CathNews New Zealand

In November 2006 Andrew Hughes, an Australian who was the Police Commissioner in Fiji rang The New Zealand Police Commissioner to see if any offence under New Zealand law existed for which the New Zealand  Police could arrest Bainimarama while he was visiting the country.

At the time it was reported that a request had been made through Interpol and rejected by the New Zealand Government.

A recent article in the New Zealand Herald  gives what is claimed to be a detailed background to this incident It was written by former Fiji Sun editor-in-chief  Russell Hunter, who was deported from Fiji in 2008 – and former journalist, and now an Oxford academic, Victor Lal,

However Professor Crosbie Walsh, a retired founding director of development studies at the University of the South Pacific, has written a refutation of the Herald article.

Winston Peters, who was New Zealand Foreign Minster at the time also rejects the suggestion New Zealand  was planning to arrest  Bainimarama

Source

• The New Zealand Herald
• Pacific Scoop
• FijiVillage
• Image: The Fiji Times

 

Additional reading

• Could New Zealand have stopped the Fiji coup?

News category: Asia Pacific.