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Mining company to meet opposing landowners

Written by
Eddie Osifelo
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Turarana river, where the WinWin mining company is operating.

By EDDIE OSIFELO

MINING company, Win Win Investment Ltd is preparing to meet with the Turarana Landowners Taskforce and other leaders at the Henderson Police Post conference room from 10am to 12 noon today.

This is despite the company not recognizing the existence of Taskforce as it was set up outside the 24 trustees of Turarana area, where Win Win signed the Surface Access Agreement and Surface Access Rights Agreement with them.

The so-called Taskforce called the meeting for the company to clarify outstanding issues and due payments need to be settled relating to the mining operation on the Turarana tenement.

The taskforce said failure to meet with them tomorrow, then the  company expects to see all four tribes stage a road block on 13th July, which is the deadline of the 14 days’ notice issued on 29th June to Win Win.

In a letter sent to the Managing Director of Win Win mining Company Ltd on 1st July, the four landowning tribes (Garavu, Lasi, Koe’naho and Manuki), tribes who claim to own the Turarana tenement where the company is operating, agreed on this during their extra ordinary meeting held at Turarana village on Wednesday 30th June.

Some of the log of claims which are due payments are:

  1. Premium – $26,000 (Surface Access Agreement)
  2. Access fee – $250,000 (SAA)
  3. Rental payments – $1,000/square kilometer multiply 12 square kilometer – (2018-2021)
  4. Campsite payment – $3,000 per month from 2018-2021
  5. Pits
  6. Damages

The Turarana taskforce said the 20 trustees are not chosen or appointed by the four tribes but have been appointed by certain individuals not the tribe.

The taskforce said their appointment should be regard as null and void.

The taskforce said a tribal meeting should be conducted as soon as possible for the four tribes to appoint six new representatives to represent each tribe.

Further to that, the Taskforce want to know the update of the report of gold extracted from 2018-2021, as so far, no report had reached the Koehoto Landowners Association (KLA) Chairman.

Further to that, the taskforce wants to see the financial report for advances received by each tribe from 2018-2021 and other payments.

The taskforce also wants to see company’s representative, Jeremy Rex be terminated from the company once and for all if it wants to continue operation.

Moreover, the Taskforce claimed the management of Win Win mining company Ltd is illegally selling the following items:

  1. Brewing of rice wine (alcohol) from 2017-2021
  2. Selling of mobile phones, cigarettes and chicken
  3. Sale of uniform to employee and security torch.

The taskforce also wants to see Charles Meke remove as Director of Win Win Investment Solomon Ltd because he is not a landowner but comes from Gela.

The taskforce wants an indigenous landowner to be the shareholder and not Meke.

Furthermore, the taskforce wants to know why the company issued a machine used for bricks to Member of Parliament for East Guadalcanal, Braddley Tovosia.

The taskforce wants the immediately return of the machine for the beneficiary of landowners.

However, Elemelek Vamule, mines officer in the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification confirmed the royalty payments of the landowners are still with Central Bank of Solomon Islands.

Vamule said CBSI can only release the payments once the landowners sorted out their land boundaries and open a bank account.

He said so far there were 19 shipments of the minerals made so far and the company overseas has already paid eight shipments to CBSI.

Vamule said this is in accordance with Mines and Mineral Act that payments must be made within three months on the day of shipment.

Further to that, he said regarding information of the company’s operation, no one can access it because of its confidentiality and its property.

Vamule said under the Mines and Mineral Act, the ministry cannot issue the information of the company until it loses its tenement and move out after three months.

One of the Directors of Win Win, Charles Meke said Bred Bank is willing to help open accounts for the company, 24 trustees and the employees.

Meke said work is ongoing to sort out the land boundaries on the tenement as well.

Win Win legal counsel, Whitlam Togamae said under the country’s law, the mineral belongs to the government.

He said the Ministry of Mines controls it through regulations and the royalties goes through CBSI before landowners get their shares.

Togamae said it is not like logging where the landowners own the trees.

Further to that, he said the law only recognize the trustees to deal with the company and no one else.

Togamae said this is because the trustees signed the SAA and SARA with the company to invite it for mining.

Moreover, Guadalcanal Police has warned youths on Turarana not to stage protest because it will be illegal and they could be arrested for their actions.

Win Win has extracted alluvial deposits on the stream beds of Mamasa and Turarana to get the minerals, especially gold.

The company started operations on Mamasa in October 2019, however the company discovered the tenement had low alluvial deposits on its stream beds.

Win Win is now operating on Turarana which is believed to have high alluvial deposits.

Best wishes from Israel

Written by
Admin
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ISRAEL’S recently elected Prime Minister Naftali Benet and Foreign Affairs minister Yair Lapid yesterday sent their best wishes as the country marked its 43rd independence anniversary.

