Women to march against violence in Vanuatu

Transcript

Women in Vanuatu are planning a protest march this week to call for an end to violence against women in the country.

This comes after a woman was abducted, assaulted and verbally abused for expressing her views in a public forum on Facebook.

The protest is planned for Wednesday to coincide with the first sitting of the country's new parliament this year. 

Koroi Hawkins reports

Men and women from many walks of life in Vanuatu's capital plan to march along the Port Vila seafront this Wednesday up to the steps of parliament.

Amongst them will be the Deputy Lord Mayor of Port Vila Leimara Malachai who is part of the committee organising the protest.

LEIMARA MALACHAI: We have three or four petitions to forward to the minister of internal affairs so that the minister of internal affairs will work on it and we will see how it will go.

Mrs Malachi says the petitions call for, among other things, a holistic approach to ending violence against women and ensuring the punishment of those involved in the abduction and beating of Florence Lengkon a fortnight ago.

She was attacked for her comments on Facebook describing van and taxi drivers as arrogant and unprofessional for squabbling over tourists arriving on cruise ships in Port Vila.
 
The incident has been condemned by the Pacific Freedom Forum with its coordinator Jason Brown calling on the Vanuatu government to better protect people's rights to free expression.

JASON BROWN: Well the governments have long talked about communication and technology as being the way of the future but they have done little to prepare their population for the impact of social networking, partly because governments are not a great fan of criticism themselves.

Meanwhile, tour operators in Vanuatu have rallied in support of Ms Lengkon presenting her with US$270 to cover her medical bills and time off work.

The vice president of the Port Vila Cruise Tourism Committee John Tonner says tourism operators have strongly condemned the incident, as has the wider community of public transport providers.

JOHN TONNER: A lot of land transport operators immediately assisted the police in their investigations and apprehensions that have been made. The deputy prime minister released a very firm statement in the Daily Post [newspaper] recently just clearly stating that this is not acceptable and it won't be tolerated and the full force of the law will be used to prosecute those involved.

Seven men were last week arrested in relation to the incident including the president of the Vanuatu Land Transport Association.

Vanuatu police say the men, who are out on bail, could face charges of kidnapping, intentional assault, threatening and unlawful assembly.