.’

In the next column, we will be examining the 1975 Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Electoral System. The Commission had called for not the balance of races but the balance of parties. It also bluntly stated that, ‘If Fiji is to take its place in the international world of today it cannot afford to maintain an electoral system which can be represented as racialism’.

We have taken the liberty of quoting Satendra Prasad at length, for he not only correctly identified the pitfalls of the AV system, but later went on a world tour with the deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry to rightly champion for the restoration of human rights and democracy in Fiji.

‘Till New Constitution, Do Us Part’

For that to happen in Fiji, we however maintain that the FLP should dismantle the Peoples Coalition, or persuade the Fijian political parties (who are the major beneficiaries of the new AV system) to agree to the overhauling of the electoral system, and those parts of the Constitution which forced them into a marriage of uncomfortable alliance to run the country in the 21st century.

There was a time when breaking the seventh commandment (Thou shalt not commit adultery) was considered among the gravest of sins. Nowadays, it’s often viewed as a personal matter - nobody’s business except the parties involved, and perhaps, the aggrieved spouse. But that’s hardly the way the Bible and God look at it. Adultery is not a slip up-it’s a personal and family disaster. We must learn how to avoid the traps and pitfalls that lead to broken vows and broken lives.

We hope that the FLP has learnt the lessons. Its time to go their separate ways, to file for ‘political divorce’, and back to the negotiating table. As an old Christian proverb says: ‘Never fight, when you can run’. A House Divided Itself Falls.

The Peoples Coalition Government is on its last legs. Both legally, and politically.

But the Fiji Labour Party must remain on course on the path to creating a truly multi-racial Fiji.

When the new 1997 Constitution of Fiji was unanimously passed by both Houses of Fiji’s Parliament, a jubilant Chaudhry declared after the parliamentary vote that a long-standing grievance about the 1990 Constitution had ended. ‘I think if all of us decide to work together, remove all forms of discrimination, work as a united nation, we have a future ahead of us’, he said.

Multi-racialism is our only lighthouse to a brighter and harmonious Fiji.

• To be continued

• VICTOR LAL read law at the University of Oxford where he has held Reuters, Wingate and Research Fellowships in race and constitutionalism in multi-ethnic states. He is the author of Fiji: Coups in Paradise-Race, Politics and Military Intervention (1990), and also of a forthcoming book entitled Revolutions, Illegal Regimes in the Third World and Legality in International and Domestic Law. Victor Lal is Daily Post’s regular commentator on issues of significant importance to us.

Fiji's Daily Post

China's 'One-Child Policy' Results In Forced Abortion, Infanticide
By Patrick Goodenough
CNS London Bureau Chief
February 14, 2001

London (CNSNews.com) - Shocking pictures of an apparent victim of China's "one-child policy" - a newborn baby girl lying dead in a gutter, ignored by passers-by - have prompted shock and revulsion in Britain.

The pictures, published in a UK newspaper Wednesday, come at a time British government officials are holding talks in China over human rights issues.

The U.S. administration is also this week expected to decide on whether to support an annual U.N. resolution condemning China's human rights record. Members of the Senate Tuesday introduced a resolution urging President Bush to "take the lead" in an international censure of Beijing.

The photographs were taken by a horrified visitor and smuggled out of China after police questioned her for photographing the dead child, and confiscated films.

The woman said the baby's naked body, spotted lying alongside a road in a small town in Hunan province, was still warm - she had clearly been dumped and had just died.

Many passers-by on their way to work ignored the child, the Mirror quoted her as saying, while some stopped to look, then walked on. Pictures showed life going on as normal, until an elderly man eventually put the tiny body into a box and carried it away.

The woman said she called the police, who took more than three hours to arrive. When they did, they questioned her for an hour, checked her identification papers, and took all her film, except for one she managed to hide.

Sex screening

China's population is expected to increase from 1.26 billion at the end of 1999 to 1.6 billion in 2050.

Under a "one-child policy," introduced in 1979 to help slow down the galloping population growth rate, parents are routinely sterilized, and face large fines if they have more than one child.

The government claims it has successfully prevented 250 million births since it was introduced.

But it has also been estimated that the policy has resulted in there being 60 million more males in China than females. Many parents, aware they will only have one child to look after them in their old age, want that child to be a son, say human rights campaigners.

As a result, parents who can afford it have their child screened in the womb, and then abort girls. Those who give birth to girls may abandon them or leave them to die.

Determination of gender during ultrasound scans has been officially banned for a number of years, but the practice continues. One 1999 report on the International Planned Parenthood Federation website says that between 500,000 and 750,000 unborn Chinese girls are aborted every year after sex screening.

Last August Western newspapers reported a case in which family planning officials had killed an unauthorized baby in front of its parents.

The Huang family already had three children when the mother fell pregnant again, according to the reports. Having botched an attempt to induce an abortion, family-planning officials then ordered the father to kill the newborn baby, which he instead tried to hide away. Eventually they found the baby boy and drowned him in a rice paddy, in front of the parents.

"China's population-control policies allow petty bureaucrats across the country a free hand to ruin people's lives as they extort bribes and gifts and dispense life-or-death decisions," one London newspaper reported at the time.

After a public outcry, authorities reportedly arrested three family planning officials.

According to information provided by the Chinese Embassy in the UK, the government views the policy as benefiting the whole of society. It insists that "forced abortion and sterilization are strictly prohibited by the Chinese laws and offenders will be punished according to law."

A Taiwan newspaper last December quoted the director of China's state family planning commission as admitting that the policy has led to forced abortions, sex-selective abortions, as well as infanticide and the abandonment of newly born baby girls.

But China would go on implementing the policy, he said, while continuing to oppose "coercion" and "induced abortion."

The policy has been relaxed in some areas, and some parents are allowed to have a second child, in return for paying a fee, often more than a year's wages.

De-sensitized

Britain's largest pro-life organization, Life, said that while the pictures were deeply upsetting, it was grateful to the photographer for getting out images depicting so vividly "the depths that China's so-called family-planning policy has sunk to."

Life spokesperson Nuala Scarisbrick commented on the obvious indifference of passers-by to the abandoned baby.

"Evidently in China they have become as de-sensitized to the horror of culling new-born children as we in the western world have become to destroying pre-born children."

Scarisbrick also used the opportunity to berate the UK government for funding international family-planning agencies that promote abortion. She called on the government to follow Bush's example, and stop using taxpayers' money to support them.

The human rights organization Amnesty International said while it did not have a position of the "one-child policy" itself, it was opposed to the resulting human rights violations.

"We believe the Chinese government should take action to ensure that its family planning officials do not commit human rights violations by making women have abortions, even physically detaining them to have abortions," said Amnesty's Isabel Kelly.

Gary Streeter, international development spokesman for the opposition Conservative Party, said Wednesday it was essential that the UK contributed in no way to "this appalling practice" and lobbied Beijing to ensure that it ends.

In a letter to International Development Secretary Clare Short, Streeter called for an extensive review of all UK-funded Chinese government and non-governmental bodies "to ensure that no British taxpayers' money is directly or indirectly supporting the one-child policy."

A spokesperson for Short said in response to queries that the department "does not fund population control in China or anywhere else."

Wednesday February 14 1:52 PM ET
Puffy and Jennifer Lopez Split

By JEFF WILSON, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Valentine's Day (news - web sites) was a heartbreaker for Sean ``Puffy'' Combs, who confirmed his breakup with singer-actress Jennifer Lopez.

``Mr. Combs confirmed that he and his love Jennifer Lopez have in fact broken up,'' his publicist Nathalie Moar said Wednesday. A breakup has been rumored for weeks. The performers have spent considerable time apart because she's promoting an album and he's been on trial in New York on weapons and bribery charges stemming from a 1999 nightclub shooting. ``Mr. Combs is confirming this today as he wanted to put all the rumors surrounding their relationship to rest. At this difficult time we ask that you respect his privacy,'' Moar said. Lopez spokesman Alan Nierob said he couldn't reach the singer, who was in Australia promoting her album ``J.Lo.'' Combs produced four tracks on the album. Combs and Lopez got together recently in a failed effort to work things out. FILE--Rapper Sean "Puffy" Combs and singer Jennifer Lopez pose backstage at the 42nd Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, in this Feb. 23, 2000 file photo. Valentine's Day was a heartbreaker for Combs, who confirmed his breakup with Lopez. "Mr. Combs confirmed that he and his love Jennifer Lopez have in fact broken up,'' his publicist Nathalie Moar said Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2001. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

Wednesday February 14 4:29 PM ET
Rapper Eminem Pleads Guilty

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) - Rap superstar Eminem (news - web sites), who is nominated for four awards at next week's Grammys, has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of carrying a concealed weapon, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Eminem faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced on April 10. However, a publicist for the controversial rapper, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, said Eminem will seek probation.

``Marshall is looking forward to putting this matter behind him,'' Dennis Dennehey said.

In return for the plea, Macomb County assistant prosecutor David Portuesi said a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon was dropped. The rapper's sentence will be left up to the judge.

Portuesi said he was satisfied with the plea.

Recording artist Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, appears in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens, Mich., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2001. The rap superstar pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon during an altercation outside a nightclub last June. He will be sentenced on April 10. In return for the plea, a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon was dropped. (AP Photo/Max Ortiz, Pool)

``We thought it was a reasonable offer and apparently he did too. So this should resolve the matter,'' Portuesi said.

Eminem was charged after an altercation last June outside a nightclub. Police said he struck a man who was allegedly kissing Eminem's wife, Kim.

Eminem, who lives in Macomb County's Clinton Township, still faces charges in neighboring Oakland County of carrying a concealed weapon and brandishing a firearm in public. Dennehey had no comment on pending charges. Messages left with Eminem's attorneys were not immediately returned Wednesday.

Eminem's ``The Marshall Mathers LP'' has been nominated by the Recording Academy for album of the year, and the rapper is also nominated for three other awards. However, he has been criticized by gay and women's groups for his misogynist and anti-gay lyrics, and will be the subject of a protest by gay and women's groups at the Feb. 21 ceremony.

Eminem is scheduled to perform a duet at awards show with openly gay entertainer Elton John. Dennehey said Wednesday's plea has no affect on the Grammys.

``He'll be there next week,'' he said.

January 31, 2001

A warning from Denmark

Since George W. Bush has put Social Security reform on his political agenda, it may be that immigration is now the third rail of politics. Before it becomes a subject that cannot be rationally debated, it is useful to take a good look at Denmark and the revealing report by Henrik Bering recently published in the Heritage Foundation's Policy Review. The Danes shocked the world last Sept. 28 when, rejecting the urging of all their political and media leaders, they voted decisively against participation in the new European currency called the euro. It now appears, according to Bering, that another reason for the euro's defeat were fears about immigration, and, thereby, lies a tale worth repeating.

Denmark has been in the forefront of European efforts to encourage easy immigration and integration of immigrants with the native-born population. Denmark spends 1 percent of its GNP on foreign aid, the highest per capita in the world.

Denmark's laws spell out generous rights for immigrants. A foreigner admitted to Denmark automatically qualifies for social benefits, including free health care, schooling, job training and an apartment within three months of his acceptance.

The Danish liberals romanticized the immigrants as innocent Third World victims of Western exploitation, people who were more in touch with nature and an understanding of life. The left propagandized the notion that people from different parts of the globe could be transplanted and assimilated into a multicultural Danish society.

In addition to fuzzy idealism, there was a practical side to this easy immigration policy. The Danish birthrate is too low to provide sufficient workers to finance the social benefits of the welfare state. The need for taxes to support the graying population demanded an influx of younger workers.

"Guest workers" started coming in the 1960s, especially from Turkey, Pakistan and the Middle East. And, they kept coming; today, the foreigners number about 7 percent of Denmark's population.

Conventional Danish wisdom through the 1980s was that these immigrants would be assimilated. Surprise, surprise, multiculturalism bred anger and resentment rather than integration.

Those who warned about culture clashes were ignored or called nasty names like racist or xenophobic. Today, the failure of the immigration policies is so obvious that critical reports have been published by mainstream foundations and agencies.

In the middle of the euro campaign last year, Social Democratic Interior Minister Karen Jespersen, a former 1960s radical, suddenly said that she "did not wish to live in" a multicultural nation "where the cultures were considered equal." She suggested isolating refugees with criminal records on a "deserted island."

Those words caused an international uproar, with spokesmen in other countries accusing her of "racially motivated ideas" and darkly threatening international opprobrium. However, few could dispute the problems caused by the refugees.

Denmark's liberal refugee policy, which grants entry to anyone who requests asylum at the border, has become an easy target for members of organized crime from the former Soviet Union, especially Azerbaijan, Armenia and Ukraine. These gangsters have no intention of becoming Danish; they prey on the local population and send huge parcels of stolen goods back to their home countries.

But it was Jespersen's statement that she doesn't want to live in a multicultural state where cultures are deemed equal that struck at a favorite fetish of modern liberals. She was reacting to demands from militant Muslims that they introduce key elements of Islamic law into Danish law, including the death penalty and even mutilation.

And, that's not all. A lifelong women's rights activist, Jespersen refuses to recognize as "equal" the Muslim immigrants' practices of denying women access to the labor market, denying them the right to divorce and subjecting them to arranged marriages.

The pro-immigration Danish politicians mistakenly assumed that, after a generation, the children of the newcomers would marry Danish girls and be integrated into the society. That just didn't happen.

It is estimated that 95 percent of Turks, even in the third generation, still import Turkish wives and even feel an obligation to import their relatives through arranged marriages. The result is a new underclass of people of different appearance and language.

When a ghetto of unassimilated foreigners reaches a certain point, the Danes move elsewhere to escape the problems in the local schools. Americans would understand this phenomenon as "white flight."

Bering describes the financial costs of immigration and the failure of the immigrants to integrate as "staggeringly expensive." Four percent of the population is now costing 34 percent of the Danish social budget, and elderly Danes who paid a lifetime of the highest taxes in the world are being squeezed out of the medical and other benefits they expected.

There is something rotten in Denmark. America should make sure that we don't make the same mistakes, either at home or in "nation-building" in other lands.

Education war
Thursday, February 15, 2001

An education war at tertiary-level is underway in Fiji.

Reports claim that decades old University of the South Pacific is currently facing a challenging competition after the establishment of the Central Queensland University's International campus.

It has been reported that the demand for the Suva-based CQU campus is increasing among the locals.

According to a well-placed source, USP is facing the `heat' as its credibility has become questionable after the establishment of the CQU campus in Fiji.

"Some well-groomed students are now questioning the `standard' of USP as we now have two universities here," the source said "We have also received complaints that USP was employing under-qualified tutors to take care of Degree-students, so things like this really put USP in an odd situation."

The source also pointed out cases where the university has enroled quite a number of students, who don't carry a standard enrolment mark.

"Perhaps, it has become a more commercial venture now rather than providing a high standard education to the students," the source said Meanwhile, CQU's Director Jim George yesterday confirmed that more local students were expressing interest in the newly-set campus.

Mr George said the campus had received some 300 applications alone from new students wanting to enrol for degree programmes.

According to Mr George, those attending CQU are paying quite a substantial price for their education.

The local CQU campus offers the same programme as that offered at the CQU's main campus in Australia and student intake is based entirely on merit.

"Some feel that we are here to make money but I would say it's all nonsense, higher education world-wide is expensive,' Mr George said "This campus was established, initially, with the support of the Rabuka Government and it is very good business for Fiji. The market has grown since its establishment in 1999."

"International students are attracted to our Suva-based campus because of cheaper accommodations and tuition fee is lesser compared to other CQU International campuses world-wide," he said.

"The most important factor is that Fiji's successive governments have been supportive in assisting students with visas to come here to study," Mr George said.

"From an immigration point of view, Fiji is relatively a small country and it's not that complicated when compared to Australia and America.

The big risk with the international students is, they might stop being international students and disappear into the workforce," he said "We are currently working on plans to extend our services and we have in our programme a Diploma in Nursing, a course requested by the Fiji Nurses Association.

About 100 nurses have enroled."

