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Fiji's military commander and Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has accused the country's rugby union of doing the nation a disservice when it invited "the enemy of the day" - a New Zealander - to be chief guest at a Junior All Blacks game in Suva.
The "enemy", New
Zealand High Commissioner Michael Green, was given his marching orders from Fiji 12 days later.
Mr Green was packing up his household at the weekend. The Government won't reveal his travel details but he is expected back in New Zealand today before Government meetings to assess further sanctions against Fiji and whether to seek a regional response or treat it as a problem between the two nations.
At armed forces headquarters in Suva, Commodore Bainimarama denied that the rugby incident was the reason he ordered Mr Green to leave. But he refused to elaborate.
"I am not going to comment on the reasons Michael Green was expelled. Suffice to say that it was done to maintain the sovereignty of this nation. Since when do we expel diplomats for a rugby match?
"However I think the Fiji Rugby Union has done the people of this nation a big disservice. Out of 800,000 people ... they went and nominated the enemy of the day, in a Kiwi, to be chief guest when we played the [Junior] All Blacks."
A chair on a dais had been prepared for Fiji President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, but when he did not arrive, rugby officials asked Mr Green to have the seat while Commodore Bainimarama stayed in the stand.
The commander has been irritated by Mr Green's representations to him on behalf of NZ since the December 5 military coup.
"Michael Green has been in our face from the 5th of December, and to say that he was expelled because of some rugby match is, I think, very childish," he said.
We can argue about the legality of events of the 5th of December until the cows come home. It will not change the fact that we are now in government."
He called on the assistance of the international community to help restore democracy to Fiji, but attacked at Prime Minister Helen Clark, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, saying they did not understand the situation in Fiji, and "they don't want to understand".
He would not put a time frame on a return to democracy.
Helen Clark said yesterday through a spokeswoman that "there is nothing new in his bizarre justifications for the illegal and unconstitutional coup".
"The fact that Fiji is unable to give any specific reason for ejecting the New Zealand High Commissioner speaks volumes about its provocative action."
She said last week that New Zealand would review "the totality" of the relationship with Fiji and step up pressure on the United Nations to apply sanctions against Fijian peacekeepers.
Aid has been cut. In the financial year in which the coup occurred, which ends at the end of this month, $8 million had been budgeted for aid to Fiji from New Zealand but the amount spent has been about $3.3 million.
In the next financial year, $6 million has been budgeted, and that will be reviewed again after the expulsion.
Visa and travel restrictions have been imposed on members of Fiji's Government, military and others connected with the coup.
