Showing posts with label neo-colonialism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label neo-colonialism. Show all posts

Thursday, December 08, 2011

X-Post from WSWS: Julian Moti Case

The excerpt:

Australian High Court blocks frame-up charges against Moti

By Patrick O’Connor
8 December 2011
The Australian government suffered a significant blow yesterday, with a High Court ruling in favour of former Solomon Islands’ Attorney General Julian Moti. In a 6-to-1 majority decision, the court permanently barred any criminal prosecution of Moti on trumped-up statutory rape charges. It found that further prosecution of the charges would amount to an abuse of judicial process, because the Australian government had consciously colluded in Moti’s illegal removal from the Solomons in December 2007.

The judgement marks the collapse of Canberra’s protracted legal vendetta against Moti. Successive Liberal and Labor governments—working with the Australian Federal Police and the Australian diplomatic corps in the South Pacific—attempted to destroy Moti’s professional standing and political influence in the region and have him imprisoned for years because he was regarded as an impediment to the interests of Australian imperialism. From a Melanesian nationalist standpoint, Moti, an expert in international and constitutional law, had worked to uphold the national sovereignty and international legal rights of the small South Pacific states. This came into conflict with Canberra’s aggressive drive, backed by the US, to maintain its regional hegemony amid China’s rising influence.

Patrick O'Connor On Julian Moti Case

"The judgement marks the collapse of Canberra’s protracted legal vendetta against Moti. Successive Liberal and Labor governments—working with the Australian Federal Police and the Australian diplomatic corps in the South Pacific—attempted to destroy Moti’s professional standing and political influence in the region and have him imprisoned for years because he was regarded as an impediment to the interests of Australian imperialism [...]
The Australian government feared that Moti would use his legal experience and expertise to mount a challenge in the Solomons’ and international courts to RAMSI, exposing its highly dubious legal underpinnings."

In 2004, Australian authorities dredged up fabricated sexual assault allegations against Moti that had already been dismissed by Vanuatu courts. The Australian government’s interest in the charges was politically motivated from the very beginning. Internal memos, diplomatic cables, and emails—only made public because of Moti’s subsequent fight in the Australian courts—revealed that the then Australian High Commissioner to Solomon Islands, Patrick Cole, demanded an Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation to assist his efforts to prevent Moti’s appointment as the Solomons’ attorney general. Cole was desperate to prevent any challenge to Australia’s neo-colonial intervention force, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI).

The initial allegations were levelled against Moti in 1997 in Vanuatu. Charges were quickly thrown out of court in the pre-trial stage, due to the contradictory and demonstrably false evidence presented by the alleged victim and her family. Last March, the father of the alleged victim confessed, just three days before he died of a heart attack, that the allegations were false and maliciously motivated. He accused the AFP of intimidating his family and offering financial inducements. These allegations have never been investigated. The Australian media has maintained a blackout on the confession—with the exception of SBS Radio, not a single outlet has referred to the father’s statement.

The AFP’s investigation into Moti, named “Operation Rouge”, became the vehicle for his removal from the Solomon Islands in December 2007, after Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare was finally removed from office following a protracted destabilisation campaign mounted by the Australian government. Moti has always maintained that his extraction from the Solomons was illegal—amounting to a kidnapping or rendition—and that the Australian judicial system was therefore bound, in accordance with established precepts of international and common law, to refuse to permit the further prosecution of the charges.

The High Court has now agreed. It noted that the so-called deportation was executed in violation of Moti’s right to appeal the order within seven days of its issuance and also in defiance of a specific order issued by a Solomons’ magistrate prohibiting Moti’s detention and removal from the country. Australian authorities knew this, but nevertheless issued Moti with the necessary travel documentation, without his knowledge or permission.

The High Court explained: “First, Australian officials (both in Honiara and in Canberra) knew that the senior representative of Australia in Honiara at the time (the Acting High Commissioner) was of opinion that the appellant’s [Moti’s] deportation was not lawful. Second, the Acting High Commissioner’s opinion was obviously right. Third, despite the expression of this opinion, and its obviously being right, Australian officials facilitated the unlawful deportation of the appellant by supplying a travel document relating to him (and travel documents for those who would accompany him) at a time when it was known that the documents would be used to effect the unlawful deportation.”

On this basis, the court concluded that the maintenance of proceedings against Moti would constitute an “abuse of process of the court” and therefore had to be permanently quashed.

Justice Dyson Heydon issued a minority opinion, arguing against the established legal principle that courts ought to refuse to prosecute someone who has been kidnapped or illegally removed from a foreign jurisdiction by government authorities. Heydon insisted that prosecutions ought to be permitted regardless of how the defendant is brought before the court. The chilling opinion effectively sought to sanction rendition. It pointed to the deeply anti-democratic conceptions that are widely held in the legal and political elite and promoted under the banner of the so-called war on terror.

The majority High Court decision overturned the previous judgements of the lower courts that adjudicated on the Moti case.

In December 2009, the Queensland Supreme Court issued a permanent bar on the attempted prosecution, on the basis of the extraordinary AFP payments to the alleged victim and her family. Between February 2008 and November 2009 about $150,000 was paid—a sum far in excess of regular subsistence witness payments. Payments were repeatedly escalated as the alleged victim threatened to withdraw from the case and go to the media to expose how she was being used to advance the Australian government’s political interests. The Queensland Supreme Court said these payments had brought “the administration of justice into disrepute”—but at the same time insisted that it could not adjudicate on the legality of Moti’s removal from the Solomons’ because this was a foreign jurisdiction.

In July 2010, the Queensland Supreme Court of Appeal reinstated the charges against Moti, dismissing concerns over both the AFP payments and the legality of the lawyer’s removal from the Solomons.

The High Court has now insisted that the so-called witness payments were not illegal and had not been used to procure evidence from prosecution witnesses. It added that any improprieties could be raised in the course of a trial to challenge the credibility of witness testimony, but did not warrant a stay of proceedings. This finding appears to establish a dangerous precedent. Permitting a trial even when enormous sums of money are provided by the AFP to procure testimony, if not evidence, creates a potential incentive for individuals to fabricate allegations against Australian citizens visiting or living in the region, especially those identified as opponents of the government.

The High Court ruling on the illegality of the Australian government’s actions in December 2007 is nevertheless very significant. Canberra’s unlawful targeting of the Solomons’ attorney general points to the fraudulent basis for the entire RAMSI intervention. In 2003, the Australian government deployed soldiers, police, and government and legal officials as part of an indefinite takeover of the Solomons’ state apparatus. This was promoted as a “humanitarian” mission, centrally aimed at re-establishing the rule of law in the country, following years of low-level communal conflict. Yet the Australian government has repeatedly demonstrated contempt for the law in the Solomon Islands and across the South Pacific.

The High Court made no attempt to answer the obvious question raised by its assessment of what happened in December 2007: Why did the Australian government so blatantly break the law in order to get Moti out of the Solomons?

The illegal extraction was the culmination of a 20-month campaign waged by Canberra against the Sogavare government and its attorney general, Julian Moti. By December 2007, the Australian government was desperate to get Moti out of the Solomons, using whatever means at its disposal. After becoming prime minister in May 2006, Sogavare attempted to lessen RAMSI’s control over the country’s public finances, and he also called on the intervention force to outline its “exit strategy” from the country. Both moves were furiously denounced by the then Howard government, and the destabilisation campaign began.

