A year after re-opening its borders, Fiji has recorded an injection of F$805 million into its economy from international visitor arrivals between April and August.

After shutting its borders for almost two years at the height of the covid-19 pandemic, Fiji has welcomed 520,000 tourists to its shores in the past 12 months.

Tourism Fiji chief executive Brent Hill said the steady increase in international visitors is promising for an economy where tourism is its largest asset, previously accounting for 40 percent of the country’s GDP.

“It’s been wonderful to welcome back international visitors for the last 12 months and to see a steady increase in numbers as the world gets used to travelling again.

“The recovery trajectory for visitor arrivals has exceeded our expectations, and the impact can be seen in our economy with tourists buzzing in resorts, towns, and villages as people experience the true Fiji,” Hill said.

Success in structure
Last year, Fiji was one of few Pacific nations to open its doors to tourists with minimal restrictions. What may have seemed like a bold decision at the height of the pandemic has today paid off for a nation that heavily relies on tourism as its highest income earner.

The successful rebound is attributed to the covid-safe measures implemented by the industry prioritising vaccination and the Care Fiji Commitment programme, Tourism Fiji’s New Zealand regional director Sonya Lawson said.

Lawson said while tourists were eager to travel again, security and well-being remained a priority for travellers.

“The programme implemented by Tourism Fiji was a standard of best practice protocols and standards, and certified tourism operators as having rigorous measures in place to manage covid-19 was reassuring,” she said.

“This really provided confidence to travellers, tourism provider providers and locals alike, and that was a key factor in the initial stages, and from there, the confidence has just continued.”

New Zealanders flocking to Fiji
Tourism Fiji said bookings from New Zealand in October this year exceeded pre-pandemic levels at 103 percent of the same period in 2019.

July welcomed over 25,000 New Zealanders which is 91 percent of 2019 levels; in August, that hit 87 percent, and September achieved 95 percent before exceeding Kiwi visitor numbers by October.

Hill said similar to New Zealanders, the resilience of the Fijian people, hospitality, and a commitment to welcoming back visitors is why Fiji has been successful in standing out as a destination.

“We look forward to a bigger and better 2023 focusing on sustainable, authentic tourism.”

New Zealand is Fiji’s second largest international visitor market, now accounting for 26 percent of total visitors – an increase of 3 percent from the 2019 figures.

Lawson added that New Zealand’s visitor arrivals into Fiji had also increased as it previously used to sit at around 23 percent.

There was a 4 percent increase in visitors from Auckland, and 2 percent rises from both Wellington and Christchurch in July this year compared to 2019. This coincided with the phased re-opening of New Zealand borders when Kiwis could travel freely without MIQ.

“Many hotels and resorts have recorded growth in their number of Kiwi visitors — New Zealand is now the second largest market for Six Senses Fiji (resort), having been fourth in previous years,” she added.

New trends for tourists
Leisure and spending also took a turn from pre-pandemic activities. Tourism Fiji recorded tourists travelling around the country with more extended stays.

“For New Zealanders, Denarau, Coral Coast, and Nadi are generally a fan favourite, but we’ve noticed high demands for other regions like the Yasawa Islands and the northern parts of Fiji where there are unique experiences. New Zealanders who have been to Fiji more than once are now discovering other regions to discover,” Lawson said.

“We also previously noticed an average stay of around five nights, but in the last eight months this has increased to around nine nights. We’ve also seen that the spending has increased by an average of 12 percent per day per visitor.

“So we’re putting a lot of this down to the fact that people are embracing travel, have missed the ability to travel, and are taking longer to enjoy a holiday in Fiji.”

Lawson explained that Fiji noticed an increase in ‘multi-generational travel’ where extended families travel together and reconnect in Fiji.

Tourism Fiji has set an ambitious goal of 3 million extra visitor arrivals by 2024, and they believe they are trekking to achieve this target.

“At this stage, Fiji has exceeded all of our expectations for this year, and we’re delighted with how Fiji has resumed and bounced back this year,” said Lawson.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The Federated States of Micronesia will reopen its international borders on Monday.

President David Panuelo said anyone wishing to travel will need to be fully vaccinated, including boosters, against covid-19 and have had a PCR test 72 hours prior to departure.

The moves comes despite the country discovering its first case of covid on July 19.

Panuelo said community spread is increasing, and thousands of people are already infected.

In an address to the nation, he said he would soon issue a decree requiring everyone to wear masks in public places.

“I will require all persons who feel sick to get tested and to stay home,” he said.

“I will request that all citizens stay home unless it is essential for them to go to work, to go shopping, or to otherwise conduct necessary errands.”

Hard lockdown ruled out
But he has ruled out a hard lockdown to tackle the outbreak.

“The advice I have received from our Department of Health and Social Affairs is that the initial transition period from being covid-19 free to covid-19 infected will take about one to two months for each State.

