Category: Pacific

http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/06/16/soldiers-death-guantanamo-detainees-rattle-palau-2/

Soldier’s death, Guantanamo detainees rattle Palau

Palau mourns countryman killed in Afghanistan while serving in US Army

TOMOKO A. HOSAKA
AP News

Jun 16, 2009 10:33 EST

The war in Afghanistan hit too close to home for the tiny village of Ngardmau in this remote, close-knit Pacific nation.

Hundreds throughout Palau, from children to the president, gathered Tuesday in sweltering heat to mourn Jasper Obakrairur, a 26-year-old U.S. Army sergeant and the first Palauan killed in Afghanistan. They wept as if he were one of their own.

And in a way, he is. For this archipelago of some 20,000 where families and acquaintances are deeply intertwined, just one casualty represents a collective tragedy. The young soldier’s death has shocked Palau’s core and left many questioning whether it was sacrificing too much for the U.S.-led effort.

“I’m always telling our leadership, us Palauans, we are very few,” said Queen Bilung Salii, the country’s highest-ranking female traditional leader. “And here we are sending our kids to war.”

As they bid farewell to their native son, Palauans at the funeral expressed anxiety over the expected arrival of 13 men detained as possible terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Their country leapt into headlines recently after agreeing to President Barack Obama’s request to take the group of Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, after other countries turned Washington down.

The Uighurs (pronounced WEE’-gurs), a Turkic people from China’s far western region of Xinjiang, were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001. The Pentagon determined last year that they were not “enemy combatants.”

Palau’s president, Johnson Toribiong, has described the agreement as a humanitarian gesture, in line with his people’s tradition of welcoming those in need.

Still, the decision does not sit well with Florencia Ebelau, who watched Obakrairur’s state funeral on a TV monitor outside the Capitol rotunda. Flags flew at half-staff, and Toribiong declared Tuesday a national day of mourning.

The proceedings were followed by a Palauan service in Obakrairur’s village in Ngardmau, on the western coast of the biggest island.

Ebelau, 64, worries that the Uighurs will threaten the tranquility and safety of Palau.

“It’s good to be nice to other people, but only as much as you can afford to,” said Ebelau, whose women’s group includes one of the fallen soldier’s relatives. “I don’t mean to be a nasty person, but we cannot afford that kind of thing.”

When asked about the president’s possible motives, she, along with many others, said, “Because the U.S. asked us to.”

Fermin Meriang, editor of the local Island Times newspaper, has been a vocal critic of the Uighur issue in his publication. The public should have been consulted before a final decision, he said.

“Otherwise, you get what’s happening right now – a backlash,” he said.

Palau is one of the world’s smallest countries, totaling 190 square miles (490 square kilometers) of lush tropical landscapes. Its economy depends heavily on tourism and foreign aid, mainly from Washington.

Toribiong has repeatedly denied that his country stands to benefit financially in exchange for accepting the Uighurs. But the arrangement coincides with the start of talks to review the agreement that governs Palau’s relationship with the U.S.

Under the Compact of Free Association, U.S. aid to Palau from 1995 to 2009 is expected to exceed $852 million, according to a report last year by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It includes direct funding as well as access to U.S. postal, aviation and weather services.

The compact also allows Palauans to serve in the U.S. armed forces.

The military does not release specific numbers on how many Palauans are currently serving, but it has been a prominent option for young men seeking career, educational and travel opportunities unavailable at home.

Toribiong estimates that about 30 to 40 Palauans join the U.S. armed forces every year. Locals regularly claim that per capita, Palau sends more people to the military than the U.S.

Obakrairur was killed by a roadside bomb on June 1 in Nerkh, Afghanistan. Three other Palauans have been killed while serving in Iraq.

“In the past, a lot of Palauans joined the military, but nothing like this had ever happened,” said Vameline Singeo, who attended elementary school with Obakrairur. “Before it was more of a positive thing. Now that there have been deaths, people are more reserved in sending their kids.”

Obakrairur is his family’s only son. He was posthumously awarded a bronze star and purple heart Tuesday.

Source: AP News

Sec. of Defense Gates speaking at the “Shangri-La Dialogue” on Asia Pacific Security evoked the old argument for America’s claim to the entire Pacific region: “blood and treasure”:

America has paid a significant price in blood and treasure to fight aggression, deter potential adversaries, extend freedom, and maintain peace and prosperity in this part of the world. We have done so over many generations and across many presidential administrations. Our commitment to the region is just as strong today as it has ever been – if not stronger since our own prosperity is increasingly linked with yours.

Blood and treasure was one of the reasons cited after WWII for the Pacific to be treated differently than other regions of the world. While the world community denounced imperialism and colonialism as root causes of wars and called for decolonization through an internationally mediated process, the Pacific was treated differently.

