24 May 2005

UN decolonisation seminar backs American Samoa's wish to stay US territory

2:42 pm on 24 May 2005

Members of a United Nations seminar on decolonisation have supported the choice of the people of American Samoa to continue their affiliation with the United States.

A communiqué released at the conclusion of last week's seminar in the Carribean said that participants had taken note of the idea that a single decolonization standard should not be applied to every non self- governing territory.

They also agreed to support the choice of the people of American as determined through United Nations resolutions.

American Samoa's Deputy Director of Commerce Lelei Peau represented the territory at the UN meeting which was to review progress made towards self government in countries on the UN list of non self-governing entities.

Participants also concluded that any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of a country's national unity and territorial integrity was incompatible with the purposes of the United Nations Charter.

They stressed the need to ensure the participation of representatives of the concerned territories in the development of work programs for individual territories in which there was no dispute over sovereignty.