By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – Foreign Affairs Ministers from New Zealand and Australia met yesterday to express their disapproval of Fiji’s interim prime minister, who announced he will not be attending the Pacific Forum meeting next week.

Murray McCully, NZ Foreign Affairs Minister, says that Fiji’s interim prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, was the primary focus of his meeting with Stephen Smith, Foreign Affairs Minister to Australia.

The Pacific Islands Forum has representatives from sixteen independent and self-governing states. The Forum was created to promote peace, harmony, security and economic prosperity within the Pacific nations. Fiji was one of seven founding members.

On Tuesday, Bainimarama said he will not attend next week’s Forum meeting in Papua New Guinea even though Forum leaders will likely discuss Fiji’s suspension from the group. Forum members have been dissatisfied ever since Bainimarama announced he will not make good on promises to hold democratic elections in 2009. In the Forum’s 30 years of existence, no member state has ever been suspended.

McCully and Smith say the interim prime minister should attend the meeting if only to explain the delay in restoring democracy to the Fijian people.

For more information, please see:
International Herald Tribune – NZ: Fiji may face more sanctions over no elections – 20 January 2009

Radio New Zealand International – NZ’s Foreign Affairs Minister disappointed Fiji’s interim PM will not be at meeting – 22 January 2009

The Sydney Morning Herald – Fiji’s coup leader defends summit stance – 22 January 2009