This statement was made after questions on the expulsion of the AFP in Vanuatu and the security during the actual meet.
Mr Vuti said that the security during the event will now rest on the government and other authorities which in this case would be the police.
Australia had promised to donate 25 laptops and vehicles as part of the security preparations for the event alone. However Mr Vuti could not give more information on this because that would be the responsibility of the government to confirm.
The full AFP team that was working in the capital Port Vila left the country last Friday following orders from the Vanuatu Prime Minister Sato Kilman.
Mr Vuti went on to say that preparations were still under way and things have been quite busy for his team.
Mr Vuti confirmed to Daily Post that 130 official delegates from the ACP-EU have already confirmed their attendance and that the national coordinating committee is expecting the rest of the expected 600 official delegates to register in the coming week.In other developments the Vanuatu government's opposition leader, Edward Natapei has come out to say that he does not believe in the Prime Minister's explanation of the expulsion of the AFP.
Vuti said a deadline for official registration will be set next week so as to receive urgent registration responds from the rest of the ACP-EU officials to attend the Port Vila June conference. “We have time constraint on our hands for the registration and we are setting deadline to get immediate registrations for the rest of the expected delegates from the ACP-EU,” he said.
Asked if he thinks the expulsion of the AFP Police and the security could be a factor in the slowness of official registrations from the ACP-EU delegates, Mr Vuti replied that the national coordinating committee had already had the assurances of the national government and authorities responsible for the national security that every measures will be put into place to ensure security for the visiting dignitaries during the ACP-EU International conference which is only a few weeks away.
Natapei said that the expulsion of the officers will on the other hand only hurt Vanuatu.
Radio Australia reporter Bruce Hill raised an important question during the interview on why the accused, private secretary to the Prime Minister, Clarence Marae was appointed in the first place when he had an arrest warrent on him.
Natapei said that he did not know why Marae was appointed in the first place with the background that he had.
This leads to the interesting fact on how the government is always trying to fight against corruption but they hire crooked people right throught the back door.
I personally know and believe that there are still many corrupt appointed government and public service personnel out there who do not deserve to be there at all because of their corrupt behavior.
However voicing your concerns on such acts is quiet difficult in the country especially when you know your safety can be put to risk.
Deputy Police Commissioner for the Vanuatu Police Force, Arthur Caulton Edmanley says that up to 80% of the current police operations will be affected because of this withdrawal as the AFP and the AUSAID fundings have boosted police operations in many ways.
Caulton says that the relationship between AFP and the Vanuatu Police Force has not been affected in any way by this decision and that they will just wait and see what this whole issue will turn out to be like.
That block quote is a bit too long. "Questions on the expulsion" should be "questions about the expulsion." Do not use courtesy titles. There should be commas after "In other developments," and "However," and before "especially." Percent is always spelled out.
ReplyDeleteRadio Australia reporter Bruce Hill raised an important question during the interview on why the accused, private secretary to the Prime Minister, Clarence Marae was appointed in the first place when he had an arrest warrent on him.
ReplyDeleteSo so true. The question raised by Bruce Hill of radio Australia was also the first thing that came to my mind when i read through your blog post.
Another question: Was there any coverage at all in the media in Vanuatu when Clarence Marae was appointed Prime Minister in the first place. I hope they did, because if they did, then for sure Marae's appointment as Prime Minister would not have been successful.
However, it is true that in some places, fear has replaced truth so what people want to hear is hidden behind that fear and journalists will either self censor their stories, omitting important facts as the process behind appointing the crook Marae to Prime Minister. Well it takes people like Bruce Hill to come down to places like Vanuatu and other Pacific countries to dig for information because i am sure our pacific politicians love talking to foreign journalists’ then local journos. I hope this is not the case in most of the Pacific countries because i have experienced that in our media.