The US Department of State said the interim government's decision to withdraw from the Pacific Islands Forum Joint Working Group on Fiji is one that increases concern that Commodore Bainimarama and the interim government may not abide by the pledge made last year in Tonga to hold free and fair democratic elections under the Fiji Constitution by March 2009.
In a statement, the United States said it was disappointed to hear about the interim government's withdrawal from the Joint Working Group.
The United States is urging the interim government to reverse its decision and make every effort to honour its commitment to hold elections in March 2009.
Stop Pushing Us 26/06/08
The Interim Prime Minister stressed that countries like Australia and New Zealand (NZ) should stop pushing Fiji to have elections in March 2009.
Commodore Frank Bainimarama said he was disappointed that following Fiji's decision to suspend its participation in the Forum Working Group, NZ Foreign Minister Winston Peters said it was clear that Bainimarama would not meet the commitment to have elections next year.
Bainimarama said the Working Group is to assist Fiji, not pressure the interim government to give in.
"That’s nothing to do with the Forum Working Group. The Forum Working Group has to bring the countries together and find a way forward for us. It has nothing to do with a timeline. That’s where the problem is: they’re all pushing us to the elections when they don’t even want to understand what’s happening in Fiji."
The Interim Prime Minister also said it was also disappointing that NZ and Australia have not accepted the new Fiji High Commissioners to the two countries.
"They have an acting New Zealand High Commissioner here. They’ve never accepted our acting Fiji High Commissioner in New Zealand. We have a full-time Australian High Commissioner here in Fiji. They’ve not accepted a Fiji High Commissioner in Canberra nor a Trade Commissioner in Sydney. We think it’s very unfair of these two countries to do this to us. So we thought we just get away from the forum working groups. It’s a waste of time for our senior officers and we don’t think it’s going to do us any good until these two nations become genuine in their efforts to help us and then we might think about going back and joining the forum working group and telling them where we’re going."
Forum Working Group Waste of Time Published: 26/06/2008 [07:52]
Fiji's Interim Prime Minister has today stressed that the Forum Working Group meetings have been a waste of time and Fiji has pulled out of the group for now.
Commodore Frank Bainimarama said the Fiji Forum Working Group's main task was to work with Fiji and assist the interim government in ensuring Fiji returns to true democracy but this has not been done.
Bainimarama said he had the permanent secretaries at the PM's office, the Attorney General's office and Foreign Affairs engaged in the Forum Working Group process but it had achieved nothing.
“Last week we had the thirtieth meeting … or the Forum Working Group had their thirtieth meeting since it started way back last year. I had given my support to the working group, since it’s set up following the meeting of the Forum Foreign Ministers in Port Vila in April last year. At all times I have ensured that Fiji’s participation in the working group is consistent and it is made up of most of the senior officers. Today it seems clear that Australia and New Zealand have not come on board in trying to assist Fiji in the move toward parliamentary democracy. On the contrary they have gone the other way.”
Commodore Bainimarama said it is clear that Australia and New Zealand have not changed at all due to the continuous travel bans imposed on people taking up positions in institutions connected to the state.
“We have been talking about the travel bans – their latest move was to ban Mr. Robin Storck who was put in the chairmanship of Fiji Holdings (Limited). We have had enough of this. In the last thirty meetings nothing positive has ever come out from Australia and New Zealand. Nothing! So we have been wasting so much time talking to these two working groups in the forum working group. In fact last week Winston Peters said they had no intention of working with us. So I don’t know why they could not have come up with this statement last year so we wouldn’t have wasted all this time talking to them. I think the best thing would be to wait until Parliamentary democracy and they can start talking to us again. In the meantime we thought we’d we’ll move away from the Forum Working Group to no longer participate in the group, until such time Australia and New Zealand become genuine."
