10 May, 2009 00:02
NANDI, Fiji - Tokyo has decided not to invite interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and other Cabinet members of the current Fijian military regime to its summit with Pacific island nations in late May in Japan, a Japanese government source said Saturday.
Japan made the decision due to the increasingly dictatorial nature of the unelected military regime and to the international community's response to the situation, the source said.
The decision follows the Pacific Islands Forum's suspension of Fiji from the 16-nation grouping earlier this month.
A summit between Japan and the forum, formally known as the Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting, will be held in the village of Shimukappu in Hokkaido on May 22-23.
Fiji is arranging to dispatch a non-Cabinet level delegation to the summit, the source said.
Japan has been hosting a summit with the Pacific Islands Forum every three years since 1997.
Bainimarama, who also heads the Fijian military, seized power from democratically elected Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase in a bloodless coup in December 2006 and became interim prime minister in 2007.
In April this year, the Fijian Court of Appeals ruled the military-backed government was illegal and Bainimarama resigned from the premier's post.
But President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, an ally of Bainimarama, abrogated the constitution, reappointed Bainimarama as interim prime minister and said elections may not be held until 2014.
- INTELLIGENT RESISTANCE -
Free. Fair. Fearless. Intelligentsiya is made up of Fiji Islanders who are libertarians in their own way and who cherish the free flow of news, ideas and information and will peacefully resist any attempts by the country's military rulers to stifle free speech. intelligentsiya will also bear witness, report and discuss human rights abuses by the authorities.
6 comments:
Kudos to the principled stand the government of Japan has taken. Why can't we have the same from the governments of India and the People's Republic of China?
Could it be that India and China have no respect for the Pacific leaders of the Pacific Forum?
Who doesn't know that the meeting is Japan's way of acting like it cares for Pacific Regionalism?
Hold a meeting every four years, invite all the Pacific Island leaders who would just go across because it means free sashimi for a week, discuss the usual: climate change, green house gas emissions etc agree to a communique and "presto" Japan cares! and Pacific Island leaders got another free trip!
@ Anon 9:36: Smells like a sore isolate pariah loser is on the e-prowl.
It is exactly that kind of "rowing your own canoe" sentiment that pervades Bainimarama's psyche that you're emulating. So don't cry when you do row solo.
Japan will not be the last. What do you think will happen with Mana Island and all your "protected tourism industry" folks that depend on the Yen?
This has become a typical case where foreigners are fighting for our rights. Our own traditional leaders, the GCC the churches have gone into hiding clearly intimidated by the fear of guns....this day would not have come if these so called leaders had shown wisdom & courage to do what is right back in 1987 & since then they were offered numerous opportunities to display they grit. A little too late for the Meth church to come out now.
hey better late than never eh ?
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