“We will see cases rise, plateau, and then lowered in our country. Afterwards, we should be fully emerged into our new status of covid-19 protected.”

Starting on Friday, July 29, vaccines for infants aged between six months and four years old will be available across the country.

Panuelo said the FSM had “significant supplies” of the antiviral drug Paxlovid, and monoclonal antibodies to treat people.

“What is needed now is for all of us to work together in practising peace, friendship, cooperation, and love in our common humanity with each other,” Panuelo said.

“We need to get vaccinated. We need to get tested. And we need to stay home if we are sick or if our family is sick. These are dark days, but we will endure beyond them. The sun will rise tomorrow, and, God willing, we will adapt to and overcome covid-19.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Samoa and China do not have any plans for military ties, Samoa Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa says.

Fiamē — who is on a three-day trip to Aotearoa — is making her first official bilateral trip abroad since becoming leader last year.

Her visit marks 60 years of diplomatic relations between New Zealand and Samoa and the 60th anniversary of Samoa’s independence.

At a media briefing after talks with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday, Fiamē said: “There are no discussions between Samoa and China on militarisation at all.”

She said the Pacific nations would discuss China’s security proposals at the Pacific Islands Forum due to take place from July 12.

“The issue needs to be considered in the broader context,” she said.

Ardern said there was capability in the region to deal with security issues and they could be addressed together, while stressing that Pacific nations still had the sovereign right to decide their own future.

“We have convergence on our regional priorities,” Fiamē said, adding that Samoa believed in the region taking a collective approach to issues.

She said the anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship signed by the two countries would coincide with Samoa opening its borders fully on August 1.

Watch the media briefing

Ardern and Fiamē hold a joint media briefing. Video: RNZ News

The talks with Ardern had covered a lot of ground, she said, and the two countries would work together on tourism, education and in other economic areas.

“Targeted assistance from New Zealand has enabled us to open our borders.”

From August 1 flights to Samoa would increase from the current weekly flight for passengers to daily flights by the end of the year.

Her message to Samoans living in New Zealand was that the anniversary celebrations will take place over 12 months so they had plenty of time to come home.

Asked what Samoa required of New Zealand, Fiamē said “she was not in a rush to come up with a shopping list”.

Instead it might be time just to reflect on reprioritising issues while saying climate change and education remained important as well as “building back stronger” after covid-19.

Time for a rethink on RSE scheme
On the subject of seasonal workers, which Samoa has “slowed down”, she said the New Zealand scheme was well run. But there were some concerns and Samoa was noticing the impact of the loss of workers in its own development sectors.

Originally it was intended to send unemployed workers to Australia and Aotearoa for the RSE programme, but now the civil service and the manufacturing sector in Samoa were being hit by experienced employees leaving.

“We need to have a bit more balance,” Fiamē said, adding that the new government wanted to hold new talks with both the Australia and New Zealand governments on the issue.

Referring to the Dawn Raids, Fiamē welcomed Ardern’s formal ceremonial apology last year.

“When we all live together it’s important to settle grievances and differences,” she said.

Ardern said the visit has come at a special time for the two countries, referring to the Treaty of Friendship and Samoa’s 60th anniversary.

She announced the launch of a special fellowship in Fiamē’s name and the New Zealand prime minister’s award plus the start of new sports leaders’ awards with an emphasis on women and girls.

Discussions had covered their shared experiences on Covid-19 with Ardern praising the high vaccination rates among young Samoans.

Climate change had also been discussed and New Zealand will increase funding for Samoa’s plans to tackle it.

Invitation to Ardern
On her arrival at Parliament yesterday morning, Fiamē invited Ardern to Samoa to take part in the independence celebrations next month and she repeated the invitation at the media briefing.

Fiamē’s visit comes ahead of the Pacific Island Forum meeting.

After welcoming Fiamē, Ardern acknowledged the importance of that meeting which will discuss issues like climate change and the current “strategic” situation across the Pacific.

China’s growing presence in the Pacific is among topics sure to be covered by the two leaders during their talks.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

For the first time in more than two years, New Zealand’s border will reopen to international visitors at midnight tonight.

On 19 March 2020, New Zealand snapped its border shut to anyone without citizenship or residency, before any covid-19-related deaths were recorded.

It was the first time in our history such a move was made, with the ban also including those from the Pacific.

Today, the countdown is on to welcome back vaccinated visitors from 60 visa-waiver countries.

New Zealand’s already reopened the border to vaccinated Australians and some international students.

Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran said almost 1000 people will arrive on the first three flights, which will come from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Fiji.

The airline has been struggling to prepare for the influx in international visitors due to staff recruitment issues.

The Ministry of Health reported 14 more more deaths with covid-19 and a further 8242 new community cases on Friday.

