KEY POINTS:
Fiji's self-appointed Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, has lashed out again at Helen Clark, saying she was about to self-destruct.
Commodore Bainimarama told the Fiji Times that Helen Clark's claim he would be "treated something like a leper" if he attended the Pacific Islands Forum showed she was out of touch.
"She keeps isolating herself from the community," Commodore Bainimarama said.
"The comment she made was very insulting and shows that she's been personal about the whole thing and it shows her as being a very insensitive woman and I think she's come to a point that she's self-destructing."
The 38th Pacific Islands Forum is being held in Tonga on October 16 and 17 and Commodore Bainimarama said as leader he would be attending and would raise his concerns with the New Zealand Prime Minister.
"She's very personal about the issue [the military coup] and it's unfortunate. She's made a statement that she'll go to the forum meeting and ask that I be removed but it does not depend on the forum.
"That is taken for granted that Fiji is part of the forum and I will be there as a leader. If she doesn't want to see me, then she should make a point not to come to the forum."
Helen Clark said on Monday she was intending to go to the Pacific Islands Forum but whether Commodore Bainimarama did was a matter for the forum.
Yesterday Commodore Bainimarama accused the US Ambassador of spreading misleading information about his coup, comparing the envoy to Michael Green, the New Zealand High Commissioner he expelled last month for allegedly meddling in the country's affairs.
Responding to criticism from a visiting US Congressional delegation that coups like Fiji's were "disastrous", he said: "They're getting the same story from their Ambassador, Larry Dinger, as Helen Clark was getting from hers, Michael Green. They're not getting the real story of what's happening in Fiji."
- NZPA
