In an interview with Radio New Zealand International, Prime Minister, Dr Derek Sikua, says the threat to suspend Suva from the Pacific Islands Forum is supported by all the Pacific countries, including those from Melanesia.
The Forum last week sent a signal to the regime in Fiji saying that it had to re-commit to elections under the current constitution by March 2009 or they would consider Fiji's suspension.However, the Fiji' Interim Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum, says the stance is a New Zealand/Australia initiative and is not indicative of the position of all Pacific countries.
But Dr Sikua says that at the Melanesian Spearhead Group summit earlier in the year in Vanuatu, the other Melanesian countries together strongly urged Fiji's Commodore Frank Bainimarama to hold elections in March 2009 as he had promised.
".....that has been our stand; we have been very consistent in supporting the commitments he has made to the 2007 Forum in Tonga. So this is not Australia and New Zealand, this is the Forum's stand that we continue to urge him to meet the commitment," says Dr. Sikua.
SOLOMONTIMES.COM with RNZI