APRIL 23, 2010
Delap owners shut off Supply for 2 days
Delap landowners briefly locked and blocked the main entrance to the RMI government’s Procurement and Supply Office earlier this week in a dispute over rent payments. A meeting Tuesday involving Acting Attorney General Jack Jorbon, Finance Minister Jack Ading, Internal Affairs Minister Norman Matthew and landowner representative Mili Senator Kejjo Bien was held at the Marshall Islands Resort, resulting in a verbal agreement that caused the landowners to unlock the building.
MEC, BOG negotiate for loan extension
MEC and the Bank of Guam are working out details to extend the loan due date for another three years, MEC General Manager David Paul told the Journal Wednesday.
Following meetings with Bank of Guam Vice President William D. Leon Guerrero in Majuro last week, Paul expressed confidence that details of the plan can be worked out before June 1 — when, according to the current agreement, nearly $9 million is due. According to Paul, under the new plan being negotiated, MEC’s debt payment in three years will be reduced to about $4.5 million.
Students off to US colleges
The US Department of the Interior and the Junior Statesmen Foundation are providing four full scholarships for Marshall Islands students, who will be the first to attend this summer school program in the United States. Tony Dujmovic, a junior at Marshall Islands High School, Ida Najera, a sophomore at Ebeye Seventh Day Adventist School, Julie Ann Ritok, a freshman at Majuro Cooperative High School, and Selvenious Marvin, a junior at Marshall Islands High School are the 2010 winners of these prestigious scholarship awards.
Cable celebration
The new fiber optic cable was officially dedicated Friday at the National Telecommunications Authority headquarters in Delap with speeches, a ribbon cutting and food. It took 10 years of planning and perseverance to see the cable through to reality, said Justice Minister Brenson Wase, who is NTA’s board chairman.
Attempted murder case…
GIFF JOHNSON
A tale of two versions of the same incident is headed for an August court trial, according to charges of second-degree attempted murder filed recently. Two men have been charged with attempted
murder and a slew of assault charges for allegedly assaulting an off-duty Majuro Atoll Local Government police officer in Rita. But the case and testimony presented by prosecutor Acting Attorney General Jack Jorbon and the defense described by Chief Public Defender Russell Kun
sound like two completely different incidents. Jorbon filed attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, conspiracy, attempted assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery charges against Huang Peishu and Liang Shoujie.
But Kun told the Journal that his client, Huang, was bashed by a group of Marshallese,
sustaining significantly worse injury than the off-duty MALGov policeman presented
as the victim by the national government. Kun said Tonko was not in uniform at the
time. At a preliminary hearing last Thursday, the two pleaded not guilty and waived
their right to a jury trial. Judge James Plasman set August 24 for a bench trial.
According to police affidavit filed by the national police in the case, MALGov
officer Tiem Tonko said he saw a vehicle speeding on the ocean road in Rita
on February 25. A few minutes later, when it came back along the road at high
speed, he put a rock in the road to stop it, he said. (Continued below)
Julie Ann ‘Lulani’ Ritok is one of four students who are spending the summer
at US colleges under a scholarship program through the Interior Department and the Junior Statesmen Foundation. She is pictured starring in Ña Noniep.
Photo: Suzanne Chutaro
Who is the real victim in cop case?
When the vehicle stopped and Tonko went to talk to the driver, the driver made a call on his cell phone, Tonko said. The driver got out, picked up the rock in front of his car, and then Tonko grabbed a rock himself. Next thing, a friend of the driver showed up, and the pair came after Tonko with a rock, machete and a two foot long piece of metal, according to Tonko and other witnesses. The MALGov cop fled, pursued by two defendants, the affidavit said. When he tripped and fell, they proceeded to assault him with the weapons causing serious injuries, the police said. Huang and Liang are reported to have then jumped into a taxi and fled the scene. But Kun said there is a huge problem with the government’s evidence, starting with the basic facts of the case. Because the standard of evidence is lower at a preliminary hearing than it is at trial, Kun said he believes prosecutors will have a hard time proving their case beyond a “reasonable doubt,” which is the standard of evidence at trial. “Not one Marshallese has been charged with the assault on my client,” Kun said, adding that police took photos of the facial and other injuries sustained by Huang during the incident in Rita two months ago, but did not present this evidence as part of prosecution’s case. Huang was “way worse off than the MALGov policeman,” Kun said. But despite his serious injury, the police jailed the defendant, forcing Kun to file a motion to secure his release for medical treatment. In contrast to the information presented by Tonko and the government, Kun said the reason his clients where in the area was to collect daily taxi money owed to their business. In addition, Kun scoffs at the contention in the government affidavits that Huang ran away after purportedly beating Tonko. “Huang was in no condition to run away,” Kun said. “He was really bashed up.” Kun said the government presented no evidence to back up the affidavits other than photos of Tonko’s injuries. “At the trial, it will be a different ball game altogether,” Kun said.
