Biketawa Declaration not meant to be punitive, says expert

Samisoni Pareti

Strength in numbers... Samoa’s Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi leads the Polynesian delegation to the Port Vila meeting. Included in the delegation is Niue’s premier, Young Vivian (third from left). The Polynesian delegation came on Winston Peters’ plane.

Is Fiji risking expulsion from the Pacific Islands Forum, the regional organisation it helped founded and whose secretariat it currently hosts?

To foreign affairs ministers of the 16-member countries of the Forum, the question was not raised at their meeting last month in Vanuatu. The only agenda was to discuss the December 5 coup in Fiji and the overthrow by the Fiji military of the elected government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, who was at the time the sitting Forum chair.

The focus for the foreign ministers was how soon fresh elections could be held in the coup-torn island nation.

“Foreign ministers urged Fiji to expedite a return to parliamentary democracy as soon as possible,” said the outcome statement of their meeting held in the exclusive Le Lagon Resort in Port Vila on March 16.

“Ministers noted Fiji’s 36-month timeframe for a national election, its desire to return to democracy as soon as possible and its willingness to give consideration to a new timeline.

“Ministers reaffirmed the EPG (Eminent Persons Group)’s recommendation that the interim government should commit to a firm timetable for a national election which in the EPG’s view should be held within 18 months to two years, if not sooner.”

This is my point... Fiji’s interim foreign minister Ratu Epeli Nailatikau explains to Fiji’s interim attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and EPG chairman, Vanuatu’s Sato Kilman. Photos: Samisoni Pareti

To hasten an early poll, the Forum ministers offered Fiji what the outcome statement termed as “a phased package of financial and technical assistance,” which includes “support for the electoral process, assistance for the establishment of a credible and independent anti-corruption commission and assistance to restore and maintain the independence of the judiciary.”

This offer of help was however dependent on two crucial conditions: a shortened “roadmap” back to democracy and the immediate stop to human right abuses.

Even Australia’s Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who has been a harsh critic of the Fiji coup, was making conciliatory remarks at the Vanuatu meeting.

“Fiji is not going to return to democracy tomorrow morning, it’s going to take time,” Downer told reporters outside the meeting venue.

“But what we need is the momentum from the Pacific to encourage the restoration of democracy in Fiji, for it to be done as quickly as possible.

“They, the EPG, recommended a period between 18 months to two years is practical but the Fijians originally were saying it was going to happen within three years.

“Now they are saying may be it could happen a bit quicker than that, they are prepared to be flexible on this timeframe.

“So the issue then becomes what sort of assistance can the Pacific Islands Forum and countries like ours provide to encourage a quick restoration of democracy?

Winston Peters... mistake if Fiji employs stalling tactics.

“They need to do a census, that’s a reasonable proposition.

“There was meant to be a census done in Fiji before the last election, but electoral boundaries, electoral rolls would not take three years to get them all done, particularly with the assistance from the Forum.

“But what’s encouraging is that this is a meeting where there is very strong support for the restoration of democracy in Fiji.”

Indeed in offering to form a joint working group with Fiji rather than about censure on a member that has forcefully removed its democratically elected leader and in the process deprive the regional organisation of its sitting chair, the Forum wanted to extend a lifeline.

Winston Peters, foreign minister of New Zealand, said the Vanuatu meeting delved on the “positives” because it reflected the “positive tenor” of the EPG report on Fiji.

“I think we’ve got to be positive here and that’s the tenor of this report rather than being negative,” said Peters in a joint conference held with other foreign ministers of the Forum.

Such positiveness is also reflected in the Biketawa Declaration which forms the legal basis for the Forum’s interest on Fiji.

PACIFIC WAY

For one thing, terms such as suspension let alone expulsion are no where to be found in the document.

The closest it came to such strong terms could be found in Section Two, Part IV of the Declaration which provides for a special meeting of Forum Leaders (not foreign ministers) to consider “other options including, if necessary, targeted measures.”

“The Biketawa Declaration is not specific on expulsion or suspension,” confirmed a regional diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

This diplomat was among officials who witnessed the signing into law of the Declaration at the Tarawa Forum in Kiribati in 2000.

A question for you, sir... Nauru’s  David Adeang talking to a member of the media.

“However, it provides for a special meeting of Forum Leaders should the crisis continue after the first intervention.

“Who knows what that special meeting will discuss?

“But Annex A (of the Declaration) provides the moderating force should the region decide on a further response.

“I suppose the Biketawa Declaration was not intended to be punitive. It provides essentially guiding principles and some actions intended to resolve a situation.

