In a speech to the U.N.’s General Assembly on Saturday, Fiji’s military leader Frank Bainimarama complained that his country’s troops had been barred from joining any new U.N. peacekeeping force.
Peacekeeping has become a significant foreign exchange earner for increasingly isolated Fiji, which has had large numbers of troops stationed in Iraq and elsewhere in recent years.
In April the Australian Bar Association said the army’s role in ending the rule of law in Fiji meant its soldiers should not be used to maintain law and order in international trouble spots.
The vice president of the Australian Bar Association, Peter Riordan, said then that the Fijian army was substantially financed by the U.N., which paid its government for the use of its soldiers.
Bainimarama did not name Australia or New Zealand, but he made clear whom he blamed for being blackballed from U.N. peacekeeping.
“‘Our people pose no threat to anyone, least of all to the big powers of the South Pacific who have arrogated to themselves the right to dictate to us our future and the way we govern ourselves,’” he said.
