News Photos
Search Advanced Sign in / Register fans
 
WORLD NEWS    
 

Advertisement

Fiji orders Australian, NZ diplomats out
Associated Press
2009-11-04 10:00 AM
Australia's prime minister vowed Wednesday to maintain a hard line in its deepening diplomatic row with military-ruled Fiji to guard against a "coup culture" spreading in the South Pacific region.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, current chairman of the region's trade and diplomatic bloc Pacific Islands Forum, was responding to Fijian leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama's decision to expel Australia's and New Zealand's top diplomats for allegedly meddling in Fiji's affairs.

"The Fijian regime led by Commodore Bainimarama has conducted a military coup, he has violated the constitution, he has refused to hold elections and he's suspended the judiciary," Rudd told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"Therefore we have taken a deliberately hardline approach to this regime because we do not want this coup culture to spread elsewhere in the Pacific," he said.

Despite instability and economic turmoil wrought by four coups since 1987, Fiji's is one of the wealthiest and most influential countries among the largely impoverished and aid-dependent South Pacific region.

Rebels who ousted the Solomon Islands government in 2000 cited a coup that year in Fiji as inspiration, prompting Canberra to recast its regional military strategy to deal with what it called an "arc of instability" stretching from East Timor into the South Pacific.

Bainimarama has been at loggerheads with Australia and New Zealand since the two regional powers led condemnation of the military leader's 2006 overthrow of the elected government. The two nations have slapped travel bans on senior Fiji officials, and pushed successfully for Fiji to be suspended from key international groups.

The latest spat is over a group of expatriate judges from Sri Lanka that Fiji wants to hire to replace some of those fired by Bainimarama's administration in a power grab earlier this year.

Australia and New Zealand told the judges this week that if they take up the posts in Fiji they would be subject to travel bans the two countries have placed on all senior officials in Bainimarama's government because of the coup.

Bainimarama on Tuesday accused Australia and New Zealand of adopting dishonest strategies to undermine Fiji, and gave the countries' top diplomats 24 hours to leave Fiji or face deportation.

Australia denies it tried to block the Sri Lankans from taking up posts in Fiji but concedes they had been contacted and advised that the Australia and New Zealand travel bans would apply.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said in a statement Tuesday that the government was considering what steps to take in response to the expulsion.

 
Have Your Say :

We welcome your comments on this and other stories. Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Please provide your full name and suburb/location. We also require a working e-mail address – not for publication, but for verification only.

 
Post your feedback
 
 
 
More WORLD News Stories
GM analyst predicts solid November US sales   2009-11-20
Marathon cuts 2010 capex by $1B, shares fall 4 pct   2009-11-20
Review: `Red Cliff' milks action, lapses on drama   2009-11-20
NY court: Married gay couples entitled to benefits   2009-11-20
Kosovo deputy PM threatens government change   2009-11-20
Gov't rewarding firms checking immigrant status   2009-11-20
Honduras interim president to take leave for vote   2009-11-20
Review: `Broken Embraces' is Almodovar's lastest   2009-11-20
3 teens plead not guilty in burning of US boy   2009-11-20
Review: Wildness intact, `Bad Lieutenant' returns   2009-11-20
Details of state dinner scarce, White House mum   2009-11-20
US Panel sets fees for big firms, aims to slow Fed   2009-11-20
Alcoa idles Italy smelters, hurting 2,000 workers   2009-11-20
Celebrity birthdays for Nov. 22-28   2009-11-20
Computer glitch snarls US air traffic   2009-11-20
Al-Qaida suspect promises New York trial boycott   2009-11-20
James Van Der Beek files for divorce   2009-11-20
'Holy hip-hop' trying to break into mainstream   2009-11-20
Sybase Classic off US LPGA Tour schedule   2009-11-20
Texas inmate executed after gov. rejects clemency   2009-11-20
 
01     02   03   04   05   06   07   08   09   Next   >
 
To search for articles form the past seven days, Click on ARCHIVES
  7day free
 
 
TOP

©2009 Taiwan News All Rights Reserved.