“The Leaders obviously had no intention to start dividing the region through suspension. This is the Pacific Way in operation!”

INTENSE LOBBYING

Observing the Pacific Way doesn’t rule out intense campaigning and lobbying prior to the Vanuatu meeting.

When his Royal New Zealand Air Force jet touched down at Bauerfield Airport in Port Vila on the morning of the meeting, Peters had the Polynesian delegation in tow, including one of the region’s longest serving leaders, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi of Samoa.

He also holds the foreign ministry portfolio in his government, but the fact that he opted to attend the Port Vila meeting and not delegated it to another minister, like he did at the first meeting of the foreign ministers about Fiji last December in Sydney, showed the seriousness he attached to the issue at hand.

Forum observers remarked that Tuilaepa’s attendance could also be due to Peters’ personal request as the Samoan leader’s influence would be crucial in maintaining Polynesian solidarity at the meeting. Another government leader was also in Peters’ plane, Young Vivan, the premier of Niue.

The Polynesian delegation flew out with Peters the same day, along with a large entourage of New Zealand media representatives.

This approach resulted in ministers virtually speaking along the same terms as Downer suggested in a media conference he gave at the Vanuatu meeting.

“Obviously, our approach and New Zealand’s approach is very closely coordinated.

“A number of Pacific islands countries have different approaches to these things but it’s my view that if we can get the Pacific community, Pacific family of countries, working together encouraging a restoration of democracy as soon as possible, that’s a good outcome.

“That doesn’t detract from what Australia and New Zealand might themselves do. But it’s good to have the support of so many other countries.”

Downer was accompanied by his own officials and a small number of Australian journalists.

The frosty relations between his country and his closest Melanesian neighbours meant he could not offer a lift to his counterparts in either Papua New Guinea or the Solomon Islands.

In fact Paul Tienstein and Patterson Oti flew into Port Vila on an Air Vanuatu commercial flight from Fiji, on the same aircraft as the Fiji delegation of interim foreign minister Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, interim attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and foreign affairs adviser, Isikeli Mataitoga.

POLITICKING

There was no politicking during the one-and-a-half hour flight as the Fiji delegation and others took up the business class seating, leaving Tienstein, Oti as well as David Adeang, Nauru’s foreign minister, to fly economy class.

Officials accompanying the ministers said any lobbying by Fiji especially would have taken place before the 9.30pm flight that day, as all ministers had spent time together at Nadi Airport’s VIP Lounge.

Oti particularly had spent two days in Suva prior to the Vanuatu meeting and reportedly met senior ministers of the Fiji interim government, including Nailatikau.

The Solomon Islands’ foreign minister was returning from Washington DC where he had met World Bank officials as well as those in the State Department.

Sources in Suva said Oti’s support was sought for the Vanuatu meeting as well as the inclusion of Fiji in the signing of the Melanesian Spearhead Group Agreement, also held in Vanuatu late last month.

The Fiji delegation was, however, told that Downer had already done his homework as Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Ham Lini was flown to Canberra for a quick meeting with John Howard days before the foreign ministers meeting.

The outcome of those intense politicking and lobbying perhaps reflected in the outcome statement. Ministers, according to those who attended the closed-door discussions, didn’t talk about imposing censure against Fiji. Instead, they wanted to see a quick return to democracy in Fiji and offered a lifeline; that a joint working group of the Forum engages with Fiji to look at an election date. Sources said the smaller members of the Forum including those in the Northern Pacific were Fiji’s strong supporters in the Vanuatu meeting.

“They were all talking about engaging with Fiji to find a mutual solution,” a source told this magazine.

A suggestion by the Tongan delegation that ministers condemn the Fiji coup was not adopted. Instead, the outcome statement said the ministers reiterated their “profound concern that the takeover of government by the RFMF (Republic of the Fiji Military Forces) was unconstitutional and unacceptable.”

BALL IN FIJI’S COURT

With the acceptance by Fiji’s interim military regime of the formation of a joint working group with the Forum, the ball is now on the island nation to show why fresh and fair elections need time to organise.

The joint group’s first report is due before members of the Forum’s EPG by late June.

Responding to questions, Peters, New Zealand’s foreign minister, said it would be a mistake if Fiji employs stalling tactics against the Forum’s decision. “If you look at the situation now for Fiji internationally, that will be a mistake on the part of the Commodore. I can’t speak for my colleagues but looking at the economic and social circumstances in Fiji, it will be a mistake to ignore the goodwill that’s behind this report.”