Moti’s close relations with Sogavare were another factor in Canberra’s drive to force “regime change” in Honiara. The Australian government feared that Moti would use his legal experience and expertise to mount a challenge in the Solomons’ and international courts to RAMSI, exposing its highly dubious legal underpinnings. Moti was also an important participant in the Solomons government’s efforts to convene an official Commission of Inquiry into rioting that destroyed much of Honiara in April 2006, just before Sogavare became prime minister. There is substantial evidence indicating that the violence was instigated by RAMSI forces, which were then deliberately stood down in order to allow the destruction to unfold. Canberra denounced the proposed investigation and witch hunted everyone involved in it. Former Australian Federal Court Justice Marcus Einfeld had been appointed chairman of the Commission of Inquiry—but was forced to resign after becoming subject to a well-timed government and media vilification campaign over a perjury incident related to an unpaid speeding fine.

Unsurprisingly, none of these issues was canvassed in the High Court’s judgement. Even in its focus on the illegal facilitation of Moti’s extraction from the Solomons in December 2007, the court dealt only with the issuing of travel documents. The High Court insisted that it was “not necessary” to examine the activities of AFP agent Peter Bond. The police officer played an extraordinary role in Honiara immediately prior to Moti’s expulsion to Australia. Bond, according to the evidence presented by Moti’s counsel, participated in high level Solomons’ government meetings convened to organise the so-called deportation, personally fast tracked visas and travel documents for everyone involved in the Moti flight, assured the Solomons’ police commissioner that the lawyer’s removal was legal, directed a Solomons’ immigration officer to “do it quickly because the plane would be waiting”, and finally made sure that AFP officers would be waiting to arrest Moti in Australia the moment his plane landed.


In a statement to the World Socialist Web Site after the High Court judgement, Moti said: “The rule of law has finally prevailed over Australian executive lawlessness. The sole objective of the Australian government and its prosecuting authorities was to discredit, demonise and humiliate me. It was in Australia’s ‘national interest’ that I be removed from my official post—and continuing influence in the Pacific region—at any cost. ‘Operation Rouge’ was the codename devised for the Australian government’s mission to criminally accuse, capture, kidnap, remove, eliminate and silence a dissident Australian who dared to challenge Australian imperialism in the South Seas.”


The High Court ruling is an important vindication of Moti’s determined struggle against the Australian government’s vendetta. Enormous pressure has been brought to bear on him and his family. For the last four years he has been unable to work or claim any form of income support. He has lived without a passport or driver’s licence, and been forced to comply with unnecessary and onerous bail conditions, including regularly reporting to the local police station. He has nevertheless waged an expensive and protracted legal battle to expose the unlawful acts committed by the Australian government against him. In doing so, he has brought to light important documentation exposing the filthy operations of RAMSI and the Australian government in the Solomons that would otherwise never have been made public.

Moti is now reportedly considering his options in pressing for compensation from the Australian and Solomon Islands’ governments. He is also, according to barrister Roger de Robillard, considering calling for an official inquiry similar to those into the illegal deportation of Australian national Vivian Alvarez Solon to the Philippines in 2003 and the unlawful detention of Cornelia Rau in a refugee detention centre in 2004-05.


Archive video interview of Julian Moti by Sarah Ferguson from Channel 9.


Related posts

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

X-Post from Grubsheet: AUSTRALIA’S REGIONAL FOLLY

#49 AUSTRALIA’S REGIONAL FOLLY

Graham Davis

The folly of Australian policy towards Fiji is at the centre of a damning new landmark report that suggests the United States has lost confidence in Canberra’s ability to influence events in the Pacific and counter rising Chinese influence in the region. It calls for the immediate and unconditional lifting of regional sanctions against Fiji and for Australia to “repair its relationship at the highest level” by re-engaging with the Bainimarama regime through the Pacific Islands Forum. “It is well past the time to treat this festering regional wound”, it declares.

The report – covering all aspects of Australia’s relations with the Pacific and entitled “Our Near Abroad” – has been issued by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute ( ASPI), an independent, government-funded think tank set up in 2001 to advise Canberra on its defence and strategic policy options. The conclusions of its authors – Professor Richard Herr and Anthony Bergin – are bound to stick in the craw of Australia’s foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, for they present a direct challenge to the entire edifice of current Pacific policy.

The report details in stark terms the extent to which Australia has been isolated in the region and is losing its ability to influence “collective decision making in the South Pacific”. It cites as evidence the fact that eleven Pacific Island members of the United Nations have formed a voting bloc that excludes Australia and that the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) – which also excludes Australia – has backed fellow member Fiji against Australian sanctions.

Grubsheet On ASPI report
"
Fiji’s membership of the Non Aligned Movement ” underscores Suva’s more aggressive pursuit of South-South dialogue, specifically to reduce reliance on its traditional friends, including Australia. Whether intended or not, China has been a significant beneficiary of this development as a leading state in the NAM
[...]The importance of Fiji for the new geopolitics of the region is that it’s actively challenging Australia’s privileged position in the regional system.

There are many reasons why Australia should repair relations with Fiji, but the deleterious effects of the current contretemps on the Pacific Islands Forum are the key because they cascade through the regional system
[...]ASPI report says that while “the US is reluctant to openly express criticism of Australia’s handling of regional relations, it’s clear there are genuine doubts about Australia’s capacity to lead islands’ opinion on relations with China"


It calls on Australia to “regather the threads of regional leadership” with a comprehensive range of measures that include repairing its relationship with Fiji, a country it describes as being at “the heart of the Pacific Islands regional system” as the principal transportation, communications and diplomatic hub. “The region cannot survive without its heart” – the report says – describing Fiji’s suspension from the Pacific Islands Forum as having “seriously changed regional dynamics”.

ASPI warns of the consequences of Fiji seeking new international relationships because of its breach with Australia and New Zealand over Frank Bainimarama’s 2006 coup. It says Fiji’s membership of the Non Aligned Movement ” underscores Suva’s more aggressive pursuit of South-South dialogue, specifically to reduce reliance on its traditional friends, including Australia. Whether intended or not, China has been a significant beneficiary of this development as a leading state in the NAM”, the report concludes.

The authors suggest that Fiji has outwitted Australia to the detriment of its national interests in the Pacific and the strength and cohesion of regional organisations such as the Pacific Forum . “The importance of Fiji for the new geopolitics of the region is that it’s actively challenging Australia’s privileged position in the regional system. There are many reasons why Australia should repair relations with Fiji, but the deleterious effects of the current contretemps on the Pacific Islands Forum are the key because they cascade through the regional system”. The report cites “the impossibility” of concluding the current PACER Plus trade negotiations and “the rift between the Pacific Islands Forum and the Melanesian Spearhead Group”, which have taken opposing views on Fiji.

It goes on to say that “Forum-related sanctions (against Fiji) are being subverted by other organisations, including the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the Forum Fisheries Agency and even RAMSI, the billion dollar Australian intervention in Solomon Islands. It describes those sanctions as “impractical” and says “they have proved dysfunctional for Australia and for its image in the region”. It also says the delay in repairing the relationship has been costly, partly because attitudes in Fiji about the need for Australian assistance appear to have hardened”.

As well as the lifting of sanctions, the report calls on Australia to follow New Zealand’s lead in re-establishing ministerial contact. More controversially, it also calls for the re-establishment of Australia’s ties with the Fiji military to deal with maritime security, border protection and transnational crime.

ASPI goes on to examine the divergence in approach between the United States and Australia towards Fiji, exemplified last week when Washington’s new ambassador in Suva, Frankie Reed, visited Frank Bainimarama in the prime minister’s office. No Australian or New Zealand head of mission has had any direct contact with the Fijian leader since his coup five years ago. The report quotes Ms Reed as having described Fiji’s position in the Pacific as “unique” and said it was “a key focal point in America’s larger regional engagement with the South Pacific”.

