Australia expels Fiji's top diplomat

Australia has expelled Fiji's top diplomat in Canberra in retaliation for a similar
move by the Pacific island's military regime.
Fiji's acting high commissioner, Kamlesh Kumar Arya, has been ordered to return to
Suva, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith announced on Wednesday.
Fiji on Tuesday ordered the top diplomats from Australia and New Zealand out of the
Pacific nation within 24 hours.
Self-appointed Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, the military leader who has
ruled Fiji since the December 2006 coup, gave both governments a day to recall their
envoys over a spat over travel visas.
He accused Australia and New Zealand of sabotaging nation-building efforts by
refusing to grant visas to Fijian judges.
Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Australia would continue to
take a hardline stance against the military regime.
"We're not about to simply allow a coup culture to spread," he told ABC Radio,
adding that Australia wanted stability in the South Pacific region.
Australia would not allow what has happened in Fiji to become "some sort of norm for
the Pacific at large," Mr Rudd said.
"This man, Bainimarama, has undertaken a military coup, suspended the constitution,
refused to hold fresh elections and sacked the judiciary and appointed his."
Mr Arya was advised of Canberra's decision at midday (AEDT) on Wednesday but Mr
Smith did not indicate what timetable Australia had set for the envoy's departure
from the country.
The decision followed Fiji's action in officially declaring Australia's high
commissioner James Batley persona non grata earlier on Wednesday.
Australia, in concert with New Zealand, had decided to take proportionate action
against Fiji, Mr Smith said, adding that Suva's decision was unwarranted and "deeply
disappointing".
"This is very much a backward step," he told reporters.
Australia needed to send a strong message to Fiji, but it would not consider trade
or economic sanctions.
"We are steadfast in our view that Fiji has to return to democracy," Mr Smith said,
adding that Australia would remain open to a dialogue between the two nations.
He dismissed as "baseless" allegations by Commodore Bainimarama that Australian
foreign officials had meddled in Fiji's internal affairs.
Meanwhile, a Fiji pro-democracy movement says Fijian leader Frank Bainimarama's
expulsion of Australia's top diplomats is "totally ill-conceived".
The Sydney-based Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement said the decision was misguided
because Fiji needed Australia and New Zealand more than they needed it.
Movement president Usaia Waqatairewa said it was a good sign that the travel bans
were having an effect on the beleaguered government, which had been in power since
staging a 2006 coup and had come under increasing pressure from neighbours to return
the country to democracy.
"I urge the Australia and the New Zealand government not to relent on these
sanctions, to maintain the pressure there, so that these people will learn their
lessons that seizing government illegally, while they do not have the capacity to
properly govern a state, they will learn their lesson, to learn to know their
limits," Waqatairewa said.
"(Bainimarama) is just a deckhand in the navy and he should stick there.
Bainimarama on Wednesday was showing no signs of backing down.
He told Auckland-based Fijian Indian station Radio Tarana that he had no regrets
about his drastic move, saying he won't be bullied.
"We are suspended from the Commonwealth, Australia and New Zealand have suspended us
from the (Pacific Islands) Forum, so it really doesn't make any difference," the
leader said.
"But if we don't stand our ground, we can't afford to be bullied like this day to day."
He reiterated claims that both countries had shown a lack of engagement with Fiji,
and had engaged in dishonest and untruthful strategies to undermine Fiji's
judiciary, independent institutions and economy.