Marianas Variety
Thursday May 8, 2008
By Therese Hart
Variety News Staff
LEADERS of the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures believe that Guam has the right to determine it own political destiny.
Participants to the APIL conference held on Guam this week said they will support Guam's decolonization and back Chamorro right to self-determination.
Teburoro Tito, former president of the Republic of Kiribati and now a member of the Kiribati parliament, stressed the importance of Guam's cultural identity.
"The APIL is a gathering of Pacific island peoples. And the bottom line is cultural identity and to be proud of what we are," Tito said.
Guam remains one of the 16 non-self governing territories in the world.
"We support Guam in her quest for self determination. I had the chance to talk to the military and it's beautiful to have a military presence here in our part of the region. I admire the Americans for devoting themselves to this task. But at the same time, I did tell them what's important in this part of the world is cultural identity. Our culture is very important and I ask them as friends to be very sensitive to Guam's cultural identity," Tito said.
Tito added that all island peoples have the right to be recognized as a unique people separate from its administering power, which in Guam's case is the U.S.
© 2007 Marianas Variety
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