The Fiji Sun has reported that in meetings with Fiji’s new non-resident Ambassador to the Holy See, Naivakarurubalavu Solo Mara, Pope Benedict and Vatican officials wish Fiji well The Pope received Mara in an official audience for the presentation of his Letters of Credence on Friday 5 May at the Clementine Hall in Vatican City. He Read more
New Zealand Foreign Minister, Murray McCully, will travel to Suva on Monday as a member of the Pacific Islands Forum Ministerial Contact Group on Fiji. Mr McCully today thanked the Fiji administration for its agreement to the MCG visit. “This visit will enable the MCG to resume direct dialogue with Fiji after a significant interval,” Read more
Ro Teimumu Kepa, who heads the Burebasaga Confederacy, says her letter to Commodore Bainimarama simply stated that the role of the Great Council of Chiefs in the life of Fijians should not be discounted. An opinion article in a pro-government newspaper criticised her for threatening a calamity, but she says she was simply raising the Read more
“The obsession to remove racial issues from the governance of this country is short-sighted and ill-conceived, for ethnicity is a fact of life”, says Paramount Chief Ro Teimumu in a letter to the interim Prime Minster, Frank Bainimarama. “The revolutionary changes you are making cannot be made without the involvement of the Great Council of Read more
New Zealand foreign Minister Murray McCully has set out new terms under which New Zealand might relax some of its sanctions on the Fijian Government led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama.
McCully said that if Fiji were to request that New Zealand should exempt new civilian appointees to the cabinet or to permanent secretary’s roles coming in to replace military people currently occupying those roles, “then we’d certainly consider lifting the sanctions as far as those individuals were concerned.”
Read the article...New Zealand foreign minister Murray McCully says he’s keeping an open mind about sanctions on Fiji, after Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama announced plans last week to consult the public on a new constitution, which is expected to be ready by next February.
Commodore Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup, said the new constitution would enshrine principles of one-person-one-vote, an independent judiciary and transparent governance.
According to a media report, Mr McCully said Wellington saw the consultation as a step in the right direction for Fiji, and it was keeping an open mind about post-coup sanctions.
“We’ve never ruled out looking at the sanctions,” he said.
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Fiji’s Prime Minster last week announced that a consultation process will take place on Fiji’s constitution between July and September. There has been speculation that this announcement would give an opportunity for a change in policy towards Fiji in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand Foreign Minister, Murray McCully, has already broken ranks and begun to engage with Fiji. While Read more
Voreqe Bainimarama has condemned Australian and New Zealand policies in the Pacific while new power brokers are at work in their backyard. Shunned by Canberra and Wellington since Bainimarama’s 2006 coup, Fiji now has new friends – such as Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, making the first ever visit to the region by a Russian leader. Read more
Frank Bainimarama – Fiji’s prime minister and the current chair of the four-nation Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) joined the chorus of criticism of Kevin Rudd in advance of last Monday’s leadership vote in Australia, accusing him of having neglected the Pacific as foreign minister.
He said Canberra’s lack of attention to the region – and especially its policy of shunning Fiji – had weakened Australian influence in the Pacific and had created a power vacuum that bigger powers were moving to fill.
Countries such as China and Russia were building relations with the smaller island states and strengthening their presence in Australia’s backyard.
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The Fijian leader, Frank Bainimarama, has strongly denied claims made by two prominent former local journalists – writing in the New Zealand media – that he made three coup attempts before his successful takeover in December 2006. In his interview with Grubsheet in Suva, the Fijian leader said the allegations were “not true”. In the Read more