Law students in 'financial crisis'
DOUGLAS HENRY, in Port Vila, Vanuatu
Overseas Marshallese scholarship recipients in Vanuatu cannot afford college tuition and living costs, and say RMI funding is paying for less than half the cost of school fees. The Marshallese students doing law at the University of the South Pacific Vanuatu Campus told the Journal this week their parents are stepping in to help pay some of the costs from their own pockets. Although the students say they have repeatedly complained to the RMI Scholarship Board, board officials in Majuro told the Journal this is the first they’ve heard about tuition problems for Marshallese in Vanuatu. “We’re working with our Fiji Embassy to resolve problems with students there,” said board Chairperson Marie Maddison. “But this is the first I’ve heard about Vanuatu. We will look into it.” A University of the South Pacific breakdown prepared in November last year shows the total fees required for a semester amount to $6,259 per student compared to the awarded amount from the Marshall Islands Scholarship, Loan, and Grant Board of $3,051 a semester. How would you feel if your government sent you to war without any ammunition and reinforcements? This is exactly how students feel while attending USP in Vanuatu. “We don’t want to point fingers at anyone, but the scholarship board members should do something about this,” said one of the students under the scholarship program. Despite the fact that Vanuatu’s currency is lower in value to US currency, when it comes to purchase power, they have about the same value in Vanuatu, where a bag of rice is about $5 more than what it is in Majuro. “How can I represent my country when I don’t have all their full financial support?” asked one of the students. “My parents had contributed about $3,000 this semester. But what about those students whose parents have low income, how are they supposed to survive?” There are five Marshallese students attending USP’s law school in Vanuatu, three of whom were awarded funding by the Marshall Islands Scholarship, Loan, and Grant Board. Luckily, these student also have alternative help from fellow Marshallese and Federated States of Micronesia students under Australian AusAID scholarship who are receiving more for their four year terms and so have been able to lend a hand to our students with insufficient funds, by feeding them a meal or two a day. Last year, both AusAID and New Zealand AID beneficiaries wrote a formal proposal to increase their scholarships and as a result, their scholarships went up. This was helped by government officials from Kiribati, Tokelau, and Fiji taking initiative to send a scholarship official to see first hand what their scholarship recipients were going through. Maddison said Fiji students are having money issues, and the Scholarship Board is working with Ambassador Amatlain Kabua in Suva to help solve the problems. Maddison said that in the past one problem identified is to do with budgeting of funds by the students. Some students have paid for other needs prior to tuition and then don’t have enough to cover tuition costs, she said. One option is for the Scholarship Board to pay the school directly to ensure these costs are satisfied first. Maddison said she hopes to get a report on the Fiji situation later this week, and would look into the Vanuatu problems. “We have a board meeting next week,” she added.
People from the eight nations involved in the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) have been meeting in Majuro since the weekend, and on Thursday will officially dedicate their new headquarters in Delap. Major initiatives for managing tuna in the central and western Pacific are expected from the meetings that conclude on Friday at the ICC. Photo: Giff Johnson.
Aim to get bigger share of tuna $$$
Eight Pacific island nations that control an area where more than half of the region’s tuna fish is caught have put fishing nations on notice that they want a larger share from the $4 billion the industry generates annually. To accomplish this, a meeting this week in Majuro aims to flesh out details of plans to tighten conservation controls, reduce annual catch limits and increase revenue to the islands, said Transform Aqorau, Director of the new headquarters for the “Parties to the Nauru Agreement” (PNA) that is based in Majuro. “There are far too many days available for fishing and too many boats fishing in the region now,” Aqorau said Sunday. Reducing the number of days and vessels fishing will accomplish both conservation and revenue generation goals.