New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday defended her decision not to send military forces to Fiji to prevent a coup, saying there was no basis for her country's soldiers to be involved.
New Zealand's troops have recently been sent to other trouble spots in the South Pacific, such as Tonga. But Clark decided not to help Fijian President Laisenia Qarase when he was ousted in last week's military takeover.
"With respect to Fiji, the request came from a government at the brink of going under with a coup," Clark said.
"That just simply isn't the circumstance in which New Zealand would intervene," she said.
She added: "I don't think there was any basis whatsoever for New Zealand's military to go to Fiji."
But last month, New Zealand joined Australia in sending a contingent of about 150 soldiers to help restore order in Tonga when a deadly riot destroyed most of the capital, Nuku'alofa.
Clark said yesterday that Tonga was different from Fiji.
"In the case Tonga, for example, the capital and commercial center had been largely burned to the ground," Clark said.
"The Tongan government was facing such a problem with law and order that airlines stopped flying into Nuku'alofa, which cut it off from the world," she said.
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