The campus has about 1000 students from China, Korea, India Bangladesh and Fiji. According to some international students, Fiji provided an excellent environment for foreign students in keeping a close-tap on their studies.

"I like the climate plus the fact that we don't get distracted and I like the warm welcoming reception, we get here." said a student from China.

Meanwhile, USP public relations office stated that more than 2000 offers have been made to students for the 2001.

On the subject of competition, the office said, "the university welcomes any development in the region which increases higher education opportunities for the people of the South Pacific region.

The aim of the university is to meet the educational needs of its 12-member countries."

USP also denied allegations that it's basing its intake on race.

`The current Charter of the University (22) states: `No religion, ethnic or political test shall be imposed upon any person in order to entitle him to be admitted as a member, professor, teacher or student of the university or to hold office therein or to graduate or to hold any advantage or privilege thereof.'

Fiji's Daily Post

Tuesday February 13 12:50 AM ET
Navy Sending Underwater Robots to Crash Site

By Sam Mircovich

HONOLULU (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy said on Monday it was sending underwater robots to survey the ocean bottom where a Japanese ship sank with the possible loss of nine lives when it was hit by a surfacing U.S. submarine.

Navy Lt. Bill Speaks said an unmanned ``deep submergence unit'' named Scorpio II would transmit video images from the ocean floor to help search and rescue operations.

A separate Navy statement said a ``deep drone,'' another remotely-operated vehicle designed to conduct deep ocean recovery efforts, was also being sent. This vessel can descend to a depth of 7,200 feet.

Nine people are missing from the Ehime Maru which sank in about 1,800 feet of water nine miles off Diamond Head, Hawaii, after the collision with the USS Greeneville on Friday.

Anguished relatives of the missing have pleaded for two days to have the wreck raised so they would know if their loved ones had been trapped inside. The request -- also being pushed strongly by the Japanese government -- was forwarded to top U.S. government officials.

``We are sending a remotely-operated vehicle to survey the area. It is not a salvage or rescue vehicle,'' Speaks said of the Scorpio II. He said no decision had been made on any salvage or recovery effort.

Japan's foreign ministry said Yoshitaka Sakurada, parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, met Adm. Dennis Blair, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, who told him the underwater search gear was arriving in Hawaii on Monday and would be used to determine the precise location of the ship.

Sakurada said he welcomed the fact that the search would be conducted and expressed his hope for speedy results, the ministry said in a statement released in Tokyo.

The Scorpio II is equipped with a sonar scanning system and will be operated by two dozen Navy experts. The equipment and personnel are being flown to Hawaii from Coronado, California, and should arrive later on Monday, Navy officials said.

The U.S. Coast Guard (news - web sites) said on Monday it would remain focused for at least one more day on searching for survivors from the accident, caused when the Greeneville shot out of the depths directly underneath the 499-ton Japanese ship being used as a fisheries training school.

As of Monday, search aircraft and ships had covered more than 6,500 square miles -- an area larger than Connecticut.

Little Hope Of Finding Survivors

Hopes of finding survivors have dimmed because most of the missing are believed to have been below deck at the time of the collision. The chances of surviving more than three days in the water without a life raft are slim.

About 30 tearful relatives of the nine missing were taken to the scene of the accident aboard a U.S. Navy vessel on Monday. They returned four hours later, and walked, single file, their heads bowed, onto a bus, witnesses said.

Of the 35 people on board, 26 were rescued. Nine of them -- all students -- were flown home Monday afternoon escorted by two teachers from the Uwajima Fisheries High School.

As they headed for the plane at Honolulu Airport escorted by military personnel, the survivors kept their heads bowed, witnesses said. Some shed quiet tears as they were swarmed by nearly 50 reporters and photographers.

A source at the Japanese consulate said on Monday it was unclear when the remaining 17 survivors, now staying in hotels, would return home.

President Bush (news - web sites) on Monday offered a silent prayer for the victims of the sinking on Monday. ``Please join me in a moment of silence for those missing, their families and our friends, the people of Japan,'' Bush said at the start of a speech to U.S. military personnel outside Savannah, Ga.

The investigation into the cause of the accident focused Monday on why Navy crewmen failed to use their best sonar device to ``see'' where they were going when bringing their vessel roaring to the surface.

National Transportation Safety Board (news - web sites) investigator John Hammerschmidt, part of an eight-member team probing the collision, said the navigation crew used ``passive'' sonar instead of the more accurate ``active'' sonar.

Passive sonar detects sounds, while active sonar transmits signals that can detect other vessels.

The Greeneville was staging an emergency training drill in which it made a sudden drop to a depth of 400 feet and then a rapid push to the surface, when the accident took place. It had used passive sonar and scanned the surface twice with a periscope, Hammerschmidt said at a Sunday night briefing.

NTSB (news - web sites) officials on Monday were touring and examining the 360-foot-long Greeneville, which sailed back to Pearl Harbor on Saturday.

Tuesday February 13 10:10 PM ET
2 Civilians at Helm Spots on Sub

By JEAN CHRISTENSEN, Associated Press Writer

HONOLULU (AP) - Two civilian guests were seated at controls of the USS Greeneville when the submarine surfaced and sank a Japanese fishing vessel off the Hawaiian coast, a Navy spokesman said Tuesday.

``There were two civilians at two separate watch stations under the very close supervision of a qualified watch stander,'' said Lt. Cmdr. Conrad Chun, a Pacific Fleet spokesman.

He declined to identify which stations were involved, but said they could include the helm, sonar or the ballast control. The Navy has refused to identify who was aboard, but Chun said the 16 civilians included business leaders.

A defense official in Washington said one of the civilians was at the helm. However, there is no indication the civilian played any role in Friday's collision, said the official, who is familiar with the investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

A Pentagon (news - web sites) spokesman, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, said no information about the circumstances at the time of the accident would be released until the Navy has completed its investigation.

A U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat keeps the media at bay as they enforce a five mile perimeter Monday, Feb. 12, 2001, around the site where a submarine crashed into a fishing trawler off Diamond Head, Honolulu. Grieving family members aboard a U.S. Navy chartered ship, right, spent 40 minutes at the site Monday. The ship at left is USS Port Royal which is taking part in the search for nine Japanese men and boys missing since the accident. The Coast Guard imposed the exclusion zone to keep photographers away from the family members. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

The Pentagon said it has not given up searching for nine people missing from the Japanese vessel, a 190-foot ship owned by Uwajima Fisheries High School in southwestern Japan. Twenty-six people were rescued at sea an hour after the Ehime Maru was rammed by the 360-foot submarine and sank in 1,800 feet of water.

The Greeneville was conducting a drill in which the submarine dives to about 400 feet and then makes a rapid ascent - known as an ``emergency main ballast blow.''

The sub commander usually ensures that nothing is in the way before rocketing to the surface, but the Greeneville somehow failed to detect the presence of the fishing vessel.

The Navy takes civilians aboard its ships and submarines as a means of promoting its service, educating civilians about the Navy and to accommodate journalist's requests.

Chun said it was routine for civilians to be allowed at the controls under close supervision.

``The guy's right over their shoulder,'' he said. ``The guy's right there.''

He would not say whether such situations are normal when a submarine is conducting an emergency drill. Another Navy spokesman, Cmdr. Greg Smith, said any civilian at a control position would have a qualified helmsman beside him or her in case something went wrong.

The National Transportation Safety Board (news - web sites) also is investigating.

NTSB (news - web sites) member John Hammerschmidt, who is leading the investigation here, said he only learned civilians were involved from news reports after investigators toured the sub Tuesday.

The news angered one of the crewmen of the sunken vessel.

``A civilian wouldn't know what to do (at the controls),'' said Ryoichi Miya, first mate of the Ehime Maru.

``I don't know if the emergency surfacing was a drill or what, but it's absolutely unforgivable if a civilian was operating it,'' he said, his voice rising in anger.

Japan has asked the United States to salvage the sunken boat. The U.S. Navy has sent a submersible underwater device equipped with sonar and video cameras to investigate the wreck and see if that was possible.

As the search area grew to more than 12,000 square miles, an area the size of Maryland, President Bush (news - web sites) telephoned Japan's prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, to express condolences for the collision and the apparent loss of life.

``He asked me to do everything I could'' to locate the nine Japanese still missing, Bush said, ``which we are doing.''

Bush suggested that he was not ready to order the raising of the sunken boat. ``We haven't ascertained all the facts yet,'' he said.

Tuesday February 13 11:21 AM ET
Seven Jailed in Multi-National Internet Porn Ring

By Alex Richardson

KINGSTON UPON THAMES, England (Reuters) - Seven British men caught in the largest-ever international police operation against Internet child pornography were jailed on Tuesday for a combined total of more than 13 years.

The seven were members of the so-called ``Wonderland Club,'' who met via the Internet to trade pornographic images of children.

``Children represent the future, they should be cared for and protected,'' said Judge Kenneth MacRae as he sentenced the men at Kingston Crown Court, southwest of London.

``You, all of you, subscribing to Wonderland ... betrayed that principle.

``The use and abuse of children for your own perverted gratification has horrified all right-minded people,'' he added.

``You have, directly or indirectly, exploited the most vulnerable. Not protected by their adults, they are wholly degraded, submitting to acts of depravity.''

All seven men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute indecent images of children.

Earlier the court heard from prosecutors who described how the Wonderland Club built up a ``vast Internet lending library'' of porn featuring children as young as three months.

More than 1,250 children, mostly under the age of 10, were featured in the pictures. Only 17 were identified -- from Britain, the U.S, Argentina, Portugal and Chile.

International Operation

The gang was smashed in an international police operation in September 1998 which saw a total of 107 people arrested in Britain, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the U.S.

Law enforcement agencies in those countries seized a total of 750,000 pornographic images and 1,800 computerized videos of children suffering sexual abuse.

The images included material showing children involved in sexual acts with adults and with other children.

Sentences ranged from one to 30 months for the seven men, who were aged between 25 and 46 years.

The judge also ordered forfeiture of computers and equipment seized by police.

All seven will be eligible for release after serving half their sentences.

Under current British legislation they faced a maximum term of three years in prison, but a bill currently moving through parliament would increase the maximum sentence to 10 years.

``When we took on the operation, we were aware it was only a three-year prison sentence,'' said Detective Superintendent Peter Spindler, of the National Crime Squad.

``We had to do this operation to highlight the level of appalling behavior there is on the Internet. This operation has contributed to changing the legislation, not only in this country but in others as well,'' he said.

Stop sex crimes

Feb 13 2001 - Fiji Times

Editorial Comment

THE increase in sex-related crimes should be a warning to everybody.

Most of the offences were carried out on females, some of them below the age of consent. This shows an increasing lack of respect for the law and for fellow human beings.

When a person does not think twice about sexually attacking a stranger, neighbour or his stepdaughter, something is dreadfully wrong.

But every second day the police are called to attend to incidents of sexual abuse against women, girls and boys.
The troublesome trend points towards a general breakdown in the moral values of society.

It is easy to blame the degeneration of values on the influence of television and movies. But that is far from the truth.

While television shows and some movies contain violence and sex, they can not cause on their own a breakdown in moral values.

For in any normal society violence exists in the form of conflicts within or between families, communities, individuals and nations.

That is an unfortunate reality.

Sex exists as a natural act between consenting persons. It is a sign of love, an act of sharing emotionally.
And it exists as a means by which to propagate the human race.

Neither violence nor sex are instruments with which to force others in to submission. Media reports, however, show that many sex-related crimes are committed by frustrated young people. They have little or no understanding of what they have done.

They do not realise that a few moments of ill-conceived release will change once and for all the lives of their victims.

Once caught and brought to justice, the lives of the perpetrators of these crimes also change.

Serious questions must be asked of parents and guardians.

Do they spend time with their children, explaining how to be tolerant of the values, ideals and beliefs of others?

Are children taught about sex and why it is important and should be treated as a gift, not as a means by which to dominate?

If children are not taught they will know no better.

Parents have the tremendous responsibility of moulding the minds of the young.

The escalating incidence of violent and sex-related crimes points to a parent-base problem.

It is one which must be addressed.

Rapist remanded in custody
Tuesday, February 13, 2001

A 28-year -old Delainavesi taxi driver accused of raping his 16-year-old his passenger was yesterday further remanded in custody by the Suva Magistrates Court.

Tukana Kanamaiwai who is also a special police constable is alleged to have committed the offence after he picked up the girl from Suva City.

Kanamaiwai did not make a plea but will reappear in court on February 26. Fiji Women's Rights Movement coordinator Shamima Ali condemned the act saying it was unacceptable for a part time police officer to commit such an act.

She said police officers should be the most trusted people in society.

Police Commissioner Isikia Savua said the accused had committed the offence while off duty but said it was no excuse.

He said Kanamaiwai will face the full brunt of the law.

Fiji's Daily Post

Army rubbishes report
Tuesday, February 13, 2001

Security forces in the West have rubbished media reports of an arms consignment heading for Fiji via a South Pacific country to be unloaded at the Lautoka wharf.

Army Commander Western Lieutenant Colonel Henry Manulevu said he would have been immediately informed if there were any substance to the report.

The report said Interpol had advised Fiji Interpol of a container full of weapons to berth at the Lautoka wharf. Divisional Police Commander Western Senior Superintendent Eroni Antonio denied the speculation too.

"If any report as such would have been received we would have been instructed by headquarters immediately," he said. SSP Antonio dismissed the report as pure speculation since he had not received any directives from Suva.

Lt Col Manulevu said ports of entries had recently been beefed up with trained army personnel and it was very difficult for anyone to get in with weapons or any contraband.

Meanwhile both the police and the military have arranged for measures to combat any likely disturbances before or after the Court of Appeal decides on the validity of the 1997 Constitution.

Lt Col Manulevu said the military would be stepping up more snap checkpoints and road-blocks in the Western Division as a security measure. "We are doubling up mobile patrols in conjunction with the police."

Lt Col Manulevu said there have been lots of hints of violence or people calling up to check up on rumours. "We have had a meeting with Town Councils and the Chamber of Commerce and they have assured me that they will work hand in hand with the military and we have assured them of protection."

Lt Col Manulevu said no reserves have been called in yet but he would do so if the need arose. The military through their public relations team has met political parties discussing with them the laws and the emergency powers governing the country.

Lt Col Manulevu allayed fears of the public saying the military and the police had things under control and people should continue with their normal lives.

"Further destabilising will not help anyone in any way in fact it will make things worse and people will have to face the full brunt of law," he said.

SSP Antonio said police are prepared for the likelihood of violence.

"We have adjusted shifts and there is a security plan in store," he said.

SSP Antonio said no extra manpower is available so they have just adjusted shifts and will be conducting their operation with the military.

Fiji's Daily Post

It's illegal!
Tuesday, February 13, 2001

The National Security Forces and the Public Service Commission are calling on the public not to take part in any political demonstration organised next Monday February 19.

And they have said any political protest or assembly is unlawful under the Emergency Decree which is still in effect.

Military legal adviser Lieutenant Colonel Etueni Caucau yesterday said protests and demonstration planned to coincide with the sitting of the Fiji Court of Appeal next Monday to decide on the validity of the 1997 Constitution will be unlawful.

Lt Col Caucau said any act that may cause disaffection and anxiety among the general public is an offence under Section 15 of the Emergency Decree.

PSC Secretary Anare Jale said civil servants have a duty to the public and the Government of the day.

Mr Jale said: "We have made it clear that civil servants shouldn't participate in political protests and as far as the movement call is concerned, they are required to come to work on the day the protest is called.

"It is the same situation like the protest called by Fiji's Blue and those who breach the laws governing the civil service will be dealt with." Army chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama and his advisers promulgated the decree after he took over executive authority of the country and abrogated the 1997 Constitution on May 19 last year.

Since then the decree has been reviewed every fortnight. Lt Col Caucau while explaining the relevance of the decree regarding calls for a boycott said: "There may be a certain level of anxiety and fear instilled in the minds of the people when such calls are made and as stated in the decree, any person who attempts or does any act calculating or likely to cause disaffection among the civilian population is seen as an offence."

