No Army alert over Vanuatu

Press, 20 December 1988, Page 1

No Army alert over Vanuatu

By

DAVID CLARKSON

The Minister yesterday said New Zealand would continue to deal with the Government of the Rev. Walter Lini, because it regarded that Administration as the constitutional Government of Vanuatu.

on Sunday night, and the Supreme Court yesterday ruled that the attempt to dissolve Parliament and set up an interim government was unconstitutional. Elements of the Ready Reaction Force went on 12-hour standby during rioting in Port Vila in May. They were stood down after a few days, but 10 members of a military planning team went to Townsville in North Queensland, where the Australian Ready Deployment Force is based, to help

with planning in case New Zealand and Australia had to move people out or meet Father Lini’s request for support. In Wellington yesterday, the Prime Minister’s press secretary, Mr Michael Wicksteed, said no request for assistance had been received in the latest unrest. Defence and Foreign Affairs officials said there had been no rioting this time, and there was no concern for the safety of New Zealanders.

Vanuatu’s political crisis has not prompted any special alert by the Army’s Burnham-based Ready Reaction Force. The New Zealand High Commissioner in Vanuatu’s capital of Port Vila, Mr Tony Browne, has been monitoring developments closely and reporting back, according to a spokesman for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Marshall.

The spokesman said Foreign Affairs did not have any reason for concern about the safety of New Zealanders in the island State because the situation appeared to be settling yesterday. Rebel politicians were arrested