Southwest Pacific Basin

The Pacific Islands Forum is made up of 16 independent and self-governing nation-states¹. Other important Southwest Pacific not Forum members states include the overseas French territories, and American Samoa. The Forum (formerly the South Pacific Forum) provides a collective voice for these small, newly emerging independent states, and promotes regional integration through economic and security linkages. The area is vast: the combined EEZ being 20 million sq. km. and the land area only .5 million sq. km. the total regional population being about 6 millions. The main ethnic groups are: Melanesian (the largest), Polynesian (also large), and Micronesian (the smallest).

Due to small population base, less well-developed political and economic infrastructures, and susceptibility to devastating natural disasters such as typhoons, hurricanes, and tsunami, mean that these states depend on outside economic assistance to a significant extent. They are economically vulnerable, vulnerable for example to exploitation by a wide variety of domestic and international criminals and/or terrorists. Regrettably, there is good evidence to support the concerns expressed by larger regional states that such exploitation has, and continues to occur, in spite of the work of groups such as the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), set up in 1997, and the OECD Harmful Tax Practices Forum, and the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) established by the G7 in 1989.

Fiji remains a nation in turmoil. The various coups since 1985, the endemic Fijian/Fijian Indian racial divide, grave political and economic problems all conspire to form a climate of uncertainty and instability. Corruption within and without the public service is rife, to the extent that it may pose a problem for state security and the rule of law. This has been highlighted by senior police officers that publicly commented on the affairs of the immigration department². The concern centres on the illegal migration of people to Fiji - the majority of Asian origin - corrupt in that Immigration officials have been paid to ignore the usual checking procedures. According to the police chiefs, Fiji now is faced with the serious problems of Asian organised crime, illegal migration, a growing drugs problem³, and, as a consequence of these, perhaps an increasing international terrorist threat.

Nuie, Nauru, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Islands and the Marshall Islands have all been implicated in one way or another in dubious economic schemes. The connections appear to be reasonably clear between these schemes and unknown others, and Asian and Russian organised crime. Examples of illegal activities include the use of "flag of convenience" by smugglers. Croatian police in October seized a Tongan-registered vessel carrying explosives to Iraq; the previous month Italians intercepted another Tongan-registered vessel claiming it had landed 15 Pakistani al Qaeda members said to be planning strikes in Europe; and earlier in the year, Israeli authorities captured 50 tonnes of Iranian source weapons destined for the Palestinian Authority from a Tongan-registered ship in the Red Sea⁴.

Allegations continue to be made against these states (and others) that they are acting as hosts to money laundering organisations, safe havens for narcotics dealers and smugglers, people smugglers, and so on. In the more developed regional states there are concerns that these activities have paved the way for international terrorists looking for safe havens for their funds and themselves, or to establish a secure base or bases from which to train for and conduct operations. No "official" evidence has yet been made publicly available to support these concerns.

Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands have very significant domestic problems, problems that manifest themselves in gang and communal violence. In the Solomons the destabilising three-year long civil war between the Guadalcanal Liberation Front and the Malaita Eagle Force, in which more than 100 people have been killed and 20,000 made homeless (out of a population of 300,000)⁵, appears no closer to resolution. Such events as this, and the on-going internal instability in Papua New Guinea with the running sore of the separatist dispute with Bougainville contribute to a feeling of instability and insecurity both in the nations concerned, and within the wider region. They offer fertile ground for cultivation and exploitation by international criminals and terrorists. While Australia, New Zealand and others have invested heavily in conflict reduction and brokering initiatives for resolution, these disputes have a demonstrated capability of flaring. The long-term solution seems to me to be elusive, one result being the potential for criminal or terrorist exploitation.

No examination of our regional politico-economic environment would be complete without comment on the newest nation-state of the region, East Timor. "The World Community" appears to have accepted some responsibility for earlier decisions, or lack of them, and given birth to an "international state" that looks set to be entirely dependent for survival for the near future on aid from this world community. The international community has also raised East Timorese expectations, perhaps too ambitiously and unwisely⁶. From personal observation, I believe that Asian based crime is in situ - nightclubs, restaurants, protection schemes, and associated illegal operations are functioning. Based on information that Indonesian terrorists were en route to Dili, the Australian Government has issued an increased security warning for nationals in East Timor. National fragility makes East Timor as vulnerable as the small Pacific states to exploitation by international criminal and terrorist interests⁷ - perhaps more so given it's common border with Indonesia.

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1 Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands,
Nauru, Nuie, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu,
Australia, New Zealand, and Vanuatu.

2 The Daily Post, Wednesday, October 30, 2002 Illegal immigrants to pose threats

3 ibid: It is claimed in the report that a billion-dollar stockpile of heroin recovered resulted from activities of Asian organised criminals. There has been a staggering increase in gang murder, prostitution, drug trafficking, and smuggling of goods and people

4 AFP, Tonga's democracy movement fears terrorist label, 29 October 2002

5 AFP, Solomon's Warlord takes hostages as Police surround him, 30 October 2002

6 Andrew Renton-Green, The proposal to establish a West Pacific Forum, in Identifying Challenges and Opportunities in the (South) West Pacific Region" Australian Studies Centre, University of Indonesia, 2002

7 The state of emergency declared in East Timor after this paper was prepared supports
this view