Coup man thorn in Goff's side

By EUGENE BINGHAM

Embarrassing new details about a blacklisted Fijian who slipped into New Zealand reveal that he has made a habit of popping up under Foreign Minister Phil Goff's nose.

Confidential documents obtained by the Weekend Herald also raise questions about the effectiveness of measures put in place to prevent supporters of the May 19 coup from entering the country - a central plank of the Government's so-called smart sanctions against Fiji.

Diplomatic cables show that Vodo Tuberi, a key adviser to Fiji coup leader George Speight, caused diplomatic splutters and security alarms when he gate-crashed a June meeting in Suva involving Mr Goff.

Five months later, Tuberi was undergoing medical treatment in an Auckland private hospital at New Zealand taxpayers' expense, despite being on an "A-list"of people banned from entering the country.

Cables, e-mails and faxes about the blunder show that the Immigration Service processed and approved Tuberi's three-month medical visitor's visa on October 31. The service said he was not recognised as a banned visitor because his date of birth was not on the blacklist.

But the documents say copies of the list with updated date-of-birth information were forwarded to the service's policy and operational branches on October 26 - five days before Tuberi's visa application was processed.

The papers, released under the Official Information Act, also show that Tuberi was well known to New Zealand diplomats and had certainly made himself known to Mr Goff and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer during their Commonwealth mission to urge Fiji back to democracy.

Mr Goff and Mr Downer had refused to meet Speight representatives because they did not want to give legitimacy to them. But Tuberi, one of Speight's legal advisers, ignored this wish when he side-stepped security and ambushed the ministers' meeting with representatives of the Fijian Opposition party SVT.

Tuberi abused both Mr Goff and Mr Downer and later appeared alongside Speight at the televised signing of the agreement under which deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and other hostages were released, a cable from the High Commission in Suva says.

Tuberi arrived in Auckland on November 5 last year, after Fijian doctors referred him for treatment through a New Zealand aid programme. He is understood to have cancer.

A Newmarket doctor, Dr C. S. Benjamin, of Universal Medical and Surgical Care, oversaw the case.

By the time officials realised that Tuberi was in the country, he had been booked in for a scan.

On November 9, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued urgent instructions that no further treatment would be paid for by the New Zealand Government.

"Accordingly, if the scan indicates further treatment is necessary, then it will be up to Mr Tuberi and/or Fiji to meet the costs involved," the ministry told Dr Benjamin.

The scan led to surgery, for which, it is understood, the Fijian Government bore the $16,000 cost.

Having dealt with the problem and issued instructions that anyone else on the aid programme was to be vetted by ministry staff, officials then turned to the issue of dealing with any media attention.

A November 16 e-mail from the ministry's development division to Beehive staff recommended that the media be given the most basic of information.

"Should any media enquiry ensue, the response is that the visa was processed in the normal manner and granted on humanitarian grounds, but that treatment costs are being met by the Fiji Health Department," said the e-mail.

Within days, though, Mr Goff was more forthcoming to the Herald.

After publication of the story, ministry officials were still anxious about publicity.

"Coverage of the Fiji visitor in the Herald ... may well stimulate further media [or Coalition] enquiries," said an e-mail from an unnamed deputy secretary.

"Unless [the minister's private secretary] advises to the contrary, I think our approach should be to say we have nothing to add to information given by Mr Goff in the House yesterday ... "

Tuberi, meanwhile, is understood to have left New Zealand last month. Calls to his Fijian phone number yesterday went unanswered.