Interim PM Questions Working Groups Merit

Fiji's interim government has now revealed that it is seriously questioning whether there is any merit in Fiji continuing to engage with the Forum-Fiji Joint Working Group.

Interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama through the Interim AG informed the Forum Working Group monitoring Fiji's progress to democratic elections, that the position of the group was similar to NZ and Australia's position. Bainimarama says while the interim government is participating in the Forum Group on a genuine basis, the Group's position was insincere, hypocritical and unconstructive in moving Fiji forward.

He says in 2000, when a democratically elected government was illegally removed, the constitution illegally abrogated and the Qarase interim government illegally appointed, Australia and NZ did not place travel bans on the then interim government nor did they place bans on persons appointed by the Qarase led interim government.

The Bainimarama led interim government says this time, when the constitution has not been abrogated, the government is seeking engagement with the community, a Forum dialogue is being organised under the auspices of the UN and Commonwealth and the legality of the government is before the courts, the Australian and NZ governments continue to impose travel bans and refuse to
actively engage in a meaningful basis with the interim government.


The interim government says a recent example is the imposition of the travel ban of Robyn Storck who is the new Chairman of Fijian Holdings Limited. It also says that Australia and NZ continue to apply bans on civil servants and even those participating in the Forum Group, for example the Prime Minister's Permanent Secretary, Parmesh Chand have been placed on a travel ban.