E&OE
15 July 2008
Interview - ABC Radio National Breakfast
Subjects: Pacific Islands Forum Ministerial Contact Group, Sudan
MARK BANNERMAN : Australia's Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, will meet with Fiji's self-declared Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, in Suva later today. Stephen Smith is in Fiji as part of the Pacific Islands Forum Ministerial Contact Group. He's joined by his New Zealand counterpart, Winston Peters, and four other leaders from Pacific nations.
The talks, which will centre on restoring democracy to Fiji, will form the basis of a report the Ministers will prepare for the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders' Meeting in Niue next month.
Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, joins us this morning from the Fijian capital, Suva. Minister, good morning, welcome to the program.
STEPHEN SMITH: Thanks very much, Mark, how are you?
BANNERMAN: Well, you've got a big task in front of you, the ministerial group gathered last night to talk tactics, what's your approach going to be today?
SMITH: Well, our approach is to discharge the mandate that Pacific Island Forum Foreign Ministers gave us, which was to assess the willingness, the commitment of the interim Fiji Government to have an election by the end of March of next year, and their preparedness to do it. So in the course of our discussions and conversations this morning, and later today, we'll try and make that judgement.
There are two things, there's political will, will they go ahead with the faithful and unconditional commitment they gave to Pacific Island leaders in Tonga, in October, 2007, and if they display that ongoing commitment, are they ready, and is there anything that we can do to assist in terms of the technical carrying out of a poll?
BANNERMAN: So this commitment is to democratic elections to be held in the first quarter next year, do you believe that they will keep to that timetable, at this point, from all you're seeing and hearing?
SMITH: Well, I'm not going to prejudge that, but I have said publicly on a number of occasions that I've been very sceptical about the political will, from what the interim Prime Minister, Commodore Bainimarama has been saying in recent times, and from the apparent slowness of their preparations.
But they recently appointed an election supervisor, and Australia responded to that by approving some diplomatic appointments to Australia, an Acting High Commissioner and a Consul-General in Sydney, so we're making the point that if we see real progress towards an election, then we want to try and effect better relations with Fiji. It's not in Australia's interest, it's not in Fiji's interest, it's not in the Pacific region's interest for Fiji not to be a fully fledged member of the region.
BANNERMAN: Well let's talk positively, what can you say to them, what are the positives of them going down the democracy route?
SMITH: Well the positives are for a start, that they'll be treated as a fully-fledged member of the region, Australia and New Zealand and other countries, effectively impose some form of sanctions on Fiji, we have travel sanctions, recently there was a mission here from the European Union, and the European Union for example, have made the point to Fiji that they can't regard things as being business as usual. So the starting point for all of this is to return and restore Fiji to democracy.
Fiji's economy has also suffered quite badly in recent years, and that's, in our view, directly linked to the changed democratic arrangements. We want Fiji to return to democracy, to respect the rule of law, to respect human rights, Fiji has got enormous potential as part of the Pacific, and we'd like to see Fiji meet that potential.
BANNERMAN: So the EU at the moment has suspended sugar industry assistance, and that's about US$30 million a year, if things don't go down the path you would hope, would you consider applying economic sanctions in some greater way?
SMITH: Well, for the present we are staying very firmly with our travel sanctions, and that is one of the things which has caused consternation, and I choose that word carefully, it has caused consternation with the interim Government, but we will be unrelenting on that.
We're not proposing to contemplate at this stage, additional measures, what we want to do is to encourage a dialogue, and to make the point to the interim Government here that all of these problems, all of these issues, can be addressed and solved, if a fundamental starting point is arrived at, which is the holding of an election.
And there is a central point that I always return to, and that's after the coup in 2006, Commodore Bainimarama went to the Pacific Island Forum Leaders' Meeting in Tonga in October of 2007, and gave a faithful and unconditional commitment that an election would be held on that timetable, so it's the interim Government's and Commodore Bainimarama's own undertaking that the Pacific Island Forum and the contact group want to see discharged.
BANNERMAN: Well clearly you'll test his word on that. Now, moving to the Sudan, do you support the charges by the International Criminal Court against the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir?
SMITH: Well, we certainly support very strongly, Australia supports very strongly, the International Criminal Court, and we certainly urge all parties to respect its processes.
The prosecutor has indicated he wants to bring indictments against President al-Bashir, that'll be a matter for the court itself to consider in due course, and in the meantime, we simply say that people should respect the deliberations of the court, we think the court has got a very valuable role to play, in bringing people to account for war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and genocide.
BANNERMAN: It's pretty compelling evidence, isn't it, that has been presented, the charges that have been suggested?
SMITH: Well it's not for me, nor for anyone else to pre-judge guilt or innocence, that's a matter for the court itself. In the meantime, the prosecutor has presented the warrant, and that should be dealt with by the court, and in the meantime we'd expect everyone, including the nation state of Sudan, to cooperate with the court, and to respect the court's processes, and to respect the outcomes of the court's deliberations.
BANNERMAN: Is it good timing though?
SMITH: Well, we are very concerned that what we've seen recently in the Sudan, we've had a long, intractable, difficult problem in very recent times, we've seen a terrible attack on UN peace keepers, and so we are very concerned that the processes of the court this time will be used by some, to see a deterioration, an even worse deterioration of circumstances there.
And that's one of the reasons we've indicated in the last couple of days that we're not proposing to commit on the ground, the nine military officers that we announced would be deployed in the UN African Union, the UNAU Mission in Darfur. We will wait until circumstances improve on the ground, before we commit those additional officers.
[Ends]
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