FIJI/TONGA: Letter on the Minerva Reef issue: Pacific Diplomacy II

NUKU'ALOFA (Taimi Media Network/Pacific Media Watch): 

 

Dear Editor,

 

It is always refreshing after we sat down to reflect what have been developing after my first letter titled Pacific Diplomacy. Much water has gone under proverbial bridge and the call for the Pacific Way may be too little, too late. 

 

So what has prompted me to write a follow up to my initial letter? Tonga has broken its silence and has replied to Fiji on the issue of Minerva.

 

The rescue of Colonel David Mara from Fiji water first of all demonstrated to Fiji that Tonga will use force to protect its sovereignty over Minerva aka Teleki Tonga and Teleki Tokelau, and Tonga is quiet capable of protecting its own territory. The Tongan official stand on the Minerva Reef is:

 

a. Tonga claims Minerva in 1972 to deny foreigners (US corporations) from establishing a new republic in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean.

 

b. Tongan claims of Minerva were submitted to the Pacific Island Forum and [they were] recognised by the Pacific Island Forum of 1972 with no protest from any other island states including Fiji.

 

c. Fiji is under an illegal government and Tonga will not negotiated with an illegal government.

 

d. Tonga will in good time [make] its own claim to the UN under the Law of the Sea and [it has]historical ties to Minerva prior to the Law of the Sea [being signed] signed in 1982.

 

e. Law of the Sea or UNCLOS was only signed in 1982 and became effective in 1994. UNCLOS was never intended to strip or taken territory of a state.

 

f. Fiji should read and taken into heart the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Preamble which stated that:

g.    Law of the Sea is about Peace and Security. Fiji deploying of its Navy to destroy safety beacons within Tonga's sovereign territory was like declaring war on your neighbors and a serious breach of sovereignty.

 

h.     The first voice [by] Fiji uttered about Minerva was after [the] Rabuka coup of 1987 and now Frank Bainimarama in 2010. Tonga has been securing, developing and laying to rest some of its people in Minerva since 1972.

 

i. Ono I Lau (a Fijian island), is within Tongan EEZ, and the people of Ono are more Tongan and Polynesian then Fijian Melanesian. Tonga will not claim Ono as it belonged to Fiji before UNCLOS was passed and it will be ridiculous to claim Ono just because it located within the EZZ. If the Fijian logic in international law is followed by the world and there will be wars all over the world since country will claim and counter claim territories when their EEZ overlap.

 

j. Minerva has been recognised by international organisations as under the Tongan sovereignty since 1972 as shown by the two maps from [the] International Atlas contrary to some Fijian claims of recognition.

 

k. The Fiji illegal government's willingness to talk about the claim of Minerva should not be recognized by Tonga, unless Fiji returns to democracy and elects a legitimate government and in the meantime Tonga has submitted its territorial and EEZ claims to the UN.

 

So for the Kingdom of Tonga, this issue is about Fiji invading and breaching the sovereignty of Tonga. Tonga will host Col David Mara and will support the people of Fiji to depose of this dangerous and illegal junta in Fiji. 

 

The Fiji junta is not only dangerous to the people of Fiji but to the Pacific region. That is why Tonga is making a stand now, or forever die in shame and I hope the Fijians learn from their own history as in the Battle of Kaba. 

 

“Only a fool will stand and fight with a Tongan”.

 

Loloma and ‘Ofa atu

Sione Taufatahi

USA