24 Dec 2015

Further fallout in Nauru after 'ridiculous' observer mission

8:24 am on 24 December 2015

Another Nauru MP is asking why the Commonwealth Secretariat's observer mission didn't seek out opposition voices.

Squire Jeremiah was charged alongside three other MPs for being involved in a protest in June.

They were protesting their suspension from parliament, brought on by the government in response to the MPs talking to international media.

Judges, magistrates and other workers have been deported from the island nation and New Zealand has cut its aid funding.

Squire Jeremiah says the two-man team - the Commonwealth Secretariat's Pacific representative Albert Mariner and the foreign affairs minister of Solomon Islands, Milner Tozaka - were unprofessional.

"Disappointing and ridiculous I would say, because he thought his visit may be as popular as he may think but no one [was] aware that they were visiting. And I thought it would be important for him to speak to the opposition, other than the government themselves."

Solomon Islands Minister for Foreign Affairs Milner Tozaka

Solomon Islands Minister for Foreign Affairs Milner Tozaka Photo: Supplied

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