Push to block Fiji from UN peacekeeping – Sydney Morning Herald
Push to block Fiji from UN peacekeeping
- Jonathan Pearlman Foreign Affairs Correspondent
- April 29, 2009
- Page 1 of 2 | Single Page View
Covered … Fiji’s economy is reliant on peacekeeping payments. Photo: AP
THE Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, says the United Nations should look at punishing Fiji’s military rulers by further limiting the involvement of its soldiers in peacekeeping forces – a move that would seriously damage the country’s economy.
Australia and New Zealand have been leading efforts to pressure Fiji’s interim government over its recent abrogation of the constitution and crackdown on the media and the judiciary.
The country’s military ruler, Frank Bainimarama, seized power in a bloodless coup in 2006 and has backed away from earlier plans to hold elections this year.
Mr Rudd discussed the crackdown at a meeting in Canberra yesterday with Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare. The two agreed to press ahead with efforts to suspend Fiji from the Pacific Islands Forum. “Australia’s position is hardline,” Mr Rudd said. “You cannot sustain within a family of democracies [such as] the Pacific Island Forum or the Commonwealth a government like that of Fiji which simply treats with contempt the most fundamental democratic institutions and press freedoms.
“Through our interventions with the United Nations, supported by New Zealand and other countries, the UN now is not going to engage future Fijian troops for new operations. There is a question which now arises as to whether there should be a further tightening on top of that.”
Fiji’s economy is heavily reliant on UN payments for peacekeeping contributions and remittances from soldiers abroad. About 600 soldiers serve as peacekeepers in Lebanon, Iraq, East Timor and in the Sinai.
Fiji’s interim government dismissed claims it would not be allowed to provide further peacekeepers, saying the UN had not taken action against other countries that have had coups.
“Precedents have been set, like Pakistan, Thailand, all these are very big troop contributing countries to the UN, so what are they talking about?” a government spokesman, Neumi Leweni, told the news website Fijilive. Continued…
