Australian minister rules out compromise over Fiji's 'ugly' coup

Kevin Rudd. Photo / Greg Bowker

Kevin Rudd Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd says transtasman diplomacy calling for democracy in Fiji will continue to be vigorous.

The Pacific nation has faced diplomatic pressure since the military took control in a 2006 coup, including suspension from the Commonwealth and the Pacific Islands Forum, and sanctions by countries including the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Rudd said there was often a tendency to focus on what Australian and New Zealand diplomacy should be doing, rather then putting the onus on Commodore Frank Bainimarama's military regime.

"It actually buys into a Bainimarama assumption that the problem lies with the rest of us rather than with the Bainimarama regime," he told TVNZ's Q+A programme.

"That is, what is it that's wrong with Australian and New Zealand diplomacy that we have somehow failed in the Bainimarama test of causing him to conclude that it is not right to sack your entire judiciary ... that it is not right to close down the media, that it is not right to suspend elections?

"Bainimarama is the one who must change here, and therefore if we were to so compromise and say, 'That's okay, only if you have half a coup', that is unacceptable."

Mr Rudd said Australia and New Zealand were "doing a lot" in pushing for freedom of expression in Fiji, and diplomacy would continue to be active.

"It will continue to be vigorous in engaging the Fijian regime. We're not in the business of legitimising what has been a very ugly military coup," he said. "The reverse is that Bainimarama must change if he is to adhere to the standards and the norms of the Pacific Islands Forum, the standards and the norms of the Commonwealth of Nations, the standards and the norms of the United Nations."

New Zealand's Foreign Minister, Murray McCully, last month said there had been little progress towards the resumption of democracy in Fiji, following a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum's ministerial contact group.

- NZPA