31 May 2010

Pacific Ministers find no progress by Fiji regime

7:16 pm on 31 May 2010

The Pacific Islands Forum's Ministerial Contact Group on Fiji is to visit the country in the next few weeks to better assess the situation there.

The MCG, comprised of the Prime Minister of Tonga, the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, and Ministers standing in for the leaders of Tuvalu and Samoa, met today in Auckland.

The MCG last met in 2008 amid unsuccessful attempts to seek Suva's co-operation to restore democracy by 2009.

The Auckland meeting included a report from the Fiji interim Government presented by its Foreign Minister, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, but the New Zealand Foreign Minister, Murray McCully says the Ministers found no signs of progress.

"The assessment we made is that there isn't good news. Obviously there aren't going to be elections before 2014 and some would say there is even doubt about that date. There has obviously been concern about human rights and the rule of law and that wasn't a very difficult assessment for ministers to make."