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FIJI OFFICIALLY A "MILITARY DICTATORSHIP"
Pro surfing's old friend Frank tightens the screws
Category: General
Posted by: tim
Could it really only have been two years ago that the pro surfing world was paying its respects to Fiji's self-imposed military ruler Frank Bainimarama, not to be confused with Barney Rubble? The pros all heaped enormous bundles of kava at his feet, Kelly gave him a new board and officials bowed and scraped and sang the praises of a man who even then had taken control of the country by military force. Now he is locking up the media, turning off the internet, throwing out the judiciary, expelling diplomats and generally plunging Fiji into an era of international isolation and economic ruin. According to the BBC News service, New Zealand and Australia's Foreign Ministers have both expressed alarm at recent developments in Fiji, with any opposition to military rule being swiftly and brutally silenced.
"We've effectively got a self-appointed dictator. It's now a very much less predictable place than it was," New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully told Radio New Zealand.
"We are seeing a very ugly side of the regime, where they are clamping down on personal freedoms, media freedoms and there [is a] serious sense of a crackdown on the institutions and individuals who are defying the government," he added.
Last week, the Court of Appeal - Fiji's second highest court - ruled that the military government was illegally appointed after a 2006 coup, and that democracy should be returned as soon as possible. As a result, the judges responsible were stood down. Guess the Globe Fiji Pro won't be on for a while yet. And he seemed like such a nice man.