Interim Home Affairs Minister Ratu Talemo Ratakele had earlier said no protests and demonstrations would be permitted under the Emergency Decree. Ratu Talemo said public protests could incite further troubles in the country.

He said those responsible for such public protests would become subjects of police investigations. However, Fiji First Movement Chairman Mick Beddoes is committed to his call despite being investigated.

"Fiji First is calling on every citizen to exercise their individual right to stay home and to keep their children at home on that day and to reflect and pray for peace and a just solution to Fiji's current crisis.

We also call on the businesses not to penalise anyone who wishes to exercise that right to express his or her feelings by joining our call," Mr Beddoes said He said the legal opinion which he sought after having allegedly broken the law advise him to the contrary.

Mr Beddoes said ordinary people should be given a chance to express their standing on the recent political developments in the country.

The Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei Party women's wing President Ema Druavesi has condemned the movement's call saying the organisation was deliberately usurping the law and using innocent people to further their hidden agenda against the Interim Administration.

"We call on all the workers to review the call by Mick Beddoes and other NGOs to exercise their freedom of choice to go or not to go to work next Monday," she said.

Fiji's Daily Post

Sunday February 11 11:09 AM ET
U.S. Officials Pledge to Find Answers in Sub Crash

By Suzanne Roig

HONOLULU (Reuters) - With a search-and-rescue operation continuing, top U.S. officials pledged on Sunday that investigators would determine why a U.S. submarine hit and sank a Japanese trawler while practicing an emergency surfacing procedure.

``That's what the investigation will have to determine,'' Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the Fox News Sunday television program.

``It was a terrible tragedy, we know that, and there is still a search-and-rescue operation taking place to try to find the missing people.''

With nine people still unaccounted for, Rumsfeld said he and Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) had contacted their counterparts in Japan to express regrets for the collision of the USS Greeneville and Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru on Friday.

On CNN, Powell promised: ``We will do everything we can to find out what happened and present that information to the public.''

Though hopes of finding survivors were fading, Rumsfeld said the rescue operation was continuing. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jack Laufer said the Coast Guard and U.S. Navy would continue searching for ``as long as we think there is a bit of hope.''

Aircraft, Patrol Boat Scouring Seas A spokesman said two Navy aircraft, a helicopter, a C-130, and an 87-foot patrol boat were scouring the seas for survivors in a 1,400-square-mile area around the crash site about the size of Rhode Island.

Late on Saturday, Laufer said the search would continue for at least 48 hours.

Japan has urged the United States to consider raising the sunken trawler, as some 30 family members of the missing and local and school officials set off for Hawaii.

Those missing are four 17-year-old fisheries students, two of their teachers and three crew members -- all of whom may have gone down with the ship.

``The first priority is the rescue of the nine missing people,'' Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori (news - web sites) said. ``If they cannot be found on the surface of the sea, we would have to address our worries and see inside the ship.''

A group of Japanese family members, school officials and local government officers set off for Hawaii where they are hoping for first-hand news of the search.

``There will be no information while we stay at home,'' said Ryosuke Terata, father of Yusuke Terata, one of the missing students, as he left his home. ``We will go with the whole family as we believe he is still alive.''

The accident comes at a delicate time for relations between the world's two largest economies and was the subject of the first major contact by the new administration of President George W. Bush (news - web sites) with Washington's top Asian ally.

Bush expressed condolences and regret to Japan as the Navy, Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board (news - web sites) launched investigations into the cause of the collision.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet said the commander of the nuclear-powered submarine, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, 41, had been reassigned pending the results of the probe.

The Greeneville, a 360-foot, 6,900-tonattack submarine based at Pearl Harbor, surfaced rapidly on Friday afternoon, crashing into the 499-tontrawler carrying 35 people, including fisheries students who were learning commercial trawling.

Within 10 minutes, the trawler sank into 1,800 feet of water nine miles south of Diamond Head off Honolulu. Twenty-six people were rescued soon after the trawler went down.

Emergency Surfacing Exercise

Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said: ``While it's not yet clear how this accident occurred, it is both tragic and regrettable. I would like to express my apologies to all of those involved in the incident, their families and the government of Japan.''

Fargo said the Navy's investigation would focus on the submarine's surfacing procedure. It had been conducting an exercise using an emergency technique that involved surfacing more quickly than usual, using its main ballast tank blow system.

He said both an acoustic and a visual search should be conducted prior to surfacing.

On the Fox News program, Rumsfeld said the investigation was ``going forward'' and that officials would be examining whether such training exercises should take place farther than 10 miles off shore.

``Certainly that issue and other issues will be examined very carefully,'' Rumsfeld pledged.

The Greeneville returned to Pearl Harbor on its own power on Saturday and Navy officials said there was only minor damage to the submarine's rudder.

Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Greg Fondran said some of the 26 who were rescued were covered in diesel fuel, and some suffered minor injuries, the most serious a broken collarbone.

Twelve of the survivors were taken to hospitals for treatment.

Wednesday February 7 10:27 PM ET
Gunman Is Shot Outside White House

By TERENCE HUNT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - A middle-aged accountant with a history of mental illness fired several shots outside the White House Wednesday and then was shot by the Secret Service as he waved his handgun menacingly, authorities said. The tense, noontime standoff sent tourists running for cover.

The drama unfolded just outside the fence at the edge of the South Lawn, 200 yards from the building where President Bush (news - web sites) was inside exercising.

The man, wounded in the knee and hospitalized under guard, was identified by law enforcement sources as Robert W. Pickett, 47, from Evansville, Ind. He had been fired by the Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites) in the mid 1980s, and neighbors said he kept to himself, resented the IRS and was obsessed with West Point, where he had dropped out after a semester in 1972. Pickett had acknowledged in court records suffering from mental illness and trying to commit suicide.

Bush, working out in the White House residence, was alerted by Secret Service agents ``but understood that he was not in any danger,'' spokesman Ari Fleischer said. First lady Laura Bush was in Texas. Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) was working in his White House office.

The shooting was the latest in a string of security scares that have brought tighter protection for U.S. presidents. In 1995, then-President Clinton (news - web sites) ordered Pennsylvania Avenue closed in front of the White House following the Oklahoma City bombing. Earlier that year, a man was shot on the White House lawn after scaling a fence with an unloaded gun.

The latest incident, on a sunny, springlike day, triggered a tight security clampdown. Tourists were evacuated from White House rooms, and police in riot gear took up positions around the executive mansion and beyond its gates.

Dan Halpert, a tourist from Queens, N.Y., was on the National Mall nearby, when officers told him to get down and clear out.

``We were all running away. It was scary,'' said Halpert, 24.

The confrontation occurred on E Street where tourists gather along the White House fence to snap photos of the executive mansion and hope for a glimpse of Bush jogging on the track encircling the South Lawn. There is an unobstructed view from the fence to the mansion.

Secret Service officers on patrol in a car ``heard shots fired and proceeded to surround a subject who was wielding a weapon, a gun,'' White House spokesman Fleischer said. A 10-minute standoff ensued in which witnesses said they heard officers try to persuade the man to put the gun down.

``It doesn't have to be this way, put the gun down,'' one witness recalled police warning the suspect.

``He was waving it in the air - it was pointed at the White House at one point - and pointing it in all directions,'' said Park Police spokesman Rob MacLean. At another point the man placed the gun in his mouth, MacLean said.

Pickett was shot in the right knee by a member of the Secret Service's Emergency Response Team when he ``raised the gun again and started aiming it at people,'' a Secret Service source said, talking on condition of anonymity. The officer fired from inside the White House compound, through the wrought-iron fence.

A five-shot, .38-caliber handgun and shell casings were recovered at the scene, a Secret Service official said. Evansville police detective Alan Brack said the gun was traced to a local gun dealer.

Pickett was taken to George Washington University Hospital, five blocks away, where he was in serious condition after two hours of surgery to remove the bullet. He also was to undergo psychological evaluation.

Dr. Yolanda Haywood, associate professor of emergency medicine, said that when he was brought to the hospital he was silent, unusually calm for someone with a bullet wound.

A brother, Stephen Pickett of Sleepy Hollow, Ill., expressed regret. ``We are glad no innocent people were hurt. We've been estranged from Robert for several years now. We hope that he gets the help that he needs.''

In Evansville, agents of the Secret Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms searched Pickett's home for four hours, looking for weapons, threatening letters or evidence of militia group involvement. The agents carried out computer equipment and five brown grocery bags. No firearms were found, said police Detective Alan Brack.

Before entering, officers from the Evansville police bomb squad scouted outside for booby traps or bombs.

Two law enforcement officials said police were investigating correspondence from Pickett, including a letter to the IRS, and others that express anger or frustration with Bush and the Republican Party. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they did not consider the notes a threat to Bush though they acknowledged that others might interpret them that way.

Pickett had no criminal record and was not listed in Secret Service files as a potential threat to the president, authorities said. He lived alone in a modest, two-story house that had been owned by his parents before their deaths.

``I don't recall that there were ever any cars coming in to visit or any people associating with him. He was really always by himself,'' said Marwan Wafa of Racine, Wis., who lived across the street from Pickett for seven years before moving last summer.

Evansville attorney Joseph Yocum represented Pickett when he was fired by the IRS in the mid-1980s. ``They said he wasn't doing his job properly and having trouble with attendance,'' Yocum said.

Pickett lost the appeal of his firing and later acted as his own attorney in an 1994 lawsuit against the IRS, contending the firing violated his constitutional rights. Records show that a judge dismissed the lawsuit at the IRS' request and that Pickett had four other lawsuits in federal court.

Mike Jewel, who lives next door to Pickett, said the accountant remained angry at the IRS after the litigation. ``I could tell he was aggravated by the tax system and the IRS sometimes,'' Jewel said.

Prosecutors said agents were interviewing witnesses and that no charges would be filed before Thursday. Authorities were weighing whether to charge him with violating Washington's local ban on handguns, or a more serious federal count of assaulting a federal officer.

The shooting adds a new dynamic to an already heated debate over whether to reopen Pennsylvania Avenue, on the other side of the White House. Clinton followed the Secret Service's warnings about security threats in closing the famed street, but businessmen and city officials have pressed to have the decision reversed. The Republican Party platform last year called for the reopening.

Fleischer said Bush ``has made no determination at this time as to what he will do or what he won't do.'' He said Bush had discussed the issue with the Secret Service and Washington Mayor Anthony Williams.

A senior Bush aide said top advisers were inclined even before Wednesday to recommend that Bush keep the street closed.

Speight's case adjourned
Thursday, February 08, 2001

THE Suva Magistrates Court yesterday adjourned yet once again the case of coup leader George Speight and his group.

Court sources yesterday said Chief Magistrate Salesi Temo, as a formality, set the date for Speight and his group's next court appearance as February 15.

He said Mr Temo was legally obliged to set the February 15 date.

According to the source the Chief Magistrate would then further adjourn the case to await the Fiji Court of Appeal ruling on February 19.

Fiji's Daily Post

Coup affects business
Thursday, February 08, 2001

BUSINESS at the Handicraft Centre in Suva has gone from bad to worse, says the handicraft sellers there.

This, they say, is because no cruise ship has visited the Suva port since May 19 last year.

When the Daily Post visited the centre yesterday, most stall owners were sitting around talking and waiting for customers. The place was near deserted and silent except for the chattering of expectant owners waiting to sell their wares.

Thirty-five year old Makereta Ciri of Raiwai was looking out the window of the centre towards Suva port, visualising the docking of another tourist boat.

She said business was not good and was made worse with the high stall rents charged by the Suva City Council. "Business is slack," she said.

"What makes it worse is that we have to pay $7.95 a day to the Suva City Council for renting the stall.

"If we don't they will close the stall down when our arrears reach $100."

However, the council gives discounts for two months only but to those who have no arrears.

"Local customers are not coming also. We can't blame them because they also have been affected by the coup."

Mrs Ciri said the last tourist ship, Fairstar, came on May 19 and no ship has come after that.

"I am beginning to feel the pinch of the loss now especially that school has started."

Mrs Ciri said she missed the good times when she used to make about $200 a day.

"Before if I wanted to buy a $100 dress, I could buy it the same day, but now I have to think about paying rent and buying food for the family."

Similarly downhearted, Mukesh Chand of Kinoya described business as "zero".

"I have been selling handicrafts for 15 years now and this is the worst time I have ever come across," Mr Chand said.

"From the little that I make, I have to put some aside to pay the rent to the council and sometimes I don't even make that much in a day."

Mr Chand said that when business was good, all his stock used to be sold out.

"If you look at it now, the souvenirs are overflowing in my stall, all waiting to be sold."

Mere Tavu, 70, who has been selling at the Handicraft centre for about 10 years, is also a sad woman.

"It's very bad. Ever since the coup nobody comes to buy. The rent too is expensive and no kaivalagi is coming," Mrs Tavu said.

Suva Lord Mayor Councillor Chandu Umaria said he wished he could help the handicraft sellers more but it was simply something out of his reach.

"We gave them a 25 percent discount two months ago. But they have to understand that the council cannot run without money and we cannot reduce everybody's rate because we need money to provide better services."

Fiji's Daily Post

Missing West students raises alarm
Thursday, February 08, 2001

FEARS of teenage suicide reoccurring because of students failure in external exams have surfaced once again.

This time in the Western Division after a 15-year-old Pundit Vishnu Deo Memorial School student went missing after learning he had failed his Fiji Junior Certificate examination.

The student had reportedly told an elder brother on Tuesday about his failure.

The student then said he would go looking for a job and would be back by nightfall.

The student's parents reported him missing yesterday morning after he failed to turn up.

Deposed education minister Pratap Chand had stopped the practice of publicising external exams results after several suicides and attempted suicides last year.

Fiji Teachers Union General Secretary Agni Deo Singh said there was an obvious lack guidance for such vulnerable children.

"Students need to be talking to their parents or families if they feel guidance is needed but there are larger families for guidance like the church, ramayan mandalis and temple elders who could always act as substitutes.

Mr Singh said: "This gives them a lot of resilience, guidance and teaches them social and cultural morals."

Mr Singh said the Education Ministry also had a large role to play.

"As of yet, only 28 secondary schools out of 156 have trained counsellors, which could help students get over embarrassment if they do not perform well in exams.

"Perhaps the time was right for the ministry to look at setting up more systems that could cater for students that do not do well academically.

"Some of the students feel as if they are useless as there is lack of opportunity for them to progress on life as everything is academic oriented."

Fiji's Daily Post

4 Fijian soldiers in British prisons
Thursday, February 08, 2001

THREE Fijian soldiers with the British Army are in civilian prisons in England for rape, robbery with violence and car theft.

The fourth is in an army prison after punching his superior officer.

A concerned former British Army officer who refused to be named said the four are the four bad apples in the basket.

"The rest are doing well, it is just these four who have picked trouble," the former British army officer said.

"People here have high regard for the Fijians and it is unfortunate that these four were not able to act sensibly."

He said that while there is a possibility of the soldier who punched his superior be retained the other three offenders will definitely be sent home after judgement is passed.

Authorities found out that the car thief had previous convictions in Fiji.

While strict guide-lines were followed during the recruiting drive how the car thief slipped through is baffling.

The offences committed last year did not take place at one particular part of England.

Fijians are posted both in the North and South of England.

According to the former British Army officer the four are part of the initial lot of Fijians recruited last year.

The officer said Fijian recruits are now banned from bars and nightclubs following the incidents.

Fiji's Daily Post

Tuesday February 6 9:38 AM ET
Libyan Riot Police Break Up Anti-Britain Protest

By Lamine Ghanmi

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan riot police beat and tear gassed angry demonstrators trying to break into the British embassy in central Tripoli on Tuesday to protest the Lockerbie bombing (news - web sites) verdict, witnesses said.

Reuters reporters saw riot police fire dozens of tear gas grenades to try to disperse the crowd and stop protesters from

forcing their way into the embassy premises.

Officials said the authorities had initially allowed the demonstration by thousands of young people protesting against the Scottish judges' verdict last week that one of two Libyans tried for the bombing of an airliner over Lockerbie was guilty.

