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Palau

Country comprising more than 350 islands and atolls (mostly uninhabited) in the west Pacific Ocean.

Government

The 1981 constitution, amended in 1992, provides for a bicameral legislature, consisting of a 14-member Senate and a 16-member House of Delegates, both serving four-year terms. The president is directly elected for a similar term and heads an eight-member cabinet, which includes a vice-president. There is also a presidential advisory body, composed of the paramount chiefs of the country's 16 constituent states. Each state has its own elected legislature and governor.

History

Initially colonized by Spain, the islands became a German possession in 1855, when they were known as Palau. They were placed under Japanese administration by the League of Nations in 1921. In 1944 the USA made the archipelago a base for its forces as they moved across the Pacific towards Japan, and in 1947 it became part of the United Nations (UN) Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. The islands achieved republican status in 1981, under the name of Belau. The US policy of agreeing a Compact of Free Association with the trust territories, as a prelude to self-determination throughout Micronesia, was not implemented in the case of Palau because its constitution precluded the transit and storage of nuclear materials on the islands, as requested by the USA. Successive referenda failed to secure the 75% majority support required to amend the constitution until in 1992 the requirement was reduced to a simple majority. A further referendum in November 1993 approved the necessary constitutional amendments, thereby opening the path towards independence.

In the meantime, two of the country's presidents had suffered violent deaths: Haruo Remeliik in 1985, at the hands of political opponents, and Lazarus Salii in 1988, by his own hand. Kuniwo Nakamura was elected president in 1992, when the constitution was amended to allow for internal self-government.

Palau became an independent nation, with the USA retaining responsibility for its defence and foreign policy, in October 1994, and the following month joined the United Nations.

In January 2001, Tommy Remengesau became president.

Belau Caroline Islands

colonial trusteeship Koror

Nakamura, Kuniwo Pacific Community

Pacific Islands Spanish architecture

trust territory