The seven-day rolling average of case numbers was 7540, down from last week’s 8166.

The total number of reported deaths with covid-19 rose to 737

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Epidemiologist Sir David Skegg, who along with his team has been providing advice to the New Zealand government on the covid-19 response, says more border restrictions may ease soon, as the opposition National Party calls for all visitors to be allowed into the country.

Yesterday, the government announced that from 11.59pm on Wednesday, vaccinated New Zealanders returning to the country and who test negative on pre-departure will no longer have to self-isolate on arrival.

The move brings forward step two of the phased reopening of the border, but the National Party says that does not go far enough and is calling for the border to be open to all visitors, to jump-start the tourism industry.

The government relied on urgent advice from the Strategic Covid-19 Public Health Advisory Group — chaired by Sir David — before making the changes.

Sir David told Morning Report the next few weeks were expected to be very challenging on the health system as the peak of the omicron outbreak evolves, so it was best to wait until then before making decisions about opening to tourists.

“We still don’t know where it’s going to end. The number of people going into hospital every day is increasing, so I’m not surprised that they’re [the government] just going to take a bit of time to decide about that, but I expect that tourists will be welcome to New Zealand earlier than we expected,” he said.

“And it’s funny everyone calls for certainty, but actually this is a case where the uncertainty has been beneficial to those interests because the dates are coming forward.”

Tourism industry planning
However, National Party Covid-19 response spokesperson Chris Bishop told Morning Report that the tourism industry needed that certainty from now to plan ahead.

“If you talk to people involved in the tourism industry, they are literally borrowing money on their credit cards, mortgaging their houses to try and get through. And so what we can do for them is reconnect New Zealand to the world, open those borders, and allow tourists to come here,” he said.

“You’re probably not going to see a massive influx of tourists straight away in the next two to three, four weeks, you know, airlines have got to put flights on.

“But it is really important that we send signal to the airlines and to the airport that tourists are going to come and they’re going to come soon because airlines are making those bookings for the next few months and the next year right now so they do need some certainty, they do need that time frame.”

Bishop said while there would be some risk in such a decision, it was about considering the “relative risk”.

“The relative risk of allowing people who are vaccinated, who have passed the pre-departure test, to arrive into New Zealand, going into a country with one of the highest reproduction rates in the world right now and with 15,000 covid cases per day, the relative risk is much lower.

“But you’ve also got to weigh that up against the incredibly tough circumstances that our tourist parts of the economy have been in over the last two years.”

‘Minimal effect’ on NZ
On the other hand, Bishop said yesterday’s announcement was undoubtedly good news for the grounded New Zealanders who would be excited to once again be able to see their friends and whānau here.

Sir David said the changes announced yesterday would only have a “minimal effect” on New Zealand’s situation.

“The impact of this on the progress of our epidemic in New Zealand will be very small, really quite slight. The fact is that we’ve got thousands of new cases occurring every day … the number of people turning up at the airport who are infected at the moment it’s an average of about 10 a day.

“That number will go up, of course, with more people coming into New Zealand, but it will have a minimal effect on our epidemic.”

The government has asked the advisory group to now review the role of vaccine passes and mandates for the future.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

In just a few weeks the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated sharply as millions cope without desperately needed international aid, New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis says.

Bellis is Al Jazeera’s senior producer in Afghanistan and reported on the turmoil in August as the Taliban took over the government and thousands of people tried to flee.

She has dealt with Taliban leaders for a long time, and has sensed a change in their attitudes since they first ruled the country before being toppled 20 years ago.

She had to leave the country in mid-September because the network feared for her safety and Bellis noted on Twitter that the Taliban were detaining and beating journalists trying to cover protests.

Now she has returned and told RNZ Sunday Morning that she was not worried about her safety.

“The situation here is pretty dire and there are a lot of stories still to be told and I feel invested in what’s happening here and I also just love the country. It’s a beautiful place to be with amazing people and I genuinely like being here.”

However, the country is facing an uncertain future with its population suffering more than ever now that international aid has been cut off.

UN warns of humanitarian crisis
This week the United Nations warned that Afghanistan is becoming the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and Bellis agrees.

“The Taliban took over about two months ago and I just can’t believe how quickly everything has deteriorated.

“People cannot find food, there’s no money, they can’t pay for things, employers can’t pay their workers because there’s no cash, they can’t get money out even from the ATMs.”

Millions of jobs have disappeared, half of the population does not know where their next meal is coming from and already children are dying from malnutrition, Bellis said.

All the aid agencies are appealing to the world to listen.

23 million need urgent help
She is about to go out with the UN Refugee Agency whose teams are organising some aid distribution as the temperatures drop to 2 degC overnight as winter approaches. They are handing out blankets, food and some cash to thousands of the needy in camps in Kabul.

