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Fiji faces international backlash over upheaval
AFP - 1 hour 2 minutes ago
WELLINGTON (AFP) - - Fiji faced an international backlash, regional leaders warned Sunday as the rapid dismissal and reappointment of coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama as interim prime minister was described as a "sham".
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The South Pacific island nation was "virtually a military dictatorship," Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said following the swift political upheaval to bypass a court ruling.
Within 48 hours of Fiji's Appeal Court ruling on Thursday that the government of coup leader Bainimarama was illegal, President Josefa Iloilo sacked the judiciary, scrapped the constitution and re-instated the military chief and his cabinet.
In a national address following his reappointment, Commodore Bainimarama told Fijians they had the opportunity to build "on a clean slate, a new beginning", but he faced loud criticism from neighbouring countries.
Australia has refused to rule out imposing sanctions if there is no move to restore democracy and has said the country faces possible expulsion from the 16-member Pacific Islands Forum.
Rudd described Fiji as "virtually a military dictatorship, with the suspension of freedom of the press and actions which undermine prosperity for the ordinary people of Fiji."
Police and information ministry officials have been placed in newsrooms in Fiji to check all stories, with journalists told not to write anything negative about the political upheaval following the court ruling.
"We must all be loyal to Fiji, we must be patriotic," Bainimarama said.
"The necessary regulations are in force. I'm sure we will all -- including the media -- cooperate with the relevant agencies."
Sunday's edition of the Fiji Times was published with a blank second page and stories missing from page three with the newspaper blaming the new government restrictions.
Bainimarama's re-appointment "is a sham and the events that surround his appointment take his country down an even darker path," New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said.
"The extent to which the commodore seems prepared to go to entrench himself and the military in power is unsettling.
"Abrogating the constitution, dismissing judges and now introducing emergency measures that curb the media and deny citizens freedom of political expression is a sorry recipe that has been tried by dictators in a number of other countries, always with tragic consequences."
McCully, who also saw Fiji's suspension from the regional alliance as inevitable, said the Commonwealth and the United Nations had agreed to be part of a presidential dialogue in Fiji but they will now be reassessing the sincerity of the government.
Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma said the developments in Fiji were "retrograde steps" and foreign ministers on the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group will convene as soon as possible to discuss the developments.
Bainimarama has been in power since he overthrew the democratically elected government of Laisenia Qarase in December 2006 and in the latest shake-up he said there would not be fresh elections for another five years.
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