Graham Davis
AUCKLAND (Pacific Scoop/Pacific Media Watch): The Ukrainian Club in the New South Wales city of Queanbeyan – adjacent to Canberra – was the unlikely setting this weekend for the launch of what was being billed by its organisers as the most serious attempt thus far to dislodge the Bainimarama regime in Fiji.
The star speaker was Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba Mara – the renegade Fijian military officer also known as Roko Ului, who has been warmly embraced by Frank Bainimarama’s opponents even as he stands accused of personally abusing democracy activists in the wake of the military coup he helped stage in 2006.
The anti-regime forces see Mara – who made a dramatic escape by sea to Tonga last month after being charged with sedition – as a credible figure around which to base a serious challenge to Bainimarama.
That attempt seems to have the tacit support of both the Australian and New Zealand governments. Canberra lifted its travel ban on Mara to enable him to attend the Queanbeyan gathering despite the fact that he’s a fugitive from Fijian justice and was on a list of Fijians excluded from Australia because of their roles in the 2006 coup.
At first, New Zealand indicated that it was keeping Mara more at arms length, saying that it was in no hurry to admit him. But Foreign Minister Murray McCully has since announced that Wellington will grant Mara a one-off visa to attend a similar gathering of regime opponents in the coming week.
Read the full article by Graham Davis and see the "smoking gun" pictures
Opinion: Cafe Pacific's comment on the "smoking gun" pictures
Pacific Media Watch