A police officer told Reuters: ``People are very angry...They want to storm into the British embassy to express their anger and that's why we were obliged to intervene.''

Angry Libyan protesters burn a Union Jack flag outside the British embassy in central Tripoli during a protest February 6, 2001. Libyan anti-riot police beat and tear gassed angry demonstrators trying to break into the British embassy in central Tripoli during a demonstration by thousands of young people in protest against the Lockerbie bombing verdict. (Desmond Boylan/Reuters)

Police arrested at least 30 young people after beating them with batons and took them away for questioning.

A Libyan official said another demonstration took place outside the U.N. mission in Tripoli and said police had also intervened there to disperse the crowd. He did not elaborate.

Scottish judges last week convicted Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi of the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing over Scotland in which 270 people were killed.

The judges, sitting in a special court in the Netherlands, handed down a life sentence on Megrahi and recommended he serve a minimum 20 years in prison. They found his co-defendant, Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, not guilty.

The protesters massed in the Zaouyat Dahmani district where the embassy is located, carrying four coffins symbolizing Libyans who were killed when U.S. aircraft bombed Tripoli in 1986, and chanted ``Down with America! Down with Great Britain!''

Describing Megrahi as ``a hostage,,'' they burned U.S. and British flags while chanting: ``La Illah Illa Allah (No God but Allah)...America is the enemy of God.''

Libyan anti-riot police charge Libyan protesters outside the British embassy in central Tripoli during a protest on February 6, 2001. Libyan anti-riot police beat and tear gassed angry demonstrators trying to break into the British embassy in central Tripoli during a demonstration by thousands of young people protesting the Lockerbie verdict. (Desmond Boylan/Reuters)

``Al-Megrahi is innocent...The verdict is political and racist,'' they yelled.

The demonstrators urged the United Nations (news - web sites), the Islamic Conference Organization (OIC), the Arab League and human rights organizations to help get al-Megrahi released, and demanded that U.N. sanctions on Libya be lifted immediately.

U.N. sanctions have been suspended since Tripoli handed over the two bombing suspects in April 1999. To impose them again would require another vote in the U.N. Security Council but Libya says it wants its name cleared.

Tuesday February 6 3:31 PM ET
Republicans Launch New Attack on Abortion Pill

By Adam Entous

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative Republicans stepped up their fight against the abortion pill RU-486 (news - web sites) on Tuesday, promising to push through legislation that could make it harder for doctors to prescribe the drug.

Abortion rights groups and their Democratic allies promised a grass-roots campaign to defend the pill, which gives women a nonsurgical option for ending early-term pregnancies. But they said Republicans had the upper hand given that they control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The abortion pill RU-486, also known as mifepristone and sold under the brand name Mifeprex, won Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) (FDA) approval last year after a 12-year political battle that pitted women's rights groups against abortion opponents who said the pill was immoral and unsafe.

President George W. Bush (news - web sites), who opposes abortion with some exceptions, called federal approval of RU-486 ``wrong,'' though he said he would not ``unilaterally overturn it.''

But Democrats accused Bush and his Republican allies of planning to roll back abortion rights and eventually overturn Roe v. Wade (news - web sites), the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal.

Under legislation introduced on Tuesday by Republican Sen. Tim Hutchinson (news - bio - voting record) of Arkansas and Republican Rep. David Vitter (news - bio - voting record) of Louisiana, physicians would need to meet several new standards to prescribe RU-486. These include a proposed requirement that doctors who prescribe the drug be legally authorized to perform surgical abortions and handle any complications.

``Last fall the Clinton-Gore FDA caved in to political pressure from the abortion lobby and hurriedly approved the abortion drug without critical health protections for those who use it. Our legislation corrects that mistake,'' Vitter said.

Women's rights groups argued that the bill was designed to limit access to RU-486 by restricting who prescribes it and where it can be prescribed. ``Claims that this legislation is motivated by a concern for women's health are at best disingenuous, and at worst dishonest,'' said Vicki Saporta, executive director of the National Abortion Federation (news - web sites), an association of abortion providers.

Battle Brewing

Abortion is one of the most divisive issues in U.S. politics, although recent polls indicate a majority of Americans favor maintaining a woman's right to an abortion. At least 1.2 million abortions are performed in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) in Atlanta.

During his eight years in office, former President Clinton (news - web sites) championed a woman's right to choose an abortion, removing restrictions on funding for international family planning and ordering the FDA to promote the study and licensing of RU-486 shortly after taking office in 1993.

But anti-abortion activists from a broad range of groups have made strong appeals to Bush to use his position to roll back decisions made by Clinton, and Bush has already delivered on some of his promises.

Just two days after becoming president, Bush imposed a ban on federal funds for international family planning groups that ''perform or actively promote'' abortions, drawing fire from Planned Parenthood (news - web sites) and key Democratic lawmakers.

Women's groups were also outraged that Bush's health and human services secretary, Tommy Thompson, planned to launch a safety review of RU-486.

``I hate to be the first to say: we told you so,'' said Rep. Nita Lowey (news - bio - voting record), a New York Democrat. ``Now we know what George Bush refused to say in the campaign -- that every day, in every way, the Bush administration and its extreme allies in Congress will act to make the right to choose as difficult, uncomfortable and inaccessible as they possibly can.''

Tuesday February 6 3:03 PM ET
Web Sites Act As Host for Extremist Plots

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Extremist groups, including Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s network, are using popular web sites to post encrypted messages to their agents plotting guerrilla activities, security sources said on Tuesday.

The Internet has become the medium of choice among many guerrilla groups to pass on hidden messages, replacing the classified columns in newspapers that Cold War-era spies used to deliver their secrets.

``This is warfare on the cheap and very easy to activate,'' said Yonah Alexander, head of the International Center for Terrorism Studies at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

Internet bulletin boards carrying pornographic and sports information -- which get huge numbers of ``hits'' -- are among the most popular hosts for extremist groups such as bin Laden's, said cyber-intelligence expert Ben Venzke.

Bin Laden, a dissident Saudi businessman, has been indicted for the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa and has been named as a possible suspect behind last fall's bombing of the USS Cole destroyer in Yemen. Four alleged bin Laden associates went on trial Monday in federal court in New York for the embassy bombings.

USA Today newspaper reported on Tuesday that bin Laden began using encryption five years ago, but recently increased its use after U.S. officials revealed they were tapping his satellite telephone calls from Afghanistan, where he lives.

Busy Bulletin Boards Are Popular Target

Venzke said just as the recipient reading a coded classified ad would know what to look for, a secret message could be embedded, or encrypted, in an image seen by millions on an Internet bulletin board.

He cited the example of a pornographic picture labeled 'blond bombshell' posted on an Internet bulletin board which would probably be downloaded by thousands of users who were unaware of a coded message ``hidden'' in the existing image.

``The cell (guerrilla), though, will download that image, know what program to run to extract it, what encryption software to use to decrypt it and then will have that information,'' said Venzke, director of intelligence, special projects, at iDefense cyber-intelligence company in Virginia.

Venzke declined to name sites where material is being hidden but said any bulletin board or public forum that generated lots of traffic was a target.

``Because it's done on a heavily-used public bulletin board, it's extremely challenging and difficult to track,'' he added.

Security experts said some messages are scrambled using free encryption programs set up by groups that advocate privacy on the Internet, which are then decrypted using a code known only by the recipient and sender.

Cia Worried About Use Of Internet

One U.S. security official said the authorities were extremely worried about the use of the Internet by extremist groups and that this was an area being watched very closely.

In testimony to Congress last year, the CIA (news - web sites)'s information operations issue manager, John Serabian, said Middle East groups such as Hizbollah, Hamas and bin Laden's, were using computerized files, email, and encryption to support their organizations.

``We also recognize that cyber tools offer them new, low-cost, easily hidden means to inflict damage. Terrorists and extremists already use the Internet to communicate, to raise funds, recruit, and gather intelligence,'' he said.

CIA director George Tenet also addressed the issue in a closed hearing last year when he referred to millions of potential ``information warriors.''

Extremist groups now routinely send their operatives for training on how to manipulate the Internet for plotting attacks, security sources said.

``Some groups are sending their people to study computer engineering. What is of grave concern here is the motivation behind these groups and their capability,'' said Alexander.

Alexander suggested that the government should devote more attention to fighting this problem, which he said was becoming more sophisticated by the day.

Waqanisau denies cabinet list
Tuesday, February 06, 2001

PRESIDENT Ratu Josefa Iloilo is not considering any list on the proposed Government of National Unity (GNU), as reported by a newspaper yesterday.

The President's Permanent Secretary Jeremaia Waqanisau said Government House was not studying any cabinet-line up list.
And he has called on political parties, not to involve the President on any speculation involving the proposed GNU.

The newspaper had reported that the President was considering a cabinet line-up headed by deposed Women and Culture Minister Lavinia Padarath.

"Its a joke and a blatant lie... His Excellency is not working on any such lists and nor does the Government House have such a list on a GNU," Mr Waqanisau said.

"The President shouldn't be dragged into it."

He said the President was awaiting the outcome of the Fiji Court of Appeal's decision on Justice Anthony Gates' ruling.

"He is waiting for the Fiji Court of Appeal decision and is continuing to work towards taking the country forward."

Mr Waqanisau stressed that the President was appealing for calm.

"The President appeals to everyone, particularly the politicians to remain calm and act responsibly," Mr Waqanisau said.
"Any attempt to further destabalise the country will not be accepted."

Interim Information Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola also slammed the cabinet line-up report.

Ratu Inoke said it was offensive and disrespectful to Fijian protocol to impose a name or a list of names upon the President directing him on what he must do.

"The President's prerogative derives from his chiefly status and is enhanced in this instance by the support and concurrence of the Bose Levu Vakaturaga (BLV)," Ratu Inoke said

Quoting Section 98 of the 1997 Constitution, Ratu Inoke said the President chooses the prime minister,`acting on his or her judgement' and who `in the President's opinion, can form a Government that has the confidence of the House of Representative."

Ratu Inoke stressed that the President has the sole authority to choose the prime minister using his own judgement without the interference of others.

"Based on this, the President cannot be directed or challenged," he said

Meanwhile, the Fiji Labour Party yesterday refuted the newspaper report.

Fiji's Daily Post

Monday February 5 3:29 PM ET
Shooting at Factory Near Chicago Leaves Five Dead

By Andrew Stern

MELROSE PARK, Ill. (Reuters) - A gunman opened fire at an engine manufacturing plant near Chicago on Monday killing four people and wounding at least four others before apparently killing himself, authorities said.

The shooting -- the latest in a series of violent attacks at work and in public places in the United States -- erupted in a testing area at the Navistar International Corp. engine manufacturing plant in Melrose Park.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office said it had confirmed five deaths in the shooting. Rod Serpico, mayor of the blue collar suburban community, said police had told him the man was carrying an AK-47 rifle when he walked onto the factory floor.

A gunman opened fire at an engine manufacturing plant near Chicago February 5, 2001 killing four people and wounding at least four others before apparently killing himself, authorities said. The shooting -- the latest in a series of violent attacks at work and in public places in the United States -- erupted in a testing area at the Navistar International Corp. engine manufacturing plant in Melrose Park. (Reuters Graphic)

There were conflicting reports over whether the gunman was a former or current employee at the sprawling complex, a major manufacturing center for the company once known as International Harvester.

The company said access to the area is controlled and that only someone with an authorized card verified by an automatic reader should have been able to gain access.

Serpico said he had been told the gunman was a former employee, who fellow workers said had left the company around two years ago after being accused of theft. His was believed to be among the bodies still inside the plant several hours after the shooting, according to local broadcast reports.

Gun Laws Under Scrutiny

There have been a string of shootings in recent years in U.S. workplaces, schools and churches, the last recorded in Wakefield, Massachusetts, in December 2000, when a man opened fire at the Edgewater Technology Co., killing seven co-workers.

The shootings, especially the high school massacre in which 15 people were killed in Littleton, Colorado, in April 1999, have intensified the national debate over guns, with some Americans calling for tougher gun controls and others arguing that existing laws should be enforced first.

The injured in Monday's shooting included a 24-year-old man in critical condition and a 26-year-old man in fair condition at Loyola University Medical Center, a spokesman said. A 45-year-old man was in critical condition with wounds to his back and abdomen, and another man was shot in the foot at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital.

News of the shooting quickly spread through the plant, which employs 1,400, prompting workers to flee. The facility was later closed for the day and the workers were sent home.

The incident occurred in the plant's engine testing area, police said. The plant manufactures diesel engines for trucks and buses and also has a research facility where engines are developed, company spokesman Tim Touhy said.

Chaudry's graceful exit
Monday, February 05, 2001

Sensing an embarrassing leadership defeat at the hands of his own Labour Party caucus, deposed prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry offered to resign at the senior management board held minutes before the ballots could be cast, in Nadi, at the weekend.

Labour backbenchers considered Chaudhry's action as fait accompli and the resignation merely forced a stay-of-execution paving the way for his graceful exit.

Outspoken Lami MP and long-time unionist Michael Columbus told the caucus Chaudhry' resignation was a mitigating factor seeking "reprieve".

His resignation will take effect should President Ratu Josefa Iloilo summon the House of Representatives to form a Government of National Unity.

Chaudhry rationalised that he was unable to work in the proposed Government of National Unity comprising of Opposition MPs linked to the May 19 uprising, the demise of his Peoples Coalition party.

However, deposed minister for Fijian Affairs Ratu Isireli Vuibau reasoned that the Westminster System of Justice presumed that "everybody was innocent until proven guilty including the suspected MPs", and recommended the proposed Government of National Unity.

In a strange twist of fate, the once-silent indo-Fijian parliamentarians, whose majority hold the key to a new Government of National Unity, suddenly found their voices at Andra Sangam School and came out firing on all cylinders.

The unprecedented scene, saw Indo-Fijian backbenchers calling for Chaudhry's head to roll and stood firmly behind the proposed GNU with spontaneity, last Saturday.

Indo-Fijian and indigenous Fijian parliamentarians were unanimously behind Chaudhry's deputy, Professor Tupeni Baba, who was well ahead in a secret poll. The concerted effort by the two races put paid to the arguments that the split would be on ethnic lines.
Of the 37 parliamentarians, 23 had pledged their support openly, in writing and in proxy votes.

Even without Chaudhry's resignation, Baba would have clinched the leadership title.

Baba was pleased with the result, and acknowledging that the stay-of-execution was really to "allow Mahen(dra Chaudhry) the time to bow out gracefully".

Senator Afzal Khan said, "he (Chaudhry) should be allowed to bow out with dignity."

Much of Saturday's FLP caucus meeting hinges on the Court of Appeal ruling in the coming weeks, whether the penal of judges upholds Justice Anthony Gates ruling that the 1997 Constitution is valid, or not.

Elsewhere, army sources are pleased with Labour's stand to back the Government of National Unity.

Fiji's Daily Post

Labour party supports GNU
Monday, February 05, 2001

THE Fiji Labour Party and deposed prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry yesterday said they are steadfast in their commitments to a Government of National Unity if the Fiji Court of Appeal upholds Justice Anthony Gates' ruling.

Deposed Coalition government whip, Krishna Datt said, the FLP had lobbied for the formation of a GNU since the ousted Coalition began its campaign for Fiji's return to a democratic parliament.

He said statements by Mr Chaudhry regarding a GNU had been misconstrued by some media organisations.

"What he meant was that he would have difficulties putting up with some people who may be part of the GNU. Mr Chaudhry believes that some of these people may have assisted with coup-leader George Speight," Mr Datt said.

"Mr Chaudhry is basing his comments on principles."

Mr Datt said Mr Chaudhry had told the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group last year: "On our part, we are willing to consider through the mediation of this High Level Special Envoy, the establishment of a Government of National Unity.

"Through mediation, we propose to work on building consensus to resolve underlying issues to the Fiji crisis and agree to constitutional amendments if they are necessary."

According to Mr Datt, Mr Chaudhry is adopting such a stance because he knows an amicable, lasting solution would only be possible if the special characteristics of the problems leading up to May 19 were effectively addressed.