In stark contrast with the Australian position, the ambassador said the United States sought a “more direct engagement with Fiji’s government to encourage the restoration of democracy” within the regime’s stated timetable of September 2014.
The ASPI report says that while “the US is reluctant to openly express criticism of Australia’s handling of regional relations, it’s clear there are genuine doubts about Australia’s capacity to lead islands’ opinion on relations with China”.

It concludes that “the US is taking on a more direct role in protecting its own interests in the region, just as it did in the mid to late 1980s when it felt that managing Cold War challenges in the Pacific Islands was beyond the capacity of Australia and New Zealand”.

EDS NOTE: Please excuse the lack of photographs due to a glitch with my WordPress account.





Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Plunging The Pacific Into A New Order?

The regional leadership in the Pacific has a new entity, called the Polynesian Leadership Group (PLG) made up of island states from Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue, American Samoa, Tokelau, French Polynesia and Tuvalu.
Representatives of eight Polynesian countries 

A Talamua article suggests that the Polynesian union was a 35 year dream, realized. According to the Samoa Observer Editorial, this new   regional sub-group bloc is the culmination of five years of planning. Even though it was implicitly denied by the nascent Chair but categorically implied that, the trajectory of this new sub-group is projected to be used as a geopolitical leverage against the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).
Such manifestations by the new sub-group will be destined for negative divisions says Pacific academic Steven Ratuva in a Radio NZ web article.
Although, the invitation was extended to Fiji to join; it is certainly no secret that the Samoan Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi had been quite a parochial critic of Frank Bainiamarama, and constantly interjecting himself into the domestic affairs of Fiji. Nevertheless this hubris is seen as simply more grandstanding by the Samoan Prime Minister.

Island Business article:

Mon, 19 Sep 2011
AUCKLAND, NZ (SCOOPNZ) --- New Zealand may be invited to join Pacific Island countries in a ginger group promoting Polynesia’s interests.John Andrews in Auckland for Pacific Insights

For years the idea of a Polynesian-oriented grouping has been debated by Polynesian leaders at their annual Pacific Islands Forum summit. Now a few of them have decided to do something about it.

At the behest of Samoa’s Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, one of the prime movers pushing for the formation of the group, five leaders met privately in the City Life Hotel on the eve of the forum summit in Auckland a fortnight ago.

The participants representing Cook Islands, Niue, Tuvalu, Tonga and Samoa, decided to instruct their respective senior officials to recommend wording for a charter and work out likely costs.

The Polynesian leaders agreed to meet again early in November in Samoa’s capital Apia to discuss their new group’s aims and organisational requirements.

There are indications they will select Tuilaepa as their first chairman, with a small secretariat set up initially in Apia.

Other non-forum member countries which may find themselves invited to send representatives to the meeting are American Samoa, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna and Easter Island.

Even Hawaii and New Zealand could get invitations because of their Polynesian affiliations.

Both Tuilaepa and Toke Talagi, Premier of Niue were adamant the proposed Polynesian Group would not present a political counter weight to influence purported to have been exerted in the region by the Melanesian Spearhead Group and their Micronesian Group neighbours.

Tuilaepa said the Micronesian member countries regarded their organisation as being very necessary for cohesion, just as the Melanesians did. Polynesian countries had learned a very useful lesson, albeit belatedly, as a result.

He did not expect any adverse reaction to the group’s formation, saying: “They suggested it themselves when I raised the issue in Fiji and in Tonga.”

Asked if New Zealand would be invited to become a member of the Polynesian Group, he said: “We haven’t made that decision yet. There are some complications.

“The proper thing is to go by the general guideline of the so called Polynesian Triangle which stretches from Hawaii to New Zealand to the east as far as Easter Island.”

To explain his views on sub-regionalism in the Pacific, Tuilaepa pointed to the speech he gave in July this year to mark the forum’s 40th anniversary.
He contended then that rather than being portrayed as a challenge to the region by building alternative coalitions, sub-regionalism should be viewed as “countries with a common history, related cultural traditions and a commitment to dialogue working together on issues of mutual interest”.

As well as preserving language, culture and traditions, sub-regionalism might provide better platforms for effective and efficient delivery programmes that benefitted the entire region.

The exposure of Polynesian people and countries to modern development and communications had heightened risks to the long term survival of their cultures and languages. To remain complacent would be a mistake.

Tuilaepa and Talagi said the Polynesian Group would remain on the periphery of the forum but indicated that, for financial reasons, it made sense for leaders to meet around the time of the annual forum summits.

Denying the new group was being formed to counter MSG influence, Niue Premier Talagi said: “It’s away from and nothing to do with the forum but at the same time we are talking about a similar sort of grouping for the Polynesian countries that are interested in establishing themselves as such.

“I think we have got to determine who the membership is but we consider New Zealand and Hawaii, for example, as being part of the Polynesian Triangle so they could very well be part of the members of this Polynesian Group. But it is not a breakaway from the forum.

“There are indications New Zealand may be interested to be part of it, as part of the Polynesian Triangle.
“There has always been an informal Polynesian group but it has never been formalised.”

Asked if the MSG people had been informed of the Polynesian Group plan, Talagi said: “Why would we? They never told us anything about their group, nor the Micronesians for that matter.”

Another event horizon - the Pacific common currency, is a seemingly brokered policy from Samoa, which had been actively researched and recommended by an Australia Senate Committee, according to a published Feasibility Study by two University of South  Pacific (USP) academics.


 




This timing of such a launch of a sub-grouping is quite interesting and comes in the wake of the recent APEC summit in Hawaii announcing the Trans-Pacific-Partnership (TPP) and the garrison of US troops in Darwin.

Dr. K R Bolton

"
When Kevin Rudd became Australian Prime Minister in 2008, he floated ideas for a Pacific regional bloc that are close to what is transpiring with the TPP[...]

In the speech he went beyond the usual call for a closer regional agreement between Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific island nations and advocated its broadening to include the USA and China. That is to say, the Pacific community idea which in many ways is desirable; especially if it could minimize the influence of China and the USA in the region, has been broadened to being exactly what was always intended: a step toward globalization at the behest of US-based plutocracy. What Rudd said a few years ago is instructive in providing background for the present TPP, which focuses on the USA and is broadened to Pacific Rim South American states
[...]
What Kevin Rudd proposed in 2008 was the agenda of the Trilateral Commission, created in 1973 by David Rockefeller. The Trilateral Commission was established as a think tank of globalist political and business leaders incorporating the USA, Europe and Japan.
"

In fact, the extended series of regional policy dictates, namely the new Polynesia sub-regional bloc, the PACER -Plus Trade Agreement and the common Pacific currency  respectively, are starting points to a proverbial slippery slope that also contain some sinister strategic implications, when placed in context with the observations of Dr. John Bolton, that was recently published in Foreign Policy Journal.




The excerpt of the Bolton's article:


Regional Globalization: The Trans-Pacific Partnership

by Dr. K R Bolton

November 19, 2011



The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is an important part of the globalization process that has been decades in the making. The process was formalized on November 12, 2011. While a “Pacific community” similar to the “European Community,” has often been mooted by New Zealand and Australian politicians,[1] TPP creates the foundation for full-fledged regional governance. Presently the states that comprise this TPP are: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States.[2]

The current format of this regional pact was announced by Ambassador Ron Kirk to the US Congress on December 14, 2009. As a free trade regional agreement, this means that each state will be obliged to open itself up to imports and a regional economic rationalization process that will Darwinistically eliminate those national industries that cannot compete. It means that once in, like other free trade agreements, extricating oneself becomes impossible. The much lauded prospects of increased employment and economic opportunities, by which such agreements are sold, such as that entered into by New Zealand with China does not – obviously – eventuate. “Partnership” and “competitiveness”[3] are used simultaneously, yet free trade intrinsically does not include “partnership”; it means driving the “weaker” to the wall on the pretext that the best survive and thereby the general economy is strengthened. It takes no account of national requirements, strategic needs, and ties each state to the rise or fall of the major players in a gamble with entire nations.

