NZ expels Fiji diplomat
November 04, 2009
Fiji’s acting High Commissioner to New Zealand, Kuliniasi Seru Savou, has been declared persona-non-grata and must leave Wellington. Radio New Zealand reports, the reciprocal move follows the expulsion of New Zealand’s acting head of mission in Fiji, Todd Cleaver. Cleaver was formally told by authorities in Fiji today that he is persona-non-grata and ordered out of the country within 24 hours.
In announcing Savou’s expulsion, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said he expects Clever will be given a reasonable period of time to organise his departure, as the Geneva Convention allows. Fiji’s High Commissioner in Canberra, Kamlesh Arya, has also been called back home.
Fiji Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama triggered the chain of events late yesterday when he announced the expulsion of the heads of missions of its two neighbours. The action is a full-scale retaliation for what Bainimarama said was a “consolidated effort to attack Fiji’s independent judiciary”.
In New Zealand’s case, he said its denial of a visa on medical grounds to Family Court judge Justice Anjala Wati for the medical treatment of her baby was further evidence of the attack on the Fijian judiciary. He said he had hoped for better relations with New Zealand and Australia after changes of government in both countries. “They claim to be our friends yet on the other hand, they fail to recognise the efforts we are making in being a good international citizen,” he said. “They fail to understand that we are creating a country based on equal and common citizenry, a country of modern laws, a country which will have true democracy.”
