24 Dec 2012

Calls mount for repatriation of Vanuatu capital troublemakers

5:01 am on 24 December 2012

The Vanuatu Prime Minister's Office has agreed to calls from the Council of Chiefs of Tongoa Island, the South Efate Council of Chiefs and the National Council of Chiefs for all groups from Tanna and individuals from other islands convicted for any form of criminal activity to be sent home to serve their imprisonment in their own islands.

They say Efate Island, where the capital Port Vila is situated, is for civilised, peace loving peoples.

The joint statement was released following the first peaceful march of its kind with the coffin of an elderly chief of Tongoa island who was killed by a bus driven by a man from Tanna during a stone throwing clash between Tongoans and Tannese in Port Vila.

All custom chiefs have also pushed the government to amend the constitution to give chiefs the power to deport their own people back to their respective l islands when they become a threat to other people in Port Vila.