When Kevin Rudd became Australian Prime Minister in 2008, he floated ideas for a Pacific regional bloc that are close to what is transpiring with the TPP. What is significant, in identifying the globalist interests that are promoting this agenda, is that Rudd presented the idea to his countrymen via a speech to the Australian branch of the Asia Society, which will be considered below. In the speech he went beyond the usual call for a closer regional agreement between Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific island nations and advocated its broadening to include the USA and China. That is to say, the Pacific community idea which in many ways is desirable; especially if it could minimize the influence of China and the USA in the region, has been broadened to being exactly what was always intended: a step toward globalization at the behest of US-based plutocracy. What Rudd said a few years ago is instructive in providing background for the present TPP, which focuses on the USA and is broadened to Pacific Rim South American states.

Nonsense about each state doing what one can do best has been used for several decades now to sell the idea of economic rationalization. Any state that embarks on such a course of reanimated 19th Century economics is left with a ravaged economy that has no chance of being self-supporting. Economic rationalization in the name of “efficiency” creates a permanent pool of the unemployable because the champions of free market economics believe, as economic reductionists, that humans are interchangeable economic units that are infinitely malleable and can fit into whatever new environment is contrived. When the theory does not accord with reality, the victims, the new pool of unemployed, are further victimized as “welfare bludgers.” Free Trade, and its method of economic rationalization, is a failed dogma. New Zealand began the process of rationalization decades ago by the start of a long process of opening up to imports, on the assumption that “inefficient” businesses would fall, and leave only the best and most suitable to fit into a regional and ultimately a world economy (the “New International Economic Order” as it was then called).

The result was the destruction of New Zealand manufacturing, which has resulted in a large pool of unemployables, because the politicians cannot or will not understand that not everyone of working age is capable of being an IT worker. New Zealand’s labor intensive economy was wrecked for the sake of a globalist agenda and we today see the consequences.
The great achievement that has been negotiated is therefore to extend failed economic dogma beyond national levels and to the regional, in order that a very small element of business can expand without national impediments.
 
Globalist interests in the USA have not been pushing this “economic integration” as a humanitarian gesture. It is an important exercise in international power-politics. The other member states will be prostrate before US plutocracy as their resources come under the domination of free trade investment clauses in the TPP agreement. TPP will be sold in the other states as a great opportunity to sell exports to a big market. Nonsense. We have seen how the FTA between China and New Zealand operates. The big dominants and, where necessary, eliminates the little under Free Trade. The US administration is selling TPP with national rather than globalist rhetoric: “Increasing American Exports, Supporting American Jobs.”[4] Under Free Trade, there are winners and losers, and even recourse to war when the losers are no longer sustainable and fight rather than roll over and die, or when one export power conflicts with the interests of another, as in the case of World War II resulting from the success of German trade expansion in Europe and its extension into South American markets.

Free Trade has been imposed upon the world as the economic foundation for a US-dominated order since Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points”. The policy was reiterated by Roosevelt in the “Atlantic Charter.” The rhetoric has not changed for decades. When Roosevelt was laying down the terms for the post-war world to Churchill he stated:
Of course, after the war, one of the preconditions of any lasting peace will have to be the greatest possible freedom of trade. No artificial barriers. As few favored economic agreements as possible. Opportunities for expansion. Markets open for healthy competition.[5]
…Will anyone suggest that Germany’s attempt to dominate trade in central Europe was not a major contributing factor to war?[6]
International trade brings war, not peace, as it is a façade for domination by hegemonic interests. The terms of TPP are intended to benefit the USA, which means US-based globalist plutocrats, the Office of the US Trade Representative stating:
Cross-cutting issues not previously in trade agreements, such as making the regulatory systems of TPP countries more compatible so U.S. companies can operate more seamlessly in TPP markets, and helping innovative, job-creating small-and medium-sized enterprises participate more actively in international trade.[7]
Economic structures are therefore to be rationalized regionally to permit free entry for US encroachments. Reference to the benefits for small-and medium-sized enterprises is nonsense, as rationalization drives such enterprises to the wall. No state will be able to subsidize such enterprises, as it will be regarded as interfering in the free market and as unfair competition. State owned enterprises are also to be subjected to competition from the globalist corporations. As it is, many of the states involved, and in particular New Zealand, have been selling their state assets and enterprises, generally to make interest payments on debts to international finance.

What is left of state assets will be taken over by the major corporations, and national governments, such as they remain, will not be able to interfere because of regional regulations imposed by TPP and enforced by TPP laws and bureaucracies. Note that the above passage from the TPP principles states that regulations of each state will be altered to make national economies compatible with US corporate interests.  TPP terms will ensure, “state-owned enterprises compete fairly with private companies and do not distort competition in ways that put U.S. companies and workers at a disadvantage.”[8] This means pitting the state against private business in the free market, although state assets should be regarded as being of a strategic and not strictly an economic character. However, under Free Trade there is no such concept as a “strategic national interest.”
The nine founding states of TPP are intended as the beginning of a wider process, “and will begin bilateral processes with these interested countries to discuss their readiness and ambition to meet the standards and objectives of the TPP.”[9]
The ramifications of TPP will be known only as they take effect as – apart from the final declaration – the documents of the agreement are secret for four years from ratification.[10]

Globalists’ Pacific Agenda

What Kevin Rudd proposed in 2008 was the agenda of the Trilateral Commission, created in 1973 by David Rockefeller. The Trilateral Commission was established as a think tank of globalist political and business leaders incorporating the USA, Europe and Japan. The newly appointed Italian Prime Minster, Mario Monti, is the TC European chairman,[11] who also served with Goldman Sachs.

What is notable in the context of the TPP is that the Trilateral Commission (TC) a few years ago extended its agenda to include Mexico, and the “Japan Group” has now become the “Pacific Asian Group.” Japan has stated its interest in joining the TPP.[12] Although Mexico is not one of the founding member states of TPP, the extension of Trilateralism, which originally focused on North America, Europe and Japan, was extended to Latin America and to Asia as a whole. TC stated of this:

Two strong convictions guide our thinking for the 2006-2009 triennium. First, the Trilateral Commission remains as important as ever in helping our countries fulfill their shared leadership responsibilities in the wider international system and, second, its framework needs to be widened to reflect broader changes in the world. Thus, the Japan Group has become a Pacific Asian Group, and Mexican members have been added to the North American Group. The European Group continues to widen in line with the enlargement of the EU.[13]
Of the TC Pacific Asian Group, members are drawn from the following countries to reflect this aim of a Pacific-wide union.
In 2000, the Japanese group of 85 members expanded to become a Pacific Asian group of 96 members, and includes 57 members from Japan, 15 members from Korea, 8 from Australia and New Zealand, 16 from the original five ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand). The new Pacific Asian group also includes participants from the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.[14]
The Commission also implies that these regional groupings are the prelude to a “new world order”:
The “growing interdependence” that so impressed the founders of the Trilateral Commission in the early 1970s is deepening into “globalization.” The need for shared thinking and leadership by the Trilateral countries, who (along with the principal international organizations) remain the primary anchors of the wider international system, has not diminished but, if anything, intensified. At the same time, their leadership must change to take into account the dramatic transformation of the international system. As relations with other countries become more mature—and power more diffuse—the leadership tasks of the original Trilateral countries need to be carried out with others to an increasing extent.[15]