“We, in Israel, wish and pray for the prosperity, resilience and success of all our friends in Solomon Islands,” they said in a statement sent via their honorary consul in Honiara Leliana Firisua.

Israel is one of Solomon Islands’ development partners.

Many local Christians share an intimate and close relation with the state of Israel.

Although located on the other side of the world, Israel previously shared its expertise in health and agriculture with Solomon Islanders.

Why the delay, police?

Written by
Jennifer Kusapa
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BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

MEMBERS of the public are raising concern over the delay of police investigation into the missing one-link 300k exhibition money.

A resident George Lei said he supports call made by Transparency Solomon Islands for police to speed up investigations and charge those responsible.

He said the delay in how police are dealing with the case raises more questions on how they are doing their job.

“I have been reading the papers about this and many responses were given by the Commissioner and his executives during the media conference.

 “Why don’t they get out from their desks and approach the investigators who are dealing with the case and enquire as to what is wrong and why is the delay.

“While appreciating the good work police officers are doing, delay in investigating the issue of public interest portrays a bad image on the force”, Lei said.

Meanwhile, the Police media Unit in their response to queries made by Island Sun said investigations are still continuing.

Police said investigating such matter takes time as investigators will properly gather information required by the office of the Director Public Prosecution.

“Investigations into the matter is still continuing. Reports on the investigation is pending to be submitted to the Director Public Prosecution (DPP) due to the delay in gathering critical submissions that will required by the DPP. It takes time in such matter but we will let us know the outcome of this investigation.” Police said.

This is in relation to the missing $300,000 cash money recovered from the Director of One-link Pacifica, during police investigations early last year which went missing under the safe custody of the police.

Previously, the police said it will be a priority investigation for the Professional Standard Internal Investigation (PSII), thus a thorough investigation will be conducted looking at all leads into how the money was stolen from the exhibit facility and that they are also looking at possible recovery of the missing money.

Transparency Solomon Islands recently raised concern that the news of the missing money under police custody is a huge blow to the image and integrity of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF). The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) trained and build the capacity of the RSIPF for more than a decade preparing them to independently perform their work to a much higher professional standard when RAMSI left.

TSI said that actions of few police officers has portrayed an image of an ill-disciplined police force, one the public can no longer have confidence and trust in.

Man gets 10 for sex with underage girl

Written by
Jennifer Kusapa
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The High Court of Solomon Islands. Photo by SIBC.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

CHIEF Justice Sir Albert Palmer has sentenced a man to 10 years imprisonment for having sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 15 years.

Sir Albert in his sentencing on Tuesday this week, reiterated that the courts have a duty to protect the weak and vulnerable members of the society, a fortiori, children of tender age, by ensuring that an immediate custodial sentence is imposed in this type of offending, and that a clear message is sent out to the community that those who commit this type of offence must expect a lengthy custodial sentence.

“Each case however has to be determined on its own merits and an appropriate sentence imposed that balances the elements of retribution, deterrence, prevention and rehabilitation,” Sir Albert said.

The accused on this case was charged with two counts of sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 15 years, in incidents which occurred in 2019.

He entered guilty pleas on both counts when he was asked by the court in March this year.

Sir Albert said the defendant is an elderly man at the age of some 64 years old at the time of commission of the offence and given their age difference between them is 54 years, the accused’s actions were both disgraceful and selfish.

“As an elderly member in the community, he had failed to demonstrate responsibility and trust towards the victim; instead, he took advantage of her vulnerability and abused his position. No doubt his actions would have corrupted her innocence and dignity as a child and would have caused needless distress and trauma. Whatever emotional, psychological and physical harm may have been caused will take a long time to heal,” Sir Albert said.

He also said the offence is repeatedly committed which demonstrates the element of intentional and deliberate behaviour.

“It was not a one off or, spur of the moment incident, committed at a momentary loss of self-control. As an elderly and mature old man, he should have known better. I am satisfied this attracts another one-year increase to 13 years,” Sir Albert said.

Sir Albert also considered the man’s early guilty plea which shows his remorse and faced up to the consequences of his action, the court reduce the sentence by 2 years to I l years.

“Taking all his mitigating factors into account, I deduct a further I year from the sentence, leaving a total of 10 years to be served. I am satisfied taking into account the totality principle, count 2 should be made to run concurrent to count 1,” Sir Albert said.

Former CDL employee to appear in court

Written by
Jennifer Kusapa
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BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

A FORMER employee of the CDL Company accused of stealing from the company in 2017 will appear in court today.

The employee was a former female sales officer.

The case will be heard before Principal Magistrate Tearo Beneteti for continuation of trial.

Allegations said that during the month of June 2019 the company received complaints from some people that the accused usually spent huge amounts of money.

 After receiving the report, the company made some checks and balances on the company’s record which showed that the CDL Company had made huge losses on their account records.

