Fiji out of democracy forum
Fiji’s military ruler withdrew today from a dialogue with a regional bloc that is pressing him to return the country to democracy, casting further doubt on his promise to hold elections next year.
Coup leader and interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama accused Australia and New Zealand, the largest and most influential countries in the Pacific Islands Forum, of being dishonest and unhelpful toward his government.
“They don’t appreciate the interim government’s initiatives and that shows they are not genuine and honest about moving Fiji forward,” Mr Bainimarama said.
He said he had written to Pacific Islands Forum chairman, Tongan leader Fred Sevele, to tell him Fiji was withdrawing from a group of South Pacific foreign ministers who have spent more than a year working with Fiji on plans for elections by the end of March next year.
In recent months Mr Bainimarama has said repeatedly that the elections could be delayed while Fiji reforms its race-based electoral system.
Australia, New Zealand, the European Union and the United States have warned Mr Bainimarama not to delay the elections.
New Zealand foreign minister Winston Peters said Fiji was not justified in suspending the talks with the forum ministerial grouping.
“It’s astonishing that they’ve withdrawn from it. This was a group that was there to go through the pathway and the logistics of holding a free and fair election,” Mr Peters told New Zealand’s National Radio.
He dismissed Mr Bainimarama’s claims that Australia and New Zealand hold condescending and neocolonialist attitudes toward Fiji, which has been rocked by four coups in the past 21 years, the latest one in 2006.
