Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who staged a bloodless coup in 2006, expelled New Zealand’s ambassador on Thursday saying he was interfering in Fiji’s domestic affairs.
But New Zealand, which has been a strong critic of the coup and reports of human rights abuses in Fiji, said its high commissioner had done nothing wrong.
Bainimarama, who remains head of the military, is very sensitive to criticism of his coup and self-appointed government and has rejected a return to an elected government until 2010.
He said in a statement that he had no choice but to expel New Zealand High Commissioner Michael Green. Commonwealth countries often call their ambassadors high commissioners.
”The practice of quiet diplomacy was foremost given all the chances to prevail by Fiji authorities in our efforts to seek understanding and cooperation of Green to stop interfering in Fiji’s domestic affairs,” he said.
He said New Zealand had also snubbed Fiji’s high commissioner and that Green’s attitude had done little to help the situation.
”The New Zealand Government deplores this action,” Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said the reason given was that the Fijian government did not like Green’s criticisms on New Zealand’s behalf.
”The New Zealand high commissioner is one of our most senior diplomats … [and] he has done absolutely nothing wrong. What he has done is continue to represent the views of the New Zealand government and this is clearly what the Fiji government continues to take exception to in the wake of the coup,” she said.
New Zealand, along with its neighbour Australia and the United States, has been critical of the coup which toppled the elected government of Laisenia Qarase on December 6 2006.
Peters said the expulsion was one step below breaking relations and warned of consequences for Fiji.
Australia said it backed New Zealand in the dispute.
”We’re both dismayed and we deeply regret what’s happened so we will certainly stick up for New Zealand,” Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Radio New Zealand International.
Australia’s high commissioner in Suva had also opposed the coup, but had not been threatened with expulsion, Downer said.
Fourth coup
Bainimarama says his coup was necessary because Qarase’s largely indigenous government was corrupt, racist and too soft on those responsible for a previous coup in 2000. This was Fiji’s fourth coup in 20 years.
Qarase remains in exile on his island home, fearful of returning to the capital Suva.
New Zealand, Australia, Britain and the United States imposed economic and defence sanctions after the coup. The former British colony has had its Commonwealth membership suspended, just as it did after two similar upheavals in 1987 and again in 2000.
”We see last year’s December coup as not only illegal, it is also morally wrong,” Fiji’s Methodist Church president, Reverend Laisiasa Ratabacaca, told a news conference in Suva on Wednesday.
The Methodist Church, the biggest Christian denomination in Fiji, criticised the ”militarisation” of government posts and called for a return to civilian rule through national elections.
”Political appointments and those based on nepotism is corruption of the worst kind,” said the church in a submission to the government, reported the fijilive.com website.
Australia and New Zealand told the United Nations Human Rights Council this month they were concerned at the ”compromised state of the judiciary in Fiji”, with the removal of its chief justice by the military and reports of harassment and detention of lawyers.
New Zealand said it was concerned about human rights abuses.
Fiji’s state of emergency, imposed following the coup, was lifted on June 1, but its prime minister warned Fijians that anyone causing public alarm would be arrested.
Tourism, Fiji’s main industry, suffered a sharp fall immediately after the coup and has started to recover, but visitor numbers remain lower than previous years.
A total of 108 000 visitors came to Fiji in the first three months of 2007, a decline of 5,5% on the same period in 2006, said the Fiji Islands Visitors Bureau.
A revised budget in May said Fiji’s gross domestic product would shrink -2,5% in the year 2007, compared with an initial budget estimate of growth of 2%. – Reuters 2007