Roger Moore, the European representative to the post-Forum talks in Niue last week, said the Forum would take its lead on whether to restore assistance to Fiji from the grouping, which insists that the election timetable be met.
“The EU has always followed the political lead of the Pacific Islands Forum,” he said.
The EU suspended millions of dollars in aid for Fiji’s ailing sugar industry after Commodore Bainimarama seized power in a Dec. 2006 coup.
This year’s allocation will be restored only if a “credible” path to elections is in place by about October and next year’s depends on a democratically elected government being in place.
The Forum said last Thursday it would consider suspending Fiji from the talks if real progress was not made by the end of this year for March elections.
The EU is likely to take its lead from the outcome of a special meeting to be held in Papua New Guinea by December.
Moore’s comments put more pressure on the commodore after New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said the threat of losing the subsidies to an industry that supports about 150,000 Fijians would be a factor in whether he agreed to an election by March as promised last year.
Clark dismissed claims from members of Fiji’s regime, including Foreign Minister Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, that New Zealand and Australia bullied Forum members into the threat.
“We have become accustomed to quite a lot of bluster from the interim government in Suva,” she said. “I think it’s just plain insulting to say that what happened is a manipulation by New Zealand and Australia. The truth is that Fiji had run out of anyone prepared to hold a brief for it because of the contempt in which it had held the forum, particularly by not even turning up this time.”
The commodore boycotted the Forum and has threatened to withdraw if the March timetable is not dropped.
Commenting on the statement by the Forum hat it would consider suspending Fiji and the EU’s sugar subsidy threat, Bainimarama said Fijians might have to paddle their own canoes into the future.
He asked his fellow Fijians if they were prepared to allow themselves to be bullied by the forum and the EU.
“If we succumb to such pressures, what next? What will that do to our self-worth as an independent nation?” he said.