“But it’s such a Band-Aid. There is no way they can reach the number of people they need to reach — it’s  like 23 million people who need that kind of assistance,” she said.

Neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Iran were very concerned, in part because they fear a huge influx of refugees. They have closed the borders to try and keep them away.

The process of getting money and food into people’s hands had broken down, she said, with a lot of it due to United States sanctions.

Three quarters of the country ran on foreign donations before the Taliban took over and that has dried up because no countries are recognising the Taliban’s legitimacy to govern.

Bellis has spoken to one senior Taliban official who said that at recent meetings between the Taliban and the US in Doha the Americans would not tell the Taliban what policies they needed to enact to unfreeze billions of dollars in funding.

“They [the Americans] are playing with millions of people’s lives.”

School problem for girls
She believes some Taliban leaders are pragmatic and would be willing to agree to high school girls being educated but are worried they will alienate their conservative base.

In the main, primary school age girls are able to attend their lessons but the problem is at secondary school level.

“If you’re a high school girl in Kabul it’s awful – sitting around thinking how did this happen. It’s really frustrating and really frustrating for everyone to watch and say this doesn’t make sense.”

Bellis said while she feels safe at the moment, the main problem is the terrorist group, ISIS-K, who have made threats against the hotel where she is staying.

The Taliban have said they will protect guests and have placed dozens of extra guards outside.

ISIS-K is believed to only number between 1200 and 1500 yet they are a potent force with their random attacks, such as beheading members of the Taliban, whom they hate.

She believes the Taliban’s biggest worry is that ISIS will appeal to its most fundamentalist members.

ISIS attracting recruits
ISIS is also believed to be trying to attract recruits who would be trained as fighters and be paid $400 a month which is a substantial amount of money in Afghanistan.

Bellis said she feels guilty staying at a hotel with the scale of poverty and deprivation she is witnessing.

“Right outside the door people are desperate,” she said.

She visited a major maternity hospital in Kabul yesterday and the only medication available for women giving birth was paracetamol.

“Imagine going into labour and thinking, OK if anything goes wrong I’ve got paracetamol. It’s just life and death on so many levels.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

For those of you wondering what you can do to help Afghans.. this @WFP project is the gold standard.
You donate meals direct to Afghans – choosing a set number of meals or month at a time. ???? https://t.co/qgmuaTdpfo

— Charlotte Bellis (@CharlotteBellis) October 26, 2021

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Many allegations have been leveled against Papua New Guinea’s disciplinary forces over the years, alleging that police and soldiers sell firearms.

However, Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) Commander Major-General Gilbert Toropo denies these claims, saying all firearms are inspected and are accounted for on a fortnightly basis.

He said that the military had a system in place to ensure accountability for weapons in the force.

With recent reports of the use of firearms in tribal fights across parts of the country, many have started to ask where they are getting the guns from.

General Toropo said such statements must be backed up with evidence.

“Today, people can get such military specification weapons anywhere through the borders,” he said.

“So these allegations have to be supported with evidence. It is unfair to make generalised statements which only undermine our efforts to make PNGDF a force that our people and governments can trust.

“It’s easy for people to make statements that only discredit the force [and] that are very hard to retract,” he said.

Attempts made to get comments from the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) were unsuccessful.

Unwritten rule
Back at Independence in 1975, there were already a few guns in the community, but as the former Provincial Secretary of Chimbu, Barungke Kaman, said some 40 years ago, there was an unwritten rule that they would not be used in tribal fights, where participants would stick with traditional weapons.

When asked about the consequences of those unwritten rules being dropped, Kaman responded at that time that “there would then be mayhem”.

Well those rules have long since been dropped, said Institute of National Affairs (INA) executive director Paul Barker.

Barker said tribal leaders today were hiring gunmen — or hitmen — often from outside their own clans, to target opponents, and the other side responded in the same way.

“We had the gun summit and task force, led by former commander Jerry Singirok and respected senior police officers, like John Toguata, but little action has ever been taken by government to follow up,” he said.

“This is partly because those that are involved in the gun trafficking and arming of groups, sometimes called warlords, are often closely linked to politics and politicians, helping deliver support and countering opponents, or law enforcement officials.”

According to the United Nations Trust Facility Supporting Cooperation on Arms Regulation (UNSCAR) that backs action on guns regulation, Papua New Guinea has about 51,957 illegal and unlicensed firearms.

Tougher PNG gun laws
In 2018, to address the widespread use of firearms in crimes and in tribal fights, Parliament passed tougher gun laws that included penalties of up to K10,000 (NZ$4000) or five years’ jail for the use of unlicensed firearms or the misuse of licensed weapons, with the manufacturing of guns now attracting up to 10 years’ jail time.

But Barker said users and manufacturers of guns seemed to consider themselves astonishingly immune from arrest and prosecution by law enforcement.