This process of “interdependence” growing into “globalization” and a “dramatic transformation of the international system” has been deliberately pushed by the Trilateral Commission, and similar bodies such as the Bilderberg Group and the Council on Foreign Relations, all of which have significant interlocking memberships. It is not part of some organic historical process; it is a contrivance.
The Trilateralist statement above alludes to the broadening of the Trilateralist countries to “others”; again in this instance not just Japan, but the entirety of Asia and the Pacific. Although Trilateralists have dominated the Japanese business and political Establishments, they were hitherto restrained from entering into globalist agreements by the strength of the farming sector that feared American agricultural imports. The globalists have already stated that TPP means little until Japan is incorporated into it:

But if the TPP were to remain as it is presently constituted — without Japan’s inclusion — the agreement would not be the economic boon many hoped it would…. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said in Tokyo in October that the United States would “welcome Japan’s interest in the TPP, recognizing of course that Japan’s decision to pursue joining will be made based on its own careful considerations of its priorities and interests.” For its part, Tokyo seems ready to join the talks. Japanese entry has been on the table since October 2010, when then Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his foreign minister, Seiji Maehara, both endorsed it.[16]

However, as with other such regionalist groupings, such as the European Union, the catalyst is recognition of an outer threat; in this case, China, which has recently acted in typically belligerent and overbearing manner towards Japan over disputed territorial claims.[17] It was a similar threat supposedly posed by the USSR that drove Europe into a “union” under American auspices and on US terms. Just what type of protection from Chinese intransigence would be accorded TPP under US Big Brother is indicated by the close relationship that has long existed between China and the same globalists who have been promoting the Pacific union concept. China is represented on the boards of bodies such as TC and the Pacific Basin Economic Council, another long-running lobby that aims for “economic integration.” New Zealand’s FTA with China is pivotal to the village idiot vision of New Zealand’s economy, and any involvement with TPP is going to have to recognize China as a regional power in partnership with the USA, as not as a rival power in the region. The specter of China merely serves as a temporary scare tactic for the imposition of TPP.

Rudd’s 2008 Statement

What has transpired this month places the statements made by the then Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (presently Foreign Minister) in context, especially in regard to his having delivered the speech before the Asia Society, a long-running Rockefeller think tank that predates the Trilateral Commission. Media reports at the time stated:

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has called on Asian and Pacific nations to form a regional alliance similar to the European Union. Mr. Rudd says a strong multilateral body is needed to help the region maintain security, foster trade and respond to natural disasters and terrorism. He said Asia needs to react quickly to cope with changes brought about by rapid economic growth in the region.
“The European Union does not represent an identikit model of what we would seek to develop in the Asia-Pacific, but what we can learn from Europe is this – it is necessary to take the first step,” he said.  But he concedes getting Asian nations together will be much tougher than the task faced by the architects of the European Union last century.
“Our special challenge is that we face a region with a greater diversity in political systems and economic structures, levels of development, religious beliefs, languages and cultures than our counterparts in Europe,” he said. “But that should not stop us from thinking big.” The Government will appoint experienced diplomat Richard Woolcott as an envoy to discuss Mr. Rudd’s idea with other countries.
Mr. Rudd says the institution should span the entire Asian-Pacific region including the United States, Japan, China, India and Indonesia.” The danger in not acting is that we run the risk of succumbing to the perception that future conflict in our region may somehow be inevitable,” he said. Mr. Rudd will use his visit to Japan and Indonesia next week to lobby Asian nations on the proposal.[18]

Asia Society
 
Rudd’s speech was delivered to the Asia Society’s Australian branch, called Austral Asia Center, in Melbourne. Note that Australia is referred to as “Austral Asia” by the Society; a play on words of the term that is normally used to describe Australia and New Zealand. This reflects how the global plutocrats see the nations of Australia and New Zealand, and politicians such as New Zealand’s former Prime Minister Jim Bolger, have long been referring to New Zealand as “an Asian country.”  The “Austral Asian” branch was founded by veteran diplomat Richard Woolcott who was chosen by Rudd to initiate the “Asia Pacific community” with high-level meetings throughout Asia, as noted in the news media reports. Hence, the groundwork was further laid for TPP in 2008.

The head office of the Asia Center in New York states that the Society was founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller III.[19] Trustees include: Charles P. Rockefeller and John D. Rockefeller IV. The 50th anniversary of the Asia Society in 2006 was a tribute to the “whole Rockefeller family” and its vision for Asia. The “keynote addresses” were given by Henry Kissinger, the omnipotent perennial government adviser; David Rockefeller,[20] head of the globalist dynasty; John D Rockefeller IV, Charles Percy Rockefeller; and Arthur Ross, a scholar and diplomat of varied experience, who sat on the Rockefeller University Council. The by-line on the Asia Society’s website is: “Preparing Asians and Americans for a shared future.” The “shared future” is that of unrestrained plutocracy, sold with sweeteners, maintained with debt, and enforced with bombs.

Notes

[1] For example former New Zealand Labour Minister Mike Moore is a long time enthusiast for a “Pacific community” and was rewarded for his conversion from “socialism” to free trade by being made head of the World Trade Organization. He is currently New Zealand Ambassador to the USA. His globalist credentials include membership of the Trilateral Commission.
[2] “Trans-Pacific Partnership,” Office of the US Trade Representative, http://www.ustr.gov/tpp
[3] “Outlines of the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” ibid.
[4] “The United States in the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/fact-sheets/2011/november/united-states-trans-pacific-partnership
[5] E Roosevelt, As He Saw It (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946), p. 35.
[6] E Roosevelt, ibid.
[7] “The United States in the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” op. cit.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] TPP Watch, http://tppwatch.org/2011/10/16/trans-pacific-partnership-papers-remain-secret-for-four-years-after-deal/
[11] Trilateral Commission, http://www.trilateral.org/
[12] K Kim, “Obama: Outlines of TransPacific Partnership Reached,” Global Post, November 14, 2011, http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/111114/obama-outlines-transpacific-partnership-trade-de
[13] The Trilateral Commission, “About the Organization,” http://www.trilateral.org/about.htm
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid..
[16] B K Gordon, “The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Rise of China: What Japan Joining the TPP Means for the Region,” Council on Foreign Relations, Foreign Affairs, November 7, 2011, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136647/bernard-k-gordon/the-trans-pacific-partnership-and-the-rise-of-china
[17] Ibid.
[18] Rudd speaking to the Asia Society Austral Asia Centre, June 6, 2008; reported in The Australian, June 7, 08, et al. See the report on Rudd at the Asia Society Australasia Centre’s website: http://www.asiasociety.org.au/speeches/speeches_current/r155_PM_Rudd_AD2008.html
[19] Asia Society, “About,” http://www.asiasociety.org/about/mission.html
[20] In the course of his address David Rockefeller referred to Kissinger as his “dear friend” and Asia Society Chairman Richard Holbrooke as his “old friend”.


K R Bolton is a Fellow of the Academy of Social and Political Research, and an assistant editor of the peer reviewed journal Ab Aeterno. Recent publications include 'Trotskyism and the Anti-Family Agenda,' CKR website, Sociology Dept., Moscow State University (October 2009); 'Rivalry over water resources as a potential cause of conflict in Asia,' Journal of Social Political and Economic Studies, and Russia and China: an approaching conflict?, Vol. 35, No. 1, Spring 2010; Vol. 34, no. 2, Summer 2009. Read more articles by .


