Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Suva (Agenzia Fides) - The country needs elections to restore harmony, peace and respect for human rights. Foreign ministers of the 16-member Pacific Island Forum have called on Fiji’s military regime to return the nation to democracy. The organisation sent senior officials to Fiji to examine the deep-seated political issues that led to the military coup last December. Deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase has said he is being investigated for treason, accused of seeking foreign help to prevent the army taking power.
At the forum in Vanuatu the ministers endorsed the officials’ report which recommends that Fiji’s army commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama resign from the post of interim prime minister and that elections be held within 18 months.
In a statement the ministers said “the takeover of government by the Republic of Fiji Military Forces was unconstitutional and unacceptable. The interim government should commit to a firm timetable for a national election which…should be held between 18 months and two years, if not sooner”. However Bainimarama says that elections will not be held until 2010.
In this critical situation the Catholic Archbishop of Suva the capital Archbishop Petero Mataca made a public appeal to the faithful and all men and women of good will to “pray and fast to obtain from God the gift of peace and harmony”. The Archbishop had proposed the institution of a Reconciliation and Unity Commission when civil conflict flared up in 2000 and there was also a coup. The December 2006 coup was Fiji’s fourth in two decades. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 16/3/2007 righe 26 parole 267)
