KEY POINTS:
Australia and New Zealand will continue to present a united front against the military regime in Fiji, but have to accept that the deposed prime minister Laisenia Qarase may not return to power, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.
Mr Downer and his New Zealand counterpart Winston Peters held a press conference after their regular six-monthly meeting in Wellington today.
The two ministers said instability in the Pacific was high on the agenda with the coup in Fiji featuring.
Mr Downer said a meeting of the Pacific Forum foreign ministers was scheduled in Vanuatu on March 16 to discuss the recently completed report by the eminent persons group on Fiji.
"We will certainly be taking a common position in response to that report... (but would) not publicise our common position right now, but wait until the meeting and show appropriate respect to our ministerial colleagues."
Mr Downer said the group had produced a road map for a return to democracy which was a more rapid process than that proposed by Fiji's military commander Commodore Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama, who seized power in a coup in December and has since appointed himself prime minister.
That roadmap would not include Mr Qarase returning to power.
"It would be nice if the democratically elected government would be returned to office... but I don't want to stray into unreality in diplomacy. I think that is clearly not about to happen."
A way forward had to be found that would end the cycle of coups.
"Coups are becoming a habit there and they are doing there country so much damage. They're doing the whole Pacific region's reputation so much damage by this constant coup-making," Mr Downer said.
"They really need to get over coups and embrace democratic institutions. Most people in Fiji do do that, but it seems the military finds it very difficult to respect democratic institutions."
Mr Downer wouldn't say whether he agreed with Mr Bainamarama's move to change the Fiji constitution, saying instead military commanders who seized power were not qualified to talk about how a country should be run.
Cdre Bainimarama was not a politician and "now he's called himself the prime minister -- he's finding that job a little bit more difficult than he imagined," Mr Downer said.
"It is a bit more complicated running a country, than it is running a military force."
Mr Peters said there was no logistical reason for Fiji not to hold fresh elections within a matter of months. The only barrier was Cdre Bainimarama.
Mr Downer said the smart sanctions were proving effective without hurting ordinary people.
The bans on travel to New Zealand and Australia by those involved in the coup and participating in the illegal government had hit their targets.
"For all sorts of different reasons (the travel bans) cause quite a lot of pain for those people. I want to focus our efforts on the people responsible," Mr Downer said.
Ordinary people would be hurt enough already by the economic downturn that would follow the coup without causing them more suffering from wider sanctions," Mr Downer said.
Cdre Bainimarama said this month Fiji could be returned to democracy in 2010, after a constitutional review and an examination of electoral boundaries.
Mr Downer said the EPG had set out a faster process than that, although it was not "a quick road map", and Cdre Bainimarama did not seem interested.
"He obviously likes the fruits of power, and doesn't see any reason to give them up any time soon," he said.
Mr Peters and Mr Downer urged Cdre Bainimarama to follow proposals set out by the eminent persons group.
The group, commissioned by the Pacific Islands Forum, was led by Vanuatu's Deputy Prime Minister Sato Kilman and also comprised of Samoa's Environment Minister Faumuina Luiga, Papua New Guinea's retired Chief Justice Sir Arnold Amet and General Peter Cosgrove, retired chief of the Australian Defence Force.
The group recommended elections take place within eight months to two years. It also said the election timetable should be uncoupled from the "clean-up" campaign.
A former British colony, Fiji had its Commonwealth membership suspended in protest at the coup, just as it did after two similar upheavals in 1987 and again in 2000.
- NZPA
