ID :
59805
Sat, 05/09/2009 - 21:21
Auther :

Japan not to invite Fijian leaders to its summit with Pacific islands

NANDI, Fiji, May 9 Kyodo -
Tokyo has decided not to invite interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and
other Cabinet members of the current Fijian military regime to its summit with
Pacific island nations in late May in Japan, a Japanese government source said
Saturday.
Japan made the decision due to the increasingly dictatorial nature of the
unelected military regime and to the international community's response to the
situation, the source said.
The decision follows the Pacific Islands Forum's suspension of Fiji from the
16-nation grouping earlier this month.
A summit between Japan and the forum, formally known as the Pacific Islands
Leaders Meeting, will be held in the village of Shimukappu in Hokkaido on May
22-23.
Fiji is arranging to dispatch a non-Cabinet level delegation to the summit, the
source said.
Japan has been hosting a summit with the Pacific Islands Forum every three
years since 1997.
Bainimarama, who also heads the Fijian military, seized power from
democratically elected Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase in a bloodless coup in
December 2006 and became interim prime minister in 2007.
In April this year, the Fijian Court of Appeals ruled the military-backed
government was illegal and Bainimarama resigned from the premier's post.
But President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, an ally of Bainimarama, abrogated the
constitution, reappointed Bainimarama as interim prime minister and said
elections may not be held until 2014.
==Kyodo

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