In his submission to CMAG Mr Chaudhry had said: "... the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group and the Commonwealth Secre-tariat may be required to play further roles in promoting dialogue and consensus building... the successful operation of a GNU will depend upon the resolution of these underlying issues and let me make it quite clear, I don't take issue in principle with the formula, prescribed by the Milbrook Plan for solving political crisis in Commonwealth member states.

However, I am absolutely convinced that the Fiji crisis demands a response that suits the special circumstances of the May crisis and that of a repeat offender. Our crisis requires a holistic and flexible approach that is responsive to the events that have actually taken place."

Mr Datt said: "In all our submissions, both nationally and internationally, we have indicated an idea of a GNU.

"It should be noted that this will be the biggest sacrifice a political party which has won the general election outrightly has ever made."
Deposed women and culture minister Lavenia Padarath said: "I am telling you that Mr Chaudhry is a man of principle and he or for that matter any other FLP member will have difficulty putting up with people who had a hand in throwing us out. We are an elected government and we were overthrown at gun point.

"We strongly support the idea of having a GNU under the 1997 Constitution because we feel that formation of a GNU will take us back on a democratic path."

Meanwhile, a Suva lawyer yesterday said there were no provisions for a GNU in the 1997 Constitution.

Instead he said it talked about a multi-party form of government in section 99.

Fiji's Daily Post

Tongan, Samoa make up full Court of Appeal
Monday, February 05, 2001

INTERIM Attorney General Alipate Qetaki yesterday revealed the composition of the full Court of Appeal that will decide on the legality of the abrogation of the 1997 Constitution.

They are the Chief Justice from Tonga; a deputy Chief Justice from Samoa; two judges from Australia and one from New Zealand.
The full court will comprise of five judges. Another judge will be on a stand-by.

It has been widely said that the decision of the Appeals Court will be historic and shape the country's future. Mr Qetaki yesterday said the judges appointed to the Court of Appeal were highly qualified and experienced.

Mr Qetaki said the five were also well versed with Pacific culture.

"I believe that these five appointed are senior and seasoned judges who have the knowledge of Fiji's situation," Mr Qetaki said.
"They are long-serving judges and the best group to sit on the appeals bench and then they are from the Pacific and familiar with Pacific culture."

He described it as an international bench.

Anxiety on the outcome of the Court of Appeal deliberations has somewhat increased over the past few weeks after several Fijian political parties said they would not respect nor abide by a decision upholding Justice Gates' ruling.

There were even threats of an outbreak of violence worse than that seen on and after May 19.

Meanwhile the security forces have said they will not tolerate violence from anybody and are closely monitoring political developments.

Military spokesman Lieutenant Ilaisa Tagitupou yesterday said the police and the military were working together formulating security plans.

Lt Tagitupou said they are prepared to take control the situation should there be an outbreak of any civil disobedience.
He said the security forces have launched Operation Sasabai or Shield to monitor the current political situation and its likely implications.

"As we approach February 19, the day the Court of Appeal will pass its judgement on Justice Gates' ruling, the anxiety around us seems to be growing and the military appeals to the public to remain calm," Lt Tagitupou said.

He said leading politicians should playing leading roles and set examples by acting responsibly.
"The military's top priority remains public safety and maintenance of law and order and we will stand by it. We definitely don't want a repeat of May 19."

Fiji's Daily Post

List outlines Government of National Unity
Monday, February 05, 2001

Fiji Labour Party parliamentary leader Mahendra Chaudhry has been earmarked as one of three deputy prime ministers in a proposed 35-member government of national unity, a national daily reported today.

In addition Mr Chaudhry will be offered the Finance, Sugar and Public Enterprise portfolios, a high-level source said yesterday.

The 31-portfolio government will be made up mostly of ousted Labour MPs with four cabinet positions going to the Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa bi Taukei Party.

Some members of the interim administration will be part of the government after being appointed to the Senate be Ratu Josefa.

The list submitted to Ratu Josefa sees:

• Minister for Reconciliation - Ratu Epeli Nailatikau
• Assistant Minister for Reconciliation - Adi Finau Tabakaucoro
• Minister for Commerce, Trade and Public Sector Reform - Anup Kumar
• Assistant Minister for Commerce, Trade and Public Sector Reform - Mere Samisoni
• Minister for Youth, Employment & Sports - Ponipate Lesavua
• Minister for Tourism & Transport - Adi Koila Nailatikau
• Assistant Ministers for Tourism & Transport - Konisi Yabaki and Mosese Volavola
• Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations - David Pickering
• Minister for Women, Culture & Social Welfare - Adi Ema Tagicakibau
• Assistant Minister for Women, Culture & Social Welfare - Marieta Rigamoto
• Minister for Information, Communication and Civil Aviation - Ratu Inoke Kubuabola
• Minister for National Planning - Krishna Datt
• Minister for Local Government & Housing - Ganesh Chand
• Assistant Minister for Local Government & Housing - Akanisi Koroitamana
• Minister for Education - Pratap Chand
• Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries & Forests - Apisai Tora
• Assistant Ministers for Agriculture, Fisheries & Forests - Manoa Bale and Meli Bogileka
• Minister for Regional Development & Multi-Ethnic Affairs - Ratu Tu'uakitau Cokanauto
• Assistant Minister for Regional Development & Multi-Ethnic Affairs - Joeli Kalou
• Minister for Lands & ALTA - Ratu Kinijioji Maivalili
• Assistant Minister for Lands & ALTA - Ratu Talemo Ratakele
• Minister for Home Affairs - Poseci Bune
• Assistant Minister for Home Affairs - Gaffar Ahmed
• Attorney-General & Minister for Justice - Gyanendra Nand
• Minister for Fijian Affairs and DPM - Adi Kuini Speed
• Assistant Ministers for Fijian Affairs - Ratu Isireli Vuibau and Esira Rabuno
• Minister for Foreign Affairs and DPM - Dr Tupeni Baba
• Assistant Minister for Health - Dr Ganeshwar Gounder
• Assistant Minister in the PM's office - Ratu Tevita Momoedonu
• Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Finance, Sugar and Public Enterprise - Mahendra Chaudhry
• Prime Minister and Minister for Health - Lavenia Padarath

Friday February 2 7:18 PM ET
Man with Machete Hurts Kids in Pennsylvania School

FELTON, Pa. (Reuters) - A man wielding a machete went on a rampage inside a Pennsylvania elementary school on Friday, injuring five kindergartners, two teachers and the principal before staff members subdued him, authorities said.

The children -- four girls and a boy, all aged 5 or 6 -- were slightly injured in the melee. But a kindergarten teacher and the principal at North Hopewell-Winterstown Elementary School both required surgery for hand lacerations.

The wounds of 41-year-old principal Norina Bentzel were so severe that doctors sent her by air ambulance to a hospital that specializes in reconstructive hand surgery 50 miles away in Baltimore.

State police identified the suspect as William Michael Stankewicz, 55, of Johnson City, Tenn., and charged him with attempted murder, aggravated assault and possession of a weapon on school grounds.

He was jailed in the York County prison after asking that his bail be set at $2 million, a request granted by the district magistrate presiding over his arraignment hearing.

The outer doors of the elementary school are kept locked as a security precaution. But police said Stankewicz entered the building shortly after 11:30 a.m. behind a parent and attacked Bentzel when the principal confronted him in the lobby.

An ensuing struggle between the machete-wielding suspect and school staff spilled into a kindergarten classroom, where five children were hit by the machete, police said. Staff members finally subdued Stankewicz in a health room at around 11:45 a.m., just before police arrived and took him into custody.

A 911 emergency call placed to York County Emergency Services by a panicked school staff member said the assailant was also carrying a baseball bat. But police said the report proved to be false.

There was no immediate word on a motive for the attack. But during his arraignment hearing, Stankewicz described himself as a former Baltimore school teacher whose Russian wife and two children reside in York County.

He also said he had no idea what he was doing inside the elementary school.

A spokeswoman for Memorial Hospital in nearby York, a city about 10 miles northwest of Felton, said 52-year-old kindergarten teacher Linda Collier was scheduled for surgery on Friday evening. Third-grade teacher Stacey Bailey, 33, was treated for minor injuries and released.

The five injured children -- four 5-year-olds and one 6-year-old -- were treated for minor cuts at another nearby hospital.

Friday February 2 11:35 PM ET
Calif. Extends Power Alert, States Tackle Crisis

By James Jelter

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California power operators extended the state's high power alert late on Friday, confronting residents with the 21st consecutive day of possible blackouts, after governors from 10 western states gathered in Oregon to tackle the region's energy crisis.

State power officials extended through midnight Monday a critical ``Stage Three'' emergency, the highest level they can issue, amid warnings that electricity reserves were again hovering within only 1.5 percent of available supplies.

The California Independent System Operator (news - web sites) (ISO), which manages most of the state's transmission grid, earlier in the day said it did not anticipate ordering blackouts on Friday, having likely lined up enough electricity to squeak through the day.

``We look good...we believe we've secured enough power for today, but we're still operating at very thin margins,'' an ISO spokeswoman said.

Fridays typically see a drop in power use as schools and offices shut for the weekend.

But running that close to the edge means the sudden loss of just one large power plant could force operators to shut down entire neighborhoods to avoid a widespread collapse of the grid.

The state's 34 million residents have been barraged almost nonstop since December by dire energy warnings and urgent calls for conservation, with electricity demand overwhelming what the state's aging electrical system can provide.

Spreading Energy Crisis

But California is not alone. Energy woes are being felt throughout the west, where rapid population growth, robust economies, and few new power plants strike a common theme.

Short supplies, soaring fuel costs and growing demand have all come to a head, driving western wholesale electricity prices to about 10 times they levels the fetched just a year ago.

The economic impact has been alarming, pushing up power rates for homes and businesses by anywhere from 10 percent to 80 percent across the West, a move economists say could easily derail the region's economic engine -- with repercussions that could be felt throughout the entire U.S. economy.

Seeking solutions to this widening crisis was at the heart of Friday's meeting in Portland, Ore., between state and federal officials, with newly-appointed Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites) representing the Bush Administration.

Abraham was accompanied by Curt Hebert, the new chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (news - web sites) (FERC).

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, hosting the meeting, was joined by his counterparts Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites) of California, Gary Locke of Washington state, Dick Kempthorne of Idaho, Jane Hull of Arizona, Tony Knowles of Alaska, Judy Martz of Montana, Kenny Guinn of Nevada, Mike Leavitt of Utah and Jim Geringer of Wyoming.

They faced a withering array of problems.

Core Problems

California, given its voracious appetite for electricity and the chaotic results of its early push to deregulate its energy market, has been teetering on the edge of blackouts since December, going briefly over that edge twice last month.

The Golden State also relies heavily on power from neighboring states, none of which has built enough new generation or transmission lines to keep pace with the West's rising energy requirements.

The situation turned even more critical this winter due to a severe lack of snow and rain in the Northwest, which depends on hydropower for 75 percent of its electricity and has been a key source of emergency power for California these past few months.

Late Thursday, the Northwest River Forecast Center, a Portland, Ore.-based federal agency linked to the National Weather Service (news - web sites), estimated the January-July flow of water through the vast Columbia River basin at only 63 percent of normal, down from 68 percent in its previous estimate just two weeks ago.

Natural gas, another major source of power in the West, has also been in tight supply, pushing generation costs through the roof in states like California, where gas-fired turbines account for about a third of all in-state power generation.

Most industry analysts warn it will take at least two years to balance supply and demand in the western power market, despite a headlong rush to promote power plant construction and energy conservation.

Sorting out the financial mess it has created for the region's utilities and consumers could take even longer.

Rape suspects freed
Wednesday, January 31, 2001

Six cane farmers suspected of gang raping a woman in Nadi last week have been set free after questioning. While investigations were continuing, Divisional Police Commander Eroni Antonio said there was insufficient evidence to charge the men.

The woman was raped and her husband severely bashed before they were robbed of $500. The police have appealed to members of the public who may have more information to contact them.

Fiji Sun

Hunt is on for 4 rapists
Saturday, January 27, 2001

WESTERN police are still looking for four armed men who raped a housewife after bashing her husband.

Divisional Police Commander Western Senior Superintendent Eroni Antonio yesterday said police were carrying out their investigations but have yet to make an arrest.

"We have conducted house-to-house searches in the remote areas of Vuniyasi where the family lives, and at Marasa," SSP Antonio said.

"Some cane-cutters in the area were also brought in and later released after questioning.

"We are also appealing to the public to give us any information they may have about the four men."

SSP Antonio said people committing such crimes should think twice before getting themselves involved.

"These groups of people should think how they will feel if the same crime is committed on their loved ones."

The four men entered the couple's bedroom, bashed the husband and raped his wife.

They also robbed the family of assorted items worth $500.

Fiji's Daily Post

Armed gang rapes mum
Thursday, January 26, 2001

A woman was raped on Tuesday night by 4 masked men armed with cane knives.

The armed gang beat the woman’s husband and tied him up, before raping her. They then looted the house and made off with about $500 worth of items. The couple’s children, asleep in another room were not harmed.

The family lives in Vuniyasi, near Nadi. Detectives have mounted a round-the-clock search for the men.

Fiji Times

Defacto rapes partner
Friday, February 2, 2001

A disgruntled defacto husband raped his wife after she tried to end their relationship. The woman had left her husband and moved to her family’s home.

On Monday, her defacto husband and his friend forced their way into the house where the woman was with her mother. The man tried to reconcile with the woman but when she refused he raped her.

The two men were arrested the same day. The husband was charged with rape and trespass while his friend faced charges of trespass and failure to prevent a felony.

The two men were released on bail after pleading not guilty and the trial will resume on March 7.

The Fiji Times

Defilement charges for two Nausori men
Thursday, February 1, 2001

Two Nausori men have been charged with defiling a 13 year old girl. Avinesh Reddy and Avinesh Kumar of Manoca , Nausori are alleged to have defiled the girl on two separate occasions in December last year.

The girl was picked up by Reddy at Village Six cinema and took her to Capitol Motel where he allegedly defiled her whilst Kumar was supposed to have defiled the girl on Irrigation Road at Nausori.

The girl’s mother reported the incident to the police and the two men have been arrested and charged. They were released on bail yesterday.

Fiji Times

Villager on defilement charge
Thursday, February 1, 2001

A Nawaqarua villager faced defilement charges in the Ba court yesterday. 24 year old Aritema Nasau us alleged to have defiled a 14 year old girl who is now pregnant.

According to the girl she and Nasau had been having an affair. Upon discovering she was pregnant, her parents reported the matter to the police and Nasau was later charged for defilement.

Magistrate Shah released him on bail a $1000 bail and adjourned the case until February 21.

Fiji Times

More violence against women
Thursday, February 1, 2001

Inter-racial rapes and abuse of women is on the increase says Shamima Ali, Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre(FWCC) Coordinator.

Ms Ali has attributed the recent spread of violence to the general state of lawlessness which has existed since May 19^th. This has been exacerbated by irresponsible comments made by the some leaders.

Job losses, pay cuts, evictions, lack of coping skills and the inadequacy of law enforcement and the legal system have contributed to the abuse within families said Ms. Ali.

However, now more and more women are becoming more confident to report such crimes committed against them. This can be attributed to the hard lobby carried our by FWCC and the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement. The no-drop policy introduced by the police and the training in gender issues undertaken by the police have led to an improvement of some of the services.

In the judiciary, magistrates have begun making harsh statements against crimes of violence against women yet sentences which they pass still do not reflect this.

These comments were supported by Gina Houng Lee, Coordinator of Fiji Women’s Rights Movement.

Fiji Times

Let interim government rule, says Naidu
Saturday, February 03, 2001

The simplest solution to the current political crisis, is for Mahendra Chaudhry and his group to withdraw the controversial High Court case before the Court of Appeal and let the Interim Administration govern.

These are the words of the headteacher of Bainivalu Primary School, Chengaiya Naidu.