The management then made enquiries and found that around $99, 950.00 were missing.

Police said the CDL company usually purchase mill run bags from the Global Vision Company Limited and the reconciliation done on their accounts showed that 1999 bags of mill run were lost.

The company made further enquiries with Global Vision which revealed that some vehicles went directly to them to collect the mill run as authorized by the accused Elizabeth Tara.

On June 2 2019 a vehicle went to Delite industries to pick up 50 bags of mill run without order forms,

It was at that time that the accused was caught and admitted to the CDL Company that she was stealing from the company since 2017.

The matter was then reported to police,

She was questioned and charged for the alleged offence.

String bands and cultural dances mark country’s 43rd anniversary

Written by
Mavis Podokolo
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Kau Mskonga string band

BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO

YESTERDAY string bands and cultural groups from the provinces performed cultural songs, music and dances to mark the country’s 43rd independence.

The occasion was held at the National Auditorium Museum. 

Speaking at the opening of the event Permanent Secretary to Ministry of Home Affairs Jeffery Deve said since there is no official celebration of the 43rd independence held in Honiara, this low-key celebration programme was hosted.

Mr Deve said the theme for this year’s 43rd independence reads “Our country, Our city and our future: a resilient, peaceful and united Solomon Islands”.

Loguni string band from Ngella entertaining the crowd yesterday

“The theme reflects a nationwide call to focus on the advancement of or country, the empowerment of our children into the future through peace building and unity.

“Fellow Solomon Islands our country has gone through so much challenges in our economic, social and political developments through its journey, so I put emphasis on positive growth, advancement and prosperity that drives peace and unity.

Pele dancers from Temotu province

“Solomon Islands will remain forever as our country and let’s create an environment that accommodates resilience, peace and unity whether it be politics, sports, religion, education or international relations,” he said.

Avaiki dancers

The programme was full of entertainment where the packed crowd at the venue were able to listen and see the diverse cultural songs and dances performed by different provincial groups.

Atori cattle farm into fencing

Written by
Samie Waikori
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Grass-planting activity under the pasture establishment component of MPG funded Atori Cattle Reestablishment project in East Malaita.

BY SAMIE WAIKORI

AUKI

THE Malaita province funded cattle project at Atori in East Malaita is ready to go into its fencing stage. This is after work on timber processing for post of the farm was completed.

Officer In-charge of Auki Agriculture Office, Mr Dennis Tafea told this paper they are waiting for funds from MPG to begin the fencing of the project.

The first two components; farm brushing and pasture establishment of the project were completed in the last two months.

Tafea said the next stage after that was timber processing for farm post and was tendered as sub-contract by MPG, where the contractor has already completed the work.

He said now posts are at the project site and they’re waiting for MPG to source funds for the fencing and stockyard construction under the project.

This paper understands that the reestablishment of Atori cattle farm is part of MPG’s plan to revive four main cattle projects in four regions in the province.

The plan is to establish these four major projects to breed heads to supply interested cattle farmers from each regions in the province.

At the moment, Dala cattle farm in the central region of the province is in operation; work on Atori farm in eastern region is progressing and next will be cattle projects for south and northern regions.

Ngossi Valley community honour 43rd Anniversary

Written by
Brian Lezutuni
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Kids and residents of Ngossi Valley stage a colouful parade of the national flag during last year's celebrations

BY JARED KOLI

The Ngossi Valley Community in west Honiara yesterday held a flag raising ceremony to honour the country’s 43rd Independence Anniversary with the theme, ‘One people, One nation’.

The event includes a colourful parade of the national colours, singing of the National Anthem, and other activities such as sport during the day, motivational talk and dinner on the evening followed by cultural dances and history talk later in the night.

Speaking during the event yesterday morning, Chair of the Ngossi Valley Community organising committee Willie Atu said the spirit of Solomon Islands as a country brought them together to celebrate and honour the significant day yesterday.

Chair of Ngossi community Willie Atu speaking yesterday

Following the raising of the national flag, Mr Atu said the national flag shows the dignity, pride and respect Solomon Islanders must have for their country.

“Solomon Islands is a country of about 800,000 people whose life and economy depend on sea and land. This is an opportunity for us to look into our lives as well and sacrifice.

“Although our country has different provinces, we unite as one country Solomon Islands. Unity makes the country stronger even though we have diverse race of Melanesians, Micronesians and Polynesians,” Atu said.

Kids of Ngossi valley salute in honour of the flag

Drawing from the National Anthem, Atu encourages community members to always put God first in their families and households, they will have joy, peace, progress and prosperity in their lives.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Provincial Government Stanley Pirione who is also part of Ngossi Valley community emphasised working together to make Ngossi community become a model community in Honiara.

“Today we come together as one community and reflect the loyalty and commitment we have towards our goals and aspiration as a community.

