Pacific summit leaves Fiji suspended

Sep 8, 2011, 21:13 GMT

Wellington - The leaders of 15 Pacific island countries were poised to wrap up a summit meeting in Auckland Friday, leaving Fiji's military dictatorship in the doghouse for refusing to hold fresh elections before 2014.

Fiji, one of the largest economies in the region and a founding member of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) 40 years ago, was suspended after its military chief, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, ousted the democratically elected government in a bloodless coup in December 2006.

Some Melanesian members like Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Kiribati have been more sympathetic to Fiji than others and nine of them accepted Bainimarama's invitation to a rival meeting in Fiji last week.

The military strongman, who has rejected calls by the European Union, United States, Australia and New Zealand to hold early elections, spelled out his plans to reform the electoral system to give the ethnic Indian minority equal voting rights with indigenous Fijians, before going to the polls.

The Melanesians were persuaded enough to pass a resolution dubbing Fiji's reforms 'a credible home-grown process for positioning Fiji as a modern nation state.' As the PIF summit opened Wednesday, Kiribati President Anote Tong told reporters he favoured lifting Fiji's suspension and other members supported it though they were not prepared to say so publicly.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, anxious to avoid a formal split in the organisation, managed to prevent a vote on the issue when leaders held a one-day private retreat on Auckland's Waiheke Island Thursday.

He admitted the issue had taken up 'a bit of our time', but said there was a consensus to maintain Fiji's suspension.

A communique said leaders reaffirmed 'the clear commitment of all forum members to encourage and support Fiji's early return to parliamentary democracy.'

Bainimarama, who appointed himself prime minister, has ruled with emergency powers since April 2009 when the constitution was abolished and the judges were sacked after a court of appeal of ruling that the military coup was illegal. Stringent censorship of all media remains and political meetings are banned.

The communique called on the strongman to allow 'genuine, inclusive political dialogue' and expressed 'continuing deep concern at the deteriorating human rights situation and serious political and economic challenges facing the people of Fiji.'