Some operating within PNG’s cities have even been ready to be interviewed by international film crews and barely conceal their identities or whereabouts or activities, as though they consider themselves protected from police action.

Rebecca Kuku is a senior PNG Post-Courier journalist. She also reports for The Guardian’s Pacific Project.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A new poll shows nearly two out of three New Zealanders want the border to remain closed until at least 90 percent of the country is vaccinated.

The poll, in partnership with the country’s leading daily newspaper The New Zealand Herald, which is also running a 90% Project in support of high vaccination, showed growing support for vaccination, according to the paper in a front age report.

The Herald said the Talbot Mills Research poll indicated that 89 percent of those polled planned to get vaccinated or had already done so.

“The results contrast with a public appeal yesterday from former prime minister Sir John Key for New Zealand to break out of its ‘smug hermit kingdom’ by opening the border as soon as possible,” the Herald said.

The newspaper said that support for 90 percent was much higher than for the “option of opening the borders after everybody had been given a reasonable chance to get vaccinated, regardless of the overall rate – an option favoured by 26 percent of people.”

Political editor Claire Trevett wrote that support for the 90 percent plus threshold was “particularly high among Labour and Green supporters (70–72 percent support) – but about 60 percent of National and Act supporters also favoured it”.

The government had so far refused to set a specific threshold or date at which it would ease border restrictions, Trevett wrote. However, it had committed to trialling measures such as home isolation this year, as part of its road map.

“The poll of 1050 people aged 18 and over was taken from August 31 to September 6 – the third week of the lockdowns sparked by the delta outbreak. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 per cent,” wrote Trevett.

“The NZ Herald has joined with Talbot Mills Research for polling on vaccinations as part of the 90% Project, to help track public sentiment over the coming months.”

Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Sir John Key – 5 ideas to transform our approach, via @nzherald https://t.co/HByf2xoANA Problem is Maori and Pasifika will suffer most while Key’s mates enjoy their overseas holidays. Lift vaccination first

— Colin Tukuitonga (@ColinTukuitonga) September 25, 2021

12 new covid community cases
The Health Ministry reported 12 new community cases of covid-19 in New Zealand today, with all but two epidemiologically linked to previous cases.

In a statement, the Health Ministry said there were now a total of 1177 community cases associated with the latest outbreak of the delta variant of the virus, RNZ News reports.

All of the latest cases were identified in Auckland.

The ministry said one of today’s community cases had previously been under investigation and was now confirmed and linked to the current outbreak.

“The case has now recovered. The case spent 14 days in a quarantine facility along with household members who also tested positive for covid-19,” the statement said.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papua New Guinea and neighbouring Indonesia have been discussing a potential reopening of their shared border.

The border was officially closed early last year due to the covid-19 pandemic, but the illegal movement of people back and forth has continued across the porous international boundary.

PNG Prime Minister James Marape met with Indonesia’s Ambassador in Port Moresby, Andriana Supandy, and agreed that the border must be properly policed to prevent the spread of covid-19.

Indonesia’s heath system is being stretched with high covid infection rates, and PNG has also struggled to contain the spread of the virus.

No date has been given for when the border may reopen officially.

In others areas discussed, Supandy proposed for the two countries to enter into a Free Trade Agreement to boost trade and commerce, citing the potential as demonstrated in the success of vanilla trade between PNG and Indonesia.

The ambassador also informed Prime Minister Marape that Indonesia has already ratified the Border and Defence Cooperation Agreement and Land Border Transport Agreement and was awaiting PNG to do the same.

He said these agreements would pave the way for a more robust bilateral tie between the two countries.

On West Papua, the diplomat said that Indonesia appreciated the consistent position that PNG government has taken in acknowledging that the western half of New Guinea was an integral part of Indonesia.

He said the West Papuan self-determination demands remained an internal issue for Indonesia to resolve.

A release from Marape’s office also said both countries had discussed the need for joint cooperation in power connectivity to areas in PNG’s Western and West Sepik provinces.

Military donation
The Indonesian military has donated an aircraft engine to the PNG Defence Force Air Transport Squadron for one of its aircraft to be used for operations in the 2022 general election.

Marape also confirmed yesterday that US$14 million would be ballocated in 2021 and 2022 to ensure all aircraft were ready to be used next year.

The The National newspaper reports Marape saying the aircraft would also be used in enforce transborder security.

The head of the Indonesian National Armed Forces Strategic Intelligence Agency, Lieutenant-General Joni Supriyanto, arrived on a Lockheed C-130H Hercules in Port Moresby yesterday with the engine.

He said transporting the overhauled Casa aircraft engine to PNG “would enhance relationship and cooperation between the armed forces contributing to security and stability in the region”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Indonesia is pressuring Papua New Guinea over an illegal group East Sepik claiming to form an army unit to help West Papuan pro-independence rebels fighting against Indonesian forces across the border.

