Fiji expels diplomats from New Zealand, Australia

September 1st, 2009 WELLINGTON - The Commonwealth has fully suspended the South Pacific Island of Fiji after it failed to meet a deadline to set a 2010 election date, according to a statement released late Tuesday from London. Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said the decision was made with deep regret and sorrow.

August 17th, 2009 WARSAW - The Czech Republic has expelled two Russian diplomats, the CTK news agency reported Monday. It identified one as a deputy military attache.

July 29th, 2009 WELLINGTON - New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said Wednesday that Fiji would be fully suspended from the Commonwealth. McCully, who was on his way to London for a meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, said the retirement of Fiji President Ratu Josefa Iloilo is unlikely to influence the outcome, Radio New Zealand International reported Wednesday.

June 23rd, 2009 Britain expels 2 Iranian diplomatsLONDON — Britain's government says it has expelled two Iranian diplomats in retaliation for Tehran's decision to order out two staff members from the British Embassy in Tehran. The Foreign Office said Tuesday that Tehran's decision was baseless and unjustifiable.

June 23rd, 2009 Britain expels 2 Iranian diplomats in retaliationLONDON — Britain expelled two Iranian diplomats Tuesday in retaliation for Iran's decision to order out two staff members from the British Embassy in Tehran. Prime Minister Gordon Brown told lawmakers that Tehran's decision was unjustified.

May 19th, 2009 WELLINGTON - Differences among Fiji's Pacific neighbours over how to deal with the island's military regime emerged Tuesday following top-level talks between New Zealand and Tonga. Tongan Prime Minister Feleti Sevele said at a news conference in Wellington that he favoured giving military strongman Voreqe Bainimarama, whose military regime has ruled Fiji since a coup in December 2006, more time to restore democracy.

April 30th, 2009 NZ: Fiji faces growing isolation in South PacificWELLINGTON, New Zealand — Fiji faces imminent suspension from a key South Pacific bloc and growing international isolation because its military regime has refused to restore democracy quickly, New Zealand warned Thursday. The 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum says Fiji will be the first member to be suspended, effective May 1, if elections are not announced for this year.

April 29th, 2009 Pacific Forum likely to suspend military-run FijiWELLINGTON, New Zealand — Military-run Fiji likely will be suspended from the 16-nation Pacific Islands' Forum on Friday — the forum's deadline for the country to commit to hold elections later this year, New Zealand's prime minister said Wednesday. Prime Minister John Key said from his talks with other Pacific leaders he had "no reason to believe they (Fiji) would be anything other than suspended from the forum on May 1." The forum's chairman, Niue Premier Toke Talagi, agreed, saying regional leaders will back up their threat to suspend Fiji from the diplomatic and economic grouping.

April 20th, 2009 NZ would consider peacekeeping troops for FijiWELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand would consider sending troops into Fiji if they were needed to provide stability as part of a multilateral peacekeeping action but would not act unilaterally, the prime minister said Monday. Prime Minister John Key said the situation in Fiji was "tragic" but stable since the constitution was abolished and the judicial system overthrown more than a week ago, leading to diminished media freedoms and an economic free fall.

April 15th, 2009 WELLINGTON - Fiji's military ruler Voreqe Bainimarama Wednesday defiantly defended his clampdown on freedom of speech, saying he wanted no opposition to his plans to abolish the existing electoral system based on race. Bainimarama, who has ruled since ousting the elected government in December 2006, insisted in an interview with Radio New Zealand from the Fiji capital Suva that he would not hold fresh elections before 2014.

April 12th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has condemned the recent declaration of emergency in Fiji, saying that the move would turn the great country into a military dictatorship. "Australia condemns unequivocally this action by the military ruler of Fiji to turn this great country, Fiji, into virtually a military dictatorship, with the suspension of freedom of the press and actions which undermine prosperity for the ordinary people of Fiji" news.com.au quoted Rudd, as saying.

March 9th, 2009 WELLINGTON - Fiji military strongman Commodore Frank Bainimarama is delivering his country 'a passport to poverty' with his refusal to hold democratic elections, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said Monday. 'He needs to recognise that if he wants Fiji to progress and to be taken seriously by both the (British) Commonwealth and the Pacific Forum leaders he needs to demonstrate that he has got a willingness for democracy to be restored,' Key told reporters at his weekly news conference.

March 5th, 2009 WELLINGTON - Fiji's military strongman, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, defied Thursday an ultimatum from the British Commonwealth to hold elections this year and challenged the 53-member organisation to suspend his country's membership immediately. A group of ministers from Commonwealth countries meeting in London Wednesday said Fiji would be suspended in September if Bainimarama, who has ruled the South Pacific nation since seizing power in a bloodless coup in December 2006, did not restore democracy.

January 27th, 2009 WELLINGTON - Fiji has rejected the need for further sanctions as resolved against it by Pacific Islands Forum leaders, saying the country was not in crisis and was determined to complete electoral reform before holding elections. The Pacific Islands Forum leaders special meeting, held in Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, gave Fiji a deadline of May 1 to announce an election date.

December 23rd, 2008 WELLINGTON - Fiji's relations with Australia and New Zealand struck a new low Wednesday following the military regime's expulsions of two senior officials from the South Pacific island state's biggest neighbours. Fiji told New Zealand's Acting High Commissioner Caroline McDonald Tuesday to leave the capital Suva in a week, saying she had ignored the military government, which seized power two years ago, and associated only with opposition politicians.