Former NZ diplomat says blocking Fiji peacekeepers wrong

• Print
• Email

Updated September 30, 2009 08:55:30

A former New Zealand member of the UN Security Council says its a mistake to prevent Fiji from supplying the UN with peackeepers. The UN will not consent to Australia and New Zealand's request for Fiji peackeepers to be excluded until they find another country which can continue the supply of blue helmets to the UN.

Terence O"Brien believes Australia and New Zealand's tough stance on Fiji is undermining Pacific regionalism. Mr O'Brien is quick to point out that he does not support the 2006 coup in Fiji, but says Australia and New Zealand's push to prevent Fiji from taking part in peacekeeping duties is taking the sanctions too far.

Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Terence O'Brien, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Studies in Wellington, New Zealand, and fomer member of the UN Security Council

• Listen:
• Windows Media

• Export orders roll in for Fiji bamboo clothes company
• Rudd wants real change in Fiji before easing sanctions
• Growing concern in Fiji over Public Order Decree
• UN monitoring promised new freedoms in Fiji
• Encouraging sign of new gold and copper find in PNG
• Transparency calls for naming of Vanuatu diplomats "on commission"
• PM says good PNG-Indonesian relations in national interest
• Queensland remembers last year's floods