AUSTRALIA: Travel ban on Solomons ministers to stay
Updated
Ministers of the Solomon Islands government will find themselves routinely refused entry to Australia until the new Attorney-General Julian Moti is handed over and tried in Australia on child sex charges. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says Honiara's ministers will have to apply for entry to Australia every time they want to visit. Several ministers have sought to enter Australia in recent days; one was directly blocked by Mr Downer, while the others were forced to alter their travel plans. Mr Downer made the comment during a brief visit to Nauru and Tonga, where he's been canvassing views in the Pacific about continuing the Regional Support Mission to Solomon Islands, and how to deal with post-coup Fiji.
Presenter: Alexandra Kirk
Speakers: Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer
DOWNER: I have to say we're not going to change our position on this which has been our position for quite some months now. Until Mr Moti is handed over and is able to face our courts, which is what we require, and I think the sooner the Solomon Islands does that, well the sooner they'll be able to make more regular visits to Australia.
KIRK: What about the argument the government uses with other countries for example on delicate issues of human rights that engagement and dialogue with governments is an important diplomatic tool. Why not take that tack with the Solomons?
DOWNER: Well we have plenty of engagement with them, we have a large number of Australians in the Solomon Islands in the Regional Assistance Mission and they have pretty constant contact with them and we have a High Commission there so we have plenty to do with them but that's not to say that at the end of the day we have any illusions about what Mr Sogavare is up to. Anybody who appoints somebody who's been charged with child sex offences as the first law officer of their country sums themselves up by their own actions I think.
KIRK: Now you've been visiting Tonga and Nauru, have you been able to reach consensus on safeguarding the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission RAMSI in the Solomons, and also on your approach to Fiji's self-appointment prime minister Frank Bainimarama?
DOWNER: Both of these governments are enormously supportive of RAMSI, they obviously know what the political situation in the Solomon Islands is but they also know how popular and how successful RAMSI is and they want to make sure it keeps going.
KIRK: Now a couple of days ago you called the Commodore Frank Bainimarama a dictator, how is that being received in Nauru and Tonga?
DOWNER: They've not said anything about that particular word at all to me but I mean obviously their overall attitude is for them to speak about this really. But their overall attitude is that they'd like to see Fiji return to democracy as soon as possible and within two years as was suggested by the Forum foreign ministers in March in Port Vila in Vanuatu.
KIRK: You seem to want to try to get the Pacific Islands Forum, which is going to meet in Tonga in October to ban the Commodore from attending that meeting. But he isn't persona non grata with other members of the Forum is he as he is with Australia and say New Zealand?
DOWNER: I think the New Zealand government has said they want to ban him, I'm not sure that even that is true, but I think they may have, but I'm certainly not saying that he should be banned. I mean Fiji is a member of the Forum so inevitably Tonga as the host is going to invite Fiji to send a representative and they may conceivably send their so-called prime minister, which is Commodore Bainimarama. But on the other hand having said that, obviously a lot of delegations won't want to have anything to do with him while he's in Tonga at the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting because his government came to power illegally in overthrowing a democratically elected government. There's also in the Pacific and they don't speak out as much as we and New Zealand do, but there's enormous anxiety about the economic impact of the coup in Fiji. This is a real catastrophe and I think that's felt very much in other parts of the Pacific as well, I think they're very depressed about it.
KIRK: What do you think might happen at the Pacific Islands Forum in October on Fiji?
DOWNER: I think they will almost certainly, you can't be sure, but I think they'll almost certainly endorse the position that was taken by the Forum Foreign Ministers back in March, and encourage the early restoration of democracy in Fiji. Of course in a multilateral meeting of that kind these things are always put in a restrained and conservative way, but I think that very much reflects the feeling, quite a deeply held feeling actually, of the governments in the Pacific.
