SUVA (Pacnews) — Fiji says it will not interfere in the case of four former Fijian soldiers facing charges in the Papua New Guinea island of Bougainville.
“It is in the hands of the PNG judiciary and that’s where it lies,” Fiji’s interim Foreign Minister Ratu Epeli Nailatikau told regional monthly magazine Islands Business International.
“We don’t interfere with a friendly country’s jurisdiction,” he said.
Aliki Moroca, Kalivati Muriatabua, Manasa Dumuloto and Jolame Gukirewa are charged with training an illegal army under U-Vistract principal Noah Musingku, who had promised them a fee of $1 million each.
They have denied the charge and claimed that they are missionaries.
Their application for bail was recently denied and their case will be heard by a National Court in Buka soon.
The men had been in constant touch with the Fijian high commissioner to PNG, Ratu Isoa Tikoca, who made arrangements for some mattresses to be sent to their cells at the Buka police station.
The magazine asked Nailatikau why more diplomatic efforts had not been made to help the four accused.
He said all matters concerning them were being handled by the high commission in Port Moresby.
When told that a diplomatic solution saw the release of a Briton and an Australian who unlawfully landed their chartered plane in mid-2004 on an abandoned airstrip in Tonu to join Musingku and Bougainville secessionist Francis Ona, the minister said this was a different case.
The two men spent three days in a PNG prison after surrendering themselves before they were whisked away to Australia with the help of Australian consulate officials.