Kiwi website causes international incident
04 November 2002
The United States embassy in Wellington says it is unfortunate that a satirical New Zealand website story saying the US was to invade Kiribati was believed.
The Republic of Kiribati president Teburoro Tito was upset by the September spinner.co.nz article saying he was an evil dictator and that the US intended to invade the islands.
Pacific Media Watch had earlier reported that the story had caused widespread concern in the islands, which caused the Office of the President to issue a series of public broadcasts assuring the population that the planned "invasion" story was not true.
The statement said the story was a "misleading, fearful, intimidating and defamatory" attempt to "cause a lot of problems before the general elections".
The Sunday Star-Times newspaper yesterday reported that New Zealand High Commissioner to Kiribati Neil Robertson had been questioned by the president about the article.
"The Kiribati sense of humour does not encompass satire," he said.
"The thing that really got people here is that there is an election campaign in progress and there has certainly been opposition criticism of President Tito, because of his alleged autocratic attitude toward various matters.
"The fact the satirical item referred to him as an evil dictator was not, perhaps, opportune."
The story, headlined `Bush to invade Kiribati islands', read in part: "George W Bush today announced a realignment of US Foreign policy. The goal of ousting Iraq's Saddam Hussein has now been replaced by the goal of regime change in the Kiribati islands as the US' new top priority.
"`For years the evil dictator Teburoro Tito has oppressed his people and terrorised the Pacific region.
"We also have reason to believe he is in the process of developing weapons of mass destruction. And some pretty damn fine crab soup," Bush said.
"Bush today announced the departure of the seventh Admiralty Fleet to Kiribati. An invasion is expected to begin within the next two weeks.
"Intense diplomatic activity has begun to establish international support for the US initiative.
"`Come on guys, this will be (easy) compared to Iraq,' pleaded Bush. `They don't even have an army."'
A United States embassy spokeswoman said it was unfortunate the joke was misconstrued.
"We would hope that it is obvious to anyone who sees the site that the comments were meant to be humorous. Unfortunately they were not successful."
Among other stories on the site was a gossip piece about "celebrity couple" Star Wars' Chewbacca and Bungle the Bear from the Rainbow television series; that a fast-food company was launching a commemorative twin towers burger; and that the US congress had increased funding to try discover more about pop-singer Michael Jackson's "mystery disease".
