McKinnon's 'robustness' tested in Fiji

LONDON - Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon has admitted his May trip to Fiji during the country's hostage crisis was a failure.

Mr McKinnon went to Suva to get directly involved in negotiations with coup leader George Speight, but his intervention did not hasten the release of the hostages, who were finally freed late last month.

Mr McKinnon told the Times newspaper in London that while the trip failed, "time and again they told us we have to resolve this ourselves, there is nothing you in the Commonwealth can do for us.

"There were some pretty odd characters waving guns around, but I never felt under threat. I didn't worry about it."

Mr McKinnon said he admitted to being "politically incorrect," which the paper called a refreshing antidote to the blandness of his three predecessors.

But it said his "All Black-style robustness" had been severely tested by the Fijian coup and the Zimbabwe elections.

With the latter, he was loudly criticised for saying that it was possible for the elections to be "fair and free." Looking back, he conceded that "the elections were not free of intimidation and violence was continuing."

Although he could speak out now, he still could not act, for the powers available to the Commonwealth Secretary-General limited his freedom. Given there was no military coup or cancelled elections, he said he would not, could not, have done more.

"We are not here to recolonise Africa, we are not here to suddenly impose a whole set of values on an African country because we don't like what they're doing.

"They have to sort out themselves their own future, and they will do it in their own way. Zimbabwe hadn't crossed the line, hadn't committed the offence required for suspension."

He said previous quotes that "African politics is volatile at the best of times" and distinguishing between "white people and African people" which have portrayed him as a dismissive colonialist were taken out of context.

"I was politically incorrect, I agree. But I don't believe the Commonwealth can ever do enough in Zimbabwe to satisfy the British media or Her Majesty's Government."

He hoped some day to own a farm. "I have just deviated in my ability to get there."

- NZPA