33rd Pacific Islands Forum Meeting
(Excerpted) Opening Address by Hon. Laisenia Qarase, Prime Minister
and Minister for Fijian Affairs
15th August, 2002
Prime Minister Qarase proposed this as the key message Pacific Island
states take to the WSSD in Johannesburg (Aug 26 -Sept.4, 2002)
"Ladies and gentlemen, and colleagues from the islands, we must stand united in our determination to conserve and protect the Pacific. We are custodians of this Ocean, not only for our own people and region, but also for the entire world.
The threats to it were there when the Forum began. But now they are more numerous.
We must resist, with all the strength we can muster, those who see in the Pacific and its states, a means of furthering international crime and terror. We will express our unrelenting opposition to the polluters and exploiters who are contemptuous of our desire to preserve a precious environment. We must campaign against global warming and its consequences and give full support to our brothers and sisters whose homes and villages are likely to be submerged through rising sea levels. We will continue to tell the international community of our outrage towards those who put our Ocean and people at risk by transporting hazardous and poisonous waste. Equally, we will forcefully protest against the use of Pacific waters for the destructive and dangerous testing of nuclear weapons and missiles of mass destruction. We must continue to be vigilant against those intent on poaching and plundering our marine resources.
With your approval, I will deliver this message as the heart of our Pacific Ocean policy, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa, next month".
