Three centuries ago they came for sandalwood. Today the bastards are after our genes.

Lopeti Senituli Tonga Human Rights and Democracy Movement

Thus, the director of the Tonga Human Rights and Democracy Movement, Lopeti Senituli, is insistent that the Melbourne-based company Autogen should clearly state whether it has abandoned the project or not.

''We really cannot afford to go back to the frontier days when it was open season on all things indigenous to the Pacific Islands,'' said Senituli, who spoke at the Australasian Bioethics Association Conference in Adelaide on Thursday.

In November 2000, Autogen informed the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) that it had signed an agreement with the Tongan Ministry of Health to establish a research project aimed at ''identifying genes that cause common diseases using the unique population resources in the Kingdom of Tonga''.

Tonga, composed of 170 islands and with a population of 100,000 people, was attractive to Autogen as its population descended from a small number of people, thereby simplifying the search for genes potentially associated diseases common among Tongans.

While Autogen is a small fish in Australia's expanding biotechnology sector, it boasts as its chairman and largest shareholder, Joseph Gutnick, one of the leading businessmen from the Australian Jewish community.

Aside from his mining interests, Gutnick is a confidant of former prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, who in August last year attended a special forum on biotechnology co-hosted by Autogen. Former Australian Labor Party Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, is also on Autogen's board.

While Autogen is politically well connected, it did not anticipate the reaction to its proposal.

Senituli, whose group proposes major democratic reforms away from reliance on the Tongan monarchy, objected to the secrecy surrounding Autogen's proposal. ''We expressed opposition to it primarily because there was no public discussion'', he said.

At first, the Tongan minister for health claimed that the agreement with Autogen only committed the government to conduct further discussions. Later, he denied having signed any agreement.

According to Bob Phelps, director of the Australian-based non- government organization GeneEthics Network, Tonga was the first country to sell human genetic information.

''The significance of the Tonga proposal is the extent to which absolute rulers and governments are prepared to go to cooperate with commercial interests to exploit every natural resource, including the genes of their own people,'' he said.

Autogen's proposal sparked region-wide concern amongst the churches. In March 2001, the Tongan National Council of Churches, along with the Geneva-based World Council of Churches, convened a conference on bioethics involving church and community leaders from throughout the Pacific region.

The conference resolved to oppose ''all forms of genetic engineering'' and cloning because ''the conversion of life forms, their molecules or parts into corporate property through patent monopolies is counter-productive to the interests of the (people) of the Pacific''.

While Autogen stated its intent to support prior informed consent of volunteers willing to give blood samples, the churches insist that such decisions would have to also consider the collective rights of the extended family.

Autogen's proposal flows from an alliance it formed with Merck Lipha, a subsidiary of the German pharmaceutical giant Merck, which is funding the search for gene discoveries involving weight imbalance, diabetes and insulin resistance. If genes associated with the diseases could be identified, Merck hopes it could develop new drugs for a potentially lucrative market.

While Autogen flagged economic benefits from the research, such as jobs and funding for a new medical research facility, Senituli believes the benefits from the proposal were heavily weighted in favor of Autogen. ''What they are offering us is little, a drop in the ocean in comparison to what Autogen is bound to get if there is any success'', he said.

Stung by the opposition, the chief scientific officer of Autogen, Professor Greg Collier, insists the company no longer has any immediate interest in doing research work in Tonga.

''We are not actually doing anything in Tonga. What we have decided to do and this is a scientific decision and a resources decision more than anything is to concentrate our resources into investigating more into the Tasmanian population (in Australia)'', he said.

But Senituli is not reassured. ''What intrigues us is why Autogen has not removed the reference to Tonga from its website, why has the stock exchange not been told and why is Merck in Germany telling everyone they have a project in Tonga? This is what worries us'', he said.

Collier has no intention of issuing a clarifying statement to the ASX or removing the reference to the Tonga proposal from its website. ''There is no changing that à it would look more like to me that we are covering our tracks. I think it is open to have anyone to discuss what has happened in the past as well as what is happening in the future,'' he said.

Even if Autogen retreats from Tonga, Senituli believes that others will follow in their footsteps in what he sees as the next attempt to colonize their resources. ''Three centuries ago they came for sandalwood. Today the bastards are after our genes,'' he said.

Copyright 2002 Inter Press Service

###