Pacific Island leaders had different views prior to meeting
Updated
Pacific Island leaders may have been united in their eventual decision, but they weren't all in agreement when going into the Forum meeting in PNG yesterday.
Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd; Toke Talagi, Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum and premier of Niue, Sir Michael Somare, PNG Prime Minister;
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HILL: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took probably the toughest stance saying that the decision to set the Fijian interim government a firm deadline to announce democratic elections later this year is an historic one for the Pacific Islands Forum.
RUDD: What has occurred here in Port Moresby is for all countries in the region to send a loud and clear message to the government, the interim government in Fiji that they must return to the ballot box and they must send the soldiers back to the barracks. What we had today was a resolution on the part of Pacific Island leaders to establish a clear and unequivocal timetable for the restoration of democracy in Fiji. That has never occurred before in the history of the Pacific Island Forum. This therefore was an important threshold for the Pacific Island leaders to cross, and they've crossed it today and they've done so unanimously. And the reason is all countries within the neighbourhood, all leaders within our region are resolved that democracy is too fundamental a principle to be sacrificed and the line has to be drawn in the sand.
HILL: Forum chair Toke Talagi took a more moderate position saying he hopes the Commodore will respond positively to the Pacific leaders deadline.
TALAGI: We hope that he can see the reasonableness of what the forum is indicating to him and that he in fact will agree to cooperate with the forum on this particular matter. As I've said to you the key for us is the fact that they themselves wish to go into parliamentary elections as quickly as possible.
JOURNO: But at the same time today he's indicated that it's going to take five or ten years to get to that place.
TALAGI: I cannot comment on a press statement I'm sorry.
HILL: The host of the meeting, Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare took the unusual step of releasing his speech to the meeting while the leaders will still in session. It was much milder than the final decision and urged the leaders not to take punitive action against Fiji.
Sir Michael originally accepted a call by Commodore Bainimarama to postpone the summit until next month because he wanted to stay at home to deal with the recent floods.
SOMARE: I was disappointed, but he gave his explanation why he could not be here. I said that we would be having the forum here and he should explain to the forum why he's not here. Well I think the forum has taken into account all the explanations by his attorney general and we will incorporate a lot of this with our ministerial committee's recommendations.
HILL: Some of the smaller island states such as Kiribati and Tuvalu were reported to be nervous about the impact on their vulnerable economies of any regional measures against Fiji. Forum chair Toke Talagi says the regional leaders will make sure that doesn't happen.
TALAGI: The particular situation that we're faced with has never occurred in the forum in the past and as you know there are countries that are vulnerable to some measures that could be taken and I'm not talking just about Fiji. What I am assured about and pleased about this afternoon is the fact that we have all agreed that we will support those two countries if Fiji decided to take impunitive measures against them for whatever reasons. So I'm pleased to say that the forum also discussed that issue and we all agreed that we will support them.
HILL: On the day the Pacific leaders were meeting to decide what to do about the restoration of democracy in Fiji the interim government expelled the Australian publisher of the Fiji Times, Rex Gardner.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says that decision played a role in the eventual outcome.
RUDD: The decision to effectively expel the publisher of the Fiji Times is an absolute outrage. On a day when the interim government are seeking to convince us that it's all fine and dandy, the same day that the head of the interim government of Fiji says it might be five or ten years before they restore democracy. Again the forum reflected on all these factors and that's why we had such a clear and unequivocal statement and a process for automatic suspension.
Meanwhile initial indications are that Fiji won't accept the Forum's deadline.
Interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama told an Auckland Hindi language radio station that it could take five to ten years to return to elections and the forum leaders should not hold their breath while waiting for an explanation.
He says it is going to be a long wait and Fiji doesn't need to explain anymore.
