Non-Subscriber Extract
Chasing the dragon in the South Pacific
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| 18 October 2005 |
The spectre of ethnic Chinese organised crime is menacing small Pacific Island states. Australia and New Zealand treat the region as their 'patch' and view the evolution of transnational organised crime with alarm. Australia, in particular, regards the islands primarily as being transit points for drug, people and weapons traffic. Greg Urwin, the Australian secretary-general of the 16-country Pacific Forum, the region's political summit organisation, has warned that the Pacific Islands were in danger of becoming "weak links in the global fight against transnational crime and terrorism".
Papua New Guinea and Fiji, the South Pacific's largest and most developed economies, are the primary attractions for newly arriving ethnic Chinese, who flourish Papua New Guinea and Fiji passports on entry or are quickly able to obtain them without the inconvenience of completing five-year residential requirements.
In a presentation to Alexander Downer, Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs, in September, Army Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Orisi Rabukawaqa warned that Fiji is now a regional hub for transnational crime involving narcotics, credit card and passport fraud, money laundering, prostitution and murder. Examples from the past five years include a 357 kg heroin bust involving Hong Kong Chinese criminals using Fiji for moving the narcotics to Australia, New Zealand and Canada; a 74 kg methamphetamine shipment from Singapore destined for Australia; and murders of Chinese over gang and business disputes, including the killings of three Hong Kong Chinese and the murder and dismemberment of a Chinese prostitute.
Hoping to prevent the growth of organised crime and improve stability in increasingly lawless South Pacific states, Australia has inserted its federal police into the Papua New Guinea, the Solomons, and Fiji. Australian Federal Police in Vanuatu were asked to leave by the government in September 2004.
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