Fed: Aust and NZ abandon calls for Chaudhry s return

AAP General News (Australia)
12-16-2000
Fed: Aust and NZ abandon calls for Chaudhry s return

CANBERRA, Dec 16 AAP/NZPA - Australia and New Zealand said today they would accept
any leader chosen by the properly constituted authorities of Fiji.

Australian and New Zealand Foreign Ministers Alexander Downer and Phil Goff abandoned
their call to have Fiji's deposed prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry returned to office.

Both ministers, who met in Auckland this wekend, said it was important that Fiji return
to its 1997 multi-racial constitution.

"Mr Chaudhry was overthrown but if they decide according to their constitution to ensure
that he was able to continue, that would be welcome," Mr Downer told journalists after
the meeting.

"If they decided according to the constitution ... to move to another prime minister
that would be a matter for them."

However, Labor Foreign Affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton criticised the government's position.

Mr Brereton said today's announcement and the recent decision to proceed with the Import
Credit Scheme showed the Australian government's support for the return of Chaudhry to
office was nothing more than lip service.

He said it was pretty clear the Howard government had given up on Chaudhry some time ago.

"And this week's decision to proceed with a successor to the Import Credit Scheme for
Fiji made it clear that Australia's support for the return of Chaudhry and Fiji's 1997
constitution was nothing more than lip service," he told AAP.

The Howard government appeared much more interested in getting on with business as
usual with the unconstitutional interim government in Fiji than it was in supporting democracy
and the rule of law in the Pacific nation, he said.

On May 19 coup plotter George Speight seized parliament and took Chaudhry and his government
hostage.

After weeks of wrangling between the military and Speight's supporters for the release
of all 32 hostages, authority was handed over from the military to the Great Council of
Chiefs, who agreed on the appointment of Ratu Josefa Iloilo as president.

During the meeting the ministers also discussed the situations in the Solomon Islands,
Bougainville and East Timor and talked about trade relationships and the expected impact
of George W Bush's election as United States president.

A joint statement released by the ministers stressed the need for peace and stability
in the Pacific.

Mr Downer and Mr Goff said while they were encouraged by progress in the Solomon Islands,
where the Malaitan Eagle Force yesterday handed 119 weapons to international peace monitors,
the islands were doomed if the peace process failed.

"Without peace the place is doomed; living standards will just spiral downwards," Mr
Downer warned.

On the subject of Indonesia, Mr Downer said Australia did not want the nation to break
up and was strongly opposed to its various separatist movements.

"We don't want to see the Balkanisation of Indonesia," he said.

"We don't want to see Irian Jaya break off from Indonesia, we support Indonesian sovereignty
over Irian Jaya."

Mr Downer left New Zealand today for the Solomons.

AAP eg/cjh/br

KEYWORD: NZ TALKS NIGHTLEAD

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