Joan Veon: One World Government (video posted below).


Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Epoch of Incredulity 2.0

Check out the new dynamic view of SiFM from Blogger App.

In a follow up from earlier SIFM post

Queen Elizabeth will be touring Australia and  among her main list of priorities, is to re-affirm the waning diplomatic standing of the insignificant Commonwealth, in today's multi-polar world of sovereign credit downgrades and euro-zone currency crisis.

Some of the 1 percent will meet in Australia, against the back drop of an increasing number of global protests by individuals against Wall Street crony capitalism, the growing financial divide between the haves and have nots. Another rallying cry, is also an appeal to end the destructive military industrial complex , identify the banks which fund these entities and the wars they create.

Amnesty International UK investigates the role of UK banks in funding the 'booming business' (video below)




Chalmers Johnson speaks on Military Industrial Complex (video below).



Protestors march through the streets of Berlin during a demonstration to support the ' Occupy Wall Street' -movement Saturday Oct. 15, 2011. Protestors gathered at many major European cities Saturday to join in demonstrations against corruption, capitalism and austerity measures. (Maja Hitij)


People take a part in a demostration as they march towards Puerta del Sol square in solidarity action for the worldwide protest dubbed "Occupy the City" in Madrid on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. The organizers of the Occupy Wall Street announced on their website that protesters will demonstrate in concert over 951 cities in 82 countries. (Arturo Rodriguez)
Protesters march during a "March of the outraged" in Santiago, Chile, Saturday Oct. 15, 2011. The gathering in the capital of Santiago was one of dozens of global protests launched Saturday in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement. (Aliosha Marquez)

Solomon Star Newspaper
"
Documents revealed Mr Castles had refused to obey the then Prime Minister’s orders.
“The failure, negligence and refusal to follow Sir Allen’s directions were because Mr Castles was an ‘AFP appointee’ as such an employee of the Australian government,” documents revealed.
“Therefore, Mr Castles was only answerable to the Australian government although he was the RSIPF police commissioner.”

Mr Castles disobedience to Sir Allen was a breach of section 43 (4) of the country’s Constitution.

Documents revealed RAMSI, the Australian government, and the former police commissioner in this regard has breached the Solomon Islands Constitution as a sovereign country.
"

Readers should be reminded of Australia's role in Libya as pointed out by  SiFM post, and highlighted by a post in the Interpreter . There is growing outrage in the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, as addressed in Foreign Policy Journal article:

Critics of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and interventionism in general have long accused international humanitarian action of being a form of imperialism cloaked in humanitarianism. The BRIC/IBSA countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa; hereafter referred to as BRICS) are beginning to unite around this skepticism, countering western enthusiasm [...]
The BRICS countries have determined that humanitarianism should not compromise the sovereignty of individual states and should not restrict the rights of governments over domestic matters. This stance, of course, directly contradicts the new humanitarian basis of American foreign policy.

Land Destroyer post highlighted the Lies Behind the Humantarian Crisis:
[J]ustification for a "humanitarian war" where self-serving foreign interests masquerading as "international institutions" arrange for a disgruntled opposition vying for power whom they are supporting, funding, arming, and whose leaders they are harboring, to manage the perception of a given conflict to provide a predictably slanted pretext for "international intervention.
Color Revolutions post echoed the same sentiments:

Time and again, such indignation, sincere or calculating, has been used to justify or to cover up the crimes of the Western powers: the slave trade, the extermination of indigenous peoples and the systematic stealing of land and resources. This attitude of righteous indignation continues to this day and is at the root of the claim that the West has a “right to intervene” and a “right to protect”, while turning a blind eye to oppressive regimes considered “our friends”, to endless militarization and wars, and to massive exploitation of labor and resources.

The West should learn from its past history. What would that mean concretely? Well, first of all, guaranteeing the strict respect for international law on the part of Western powers, implementing the UN resolutions concerning Israel, dismantling the worldwide US empire of bases as well as NATO, ceasing all threats concerning the unilateral use of force, lifting unilateral sanctions, in particular the embargo against Cuba, stopping all interference in the internal affairs of other States, in particular all operations of “democracy promotion”, “color” revolutions, and the exploitation of the politics of minorities. This necessary respect for national sovereignty means that the ultimate sovereign of each nation state is the people of that state, whose right to replace unjust governments cannot be taken over by supposedly benevolent outsiders.

Next, we could use our overblown military budgets (NATO countries account for 70 per cent of world military expenses) to implement a form of global Keynesianism: instead of demanding "balanced budgets" in the developing world, we should use the resources wasted on our military to finance massive investments in education, health care and development. If this sounds utopian, it is not more so than the belief that a stable world will emerge from the way our current “war on terror” is being carried out.

There are much similarities in the R2P ideology- its multiple levels of fashionable nonsense, wrapped in diplo-speak of humanitarian bombing and the RAMSI treaty applied in the Solomon Islands, which is closely examined in a recent post by Blak and Black  cross posted here:

Australia in the Solomons: A case study in 21st Century Gunboat Diplomacy


The main purpose of Blak and Black is to attempt to bring to the world’s attention the hypocrisy and racism that inform contemporary Australian society.
While Australia’s treatment of its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (“ATSI”) population affords ample testimony to the white supremacist attitudes of Australia’s so-called political, intellectual and cultural elites, a fact that the world community seems happy to ignore, as being nothing more than an Australian ‘domestic’ issue.
Australia’s neo-colonial and racist attitudes to the indigenous peoples of the Pacific cannot continue to be ignored by a world community that claims to aspire to an international society in which racism, bigotry and white supremacist attitudes have no place. It is with this in mind that I offer the following analysis of Australia’s racism and white supremacist attitudes to the indigenous people of the Solomon Islands.
As stated previously, my next post will be about institutional racism and systemic bias in the Australia’s criminal justice system. Something the indigenous peoples of the Pacific can look forward to, unless they stand up to Australia, exporting its systemic racism and corruption to them under the pretext of bring the ‘rule of law’ to the developing nations of the Pacific.
In international politics, gunboat diplomacy refers to the pursuit of foreign policy objectives with the aid of conspicuous displays of military power — implying or constituting a direct threat of warfare, should terms not be agreeable to the superior force.
The term comes from the period of colonial imperialism, where the European powers would intimidate other states into granting trade or other concessions (unequal treaties) through a demonstration of their superior military power. A country negotiating with a European power would notice that a warship or fleet of ships had appeared off its coast. The mere sight of such power almost always had a considerable effect, and it was rarely necessary for such boats to use other measures, such as demonstrations of cannon fire.
Gunboat diplomacy is considered a form of hegemony. As the United States became a military power in the first decade of the 20th century, the Rooseveltian version of gunboat diplomacy, ‘big stick diplomacy’, was partially superseded by ‘dollar diplomacy’: replacing the big stick with the “juicy carrot” of American private investment.
It is this mixture of ‘big stick diplomacy’ combined with ‘dollar diplomacy’ that a racist and white supremacist Australia is using to cajole the increasingly nominally sovereign states of the Pacific into toeing Canberra’s line.
Australia has always maintained the argument that its role in the Solomon Islands is about peace keeping and has nothing to do with power projection, or attempts to influence opinion in a foreign capital, but is purely altruistic in nature and is aimed at restoring peace, order and good government to the people of the Solomon Islands. So what is the reality?
The Facilitation Act 2003
The Facilitation Act (“FA”) is an Agreement between Solomon Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga and was signed on the 24th May 2003. The purpose of the FA was to pave the way for the deployment, by the signatories to the FA, of armed forces, police and other personal to Solomon Islands.
The FA facilitated the formulation of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI).
On 4th July 2003, Sir John Laply the then Governor-General of the Solomon Islands made a formal request for assistance under the provisions of the FA. This then led to the passing of the Facilitation of International Assistance Act 2003 (“FIAA”) (No.1 of 2003). The Agreement signed on the 24th May 2003 was incorporated as part of the Act.
The FIAA sets out the mechanisms under which RAMSI is to operate in the Solomon Islands. Section 6 of the FA gives RAMSI the same powers granted to the Solomon Islands Police under the Police Act. However unlike the Solomon Islands Police, Section 17 of the FIAA grants immune from legal proceedings for RAMSI personnel along with tax exempt status.
The issues of immunity from prosecution and tax exempt status bring into focus the concept of unequal treaties and national sovereignty. National sovereignty has at its heart, accountability.
One of the first national sovereignty issues we encounter when considering the role of RAMSI in the Solomon Islands is that of national or sovereign accountability. Under the FIAA the Participating Police Force (“PPF”) is accountable to the Deputy Police Commissioner who is a senior Australian Police Officer.
The FIAA is silent on whether the Deputy Police Commissioner should resign his/her Australian commission before acceding to the post of Deputy Police Commissioner of the Solomon Islands. If the Deputy Police Commissioner is allowed to accede to that post without first resigning their Australian commission, a parallel line of accountability is created within a sovereign state. Is this constitutionally sound?
This parallel line of accountability in turn gives rise to the question of immunity. Under the Solomon Islands Constitution, an aggrieved party may apply to the High Court for redress for the contravention of his/her fundamental rights. Section 18 (1) provides:
…if any person alleges that any of the [human rights provisions] of this Constitution has been, is being or is likely to be contravened in relation to him for, in the case of a person who is detained, if any other person alleges such contravention in relation to the detained then, without prejudice to any other action with respect to the same matter which is lawfully available, that person (or that other person) may apply to the High Court for redress.
If a situation arises where a member of RAMSI is alleged to have violated the fundamental rights of a citizen of the Solomon Islands, the courts would be powerless to act, unless RAMSI waives its immunity, which in turn raises the question: is the immunity provision in the FIAA consistent with the Solomon Islands Constitution?
Together with the immunity and tax exempt provisions granted to RAMSI under the FIAA it is worth giving some thought to what the legal personality of RAMSI actually is. As discussed in Blak and Black’s article The wisdom of Miles Jordana: Hidden in plain sight, there has been no formal United Nations Security Council endorsement of RAMSI, beyond a media statement in 2003 from the President of the UN Security Council at the time of the initial intervention.
UN Press release SC/7853, 26 August 2003, Press Statement on Solomon Islands by Security Council President Fayssal Mekdad (Syria), reads in part:
The members of the Security Council welcome warmly the collective action of the countries of the Pacific Islands Forum to support the people of the Solomon Islands in their quest for the restoration of law and order and stability.
The members of the Security Council welcome the leadership exerted by Australia and New Zealand, in close partnership with other countries in the region in this regard. They hope that this important regional initiative will quickly lead to the restoration of normalcy and national harmony in the Solomon Islands and that it will facilitate a peace-building process and economic recovery. They encourage all parties to cooperate in promoting these objectives and to renounce the use of armed force and violence to settle their differences.”
The reality is that RAMSI has no legal personality. In the event that Australian RAMSI personnel are accused of violating the fundamental rights of a citizen of the Solomon Islands it is likely, because of RAMSI’s lack of legal personality that Australia would plead sovereign immunity under international law.
These fundamental legal issues were first raised by Mr Julian Moti QC in his capacity as Attorney-General of the Solomon Islands and eventually became a point of contention between Australia and the Sogavare Government. Ultimately Moti’s views on the constitutional irregularities of RAMSI led to the Australian orchestrated downfall of the Sogavare Government and Moti’s illegal rendition to Australia on what can only be described as trumped-up child sex tourism charges.
The reason Mont’s views have become relevant again is that following the 2006 riots in Honiara RAMSI police arrested and charged two members of the SI Parliament, Charles Dausabea and Nelson Ne’e, both of whom stood trial on charges alleging that they orchestrated the riots in April 2006. Former SI Foreign Minister Alex Bartlett (who had a large number of charges against him) also stood trial. This issues that ultimately lead to the 2006 riots have been more fully explored in my article AFP accused of fabricating evidence, yet again!
During the trial of Bartlett, Dausabea and Ne’e, the Solomon Islands High Court heard about written agreements that the then Solomon Islands Police Commissioner, Shane Castles (an Australian Federal Police officer on secondment to the Solomon Islands Police), made with two crucial prosecution witnesses. Pursuant to these agreements the witnesses received significant financial and other assistance on the condition they kept the agreements secret and gave evidence in Court only in accordance with their police statements.
The agreements were in a form that violated judicial rulings on such matters and attempts to keep them secret clearly violated Solomon Islands law governing disclosure of relevant information to defence lawyers.
Following their acquittal in the criminal cases brought by RAMSI, Bartlett, Dausabea and Ne’e commenced civil actions against the Solomon Islands Government for malicious prosecution. As part of that process lawyers representing the three applicants sought to subpoena records from RAMSI and the Australian Government regarding the 2006 riots. As predicted by Moti when he was Attorney-General for the Solomon Islands, as soon as Australia and RAMSI were called to account by the Solomon Islands High Court for their actions in the Solomon Islands, the Australian Government announced that it was invoking its right to immunity from prosecution pursuant to the provisions found in section 17 of the FIAA.
The implications for the ‘rule of law’ and an individual’s right to justice in the Solomon Islands, following Australian invocation of the immunity provisions of the FIAA are obvious. In response to Australia’s invocation of the immunity provisions of the FIAA, the Lawyer representing Bartlett, Dausabea and Ne’e, Mr Charles Ashley made an application in the Solomon Islands High Court on 14th October challenging the constitutional validity of the FIAA.

S.i.F.M
"Hypocrisy has its own elegant symmetry. Australia's hypocrisy with regard to neo-colonialism, hegemonic aspirations in the Pacific has its mirror-like symmetry.

However, those particular lines of symmetry are no longer linear but radial; when one takes into account the global occurrences of the same destructive template by different Western nations, as if acting in concert controlled by a single goal of full spectrum dominance. "