Calling such armed groups as “terrorists”, Indonesia’s Ambassador to PNG, Andriana Supandy, said his country respected the sovereignty of its neighbour, PNG, and called on the PNG authorities to act over the threat.

A video of a group dressed in military fatigues and brandishing automatic rifles has gone viral on social media, prompting the Indonesian response.

The men in the video, speaking in PNG “tok pisin”, claim to be from East Sepik. They say they stand with the West Papuan rebels and are ready to cross the border to support the West Papuan cause for independence.

Supandy said the Indonesian Embassy had been informed that PNG government officials were in Wewak to investigate the viral video on the social media post.

“The Indonesian government honour[s] the PNG government as a sovereign nation and leave the response to the alleged militants to the relevant authorities in PNG,” Supandy said.

“Both governments have the same understanding about the challenge and opportunity in managing the formal relations through the spirit of friendship and mutual respect.”

Gratitude over safety
Supandy said that despite the video causing uneasiness, the Indonesian Embassy would like to convey its gratitude to the government and the people of PNG for “ensuring the safety and wellbeing of Indonesians” working and living in PNG.

The embassy said the Indonesian government and people were reciprocating the gesture for PNG citizens living in Indonesia.

Supandy said the video of a vigilante group would not affect the strong relations between Indonesia and PNG.

“These armed groups in Papua and West Papua have resorted to acts, methods and practices of terrorism aiming at destruction of human rights, fundamental freedoms and democracy while also threatening the territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Indonesia,” he claimed.

Right to ‘reliable information’
Supandy said Papua New Guineans had the right to “reliable information” relating to this issue.

He said Indonesia was committed to taking measures aimed at “addressing the root causes” of the situation in Papua and West Papua provinces.

He said in this context, Indonesia advocated humane, prosperous and inclusive development approach, including:

• Respecting the basic rights of the people in Papua and West Papua provinces;
• Establishment of good governance in Papua; and
• Opportunities for Papuans to shape and direct local development strategies and regional policies.

SBS News reporting on the West Papua conflict.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

“There cannot be any complacency or missteps once our border controls are eased. The risks need be managed as well as possible,” said the country’s largest and most influential newspaper in an editorial today.

“There is time to ensure entry processes are running smoothly before the next big step.”

READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus live updates – US coronavirus deaths near 120,000

The Herald gave its verdict in the wake of a series of shock border lapses in a week that catapulted the country from virtually a 28-day covid-free status to nine active cases – four in the last two days. All are directly travel-related cases.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced at her news briefing today that the government was extending a ban on cruise ships and updating its health order to make clear that travellers may be required to take multiple tests.

This followed weekend reports that Auckland’s covid-19 isolation facilities had reached capacity, with 4272 New Zealanders in managed isolation and almost 900 more expected to arrive in the country in the next two days.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the first case today was a teenage girl who arrived in New Zealand on June 13 and was travelling with her family, who have tested negative so far, reports RNZ News.

Runny nose, or no symptoms
They were staying at the Novotel Auckland Airport hotel.

Dr Bloomfield said the teenager’s only symptom was a runny nose. The second case was a man in his 30s who had arrived from India on June 15.

He was staying at the Grand Millennium in Auckland and had no symptoms.

“Fortunately,” said The Herald today, “in terms of new coronavirus infections, we have so far avoided much damage after the case of two sisters from Britain [last week] revealed that the isolation and testing systems had not been working properly…

“It is not as though other countries which have largely subdued covid-19 have avoided hiccups either.

“China has battled a spike in Beijing. South Korea had to hose down a virus flare-up centred around nightclubs.

“Germany has hundreds of new cases linked to abattoirs.

“Australia’s outbreak is at a low level, but it is still experiencing new infections and has more than 400 active cases.

Trump’s political rally
“As we held crowded Super Rugby Aotearoa matches for a second weekend, the United States debated the wisdom of President Donald Trump holding an indoor political rally in Oklahoma yesterday, which is experiencing a rise in coronavirus cases.

“On Saturday, the US gained 32,000 new cases – the most in a day since May 1. The states of most concern are Texas, Florida, and Arizona.

What the saga of the two travellers from Britain and other such stories had told New Zealand, The Herald said, was that the public’s trust was easily shaken.

“Quick action to arrest a slide is then essential. The Prime Minister appears to understand that,” the newspaper added.

“Basic and obvious competence is the secret sauce any government and ministry need to maintain trust.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Public confidence in New Zealand’s border controls has been shattered.

The obvious anger of the prime minister when talking about the latest border bungle shows that goes right to the top.

The fate of Health Minister David Clark and potentially Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield hang in the balance, having ultimate responsibility for putting the rules in place, and making sure they’re followed.