“One thing I want to emphasise is to uphold working together to make our community to become one of the model community in Honiara as well as in Solomon Islands.

Members of Ngossi community during yesterday’s event

“We have community members from the far east to the far west, and I want to emphasize for us to keep on working together on the things that we want to archive,” he said.

Mr Pirione thanked the working committee on organising yesterday’s event.

“Moving forward, the challenge is in us. The message to our kids, you are our future leaders, we want you not to do things that will hate our leaders on our community or things that bring shame in our community.

“We must maintain that spirit of cooperation and togetherness that has been going over these years. So our theme is very important, let’s work together for the betterment for our community,” he said.

SOGA BUSTS MYTHS

Written by
Mavis Podokolo
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Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare.

BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has labelled social media counter-information against covid-19 vaccines as “outright lies”.

“The untruth and myths about covid-19 vaccine circulated in social media to cause fear are outright lies,” he said.

He listed three of such myths, countering them with explanations to disprove them.

Microchips/magnet myth

The first myth is covid-19 vaccines contain microchips or magnets to monitor people.

“Fellow citizens this is an outright lie and has no basis. Microchips are made of metals, vaccines are liquid and their developments went through very strict research and production protocol,” Sogavare said.

Mark of the Beast/666

He said the second myth says that covid-19 vaccines are associated with the number 666 or Mark of the Beast in the Bible.

“This is another outright lie. We are a Christian country our heavenly father has given us knowledge and wisdom in order to help and save human kind not to destroy.

“Covid-19 vaccine is the only thing that has the chance to break the cycle of the covid-19 pandemic and bring it to an end. What God allows is for his children to develop and help his people it’s a gift from God.

“Many of our church leaders in all denomination have already taken their covid-19 vaccination. I encouraged all of us Christians to follow their examples,” Sogavare said.

Biological warfare

He says the third false information states that covid-19 vaccine is a biological weapon to reduce human population.

Sogavare said this is a lie – “this world does not need a biological weapon to reduce the world’s population”.

“It is a sad reality that the majority of deaths in this world and indeed in Solomon Islands come not from vaccines but from many of the things we take granted; that is our food, smoking and alcohol for instance,” he said.

World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that 41 million people die each year in this world from non-communicable diseases (NCD) such as diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, cancers.

These deaths are due to NCDs not vaccines, he said.

“Fellow Solomon Islanders we must move away from myths and rumours designed to destroy our confidence and create doubt about one weapon that this world has at its disposal to bring this pandemic under control and that is the vaccine.

“Don’t not believe the rumours and myths going around about the covid-19 vaccines used in Solomon Islands. Listen and follow the advice of our health experts and authorities at the Ministry of Health including technical agencies supporting us such as the WHO and UNICEF.

“I reiterate my call for everyone in the country that is above 18 years old to come forward and get vaccinated when the vaccination team come to your areas,” he said.

Sogavare uttered this earlier this week in his national address following reports that some people are creating and circulating false information about covid-19 and circulating this in social media to cause fear, confusion, hesitancy or outright resistance to covid-19 vaccine.

                 

Second covid-19 dose late for Ontong Java

Written by
Samie Waikori
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Vaccination roll-out program at Luaniua in Ontong java last year.....Photo supplied

BY SAMIE WAIKORI

AUKI

Worried communities of Ontong Java are waiting for their second dose of covid-19 vaccine, now more than 12 weeks since their first.

Fears are also exacerbated with reports that the first consignment of AstraZeneca will expire on July 18.

The Malaitan Polynesian outliers were vaccinated in mid-April this year with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

This vaccine requires a second dosage, most preferably 12 weeks after the first.

People on Ontong Java, Malaita Outer Islands (MOI) say during the vaccination drive, government health team touring their atolls promised that nearing 12 weeks after there would be another visit to administer the second dose.

Nearing the twelfth week, and there is no sign of any government health team on their horizon.

This is causing the islanders of MOI to be concerned and to feel insecure, since they are direct frontline citizens facing border crossers from PNG.

Concerned persons from Ontong Java, requesting their names withheld, are asking government through the ministry of Health to explain and give them reassurance over the delay.

“We are now in the first week of July and no assurance yet receives from Malaita provincial health through the MHMS on the second roll-out vaccination doze for our communities.

“The delay is a concern for use because we don’t know much about the impacts of the doze if fail its procedural doze and apparently the exposure of our islands and communities to the outside world.

“In the past months, the community of Luaniua received up to five different boats from the nearby Tasman Island and another foreign sailing boat that demand complete roll-out of the vaccination program for our safety.”

On that note, they also raised that the first consignment of AstraZeneca doze for the second vaccination roll-out programme will expire on July 18, which is just less than two weeks away.

They thank the Malaita provincial health through MHMS and national government for the first covid-19 vaccination roll-out program and they look forward to the second roll-out programme.

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