According to documents filed in the Solomon Islands High Court the applicants are seeking the following reliefs against the Australian government as the first defendant and the Special Coordinator of RAMSI as the second defendant:
• The then Police Commissioner Shane Castles was subjected to the direction of the Australian Government and RAMSI and not the Solomon Islands Government which was a breach of subsection (5) of 43 of the Solomon Islands Constitution.
• A declaration that in breaching subsection (5) of section 43, the Australian Government or the Special Coordinator of RAMSI are not entitled to any claim of immunity under the provisions of the Facilitation Act of 2003; and
• A finding that actions by the Australian government and Special Coordinator of RAMSI not to disclose documents to the High Court is in breach of the Claimants right to a fair hearing as provided for under subsection (8) of section 10 of the Solomon Islands Constitution; and
• An order directing the defendants to release the required documents relating to the April Riots to the incumbent Police Commissioner; and
• A declaration by the Facilitation Act does not absolve the Australian Government and RAMSI from liability to pay compensation for contravention of fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals under Chapter 2 of the Constitution;
• A finding that the arrest, detention and prosecution of the three MPs in connection with the riots has breached Claimants rights and freedoms;
• An order damages must be paid by the defendants for breaching the Claimants fundamental rights and freedoms under Chapter 2 of the Constitution; and
• Findings and recommendations of the 2006 April Riots Commission of Inquiry against the defendants must be accepted;
• An order for compensation to be assessed if not agreed
• An order for costs on an indemnity basis; and
• Any further or other orders the court deems fair and just.
As RAMSI lacks a legal personality, it is likely that Australia will plead sovereign immunity at international law. If this happens, the wrong parties will be without any form of legal redress for the wrongs inflicted on them By the Australian Government, the Australian Federal Police and RAMSI.
How is this consistent with Australia’s altruistic claim that it is sole purpose for being in the Solomon Islands is to bring the ‘rule of law’ to one of its struggling neighbours? To my mind, the actions of Australia to date in the Solomon Islands reek of nothing more than the neo-colonial aspirations of an arrogant, white supremacist, neo-colonial, third rate power.
Will you sign the petition calling for a Royal Commission into the Australian Federal Police?

Island Business article reports on 3 Solomon Islands Members of Parliaments (MPs) and their constitutional case.

Former MPs file constitutional case against Australian govt
Three former Solomon Islands Member of Parliaments (MPs) who were wrongly accused for their roles in the 2006 April riots have applied for a constitutional case against the Australian government and RAMSI.
Wed, 19 Oct 2011
HONIARA, Solomon Islands (SOLOMON STAR) ---- Three former Solomon Islands Member of Parliaments (MPs) who were wrongly accused for their roles in the 2006 April riots have applied for a constitutional case against the Australian government and RAMSI.


Lawyer representing the three MPs, Charles Ashley filed the case in the High Court on Friday last week after RAMSI and the Australian government refused to submit documents to court in relation to the April riots.

This is a follow up of the civil case by the three former MPs Alex Bartlett, Charles Dausabea and Nelson Ne’e against the Government for malicious prosecution.

RAMSI and the Australian Government are not parties to the case but were required by the court to produce documents relating to the riot.

However, their legal representative Andrew Radclyffe wrote to the High Court last month claiming immunity that they were not required to answer to the court because they were protected by the Facilitation Act of 2003; which was accepted by the court.

The Facilitation Act states that no law can supersede the Act except the country’s constitution.

Therefore, Ashley wrote to Radclyffe advising them that his clients would be taking on a constitutional case against RAMSI and the Australian government.

The constitutional case involved sections of the constitution in relation to the Police Act, the Commission of Enquiry Act and the Facilitation Act.

The claimants have named the Australian government as the first defendant and the Special Coordinator of RAMSI as the second defendant.
Solomon Star article adds another layer of abuse in Australia's neo-colonial imperial agenda in the Pacific via leaked documents.

Secrets of Australia’s political agenda in SI leaked

E-mail Print
TOP secret information has emerged in Honiara outlining the Australian government and RAMSI’s negligence; thus breaching the country’s Constitution which led to the 2006 April Riots.

Documents obtained by The Solomon Star also revealed that the Australian government had in the past appointed several key figures in the Solomon Islands Government sector to facilitate their political agenda in the country.
 
Two key figures that emerged from the report were former police commissioner Shane Castles and former Australian High Commissioner Patrick Cole.

Documents revealed the then Police Commissioner Shane Castles received directions from the Australian government not to dispatch a riot squad to calm the situation during the 2006 April Riots.
It was disclosed this was the Australian government’s way of signalling its opposition to China’s growing influence in the Pacific; and in this instance to allow looting and burning to take place to get rid of the Chinese populace in Honiara.

The documents revealed that Mr Castles appointment as police commissioner was also dictated by the Australian government so that he could work in partnership with then Australia High Commissioner Patrick Cole.

“They were both tasked by the Australian government to successful carry out Canberra’s political agenda in the Solomon Islands,” documents revealed.

“And there are fears the increase number of Australian advisors and appointees in the Government are placed there to carry out Australia’s secret agenda in the Solomon Islands.”
In mid-2004, it was revealed the Australian government through High Commissioner Cole pressured the European Union representative in the Solomon Islands not to commit itself to funding the then police commissioner William Morrell, a British national, when his contracts expired in 2005.
“In March 2005, Morrell’s contract expired and the EU advised then Prime Minister Sir Allen Kemakeza that EU will not be funding Morrell’s Police Commissioner’s post anymore,” documents revealed.
“On the 4th of March, former High Commissioner Cole sat as an interviewing panel member to interview candidates for the new police chief post and advised Sir Allen that Shane Castles was the suitable candidate.” But it was revealed Sir Allen informed the panel that his Government’s choice was Mr Morrell and not Mr Castles.
The Australian government in return threatened not to fund Mr Morrell if he was re-appointed but they would only fund Mr Castles if appointed, it was revealed.
“On the 18th March 2005, Sir Allen advised the Prison and Police Services Commission to appoint Shane Castles as the new police commissioner,” documents highlighted.

The Australian government on April 11 2005 then proposed to the Solomon Islands Government that Mr Castles be appointed under section 40 of the Australian Federal Police Act 1979 for two years. This was accepted by the former Kemakeza government as Canberra had also proposed to meet the full costs of their new police commissioner candidate.
Therefore, by virtue of section 40 of the Australian Federal Police Act, Mr Castles being an ‘AFP appointee’ must not disobey or fail to carry out directions, instructions or orders given to him by the Australian police commissioner, RAMSI or the Australian government.
Mr Castles must only act on instructions from Australia although he was the police commissioner of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF).
This was a total breach of the Solomon Islands Constitution section 43 (5) which stated that ‘the RSIPF police commissioner, in the exercise of his responsibilities and powers with respect to the use and control of the RSIPF shall not be subjected to the direction or control of any person or authority.
Prior to the 2006 April Riots it was also revealed Sir Allen had given general directions to Mr Castles to make sure police are prepared to maintain public safety and public order during the election of the new Prime Minister.
Documents revealed Mr Castles had refused to obey the then Prime Minister’s orders.
“The failure, negligence and refusal to follow Sir Allen’s directions were because Mr Castles was an ‘AFP appointee’ as such an employee of the Australian government,” documents revealed.
“Therefore, Mr Castles was only answerable to the Australian government although he was the RSIPF police commissioner.”
Mr Castles disobedience to Sir Allen was a breach of section 43 (4) of the country’s Constitution.
Documents revealed RAMSI, the Australian government, and the former police commissioner in this regard has breached the Solomon Islands Constitution as a sovereign country.
“At no time Mr Castles requested for AFP back up although he knew the RSIPF were ill prepared and handicapped to maintain such situations.”

The Australian government and RAMSI were also later claimed to have bribed certain people to fabricate false statements against three former Members of Parliaments as instigators of the riots.
The trio Alex Bartlett, Charles Dausabea and Nelson Ne’e were arrested, detained and prosecuted but later acquitted of all charges.

They are currently applying for a constitutional case against the Australian government and RAMSI and a separate court battle with the National Government for malicious prosecution.

By DOUGLAS MARAU

According to Julie Metz, Hypocrisy has its own elegant symmetry. Australia's hypocrisy with regard to neo-colonialism, hegemonic aspirations in the Pacific has its mirror-like symmetry. However, those particular lines of symmetry are no longer linear but radial; when one takes into account the global occurrences of the same destructive template by different Western nations, as if acting in concert controlled by a single goal of full spectrum dominance