The U.S. wanted to have exclusive control over the Pacific because it had spent so much blood and treasure “liberating” the Pacific from the Japanese, and because the Pacific was seen as an integrated strategic area for maintaining America’s security. This is why there were “strategic trusts” created for the Pacific islands where the US maintained control over the process of transition from Japanese colonialism to self-determination. Of course, the US had no intentions of letting these islands become truly independent and made every effort to stunt their development and maintain their dependency on the US in order for the US to maintain a military base network that blanketed the Pacific.

The Pacific is increasingly becoming the strategic center of gravity for the US and the other regional powers. Here’s a quote from Gates’ speech:

So, in the central and western Pacific, we are actually increasing our military presence, with new air, naval, and marine assets based over the horizon in Guam and throughout the region – prepared as always to respond to a number of contingencies, natural or man-made.

It is time to rethink the whole meaning of the Pacific region: “American Lake” or “Ka Moana Nui” (The great ocean that connects the Oceanic nations, a term the developed out of the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement and other Pacific peoples’ struggles for freedom and justice.)

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Sat, 30 May 2009 21:49:00 -0500

Gates Outlines Administration’s Asia Security Strategy

By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

SINGAPORE, May 30, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates opened the “Shangri-La Dialogue” Asia security summit here today outlining a broad set of regional security issues and promising continued support from the U.S. administration.

The annual conference gathers defense, senior military and other officials from across the region to discuss mutual security challenges.

“America has paid a significant price in blood and treasure to fight aggression, deter potential adversaries, extend freedom, and maintain peace and prosperity in this part of the world,” Gates said. “Our commitment to the region is just as strong today as it has ever been, if not stronger, since our own prosperity is increasingly linked with yours.”

Gates said the challenge now is to fashion defense policies that adapt to the new realities of the region. He cited the long-standing treaties with Japan and South Korea, both formed in the early years of the Cold War “when both nations were impoverished and virtually destroyed.” Now, Gates said, the countries are economic powerhouses with modern, well-trained and well-equipped military forces.

“They are more willing and able to take responsibility for their own defense and assume responsibility for security beyond their shores,” Gates said.

As a result, the United States is making adjustments in its policies to maintain a posture that is more like that of a partner, Gates said. South Korea will take the lead role in its own defense in 2012. The U.S. military presence in the Pacific is growing, Gates added, noting increased relationships with India and China.

The secretary said the changes represent a shift in the defense strategy in the region, placing more emphasis on building the capacity of its allies and less on solely conventional military deterrence. The shift will represent a more balanced mix of “soft” and “hard” power, he added, with military, diplomatic, economic and humanitarian elements integrated seamlessly.

“It is an approach intended to further strengthen and deepen security in the Pacific Rim through maintaining our robust military presence, but also through strengthened and deepened partnerships,” Gates said.

The secretary noted the unity in the global responses to the economic crisis, the threat of a pandemic flu and piracy. Despite occasional differences of opinion, he said, nations overall have come together to develop unified responses.

Gates said that stronger relationships among countries in the region are the key to facing security challenges such as piracy, weapons proliferation and terrorism, and that the U.S. administration promises a more collaborative and consultative foreign policy.

“What these challenges all have in common is that they simply cannot be overcome by one, or even two countries, no matter how wealthy and powerful,” Gates said. “While the United States has unparalleled capabilities, we also recognize that the best solutions require multiple nations acting with uncommon unity.”
Related Sites:

Speech Transcript

The Shangri-La Dialogue

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6103

Marine Protection as Empire Expansion

David Vine and Miriam Pemberton | May 6, 2009
Editor: John Feffer
Foreign Policy In Focus
http://www.fpif.org

At the 100-day mark, the new president has tackled an extraordinarily wide-ranging agenda, but one item will need his attention soon: closing the empire of U.S. bases around the world. One place to start is to reverse the marine protection areas that the last president established in the Pacific.

In a last-minute bid to salvage a legacy, President George W. Bush created three new protected marine areas in the Pacific. Environmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council applauded. But the situation is more complicated than it looks.

Why would a president who rarely saw a public land or off-shore site he didn’t want to drill on, and whose climate change policies have done lasting damage to oceans and their inhabitants worldwide, exhibit such concern for marine life in these particular faraway places?

One possible clue: This protective blanket will extend only 50 miles beyond land, rather than the 200 that the law permits. Could it be his real concern was for the land itself rather than for the water around it?

Because these aren’t just any Pacific islands. Two – Wake and Johnston – are home to important U.S. military installations, while a huge area of protected ocean encompassing the Mariana Trench borders U.S. military bases on Guam, Saipan, Rota, Tinian, and Farallon de Medinilla. The islands are right now at the receiving end of a major eastward shift in the U.S. military base infrastructure from concentrating bases and troops in Europe and Okinawa, Japan to concentrations elsewhere in Asia and the Mariana Islands in particular. Guam is set to receive an additional 8,000 Marines and 40,000 civilians on an island where the military already controls one-third of all land.

