NEW ZEALAND INCREASES SANCTIONS ON FIJI

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 WELLINGTON 000966

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR D (FRITZ),EAP/FO, EUR/RPM, AND EAP/ANP
NSC FOR VICTOR CHA
SECDEF FOR OSD/ISD JESSICA POWERS
PACOM FOR J01E/J2/J233/J5/SJFHQ

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/06/2016
TAGS: ASEC PGOV PREL FJ NZ
SUBJECT: NEW ZEALAND INCREASES SANCTIONS ON FIJI

REF: A. CANBERRA 1940

B. WELLINGTON 951

C. WELLINGTON 938

Classified By: DCM David Keegan,
for reasons 1.4(b) and (d)


1. (U) Summary: At 4:45 pm on December 6 local time, Prime
Minister Helen Clark and Foreign Minister Winston Peters
announced stringent new sanctions "in response to the Fijian
Military's unlawful seizure of power." In a public
statement, Clark and Peters said the Cabinet had approved the
measures that morning. They also said, "These measures are
designed to reflect New Zealand's abhorrence of the actions
taken by the Fijian military...They must cease their
disgraceful acts and restore the legitimately elected
government, or suffer the consequences of their grossly
illegal acts."


2. (C) The measures announced are more extensive and
stringent than those Deputy Foreign Secretary Alan Williams
outlined to us earlier and may reflect political pressure
from the public to take significant action. Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) Pacific Islands Director
Heather Riddell told the Wellington diplomatic corps today
that the GNZ will continue to consider further measures.
End Summary.


2. (U) Begin text of new measures:

Bilateral Contact
-- Ministerial contact with any purported new government in
Fiji will not take place, unless it is for dialogue and
mediation purposes.
-- Members of any purported new Fijian government will not be
permitted to travel to New Zealand.

Immigration Matters
-- The ban announced yesterday on senior RFMF officers and
their families traveling to New Zealand will be extended to
include all members of the RFMF and other individuals
connected with supporting the coup.
-- Such individuals already legally in New Zealand will not
be able to extend their permits.
-- Fiji's participation in the new Recognized Seasonal
Employer scheme will be frozen with immediate effect. (Fiji
is to be excluded from this scheme which is designed to help
Pacific Island Forum members gain better access to seasonal
work opportunities in New Zealand.)
-- No applications from Fijians for entry to New Zealand for
seasonal work will be accepted from today.
-- The eligibility of Fiji's citizens to take part in future
immigration ballots under the Pacific Access Quota has been
suspended. (This will not affect those who have been
selected from previous ballots, provided they apply for
residence by 11 January 2007.)

Defense Matters
-- All Fijian military officers currently in New Zealand,
studying or training in New Zealand are being asked today to
leave. (They will have a reasonable period of time to do so.)
-- Fijian military officers currently training with the New
Zealand military will not be able to participate in any
activities associated with that training, with immediate
effect, pending their departure from New Zealand.

Sporting Matters
-- Fijian sports teams and Fijian sports people at all levels
will be banned from coming to New Zealand for the purposes of
sport, unless international sporting and legal obligations
require otherwise. (For example, where New Zealand is
hosting an international sports tournament where we are
legally obliged to accept international participants, it will
not e legally possible to ban their entry, subject to them
meeting other immigration requirements.)
-- Discussions will be held with New Zealand sporting
organizations scheduled to attend international tournaments

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in Fiji, and the organizers of such tournaments (such as the
2007 Netball World Cup),to assess the safety of participants
and the scope for seeking alternative venues.

Development Assistance

The Government has decided to:
-- Freeze any new development assistance initiatives which
provide assistance to or partner with the government in Fiji,
and review current such activities.
-- Discontinue the awarding of new government managed
scholarships and training.
-- Review and reconsider New Zealand's assistance to the Fiji
Electoral Office.
-- Suspend the Fiji public sector's eligibility for training
initiatives under regional governance programs.
-- Review planned support for people in squatter settlements,
with a view to assessing the scope for providing such
assistance through NGOs and relevant regional agencies,
rather than through the Fiji government.

International/Regional Diplomacy
New Zealand will work with the Pacific Islands Forum,
Commonwealth, UN and like-minded countries to explore what
further steps can e taken in response to the coup. These
include (but are not limited to):

-- Taking forward the discussion held among Forum Foreign
Ministers, at their special meeting in Sydney, last Friday on
whether Fiji, under a military-led illegal government, can
continue to hold the position of Forum Chair.
-- Reassessing the role the Fijian military has hitherto
played in protecting peace and democracy abroad, given that
those same troops have removed their own government from
power.

End text of new measures


3. (U) The new sanctions come on top of three measures
announced yesterday: 1) imposing travel bans on senior RFMF
officials and their families; 2) discussing with Commonwealth
Secretary Don McKinnon (a Kiwi and former NZ Foreign

SIPDIS
Minister) the likelihood that if the coup was not stopped
Fiji would be suspended from the Commonwealth; and 3)
suspending bilateral defense ties with the exception of
maritime patrolling, disaster relief, and search and rescue
activities.


4. (U) Clark has also appeared on a number of media programs
since Commodore Bainirama's December 5 press conference.
Minutes after the conference, she called Bainimarama "clearly
deluded," and chastised him for claiming he was protecting
the law when he clearly was actually breaking it. On a TV
interview on December 6, Clark said she had tried to phone
and text PM Qarase but could no longer get through. She also
said there was no direct threat to New Zealanders, "but it's
the equivalent of a holiday in hell to go to a place where
the military are strutting the streets and proclaiming a
coup." (New Zealand strengthened its travel advisory on Fiji
on December 5.)


5. (C) Comment: The measures announced are more extensive
and stringent than those Deputy Foreign Secretary Alan
Williams outlined in his December 5 DVC with EAP/ANP Director
McGann. Williams also noted the Cabinet was urging Clark to
take the strongest possible measures, while Clark was
hesitant not to be seen as implementing sanctions that would
declare Bainimarama the victor even as she continued to
insist Qarase was still in charge. After the DVC MFAT
contacts observed it would be impossible for GNZ to resist
political pressure from the public to take significant
action. End comment.



McCormick