The Fijian government yesterday accused Australia and New Zealand of attempting to undermine its return to democracy and said Tongan navy vessels were in its territorial waters.
The hard-hitting statement, posted on the Fijian government’s Web site, singled out the Australian and New Zealand foreign ministers, Kevin Rudd and Murray McCully, for particularly strident criticism.
It was released as runaway Fiji soldier Colonel Tevita Mara, who fled to neighboring Pacific island Tonga three weeks ago to avoid a sedition charge, begins a round of public appearances in Australia.
His arrival in Australia and the presence of Tongan vessels “within Fiji’s EEZ [exclusive economic zone] at Minerva Reef” demonstrated a concerted effort by Rudd and McCully “to subvert the path towards the holding of truly democratic elections in Fiji,” the unsigned statement said.
Fiji’s military leader Voreqe Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup, has promised elections in 2014, while Australia and New Zealand have led international pressure for an immediate return to democracy.
“Rudd and McCully, driven by their neo-colonial and personal agenda ... see Mara as someone who can give some form of credibility to their unfounded and misplaced assessment of Fiji and the rest of the Southern Pacific,” the Fiji statement said.
“As far as Fiji is concerned there is no Mara or Tonga-Fiji situation,” it said. “It is a Rudd and McCully spreading their wings to save face situation.”
Fiji said Tonga’s decision to give a passport to Mara, a relative of the Tongan king, and New Zealand and Australia granting him visas showed “a web of deceit, collusion and a complete lack” of regard for extradition processes.
“While malice, deceit and lies will escalate, the Tongans as seen with their presence at the Minerva Reef will be manipulated through offerings of gifts and aid to try and turn up the ante,” the statement said.
The Stuff news Web site in New Zealand reported that it understood from Tongan sources there were two Tongan vessels at Minerva Reef, a disputed Pacific territory claimed by Fiji and Tonga.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not