New Flags Flying - Pacific Leaders Remember
Part 4 nauru
Significant events since independence
1992 Following Hammer deRoburt’s death in office, Bernard Dowiyogo elected president
1987 Nauru begins legal action against Australia for phosphate compensation, finally settled in 1993
1997 Political instability with five presidents in office in the course of one year
1999 Nauru joins the British Commonwealth and the United Nations
2001 Australia-bound Tampa refugees sent to Nauru for detention there as part of Australia’s 'Pacific Solution' to its problem with 'boat people'
2002 Nauru establishes diplomatic relations with Taiwan, switching back and forth between China and Taiwan in the following years; relations currently with Taiwan
2006 Experts report Nauru’s phosphate reserves almost exhausted.
Karst following phosphate mining on Nauru