WELLINGTON (Pacnews) — New Zealanders may be in danger in Fiji and nobody should be fooled into thinking the situation is returning to normal, Prime Minister Helen Clark says.
Her warning followed a cabinet briefing by senior foreign ministry officials.
It also came after criticism from the Catholic archbishop in the Fiji capital, Suva, who issued a statement supporting coup leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama’s objectives and accusing New Zealand of harboring colonial attitudes.
In response to a question about New Zealanders’ safety in Fiji, Clark said: “I think in any country where power has been seized at the barrel of a gun, you have to have concerns for safety with anybody in that country.”
Bainimarama last week accused New Zealand’s prime minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters of “bullying tactics” and threatened retaliation against Kiwis working in Fiji.
He did not specify what form that retaliation might take.
Clark said reports from Fiji were alarming.
“Some of the reports that we have seen over the summer period of what has happened to people who have voiced criticism of the coup have been simply hair-raising,” she said.
“Let’s not think this is any sort of normality in Fiji. It isn’t.”
Clark said at least one person has been killed in military custody since the coup.
Bainimarama, for his part, reiterated threats to New Zealand exports.
He said he will send a high-powered delegation of ministers, senior officials and selected business people to China, India, Malaysia and Indonesia.
He said it is “an effort to diversify our network of sources of imports, tourists, investment, technical cooperation and inflow of aid.”
But Clark brushed off concerns that New Zealand businesses exporting to Fiji might be harmed.
She said Fiji should consider the damage it might do to its own people.
New Zealand exports about NZ $290 million ($203 million) of goods to Fiji annually – mostly meat, iron, steel, dairy and vegetables — and imports just NZ $50 million ($35 million).
New Zealand extended sanctions against Fiji on Dec. 6 suspending aid and banning sporting contacts and visits from government members.
Clark said, however, that her government will stand by a decision to allow the Fiji rugby sevens team to compete in the Wellington Sevens competition in February.
Australia, Britain and the United States have also imposed sanctions on Fiji.
Clark said that during talks she had with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in the Philippines just over a week ago she had been assured that China supported New Zealand’s actions in the Pacific.