5 May 2010

Further delay in Vanuatu response to coroner's report

3:12 pm on 5 May 2010

There has been a further delay in action by the Vanuatu government over a coroner's report that's highly critical of the country's police.

The report, from Justice Nevin Dawson, sought action over the death of a prisoner and the disappearance of another, and called for changes in the para-military Vanuatu Mobile Force, because its officers placed themselves above the law.

The report is now two months old and the government has been promising for weeks it would take action.

Now the Minister of Internal Affairs, Moana Carcasses Kalosil, says he expects that the government will announce a commission of inquiry next week.

He says since it's a legal matter the Government has taken time to make sure the Commission satisfied all the parties.

Mr Carcasses Kalosil has also taken a swipe at Transparency International Vanuatu, one of the few organisations in Vanuatu that's been willing to speak out on the matter.

TI has said commissions of inquiry in Vanuatu are typically used to bury controversial issues.

But Mr Carcasses Kalosil says the Government is answerable to the people not to TI.