Frightened Vanuatuan warns N.Z.

Press, 25 October 1980, Page 1

Frightened Vanuatuan warns N.Z.

>A Wellington Everyone from boys ’io old men who oppose the Rev. Walter. Lint’s ruling Vanuatu Party in the newly independent Vanuatu are indiscriminately taken to prison in mass arrests, according .to a resident of the Pacific Island nation whose -letter was carried to New Zealand this week. ■ ■ The woman did not wish .-.to be named for fear, of reprisal, but her identity was made known in confidence to the Press Association.

Her letter, -which she asked to be published -so that the world ’ was made aware of the suffering in Vanuatu, formerly the New Hebrides, arrived at the time the New Zealand Government is deciding whether to participate in a policy advisory arrangement with the Lini Government. ft is believed

that a proposal for. New Zealand to "provide one ipplicfernan. as part of a three-man... police team awaits the approval, by the Cabinet. Australia and one .other country are also ex-, pected. -to' participate. In her letter, ,the woman said that, as New Zealand was giving, aid . to the . Lini Government, “perhaps it is- ‘of interest, or even more df_a. responsibility, for N&v . Zealand citizens to know how .the country is developing under the new Government.” News reports ~ of mass arrests have come out of Vanuatu since , the nation’s July > independence and the subsequent quelling of a rebellion led by Jimmy Stevens. In the Vanuatu Parliament on Thursday, Father iLini gave an assurance, that the'mass arrests would cease and that allegations by the Vanuatu Christian Council of -police

brutality would be .investigated, by a Commission of Inquiry’. But the letter made- available to the Press Association gives the impression that attempts have been made

to repress ' systematically any opposition to the ruling party of Father Lini. an Anglican priest who attended St Johnis College in Auckland. “At the moment, the Government is engaged in punishing the rebels,” the letter says. “What, does this' mean in practice?

“It means that soldiers and police are passing through the islands where the rebellion was supported, arresting, every man who is a member of the . opposition, or even, in some cases, anyone who does not hold a card of the Vanuatu Party. “Every opposition supporter without discrimination is labelled

‘rebel - and treated accordingly.” Prisons we.re grossly overcrowded, “with perhaps • several hundred men in • a prison made for 20 or 30. There is not enough food . . .” Some police beat prisoners during interrogation so that some men had required hospital treatment, the woman wrote. “What kind of future is being built for the new country when children

have watched their fathers herded- into trucks at gunpoint: when they have

seen soldiers come into their classrooms with guns and grenades to take their .teacher, who could so easily have been quietly arrested; when they have seen armed troops searching their houses and holding a 'gun on their mothers; when they have seen troops joyriding in

their father’s car and heard them abusing their mothers? “When in its first' days human rights seem to be

so easily forgotten jnd its own constitution ignored, what kind of country is Vanuatu becoming?" It seemed to her that a new country in the Pacific should not begin its independence “like this,” She detailed “elements in the situation which are frightening.” These elements, she alleged included:

— “Techni q u e s of humiliation and intimidation all too familiar from other countries;

— “Deprivation’ of sleep and food, bullying interrogations, removal of clothes and possessions: —“The use of lists and dossiers, spies,..and secret police; and — “The control of radio and the use of loaded, propagandist words.” In her 1500-word letter, the woman said men were being held in jail for a fortnight or longer ‘ before

trial because of their political thinking. Those found guilty faced fines that could cripple them for life.

Reporters who were in Port Vila at the time of independence and rebellion could well return to see for themselves what was happening in the new Pacific country, she said. “New Zealanders, whose money has rone to support the Vanuatu Party, and now goes < to the aid of the Government, could well watch developments.” she wrote.. Vanuatu, had. much to do in health.’ education and development. of many kinds and very little money to do it. Yet it was prepared to undertake the expense of training and maintaining an army for a country with a population of about the size of Dunedin, the woman said.