In designating the protected areas, the White House took pains to say that “nothing” in this action “impairs or otherwise affects the activities of the U.S. Department of Defense.”

Many in Guam are opposed to the expansion of the military’s presence, concerned about increased crime, accidents, violence against women, health and environmental damage, and other forms of social and cultural disruption. And remember too that the islands involved are effectively U.S. colonies without full voting rights and congressional representation and are still on the UN’s list of territories slated for decolonization. Whatever else it may do, the marine monument designation will add a positive environmentalist spin to the permanent U.S claim on these territories as military outposts.

But this spin has a problem. Military bases and regular military operations are notorious for their harmful impact on the environment. Such damage includes the blasting of pristine coral reefs, clear-cutting of virgin forests, deploying underwater sonar dangerous to marine life, leaching carcinogenic pollutants into the soil and seas from lax toxic waste storage and military accidents, and using land and sea for target practice, decimating ecosystems with exploded and unexploded munitions. Guam alone is home to 19 Superfund sites.

It’s hard to imagine that the net result of base-expansion-plus-monument-designation will be good for the surrounding marine life.

In fact, the case of Vieques, Puerto Rico, offers a telling precedent: After locals won a decades-long fight to evict the Navy from their island, the Pentagon was exempted from cleaning up most of the environmental disaster area it left behind when the federal government declared the former base a “wildlife refuge.”

How then can these precious resources really be protected? First, and most importantly, the Pentagon cannot be exempted from environmental regulations. Second, full control over Wake Island and Johnston Atoll should immediately be transferred from the Department of Defense to the Department of the Interior – there’s no reason that the Pentagon should have its own private islands. Third, the people of Guam and the rest of the Northern Mariana Islands should be given full control over the areas above and below the water surrounding its territory in full accordance with international law.

To fulfill the Pacific marine reserve’s promise of environmental protection and conservation, environmental groups initially enthusiastic about the Bush plan must unite with allies on Capitol Hill and a growing movement of those critical of the Pentagon’s expanding reach to press the new administration to reverse this expansion. Those concerned about the environment must make sure that the Pentagon does not use the mantle of environmental protection as a cover for its profligate and environmentally damaging plans to use military bases to control the Pacific. With around 1,000 military bases outside the 50 states – each one a possible environmental disaster area – now is the time when we should be closing and consolidating our overseas bases, not finding new and increasingly stealthy ways to solidify their presence.

Miriam Pemberton is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. David Vine is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at American University, whose book about the military base on Diego Garcia, Island of Shame, will be released in May by Princeton University Press. They are both contributors to Foreign Policy In Focus.

Northern Mariana Mayor Miffed at Military

500-page plan wasn’t shared with Mayor Valentin Taisakan

By Emmanuel T. Erediano

SAIPAN, CNMI (Mariana Variety, March 12, 2009 )-Northern Islands Mayor Valentin I. Taisakan is disappointed with the U.S. armed forces for not sharing with his office information regarding the military’s plans for the Northern Islands.

Retired U.S. Navy Cmdr. Edward J. Lynch, program manager of the Mariana Islands Range Complex, visited the Northern Islands Mayor’s Office last month to discuss this issue with Taisakan.

The mayor’s office was given the draft environmental impact statement for the Mariana Islands Range Complex, and Taisakan has until March 16 to comment.

But Taisakan said the deadline does not give them ample time to review the 500-page document..

“Nonetheless, it is important that we present our concerns on these issues with hope that they will be given serious consideration,” the mayor said in his letter to Lynch.

Taisakan said he is concerned about the target range on Farallon de Medinilla, harmful or deadly materials, toxic waste and local fishermen deprived of their livelihood source.

[PIR editor’s note: Hawaii’s Kahoolawe island off Maui served as a military target for decades until, under growing pressure, the island was returned to the state and to native Hawaiians for rehabilitation. While segments of the island have been cleared of live munitions at great cost to the military, the island might never be safe for habitation.]

Lynch, during the briefing last Feb. 23, assured the mayor’s office of the minimal effect of the military exercises on the marine resources.

But Taisakan said it is not clear whether the area to be covered by the military activities will extend up to 10 miles, including the existing three miles from the shore, or there will be another 10 miles.

Although he recognized the need for expansion, Taisakan reminded the military of the Covenant provision stating that such expansion “shall not exceed 206 acres.”

Taisakan is also opposed to any use of any machinery, equipment, tools and weaponry that deal with chemical or any materials harmful and deadly to the people and environment.

He noted that Farallon de Mendinilla is one of the best areas to fish and the expansion of military exercises there may restrict or limit fishing activities.

Taisakan also expressed concern about the possibility that more fish may become toxic.

He said some fish species turned toxic after World War II and it was believed that unexploded ammonization sunken ships and other hazardous materials used in the war were the cause.

Marianas Variety: http://icnmi.com