READ MORE: ‘Raise our game’ warning on NZ border

The case of the two women returning home to see a dying relative that were allowed to leave managed isolation without being tested has laid bare fundamental failings in the way the most high-risk people in the country have been managed.

New Zealanders were assured border controls would be beefed up even more after moving into level 1 – those in managed isolation and quarantine would be tested on day 3 and day 12, and no-one would be given exemption to attend a funeral.

We know now that at least on one occasion that testing did not happen – and it was only because two positive tests were returned this even became known.

It’s a confronting wake-up call that New Zealand is still vulnerable and the dreaded “second wave” could still happen. The government has defended the times it has acted with caution to avoid going back into lockdown, the worst case scenario for an economy already plunging into recession.

‘Kiss and cuddle’
The handling by ministers and officials has not helped; strong initial assurances the women had no close contacts during the drive down the North Island only to be proven wrong by National’s Michael Woodhouse – what would in normal times be an uncontroversial social interaction a “kiss and a cuddle” – now a matter of great political debate.

That contact – still described as “fleeting” – has created even more risk of the virus spreading with more people coming forward by the hour.

The two women though should not be demonised, they followed the rules and by all accounts tried to do all that was expected of them after being granted the exemption to travel to Wellington.

But their case has unleashed even more stories about people in quarantine asking for tests and not getting them, large groups allowed to attend a funeral in contravention of the rules and people given leave to go a funeral taking off and having to be tracked down by authorities.

These are all an indictment of the system New Zealanders have been assured will protect them at the most vulnerable point – the border.

Attendance at funerals in particular has been a pressure point all the way through. Officials were roundly criticised for taking a hard line but had to take another look after a High Court decision questioned the approach being taken and there did seem to have been more of a willingness to allow people to attend – up until the rules were changed again on June 8.

Testing for all arrivals was only made compulsory that same day.

Problems are broader
However the problems are broader than whether people have been tested according to the protocols; there are also serious questions around the laxity of enforcement around quarantining and managed isolation with reports of people mingling with the public on supervised walks and even staff of the Chief Ombudsman needing tests after unexpectedly finding themselves “mingling” with people in a hotel lobby who were supposed be in isolation.

The border was first closed on March 19 and there were problems from the start.

Cabinet Minister Jenny Salesa was dispatched to Auckland International Airport after reports the advice and direction from officials about self-isolating was a shambles, followed later by an admission from police they were not carrying out the checks on people trusted to self-isolate after arriving from other countries.

At that time the government was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of New Zealanders arriving home, but no such excuse now.

The prime minister’s answer is to bring in the military and bring some organisational discipline and resource to the regime, led by Air Commodore Digby Webb.

However, RNZ understands defence personnel have already been involved in quarantining as part of the operations command centre under former Police Commissioner Mike Bush, including someone from Defence managing one of the hotels being used.

Bringing in the military to manage or exert any kind of control over a civilian population could cause alarm but they’ve been brought for their logistical skills, and the ability to bring in plenty more manpower if needed, not to impose law and order. Appointing Air Commodore Webb to not only run the show but to rake back over what had already happened is a clear vote of no confidence in the health officials.

The next few days will be crucial. Testing and contact tracing that will be frantically happening should give us a better idea of whether this is limited to just the two women, or if the failures at the border are going to have more wide-reaching consequences.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The governor of Papua New Guinea’s West Sepik province says people are still defying the official border closure and crossing into Indonesia.

Papua New Guinea closed its border with the neighbouring country three months ago in an effort to stop the spread of the covid-19 coronavirus, of which there has been a surge of cases in Indonesia’s Papua province.

READ MORE: West Papua’s highway of blood – destruction not development

Governor Tony Wouwou said West Sepik acted early, with awareness campaigns and the deployment of a rapid response team, to implement public restrictions.

But he said there were still not enough security forces to stop people, particularly PNG vanilla traders, crossing the border through the jungle.

“In the sea as well too. Normally they go through at night time to do their vanilla trading,” he said.

“Though we have personnel staying in Vanimo – Defence Force and police – we still don’t have enough man forces to ensure we secure our borders.”

Dozens stranded in Jayapura
Meanwhile, dozens of Papua New Guinean citizens stranded in neighbouring Indonesia were waiting approval from the Emergency Controller to be repatriated.

Up to 120 citizens, mainly people recently released from prison, had been stuck for weeks in Jayapura, the capital of the Indonesian-administered Papua province, pending permission to be transferred by authorities across the nearby border to PNG’s West Sepik province

Governor Wouwou said the stranded PNG citizens were still waiting for the PNG Controller, Police Commissioner David Manning, to give the green light for them to cross the border.

“So that is what we are looking for now, waiting for him to give his approval. Once we have approval in order, then we might as well ask the Indonesian government to bring them across to the border and we’ll pick them up from there,” Wouwou said.