"The country cannot afford to have any more political disturbance and Mr Chaudhry must realise that because of the downfall of his government on May 19, the country has gone through a great deal of pain and suffering," he said.

Mr Naidu said Mr Chaudhry and his colleagues must accept that their return to power is only a dream and the current political situation warrants dialogue. He was commenting on the disruptions caused to the school system.

According to him, most students around the country have resumed their normal school life. Mr Naidu said he hoped there wouldn't be any more disruption to the school programme because education time once lost is difficult to recoup.

Ever since school started there has been news of political instability in the media. Mr Naidu said all the right thinking citizens were fed up with rumours of what could happen on February 19 when the Court Of Appeal makes its ruling.

"Politicians and the leaders of political parties should take heed of the warning of civil unrest and civil disobedience being sounded by some individuals and groups."

He also highlighted that there was a need for awareness on the constitution.

"I think there ought to be new and authentic leaders from the indo-Fijian community who can develop and maintain political relationship with other communties," said Mr Naidu.

Fiji's Daily Post

Mahen's head may roll
Tupeni Baba likely to replace him as leader
Saturday, February 03, 2001

Deposed prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry's leadership status in the Fiji Labour Party hangs in the balance as party stalwarts meet this morning in Olosara, Sigatoka, to discus the party's future.

Despite the leadership issue not being included in today's agenda, some members are adamant they will call for an election of a new party leader.

Mr Chaudhry and deposed deputy prime minister Dr Tupeni Baba are the two contenders for the post. While party president Jokapeci Koroi and Mr Chaudhry have chosen to remain quiet on the matter, some members have publicly stated that it is time for a change and the party should have a new leader.

It has been reported that at least four senior indo-Fijian party members had taken the initiative to run anti Chaudhry campaigns.

Lobbying for Dr Baba has reportedly gone to the extent where one former party member had assisted in paying airfares for party supporters to participate in the meeting today by voicing their concerns against Mr Chaudhry's leadership qualities.

Mr Chaudhry's leadership style has been a debatable issue for quite sometime and had drawn sharp criticism at most times.

Dr Baba had also earlier stated on national television that the country needed a leader who could be widely accepted and had indicated he would take up the leadership of the party if offered.

Another senior party member said that if Mr Chaudhry was replaced, the party would be badly split.

"Mahendra Chaudhry's contribution to the Fiji Labour Party in its time of need can't be lightly disregarded ... his closeness to the grassroots supporters, especially in the cane fields are unmatched in the party."

Meanwhile, speculations float that Dr Baba may resign if not given the leadership post of the party.

According to a political analyst, all those who enter politics should be well prepared to take risks.

Mr Chaudhry and Dr Baba, have both served in the party since its establishment in the early 1980s . It was formed as a multi-racial party and has remained so since.

Fiji's Daily Post

Police begins investigation
Saturday, February 03, 2001

Police have began investigating politicians who have warned of further destabilisation in the country, when the Fiji Court of Appeal rules on Justice Anthony Gates' judgement.

Some politicians had publicly stated that they will not abide by the Fiji Court of Appeal's decision if it favours Judge Gates' ruling and have predicted civil protests and disobedience.

Justice Gates had ruled last year that 1997 Constitution was still valid and had called for the re-convening of the pre May 19 parliament.

This decision is being challenged in the Fiji Court of Appeal by the Interim Government and the Court is scheduled to hand down its decision on February 19.

Fijian Association Party member Ratu Esira Rabonu, who plays a leading role in the united Fijian political party, had indicated on Fiji One's weekly `Close-Up' programme that there could be a problem if things don't go according to their wishes.

This has prompted Police Commissioner Isikia Savua to direct an immediate investigation on the threats. Police spokesperson Sera Bernard yesterday said police have began questioning those involved.

ASP Bernard said names of those questioned couldn't be released yet. The military had also called for an investigation on politicians making comments that would incite the indigenous population to protest.

Meanwhile, the president of the Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei (SVT), Ro Epeli Mataitini, said the Fijian political parties which have combined forces, has at no stage mentioned the resort to violence or bloodshed if the Court of Appeal favours Justice Gates' ruling.

"Anyone suggesting that the joint meetings were bent on creating further instability in Fiji is only mischief-making," Ro Epeli said. "I question these peoples' agenda..."

He said the meetings they have held so far have centred around working out strategies that could bring unity among the indigenous community in the country and how their rights, aspirations and interests could be upheld at all times.

"We will not apologise for discussing what we all hold dear and that is the future of our country... the discussions have been honest. And at no stage was bloodshed or the incitement of violence was ever mentioned ... I wouldn't have condoned it."

Fiji's Daily Post

PANU supports Ratu Iloilo
Wednesday, January 31, 2001

THE Party of National Unity will not be roped into any Fijian political party trying to champion the Interim Government.

Party leader Ponipate Lesavua said "political parties have been trying to rope PANU in to support the Interim Administration and not the Government of National Unity." PANU, the first political party formed by a provincial council, was the brain-child of the President, Ratu Josefa Iloilo who is the chairman of the Ba Provincial Council. Mr Lesavua said PANU whole-heartedly supported Ratu Iloilo but not the Fijian parties who were trying to go against the rule of the land and the decision given by Lautoka High Court Judge Anthony Gates.

"We are not aligned to any particular political party who is aligned to making threats but will whole-heartedly support the outcome of the Court of Appeal," he said. At the moment, he said, the party's top priority was to see Fiji return to normalcy and democracy as soon as possible.

"What the Fijian political parties at the moment are doing is looking back at the coup and trying to champion Fijian rights by using it as an excuse," he said. Mr Lesavua said political leaders who instigated the May 19 coup were trying to destabilise the economy. "These people are using the grassroots people and it just so happens that these people are part of the Interim Administration," he said.

"Those initiating the destabilisation are the privileged people using the grassroots people who in the end will suffer," he said. Mr Lesavua has called on the Interim Administration to come clean on what action they would take on those trying to influence the judicial system. "If the Fijian people want a Fijian prime minister, so be it, but they have no right to ask Mahendra Chaudhry to step down as Labour leader.

Mr Lesavua said indigenous Fijians should realise that problems faced at the moment have been there from before when the country had Fijian PMs and Mr Chaudhry was made the scapegoat. Mr Lesavua said PANU officials would meet after the Court of Appeal delivers its judgement on February 19.

Fiji's Daily Post

Submit!
Wednesday, January 31, 2001

THE Fiji Law Society says the process of the appeal now in progress must be permitted to take its course unhindered.

Breaking its silence over the issue Society president Chen Young said in a statement; "If the Court of Appeal concludes that the 1997 Constitution has been abrogated and that there now exists a new legal order in Fiji then those of us who thought differently must nevertheless submit to the decision and the legal consequences that flow from it."

However, Mr Young said the rule of law was like a double-edged sword and if the appeal's court decides that the 1997 Constitution was still the supreme law, then those who say that they would observe the rule of law must in turn also submit their decision. "One group cannot say to the other, "we will abide by the decision, it is favourable to us." "In other words those who held the view that the 1997 Constitution is still our supreme law cannot and must not resort to illegal means to voice their dissatisfaction of the Appeal's Court decision or do anything to undermine any pronouncement to the contrary," Mr Young said.

"The phrase "the rule of law" has been used many times but the concept behind the phrase is often misunderstood and unless clarified, there is a real danger that many will lose sight of its importance to a civilised society. "Crucial to any understanding of what we mean by rule of law is the principle that every person and organisation, including the Government, must be subjected to the same laws.

"This means that, subject to a right of appeal, the parties must respect any decision made by the court, whatever the decision might be," he said. Mr Young said it follows that we must also respect a litigant's unfettered right of, in this case the Interim Government, to appeal the decision of Justice Anthony Gates.

"This right must be recognised and allowed to be pursued, no matter how strong the personal opinions are about the validity or correctness of Justice Gates ruling." Mr Young said peace, prosperity, security and all wonderful aspirations which all of us wish to have could not and would never be ours to enjoy if we do not adhere to the rule of law. "These aspirations will be elusive if we fail to understand what the rule of law entails. There can be no long lasting peace, no lasting prosperity, no lasting security without the law.

"History without exception proves this to be so," he said. Therefore, Mr Young said, no matter what the decision of the Court of Appeal may be, the nation must agree to resolve that the unpleasant incidents of deaths, destruction and hatred that plagued us last year should never be allowed to be repeated. "In order for this to be achieved, each side must begin by giving to the other an open unequivocal and commitment that they will abide by the decision of this Court of Appeal, irrespective of the outcome.

"This commitment is an intrinsic if not the most intrinsic component of the rule of law." "We urge you (leaders) to make a public commitment to abide by the decision of the Court of Appeal."

Fiji's Daily Post

Tuesday January 30, 12:50 am Eastern Time

Calif. exhausts emergency energy fund

By Andrew Quinn

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 29 (Reuters) - California has already burned through its $400 million energy emergency fund, officials announced on Monday -- forcing Gov. Gray Davis to order more public money made available to keep electricity flowing to the nation's most populous state.

Mike Sicilia, a spokesman for the Department of Water Resources, said the funding Davis ordered less than two weeks ago to finance emergency state power purchases ran out Sunday.

``We're now acting under the emergency authority of the governor'' to secure more money, Sicilia said. He declined to say how much department money was being tapped.

Davis, in setting his strategy for dealing with California's power crisis, named the Department of Water Resources as the state's agent in buying power that its cash-strapped investor-owned utilities can no longer afford.

State legislators in Sacramento are racing the clock to come up with a rescue plan to deal with the crisis, which has this month twice forced power managers to order rolling blackouts across sections of the state.

Meanwhile, the state Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) late on Monday released the results of one of two official audits into the finances of the state's two biggest utilities, which have both said they face imminent bankruptcy.

The KPMG LLG audit of Edison International (NYSE:EIX - news) unit Southern California Edison concluded that the utility's crash efforts at cash conservation may have pushed back the date that the company would run out of money beyond the Feb. 1 deadline it had originally forecast.

But it said the company still faced a grim situation with no remaining lines of credit available to buy the power its customers need.

GOV. MULLS HOW TO COVER UTILITY DEBTS

Davis, who is mulling a number of proposals aimed at using public funds to pay down the utilities' debt in return for some kind of equity stake for ratepayers, ordered the audits to reveal the true state of their corporate finances.

CPUC President Loretta Lynch said the other utility, PG&E Corp. (NYSE:PCG - news) subsidiary Pacific Gas & Electric, had objected to the release of information contained in its audit by the Barrington-Wellesley Group, but that she had decided to make this information public as soon as it was received.

California's energy crisis stretched into its 15th day Wednesday with little sign of relief.

Energy managers, who have ordered 14 consecutive days of top level power alerts in the state as reserves dip dangerously low, said supplies remained tight and officials in nearby states said they, too, were beginning to feel the heat from the California crisis.

In Washington, President George W. Bush on Monday appointed Vice President Dick Cheney to head a federal task force to deal with energy prices.

``We're very aware in this administration that the situation in California is beginning to affect neighboring states,'' Bush said, adding that the imbalance between power supply and demand was quickly becoming a national problem.

California's problem is rooted in its 1996 experiment with market deregulation, which freed wholesale energy prices but kept strict caps on the prices utilities could charge consumers. While a lucrative arrangement for the utilities for the first several years, growing supply shortages this year sent wholesale prices skyrocketing -- and forced the utilities billions of dollars into debt.

THREAT TO HOME GAS SUPPLIES

While the electricity crunch has already hit some two million Californians who experienced two days of rolling blackouts, Pacific Gas & Electric warned on Monday that its financial predicament could well leave it without natural gas for its 3.8 million customers within a month.

A federal order to suppliers to sell natural gas to the cash-drained utility expires on Feb. 7 and the Bush administration has said the order will not be renewed -- a move which could mean no heat, cooking gas, or hot water in hundreds of thousands of homes.

The energy emergency rippling across the U.S. West began ringing bells in Nevada on Monday when Sierra Pacific Resources Corp. said it had filed with state regulators for an emergency rate increase averaging about 17 percent for customers of its two Nevada-based electric utilities.

The company, parent of utilities Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power, said the increases were needed because of skyrocketing wholesale electricity prices.

``No business can continue selling a product for less than it costs them to buy it on the wholesale market,'' said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Walt Higgins.

As California grid officials kept an anxious eye on the transmission lines, pressure is mounting to find a way to solve the emergency, which is also fraying nerves and demanding prompt action in neighboring Oregon and Washington.

The two states have been shipping emergency supplies of hydroelectricity to California, but their own reserves are rapidly dwindling, threatening power emergencies this summer.

Their governors are to meet on Thursday with top federal energy officials in Portland, Oregon, to map out a strategy to ease the strain on the power grid serving the entire western region and to try to lower soaring power prices.

Like California, Oregon's and Washington's demand for power is outpacing supplies due to expanding economies and growing populations.

Monday January 29 11:44 PM ET
Bush Establishes Faith-Based Office at White House

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush (news - web sites) established a White House office dedicated to encouraging religious organizations to seek billions in federal dollars for helping address alcoholism, drug addiction, homelessness and other social ills.

By doing so, Bush drew the wrath of advocates of a strict separation between church and state. They warned they might file a legal challenge on grounds that it violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Appearing Monday with 35 religious leaders, Bush signed an executive order setting up the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. And he appointed University of Pennsylvania political science professor John DiIulio to head it.

Secondly, Bush signed an executive order he said would clear away regulatory barriers ``that make private groups hesitate to work with government.''

He directed the departments of Justice, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services (news - web sites), Labor and Education to open faith-based centers within 45 days to help eliminate regulatory and other obstacles to faith-based participation in providing social services.

President Bush, surrounded by members of faith based groups, speaks following their meeting at the White House, January 29, 2001. Bush highlighted his desire for more private and federal money to flow to religious, charitable and community groups to help them do more to combat problems like alcoholism and drug abuse. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

``Government will never be replaced by charities and community groups. Yet when we see social needs in America, my administration will look first to faith-based programs and community groups, which have proven their power to save and change lives,'' Bush said.

``We will not fund the religious activities of any group, but when people of faith provide social services, we will not discriminate against them,'' he said.

Bush said he would offer legislation on Tuesday to Congress to further his faith-based initiative.

Break For Taxpayers

This was expected to include extending to all taxpayers the federal charitable tax deduction, which allows people who itemize on their taxes to deduct money given to charity from their taxable income.

The White House had no figure on the cost of Bush's proposals. During the presidential campaign Bush had proposed spending $23.9 billion over 10 years for compassionate causes.

The idea behind Bush's focus is that there are some problems government cannot solve and to give money to organizations that are steeped in ways to address ills like substance abuse, alcoholism, homelessness and gang violence.

Bush's action drew a swift response from groups like the Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

``We think it's a misguided public policy, and from a constitutional perspective, it's a nightmare,'' said a spokesman for the group, Steve Benen. ``It's creating a new government bureaucracy created to funnel tax dollars to religious institutions. It is merging church and state at an unprecedented level.''

He said the group might file suit against the plan on grounds it violates the strict constitutional separation between church and state.

Laura Murphy, director of the Washington national office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the plan raises civil rights question as well.

She said, for example, there would be nothing to force a Jewish-run mental health program to treat members of other religions.

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said: ``While constitutionally permissible in theory, in practice this office is woefully unwise. It signifies unprecedented government endorsement of religion.''

Asked about the criticism, Bush said: ``I am convinced that our plan is constitutional, because we will not fund a church or synagogue or mosque or any religion, but instead we'll be funding programs that affect people in a positive way.''

Monday January 29 8:08 PM ET
Sweden Conference Tackles Neo-Nazism

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Neo-Nazism is on the rise in Europe, with hate groups using unemployment and poverty to promote a fear of foreigners and immigrants, Sweden's prime minister said Monday at a conference about combatting intolerance.

``Just a few generations after the liberation of Auschwitz, we see an alarming rise in right-wing extremists in Europe,'' Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson said. ``There is no room for hesitation. It is time for action and cooperation.''

For two days, politicians, academics and human rights activists will study racism, religious intolerance, homophobia and xenophobia, as well as develop proposals for education, legislation and community initiatives to combat hatred.

Participants also pointed to the need to address economic forces, as well as globalization, that make it easier to spread extremist ideologies.

``Living in poverty, feeling powerless and excluded makes people look for scapegoats. We must be prepared to confront the despair because if we don't, other forces will,'' Persson said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) criticized European governments for restrictive immigration policies, urging them to recognize the economic and social value of diversity.

``In contrast to North America ... Europe is saying mostly 'no' to new immigration,'' Annan said. ``Europe has adopted politically popular measures that contradict its relative prosperity and its prospected need for greater numbers of immigrants in the future.''

The continent needs more - not fewer - immigrants to keep the economy going as Europe's population ages and its birthrate drops, he told more than 400 participants from some 50 countries.

The white power movement, whose adherents have found it increasingly easy to transmit racist propaganda over the Internet and with compact discs and videos, was a major focus of the meeting.

Kurdo Baksi, a Swedish journalist of Kurdish origin who founded a magazine about racism in Sweden and Europe, said extremists have learned quickly how to use advanced technology to spread their ideas.

Baksi said 70 Web sites with racist and neo-Nazi material operate from Sweden, up from eight sites five years ago in the Scandinavian nation of 9 million.

In 1999, the country's four main newspapers took the unusual step of publishing the photos of 62 people they identified as neo-Nazis or members of biker gangs. The editors said cooperation was needed to fight an atmosphere of intimidation.

The report and photos followed a string of violence that was linked to neo-Nazis, including the shooting death of a trade unionist that prosecutors said was revenge after he publicly denounced a co-worker he said belonged to a neo-Nazi organization.

In neighboring Norway, five neo-Nazis have been detained in connection with the weekend stabbing death of an African-Norwegian teen-ager who often spoke out against racism.

Commonwealth hope
Sunday, January 28, 2001

COMMONWEALTH special envoy Justice Pius Langa has been told that he and his team may be able to shape the future of this country.

In its submission to the team, the National Farmers Union said it believed the commonwealth had the ability to determine whether this country travels the path of democracy and equality, or goes down the well trodden path of ethnic violence and civil war.

According to the NFU ever since the May 19 crisis, rural dwellers, especially farmers, still lived in direct fear of terrorist activities and extortion. The union also claimed this fear was partly a result of what it described as "... the commissions and omissions of the military and the police."

"They are now considering whether they should rely on these two organisations for their defence, or should they organise their own defence.

"When the very institutions which the tax-payers fund to ensure the safety and security of the ordinary people turn against them, what else can be expected of the people but the rise of parallel security institutions," the submission read.

Fiji's Daily Post

Thursday January 25 8:37 PM ET
Microsoft Web Sites Victim to Hacker Attack

By Scott Hillis

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said hacker attacks cut off access to some of its Web sites on Thursday as the software giant fell prey to the same kind of assault that took down other Internet giants last year.

Microsoft said a hacker or hackers had pounded some routers, the equipment that directs Web surfers to a site, with a denial of service attack, which floods a system with so much data that legitimate traffic is slowed or halted.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company said the attack was separate from an accidental outage at many of its Web properties, including its main corporate site and its MSN.com portal, from Tuesday evening to Wednesday evening.

``It is unfortunate that an individual or group of individuals would engage in this kind of illegal activity,'' Microsoft said in a statement.

``We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused customers, and want to assure our customers that we will be taking more steps in the days and weeks ahead to further protect them,'' Microsoft said.

Microsoft said the sites were working again and that it had notified the FBI (news - web sites), but the incident rattled investors, who sent the company's shares down sharply in after-hours trading, taking off $1-13/16 to $60. That followed a drop of $1-1/8, or 1.8 percent, on the Nasdaq.

A company spokesman declined to speak on the record, saying the matter was now a law enforcement issue.

Microsoft Joins The Club

Denial of service attacks rose from obscure hacker lore to headline news last year when the sites of online auction house eBay, Internet retailer Amazon.com and portal Yahoo! were laid low by such barrages.

A Canadian teenager nicknamed ``Mafiaboy'' pleaded guilty this month to 56 charges relating to those attacks, which caused an estimated $1.7 billion in damages and raised concern about corporate and consumer vulnerability on the Internet.

The attack on Microsoft was not likely to be the last.

``I will almost guarantee that it will happen again,'' said Amit Yoran, chief executive of information security firm Riptech Inc. ``We don't know when the next denial of service attacks will come but we know they're coming.''

The security community would need more data from Microsoft about the attack before it could judge how hackers could bring the company's entire Internet empire to its knees so easily, Yoran said.

``My guess is that Microsoft has a fairly sizable infrastructure. Microsoft has a top-notch security team, so it's probably not something that was overlooked by them, but rather something that was not well known,'' Yoran said.

Another Security Incident

Whether or not Thursday's attack was due to bungling by the security team or an unusually crafty hacker, it was the latest embarrassing incident for the world's top software maker.

In October, a hacker tapped an unguarded Microsoft computer and prowled the system for days, making off with part of the source code for an unidentified product under development.

Microsoft's technical trouble earlier this week was also one of the broadest Web site outages in weeks. Earlier this month, eBay crashed for nearly 11 hours due to system failures, and in December, Amazon was down briefly several times during the busy holiday shopping season.

Microsoft chalked up the earlier outages to a technician who made a ``mistaken configuration change'' to the computers that guide Web surfers to the sites.

Microsoft had fixed that problem by Wednesday evening but by Thursday morning many sites were inaccessible again.

Users and Internet monitoring firms reported trouble accessing several of Microsoft's sites, such as MSN, its Expedia travel site, and Hotmail free e-mail service.

Other Microsoft Web sites affected included the MSNBC.com news site, the Carpoint automobile buying service, the Homeadvisor home buying service, and the Windowsmedia entertainment guide.

Tuesday January 23 11:08 AM ET
EU Official Criticizes Bush's Move

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - The European Union (news - web sites)'s top social affairs official on Tuesday sharply criticized President Bush (news - web sites)'s move to restrict U.S. funds to international family-planning groups involved in abortion.

``While we meet here to develop equality policies, on the other side of the globe we have a step backwards,'' EU Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou said at a news conference after a ministerial meeting on gender equality.

Bush, who was sworn in as president Saturday, imposed strict restrictions Monday on U.S. funds to international family-planning groups involved in abortion. President Clinton (news - web sites) had overturned the restrictions when he took office in 1993.

Diamantopoulou said the fact that it was one of Bush's first acts as president sent a strong signal against women's rights.

``Here is the question - why it is so easy to undo what we have earned during the last years?'' she said. ``How it can be done in one moment, in one day?''

Diamantopoulou, part of the EU's executive arm, said the decision was especially harmful to poor women in developing countries who depend on non-governmental organizations, or NGOs.

``We can all understand what it means to control women ... and how important the role the NGOs play in family planning,'' she said.

The commissioner conceded that the 15-nation European Union was unlikely to be able to influence U.S. politics but said it was important to initiate a discussion. ``We must express our disappointment at the European level,'' she said.

Margareta Winberg, Swedish minister for gender quality affairs, said she would take up the issue with Prime Minister Goeran Persson. Sweden currently holds the six-month, rotating EU presidency.

``This is for the Swedish and European women a grave issue,'' she said. ``We have struggled so many years to get our legislation.''

Persson said later at a separate news conference that the controversy was ``primarily a domestic political issue'' in the United States and would not affect relations with Europe but he reserved judgment on the funding issue for developing countries.

At the United Nations (news - web sites), the U.N. Population Fund, which received $25 million from the U.S. government for the current fiscal year, had no comment, but U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said ``as a matter of policy it does not support abortion. It does not fund it as a means for family planning.''

The London-based International Planned Parenthood (news - web sites) Federation, which currently receives $5 million a year from the U.S. government, is likely to be one of the organizations hardest-hit.

Med Bouzidi, the federation's assistant director-general, said that although Planned Parenthood is not directly involved in abortion services in most of the 180 countries in which it operates, it had its U.S. funding of $21 million a year - a quarter of its budget - stopped between 1985 and 1993 as a result of the decisions by former Presidents Bush and Reagan.

As a result, he said, the organization had to cancel some of its campaigns promoting safe sex and contraception. Planned Parenthood will have to cancel some programs, especially in Asia and Africa, if the $5 million is cut and replacement funds aren't found, he said.

``We believe in the right of women to have access to safe abortion. It is immoral to impose on the rest of the world a policy that does not apply to the United States,'' Bouzidi said. ``By stopping support to Planned Parenthood, the result is more abortions, not less. We are involved in preventing abortion - contraceptives and counseling are the best prevention.''

Tuesday January 23 3:55 PM ET
Groups See Fight with Bush Over Abortion Rights

By Adam Entous

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women's rights groups and their allies in Congress said Tuesday they were bracing for an all-out assault by President George W. Bush (news - web sites) on abortion rights, warning that the Republican administration risked polarizing a narrowly divided Congress and country.

In one of his first official acts as president just two days after his inaugural appeal for unity, Bush imposed a ban on federal funds for international family planning groups that ''perform or actively promote'' abortions, drawing fire from Planned Parenthood (news - web sites) and key Democratic lawmakers.

President George W. Bush hosts a meeting with congressional leaders focusing on education in the Oval Office, January 23, 2001. From left to right are: Rep. John Boehner (R-OH); Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

Women's groups were also outraged by Bush's choice for health and human services secretary, Tommy Thompson, who told senators last week that he would launch a safety review of the abortion pill RU-486 (news - web sites), which won Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) (FDA) approval last year, giving women a nonsurgical option for ending early-term pregnancies.

Moving with the administration, Republican aides said Sen. Tim Hutchinson (news - bio - voting record) of Arkansas and other lawmakers would introduce legislation in the coming days that could make it harder for doctors to provide the abortion pill to women. Another proposal would establish a ``public registry'' of all RU-486 providers.

``Bush ... is sending an amazingly strong signal that he is ready to do whatever he can do to appease his far right extremist base,'' said Sen. Barbara Boxer (news - bio - voting record), a California Democrat. Rep. Diana DeGette (news - bio - voting record), a Colorado Democrat, added that ``this is just the first in a series of steps'' aimed at limiting abortion rights.

Planned Parenthood has set up a Web site, http://www.roevbush.com, urging members to e-mail the White House and their senators in protest. But abortion rights groups admitted it would be a difficult fight given that Republicans, for the first time since 1953, simultaneously control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Battle Brewing

Abortion is one of the most divisive issues in U.S. politics, although recent polls indicate a majority of Americans favor maintaining a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. At least 1.2 million abortions are performed in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) in Atlanta.

During his eight years in office, former President Clinton (news - web sites) championed a woman's right to choose an abortion, removing restrictions on funding for international family planning and ordering the FDA to promote the study and licensing of RU-486 shortly after taking office in 1993.

But anti-abortion activists from a broad range of groups have made strong appeals to Bush to use his position to roll back decisions made by Clinton. Bush's nominees for health and human services, Thompson, and attorney general, John Ashcroft (news - web sites), are vocal opponents of abortion rights.

National Right to Life spokeswoman Laura Echevarria was emboldened. ``President Bush (news - web sites) has made it very clear how he feels about abortion. We're going to see a difference in attitude, and certainly in foreign and domestic policy.''

But women's groups that support abortion rights and their allies promised to put up a fight, which Boxer warned would ''galvanize a lot of people who are on both sides of the aisle'' and undermine Bush's claim to bipartisanship. ``We're going to stand firm,'' said Rep. Nita Lowey (news - bio - voting record), a New York Democrat.

Boxer and California Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news - bio - voting record) said they planned to introduce legislation that would restore funding federal funds to international family planning groups that support abortion.

Separately, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid (news - bio - voting record), a member of the Democratic leadership, announced that he would reintroduce legislation requiring insurers to cover the cost of federally approved contraception for women, and warned Bush against vetoing the measure.

Tuesday January 23 10:31 AM ET
Bush Action on Abortion Carries Risk

An AP News Analysis, By TOM RAUM Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) shied from raising the abortion issue during the election campaign but took it on directly on his first workday in office. He may find that, as president, it's hard to have it both ways.

Bush advisers had hoped to keep his first days free of controversy over side issues so he could focus on his top two priority items: education legislation and his tax cut.

They were mindful that Bill Clinton's early days in office were filled with argument over his quick action on gays in the military. Furthermore, the divisive abortion issue could complicate Bush's efforts to unify Republicans and Democrats.

Bush's move on Monday to bar U.S. funds to international family-planning groups and his decision to order a review of the government's approval of the RU-486 (news - web sites) abortion pill won cheers from abortion foes gathered here for the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade (news - web sites), the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

It also angered abortion-rights supporters.

``He's supposed to be measuring for drapes on his first day, not interfering with women's rights,'' said Ann Stone, national chairman of Republicans For Choice. ``To start out like this makes us very sad.''

As a candidate, Bush cited a strong anti-abortion record if asked. But, as he reached across the political spectrum and portrayed himself as a ``compassionate conservative,'' he tended not to bring the subject up on his own.

``A lot of good people disagree on the issue,'' he would say.

When Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft (news - web sites), a strong abortion foe, was asked last week, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee: ``I don't think it is the agenda of (Bush) to seek to overturn (Roe v. Wade).''

On inauguration eve, Bush's wife Laura caused a stir when she said she did not believe Roe v. Wade should be overturned. ``My wife is entitled to her opinion,'' Bush told NBC on Monday. ``Whether I do or don't agree with her is irrelevant. What's relevant is, is that how I'm going to conduct my presidency?''

Bush said, ``Roe v. Wade is not going to be overturned by a constitutional amendment because there's not the votes in the House or the Senate. Secondly, I am going to put judges on the court who strictly interpret the Constitution and that will be the litmus test.''

``The president's efforts are going to focus immediately on those things that we can get done,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. He mentioned wider parental notification and government incentives for adoption.

Bush did not speak to the thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators a few blocks from the White House, sending a written message with Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., instead. It proclaimed ``the infinite value of every life'' as a national ideal.

Bush will find it harder to finesse the abortion issue than in the past.

``He's now the president. What he says has policy implications that can be implemented. He needs to be a little more careful unless he wants abortion to blow up and become the first issue that he confronts Capitol Hill with,'' said James Thurber, a political scientist at American University.

Bush's harder-line position may have been a political gamble - catering to the Republican right on this issue to give him more room to move to the center on others.

Current law bans using U.S. funds for abortions in foreign countries. Former Presidents Reagan and Bush further banned U.S. aid to international groups that use their own money to advocate abortion rights.

Clinton repealed that ban and then vetoed it when the GOP-led Congress attached it a State Department bill in 1998. The dispute held up the payment of back U.S. dues to the United Nations (news - web sites) for three years.

At the end of his first full day on the job, Bush reversed the Clinton administration policy and reinstated the ban first issued by President Reagan in 1984. Earlier, chief of staff Andrew Card said the new administration was reviewing the government's recent approval of the abortion pill RU-486.

Bush has also said he would sign the Clinton-vetoed legislation banning the late-term abortion procedure critics call ``partial-birth abortion'' if Congress passes it again. Bush also opposes federally funded research using stem cells from discarded human embryos.

Prior to becoming Ronald Reagan's running mate in 1980, Bush's father opposed a constitutional amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade. He said he switched that position after ``considerable thought and soul-searching.''

Tuesday January 23 12:09 AM ET
Britain Gives Green Light for Embryo Cloning

By Mike Peacock

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's House of Lords backed new government rules Monday to allow limited cloning of human embryos, turning a deaf ear to religious leaders from across the spectrum who had urged them to oppose the measures.

Peers in parliament's upper chamber voted by 212 to 92 to allow research using stem cells to develop treatments for killer diseases such as leukemia, Parkinson's and cancer.

Debate raged for seven hours but as MPs in the elected House of Commons passed the order by a majority of two to one late last year, it will now become law.

Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) argues the move would allow Britain to stay at the forefront of the booming biotechnology industry. But right-to-life groups and religious leaders see it as the first step down a slippery slope to full human cloning.

