Asia Times: Fijian official criticizes Rotuma secession plan



	February 11, 2000	atimes.com

Oceania

Fijian official criticizes Rotuma secession plan
By Craig DeSilva

HONOLULU, Hawai'i - The Permanent Secretary for Fiji's Office of the Prime Minister calls the proposal for Rotuma to break away from Fiji a "wild idea" that makes no economic sense.

Peniasi Kunatuba made his comments in Honolulu in the wake of reports that convicted American fraudster David Korem (also known as Mark Pedley) went to Rotuma to draft a constitution outlining a state within a state republic.

The 46-year-old Korem, who was in Fiji on a visitor's permit, has since left the country and police there are on alert to deport him if he returns.

"We 're being used as a guinea pig for the ideas of these foreign backers," Kunatuba said, explaining that foreigners pushing for secession in Rotuma are only interested in developing their own personal money-making ventures and are not taking into consideration the island's limited resources in sustaining economic programs.

He said if foreigners were really interested in Rotuma's economic welfare, they would invest in projects on the island, such as healthcare, education and infrastructure development.

"It's just a wild idea, as far as I'm concerned," he said, adding that the faction in Rotuma supporting secession is based more on "ego than anything else". "At the end of the day Rotumans would be worse off. They might create a Utopia for a while, but it would result in the death bed for the country."

Rotuma is located 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Fiji's main islands and has a population of about 3,000 people.

(Pacific Islands Report is a service of the East-West Center and the University of Hawaii. For news in depth, link to the PIR website: http://pidp.ewc.hawaii.edu/pireport )