“By next week, we should be done,” he said, adding that it was expected that Indonesian health officials would only allow the PNG citizens to cross the border after clearing tests for covid-19.

On the PNG side, they were expected to go into mandatory 14-day quarantine in Vanimo.

Wouwou said that they would be quarantined in two houses, with the group coming across in smaller groups over staggered phases to prevent overcrowding.

While provincial resources were stretched to cope with the exercise, Wouwou said West Sepik was waiting on funding from PNG’s national government.

• This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.
• If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP – don’t show up at a medical centre.
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Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Watch

Police in Papua New Guinea have arrested nine alleged illegal border crossers and quarantined them in Vanimo, reports RNZ Pacific.

The arrests came as East Sepik Governor Allan Bird called for “shoot to kill’ orders for illegal border crossers and a military control of areas along the border between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

The newspaper The National reports three Indonesians from Papua and six vanilla sellers from PNG’s East Sepik province had crossed the border from Indonesia

READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus live updates – Global cases surpass 900,000

They were arrested and then placed in 14 days of quarantine by the West Sepik provincial health authority.

The land border between PNG and Indonesia has been closed since late January due in an attempt to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The West Sepik police commander, Chief Inspector Moses Ibsagi, said the illegal border crossers were not taking heed of the national government’s warning on the dangers of Covid-19.

Mr Ibsagi said the vanilla traders in particular, who had just returned from selling their beans in Jayapura, were more concerned about money than the lives of eight million people of PNG.

Confirmed cases in Jayapura
With several confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Jayapura, and likely more unreported cases, the provincial police commander is concerned about the virus spreading via the PNG kina bank notes which the traders obtained in Jayapura.

He warned that when the money was brought back to PNG, it could circulate through buying and selling of goods or services, helping the virus to easily spread among local people.

Meanwhile, in a statement yesterday, East Sepik Governor Allan Bird called for a “shoot to kill” policy.

“I have a disturbing report that people are still crossing the border from Indonesia into my province. Even as of l[Sunday night] five people came in a speed boat and three people the previous night,” Bird said.

“I am asking if a special order can be made and our border districts be placed under military control.

“I want the military to be given shoot to kill orders. East Sepik has no hospital facilities. We are only operating out of makeshift shelters. We can’t cope.”

Bird said the East Sepik province had so far 37 people of interest and all of them had come across from Indonesia.

‘Massive infections’
“I understand Indonesians who are frightened by the massive infections on that side could be crossing the borders to run away from the disease. If that happens, we are finished.

“I have been raising concerns about this border for more than two months. Nobody listened to my concerns.

“I am raising a new threat from the border which I see coming. They could already be moving across as I speak.

“Leaders we must take this decision to save our people.”

Bird is expected to raise the same issue when Parliament meets today to introduce the Emergency Bill to give legal effect to the state-of-emergency and also to introduce a supplementary budget containing a stimulus package containing relief during the emergency period.

Prime Minister James Marape has also given assurance that the police and military presence would be beefed up along the border provinces of West Sepik and Western.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Elias Nanau in Port Moresby

Indonesia has issued a stern warning over illegal border crossers from Papua New Guinea.

This follows Indonesia stepping up its security measures at the border in response to the global Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The First Secretary to the governor for West Sepik, Adam Wangu, has already informed people via a social media forum.

READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus live updates: Italy deaths rise by 756 in one day

He was informed by the Papua New Guinean Embassy in Jakarta that police and military personnel are guarding all the entry points that are used by PNG citizens.

“There maybe no mercy if you are caught,” Wangu said.

“Don’t take this message as a joke.”

Four men picked up
This follows an instance where four men from Maprik in East Sepik who were picked up on Thursday in Vanimo as persons of interest after they illegally crossed through the jungle past Wutung into Jayapura to sell their vanilla beans.

Provincial police commander Moses Ibsagi said yesterday West Sepik was on lockdown and a few hinterland areas like Lumi were being monitored by police reservists that had been engaged.

He said frontline service providers such as PNG Power, police, military personnel, health officials, quarantine and customs were still active.

A Consort shipping vessel is expected to arrive in Vanimo with store goods and Ibsagi said the police had issued notice to people to stock food rations.

Police Minister Bryan Kramer, in a press conference on Thursday, said the national operations Covid-19 was considering West Sepik and Western as high risk locations and there would be increased surveillance there to protect the country from any openings for the virus.

The government should make an announcement this week on the deployment.

Indonesia has reported coronavirus infections on the rise to at least 1155 with 102 deaths, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) figures yesterday.

In Papua New Guinea, there has been only one reported case of an international traveller who has since been airlifted out of the country.

Elias Nanau is a PNG Post-Courier reporter.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz