By DPA
Wellington : Opposition mounted at home and abroad Friday to Fiji military strongman Commodore Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama’s move to reinstate martial law in the South Pacific island state.
Bainimarama, who seized power in a bloodless coup in December 2006, assumed emergency powers Thursday and accused the prime minister he ousted, Laisenia Qarase, of destabilizing his regime.
Don McKinnon, secretary general of the Commonwealth of former British colonies, which suspended Fiji’s membership after the coup, joined New Zealand and Australia in condemning the latest move as a setback to the restoration of democracy.
McKinnon said he was concerned at statements by Fiji’s Military Council that Qarase and his party would be banned from contesting future elections.
“The people of the Fiji Islands have the right to select freely the leaders and government of their choice,” McKinnon said. “This is a basic tenet of democracy and one of the fundamental values of the Commonwealth.”
The Council of the European Union, which made the end of martial law in June a condition for resuming millions of euros in aid, said it would discuss the political situation in Fiji at a meeting in Brussels Friday.
“In the European Union’s assessment, it is not apparent which threats to national security, public order and safety exist to justify such a drastic measure as bringing back the public emergency regulations,” a statement said.
The Fiji Times, the country’s main newspaper, described the move in an editorial as “another kick in the teeth” for the recovering tourist industry, noting that both New Zealand and Australia, which provide the bulk of vacationers, had issued warnings about travelling to the islands.
Bainimarama said Thursday that he had reinstated public emergency regulations, which restrict public meetings and permit the Army to arrest people without charges, to restrain Qarase, who returned Sep 1 to the capital Suva from his home village on an outlying island for the first time since he was deposed on Dec 5.
Qarase arrived in a chartered aircraft after claiming the military had directed the national airline Air Fiji not to fly him to the capital.
He said last week that he had received death threats from the military if he returned to Suva. The army denied Qarase’s death-threat allegation.
McKinnon said that Bainimarama, who has had himself sworn in as interim prime minister, had not answered crucial questions from the Commonwealth Secretariat about restoring democracy.
The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group would review developments in Fiji at a meeting later this month in New York, McKinnon said. Regional leaders would be seeking answers from Bainimarama at a Pacific Forum summit in October in Tonga.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said that the state of emergency would reflect badly on Bainimarama at the Forum, noting that 15 democratically elected leaders would attend along with one who seized power with the barrel of a gun.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said the re-imposition of martial law, coupled with the resignation of six New Zealand and Australian judges from Fiji’s Court of Appeal because of military interference, were significant steps backward on the route to democracy.