[LINK] "Fiji embroiled in diplomatic row with Australia and New Zealand"

[rfmcdonald]

The military government of Fiji continues to have problems with Australia and New Zealand, the regional powers strongly opposed to the government's origins in a coup, blind to the Melanesian/Indo-Fijian ethnic division though it claims to be.

Frank Bainimarama, the self-appointed military leader who has ruled Fiji since the December 2006 coup, yesterday issued a 24-hour order for the ambassadors of Australia and New Zealand to leave the island over travel sanctions the two countries had imposed on people linked to the military regime.

He accused the two countries of sabotaging nation-building efforts by refusing to grant visas to Fijian judges.

In retaliation, Australia and New Zealand made near simultaneous announcements earlier today that they had expelled the Fijian ambassadors to their countries.

The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that he aimed to continue his government’s hardline stance against Mr Bainimarama’s leadership in order to maintain stability in the South Pacific region.

“We're not about to simply allow a coup culture to spread,'' he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Mr Rudd added that Australia would not allow what has happened in Fiji to become “some sort of norm for the Pacific at large”.