Independent peer Lord Alton, a ``pro-life'' campaigner, released a letter from Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey and Britain's Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, urging parliament to set aside the laws.

Alton said the government was railroading the order through parliament without proper scrutiny and proposed a motion that would freeze the legislation until a special committee had heard exhaustive evidence from experts.

``It is precisely because we need to consider these things in detail that we shouldn't be stampeded into making decisions,'' he said.

``There are many strong ethical and scientific arguments which may be deployed against cloning techniques but we are also strongly at variance with international opinion,'' he said.

The European Parliament has urged Britain to stop its plans.

Alton's amendment fell as the government bought off opponents by promising to allow a committee of experts to scrutinize the ethics and science of the issue as long as the House of Lords voted the order through on the night.

Health minister Lord Hunt said Britain would legislate to ensure full human cloning never happened even though safeguards were already in place.

Devastating Diseases

Stem cells are master cells that can develop into different cell types such as blood, brain and bones. They offer the potential to treat diseases ranging from Parkinson's, diabetes and cancers to leukemia, hepatitis and stroke.

``The science is clear that this research has the potential to provide the answers for these diseases,'' Hunt said.

``The human embryo has a special status and we owe a measure of respect to the embryo. We also owe a measure of respect to the millions of people living with these devastating illnesses and the millions who are yet to show signs of them.''

The order changes the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act of 1990, extending the scope for research on stem cells from human embryos but leaving human cloning illegal.

The leader of Britain's Catholics, Archbishop of Westminster Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, said stem cells could just as easily be obtained from adults as embryos.

But scientists say stem cells from early embryos, less than one week old, offer the greatest potential for human benefit.

Blair has courted controversy by strongly backing the technology.

Friday January 19 1:29 AM ET
Clinton Relishes Last Full Working Day in Office

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton (news - web sites), king of the lingering farewell, spends his last full working day at the White House on Friday, riding high on some of his best job ratings ever.

Clinton painted an optimistic picture of America's future in a televised farewell to the nation on Thursday evening -- which followed a series of valedictory addresses in other cities -- but he couldn't refrain from giving President-elect George W. Bush (news - web sites) a bit of advice before heading out the door.

``I am grateful to be able to turn over the reins of leadership to a new president, with America in a great position to meet the challenges of the future,'' Clinton said.

President Bill Clinton delivers his farewell address to the United States from the Oval Office at the White House on January 18, 2001. Clinton thanked the country for his eight years in office and wished success to President-elect George W. Bush. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

President Bill Clinton in a January 18, 2001 farewell address from the Oval Office thanked Americans for helping him preside over an "era of great American renewal' and urged that the country remain engaged internationally and stay on a course of fiscal prudence. Clinton is seen boarding Air Force One on his final presidential trip January 17. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

But the Democratic president cautioned against any retreat from America's international responsibilities, urged further action to remedy global poverty and insisted U.S. fiscal policy should stay focused on repaying the national debt, an implicit warning against the $1.3 trillion tax cut proposed by his Republican successor.

``Staying on that course will bring lower interest rates, greater prosperity and the opportunity to meet our big challenges. If we choose wisely, we can pay down the debt, deal with the retirement of the baby boomers, invest more in our future and provide tax relief,'' Clinton told the nation.

He closed by wishing Bush well in ``meeting these challenges and in leading freedom's march in this new century.''

For his part, Clinton said he was leaving the presidency ''more idealistic, more full of hope than the day I arrived, and more confident than ever that America's best days lie ahead.''

He ends his term with approval ratings that rival those of popular former President Ronald Reagan when he handed the reins to Bush's father, then Vice-President George Bush, in 1989.

A new CBS News poll released Thursday showed that 68 percent of Americans approved of the way Clinton handled his job as president, the same rating Reagan got 12 years ago.

Clinton's job approval rating peaked at 73 percent in February 1999, just after he was acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial for the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.

But the CBS poll showed Americans still harbored resentment about the Lewinsky affair, with 60 percent saying Clinton's moral values were out of touch with those of most Americans.

Only 32 percent of the 1,086 adults surveyed said Clinton said what he believed, while 64 percent felt he said what others wanted to hear.

Byrd Critical Of Clinton's Failed Promise

Sen. Robert Byrd (news - bio - voting record), a West Virginia Democrat and one of the elder statesman of the Senate, had harsh words for Clinton on the eve of his departure from office.

``My judgement is this: He's smart; he had great opportunities; great talents; he squandered his great opportunities,'' Byrd told CNN's ``Larry King Live.''

``He's been a disappointment in many ways to the American people,'' said Byrd, who did credit Clinton for working with Democrats to end years of budget deficits.

``He was an astute politician, and ... I admire him for that, but being an astute politician is not like being an astute statesman,'' Byrd said.

Asked about Clinton's legacy in a CNN interview, Bush was somewhat more diplomatic, although he also paid homage to Clinton's political skills.

``It's hard to determine any living president's legacy because all short-term history is so subjective. ... I would say he was a deft politician,'' Bush said.

``I look at what lessons can I take from the Clinton presidency. And one of the lessons I can take is he did a pretty good darn job of understanding the end game with Congress, and that's relevant because there's always a struggle between the executive branch and the legislative branch, regardless of who's in power,'' Bush said.

Clinton had no public events scheduled for Friday, although he was due to tape his regular weekly address for broadcast on Saturday, less than two hours before his term expires at noon.

After the inauguration, the president was due to give a farewell to his staff at Andrews Air Force Base before flying one last time aboard Air Force One to Kennedy airport in New York, where he will address one more crowd of well-wishers.

Recently, he confessed to reporters traveling with him that he had not slept much during his final weeks in office, wanting to relish every last minute at the White House.

``Right now I just feel very at peace, and very grateful, and I'm going to start thinking about the rest of my life,'' Clinton told Reuters in a farewell interview last week.

``They may find somebody who can do this job better than me -- they will never find anybody that had any more fun doing it than I had,'' he said. ``I have had a great time.''

Rekindling ties
Friday, January 19, 2001

INDO-FIJIAN farmers of Muainaweni and the Fijian community from nearby villages celebrated Muainaweni Day with the theme Peace and Unity is our Hope at Muainaweni Primary School yesterday.

The celebration was also attended by Turaga na Qaranivalu Ratu Inoke Takiveikata, Police Commissioner Isikia Savua, National Reconciliation Committee consultant Paula Sotutu and Assistant Commissioner of Police uniformed operations Senior Superintendent of Police Romanu Tikotikoca.

SSP Tikotikoca said the idea of a Muainaweni Day was mooted when a steering committee comprising of Indo-Fijian farmers and the Turaga-ni-koros (village headmen) of the various villages in the area met and discussed ways of maintaining order.

"Resulting from these meetings, it was resolved that a Muainaweni Day be staged to serve as a common platform where both communities will meet, unite and celebrate," SSP Tikotikoca said.

According to him the main aim of the day was to rebuild and renew relationships between the Indian and Fijian communities.

And this was what happened as the Fijian and indo-Fijian farmers danced and had lunch together during the day.

The Ministry of Youth and Sports also donated sporting gear for the youths of the community to unite and do common activities together.

As the police band played popular numbers the Muainaweni farmers did not hesitate to dance to the beat with their fellow Fijian farmers.

However, not everybody at the celebration was happy.

Housewives Anjila Devi and Padma Wati said their appreciation of the good work done by police was somewhat dampened by the lack of action from the Ministry of Agriculture.

"My family was among the first lot of people who went to the Lautoka Refugee camp.

"We came back two weeks ago only because the Government promised that they would help us out in the beginning by giving us food.

"But we still haven't received our ration," Mrs Devi said.

Another distressed woman said she had six children to feed and the ration received was not enough.

Sata Nand, also a former resident of the Lautoka camp said he returned because he heard the area was safe.

"Everything is back to normal here. Our Fijian brothers and sisters are like they were before the coup.

"However I am frustrated with the lack of support from the Ministry of Agriculture."

Mr Nand said he cannot plant any food because he does not have any seeds.

According to him he was only provided with corn seeds by the Ministry of Agriculture.

"How will I plant when I don't have any planting tools or even seeds for that matter.

"It was all stolen during the coup. I don't even have horses to till my land as they were stolen too," a distressed Mr Nand said.

Mr Nand has six children who all go to school.

Attempts to get a comment from the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday were unsuccessful.

Fiji's Daily Post

New twist to drug smuggler
Friday, January 19, 2001

INTERPOL Fiji is working closely with the Australian Federal Police to verify the identity of the Fiji national caught trying to smuggle a kilogram of cocaine into Australia over the weekend.

Police have established that the man is a Lautoka businessman.

However doubts have been raised as to whether the man is really Mohammed Hussein as reported earlier.

Interpol Fiji Officer Henry Brown said they have reason to believe the man is a Mohammed Shikandar Hussein who ran Bounty's Video Shop in the heart of Lautoka City registered under the above name.

He said there is a strong possibility that Shikandar was using his father's passport but with his own picture attached to it.

Police say Mohammed Hussein, the father of the Lautoka businessman died some 15 years ago.

Mr Brown said they were working closely with Australian Federal Police to clarify whose passport the man was carrying when he was caught in Sydney.

"We are assisting in the investigation from this end while the Australian Police is working from there in trying to get to the bottom of the whole affair as we want to know where he got the drugs from and where he was it taking it to," Mr Brown said.

Shikandar is understood to have returned from a business trip from Tonga two days prior to leaving for Sydney.

Principal Immigration Officer Western Jo Nalewabau said Mohammed Shikandar Hussein would have to answer to authorities in Australia before being deported to Fiji.

"We will then investigate as to whose passport he was in possession of but as I said he has to face the music in Australia before we interview him," Mr Jo Nalewabau said.

Meanwhile Lautoka Police carried out a search on Mohammed Shikandar Hussein's residence and confiscated 31 pornography tapes from the premises.

"It is a normal procedure that we raid a person's house whose involved with drug related cases and during the course of the raid we located 31 pornography tapes which are in police custody," Divisional Crime Officer Western Senior Superintendent Josaia Rasiga said.

Fiji's Daily Post

Fijians are peace lovers, says Druavesi
Friday, January 19, 2001

INDIGENOUS Fijians are not trouble-makers but peace-loving people says Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei women's wing General Secretary Ema Druavesi.

Mrs Druavesi said Fijians, contrary to popular belief, are mindful of the current political tensions in the country.

"We are sympathetic to the problems faced by the security forces, we are interested in peace as the most important business now and we also want to see the lowering of pressures" she said.

Ms Druavesi was reacting to a comment by military spokesman Lieutenant Ilaisa Tagitupou that some politicians were publicly hinting at the possibility of racial violence if the Court of Appeal in February upheld Justice Anthony Gates' ruling declaring the 1997 Constitution the supreme law of the land.

She had earlier said the imposition of Judge Gates' judgement upon Fijians would destroy the chances of returning democracy to Fiji for a long time.

She had said: "No security force in the country can control an uprising of the Fijian people. the truth is that no body can enforce Judge Gates' judgement against the will of the Fijians."

The military consequently labelled Ms Druavesi's remarks as irresponsible' and one that could incite racial tension.

Ms Druavesi said: "The military is reminded that Fijians supported the Great Council of Chiefs' choice of the President, Prime Minister and Interim Administration and of Fijians overwhelming support of the military's abrogation of the 1997 Constitution... we reiterate that the statement made is not irresponsible but statement of facts rather than to incite Fijians."

Fiji's Daily Post

Fiji First on the move
Friday, January 19, 2001

DISTRIBUTION of the Fijian translation of the 1997 Constitution in the Western Division has been overwhelming, chairman of the Fiji First Movement organising committee, Mick Beddoes said in a statement yesterday.

The move was an extension of the Fiji Blue initiative.

Mr Beddoes said majority of the people were not fully aware of the provisions in the 1997 Constitution that protect indigenous rights.

"Two incidents were encountered during the four-day blitz. A village head dumped approximately 200 booklets given to him into a drum of water, however, the villagers requested for their own copies because they were not in favour of the action of the individual," he said.

According to Mr Beddoes, the response has been fantastic and similar plans for the interior of Fiji is being drawn up.

He adds that there has been a serious lack of information provided to the people and much of the negative sentiments being expressed about the 1997 Constitution are from a minority who do not want the majority to be adequately informed about the real benefits of the document.

Fiji's Daily Post

Search intensifies for cocaine stash 7.10pm
Friday, January 19, 2001

More raids are being carried out by police in an attempt to find the origins of the cocaine found on a Fiji resident at Sydney airport over the weekend.

Spokesperson for the Criminal Investigaiton Department, ASP Joseva Rasiga said police had raided a businessman’s Western home last night but came up dry.

He added that police would continue their investigations to find the supply base of the most recent hard drug bust.

Meanwhile the drug haul from November last year will be incinerated at the Naval base in Wailekutu, just outside Suva.

Fiji 7s team to bridge racial borders 7.10pm
Friday, January 19, 2001

Fiji’s national 7s team have been given the mission to bridge gaps between the country’s major races by winning the World Cup championships.

Commerce minister Tomasi Vuetilovoni said that what Fiji needs right now is a World Cup win.

He added that a win would help in the national reconciliation process and would heal wounds instilled by the May 19^th takeover.

PM drawn into Tarakinikini controversy 7.10pm
Friday, January 19, 2001

Interim prime minister Laisenia Qarase has asked the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to look into the delays for Lt Col Tarakinikini’s departure to his New York posting.

In his letter to Annan, Qarase said he had full confidence in Tarakinikini. He added that those who may have petitioned against Tarakinkini’s secondment were doing it out of their own political interests and their views didn’t represent those of the current administration.

Col Tarakinikini, who was the army spokesperson during the May 19^th coup was to have taken up his UN position on January 15^th as the military planning officer in New York.

Meanwhile the home affairs ministry refutes claims that Fiji’s ambassador to the UN in New York, Amraiya Naidu had anything to do with the delay.

CRC stops work
Friday, January 19, 2001

IN an unprecedented move, the Constitution Review Commission has decided to abide by the High Court ruling on Wednesday, that to cease hearing submissions.

High Court judge Justice Anthony Gates ruled on Wednesday that the commission suspend further sittings and payment of all allowances be ceased.

Commission secretary Walter Rigamoto yesterday said that the commissioners had a meeting where they decided to stop all their work.

"We had a meeting this morning in which we decided that we'll abide by the High Court decision and uphold the rule of the law," Mr Rigamoto said.

"All scheduled public hearings of the submissions have been stopped."

Mr Rigamoto also said members of the commission would stop receiving their salaries.

Interim Attorney-General Alipate Qetaki said the decision to stop the work of the Constitution Review Commission was entirely on the commission.

"I have been informed that the work on the review has been stopped," Mr Qetaki said.

"The effect of Justice Gates' ruling will delay the work of the commission. This delay will logically have a follow-on effect on the commission's programme right up to the completion of its work."

He said that time lost would have to be borrowed.

However, Mr Rigamoto said that commission's lawyers were working on papers to appeal against Justice Gates' ruling.

Justice Gates had ruled in November last year that the abrogation of the 1997 Constitution was illegal and had called for the re-convening of the pre-May 19 Parliament.

According to one member of the commission, the decision to uphold Justice Gates' ruling was the `right' thing to do.

"We have decided to comply with the ruling and put a stop to the work but at the same time, we'll seek further legal assistance and wait for the law to take its course."

The commission was due to hand over the first draft of its report in March and the new constitution was to be ready by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, there was mixed reaction to the commission's decision to stop its work.

While some accepted the Commission's move with great relief, one Fijian political party questioned the logic behind it.

Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei Party general-secretary Jone Banuve said they respected the ruling but couldn't see the logic in it.

"On one breath he granted a stay order and ruled the decision to be reviewed on March 16 after the Court of Appeal makes its ruling on the 1997 Constitution... one can only question the sanity in making such a hasty decision based on uncertain and flimsy grounds."

"Justice Gates' ruling is causing a lot of anxiety and uncertainty in the community, the effect of which will result in the loss of investor confidence and an increase in unemployment."

Fiji's Daily Post