Word: vanuatu
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...financial center of gravity in the world has shifted toward the Pacific Rim, new tax and secrecy havens have multiplied on such remote islands as Nauru in the western Pacific and Palau and Truk in Micronesia. Citizens of Vanuatu, a volcanic archipelago of some 80 islands formerly known as the New Hebrides, have found that international finance beats coconut and taro farming. In Port Vila, the capital, it is not unusual for a $100 million transaction between major international banks to take place on any given...
...sunny sidewalks and streets of Port Vila (pop. 18,000), capital of the island republic of Vanuatu, about 1,000 miles east of Australia, became a South Pacific battleground last week. Chanting "Change the law or there will be a revolution!" about 2,000 marchers, some armed with iron bars and clubs, clashed with 140 police and soldiers. One man was killed and nine were injured. Looters then turned the city into a shambles of debris and shattered glass. A beleaguered Prime Minister Walter Lini requested help from the Australian government, which quickly airlifted in riot-control gear...
...outburst was inspired by the transfer of Port Vila land leases from a semi-government authority to a government department. Members of Vanuatu's three Melanesian tribes, which consider themselves the traditional owners of the land, opposed government control of the leases...
...Caledonia, indigenous Melanesians, who are known as Kanaks, have received Libyan weapons, which could be used in their struggle against the French colonial administration. Officials in Papua New Guinea complain that Gaddafi is wooing rebels along that country's Indonesian border with promises of arms and financial assistance. In Vanuatu last month, two Libyan agents were discovered searching for space to set up a People's Bureau in Port-Vila, the capital, apparently without the permission of Prime Minister Walter Lini's government. Not that Lini dislikes Libya. Indeed, his Vanua'aku Party reportedly plans to send 70 political activists...
...Vanuatu's Lini, one of the few leaders in the region who defend Libya, argues that Gaddafi merely wants to send economic aid to the impoverished island states and help the Kanak independence movement in New Caledonia, a cause endorsed even by Australia. Nonetheless, Hawke plans to make the Libyan threat a topic of discussion at this weekend's meeting of the 13-nation South Pacific Forum, and has dispatched a representative to brief member governments on the need to send Gaddafi's men packing...