The only State disciplined forces in Kiribati are a unified national police force, with prison and quarantine powers, and the coast guard. Defense assistance is provided by Australia and New Zealand. The police force does not report to any ministers but rather directly to the President of Kiribati. [1]
The Kiribati Police Service is an independent body with one police officer for every 222 people (total staff over 500 with strength approximately 458 sworn members). Ioeru Tokantetaake is the current Commissioner of Police (since 2004), and also presides over prisons in Kiribati.
The Kiribati Police Service carry few weapons. Drill purpose rifles are used for drills, and some officers have been provided with AR-15 rifles.
There are police stations on every inhabited island in Kiribati. Key police posts include:
The police operate the RKS Teanoai (301) , a Pacific class patrol boat provided to Kiribati by Australia as part of the Pacific Patrol Boat Program and delivered new in 1994. The vessel is registered and stationed in Tarawa.
KPS is responsible for managing the prisons in Kiribati. There are 4 prisons in Kiribati with 3 for men and 1 for women. [2] As of 2013, there are 141 persons detained in the system. Prison staff are members of the Kiribati Police Service.
There are two prisons in Kiribati:
Fire and rescue services are the responsibility of the KPS. [3]
In 2012 Japan donated a chemical pumper to Kiribati to be stationed in Betio to replace the role of the fire truck at Bonriki International Airport on the other end of the island. [4]
Select members of the KPS are selected to protect the President and other dignitaries. [5]
Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, with more than half living on Tarawa atoll. The state comprises 32 atolls and one remote raised coral island, Banaba. Its total land area is 811 km2 (313 sq mi) dispersed over 3,441,810 km2 (1,328,890 sq mi) of ocean.
The islands which now form the Republic of Kiribati have been inhabited for at least seven hundred years, and possibly much longer. The initial Austronesian peoples’ population, which remains the overwhelming majority today, was visited by Polynesian and Melanesian invaders before the first European sailors visited the islands in the 17th century. For much of the subsequent period, the main island chain, the Gilbert Islands, was ruled as part of the British Empire. The country gained its independence in 1979 and has since been known as Kiribati.
Anote Tong is an I-Kiribati environmental activist and former politician for the Pillars of Truth party with half Chinese heritage, who served as the fourth president of Kiribati, from 2003 to 2016. He won the election in July 2003 with a slim plurality of votes cast (47.4%) against his older brother, Harry Tong (43.5%) and the private lawyer Banuera Berina (9.1%). The elections were contested by the opposition, due to allegations of electoral fraud but the High Court of Tarawa had confirmed that there was no fraud. He was re-elected on 17 October 2007 for a second term (64%). In 2012, Tong was reelected for a third term, although with a significantly smaller percentage than in the previous two elections.
Tarawa is an atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati, in the Micronesia region of the central Pacific Ocean. It comprises North Tarawa, which has 6,629 inhabitants and much in common with other more remote islands of the Gilbert group, and South Tarawa, which has 56,388 inhabitants as of 2015, half of the country's total population. The atoll was the site of the Battle of Tarawa during World War II.
South Tarawa is the capital and hub of the Republic of Kiribati and home to more than half of Kiribati's population. The South Tarawa population centre consists of all the small islets from Betio in the west to Bonriki and Tanaea in the north-east, connected by the South Tarawa main road, with a population of 63,439 as of 2020.
Betio is the largest township of Kiribati's capital city, South Tarawa, and the country's main port. The settlement is located on a separate islet at the extreme southwest of the atoll.
Pillars of Truth was a political party in Kiribati, until 2020 when it merged with the Kiribati First Party to create the Boutokaan Kiribati Moa Party.
Bonriki International Airport is an international airport in Kiribati, serving as the main gateway to the country. It is located in its capital, South Tarawa, which is a group of islets in the atoll of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands, precisely on Bonriki.
The House of Assembly is the sole chamber of the Parliament of Kiribati. Since 2016, it has 45 members, 44 elected for a four-year term in 23 single-seat and multi-seat constituencies and 1 non-elected delegate from the Banaban community on Rabi Island in Fiji. From 1979 to 2016, the Attorney general was an ex officio member of the legislature until a change of the constitution modified this provision.
Nikunau is a low coral atoll in the Gilbert Islands that forms a council district of the Republic of Kiribati. It consists of two parts, with the larger in the northwest, joined by an isthmus about 150 metres (490 ft) wide.
Bikenibeu is a settlement in Kiribati. It is located close to the southeastern corner of the Tarawa atoll, part of the island country of Kiribati. It is part of a nearly continuous chain of settlements along the islands of South Tarawa, which are now linked by causeways. The low-lying atoll is vulnerable to sea level rise. Rapid population growth has caused some environmental problems. Kiribati's main government high school, King George V and Elaine Bernachi School, is located in Bikenibeu, as well as the Ministries of Environment and Education.
Buariki is an island in northern Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands of the Republic of Kiribati. It was the site of the Battle of Buariki in World War II.
Cuban-Pacific relations are diplomatic, economic, cultural, and other relations between the Cuba and countries situated in Oceania. In the 2000s, Cuba has been strengthening its relations with Pacific nations, which have, for the most part, responded favorably to Cuban medical aid in particular. The first Cuba-Pacific Islands ministerial meeting was held in September 2008 in Havana, with government members from ten Pacific countries—Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia and Papua New Guinea—attending. The meeting was a consolidation rather than a starting point of Cuban-Pacific relations.
The Republic of Kiribati and the People's Republic of China (PRC) established diplomatic relations on June 25, 1980, and resumed on September 27, 2019. Between 2003 and 2019, The government of Kiribati recognized the Republic of China, and, in accordance with the "One China" policy, the People's Republic of China did not have diplomatic relations to the country.
The Cabinet of Kiribati is the cabinet of the government of the Republic of Kiribati.
Taneti Maamau is an I-Kiribati politician who has served as the fifth president of Kiribati since 2016. A member of the Tobwaan Kiribati Party, his policies are targeted at strengthening Kiribati's weak economy and alleviating social issues. His government announced the Kiribati Vision for 20 Years (KV20), which plans to develop the tourism and fishing industries with aid from foreign investors.
India and Kiribati established diplomatic relations in 1985. The High Commission of India in Suva, Fiji is concurrently accredited to Kiribati. Kiribati maintains an Honorary Consulate in New Delhi.
The Governor of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands was the colonial head of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands civil service from 1892 until 1979.
The Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development is a government ministry of Kiribati, headquartered in Bikenibeu, South Tarawa.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) is a government ministry of Kiribati, headquartered in South Tarawa.
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