Fiji and Tonga: asylum's Island - The Economist

SEVERAL hundred years ago, the State of Fiji, the Pacific Islands was a place of refuge for the Princes exiled from neighbouring Tonga. It is now Tonga that serves as a destination for asylum-seekers blue-blooded of Fiji. Roko Tevita Uluilakeba Mara, son of the founder of the modern State, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara final, fled by sea, with the help of the Navy of Tonga.

 It is now under the protection of the use of homburg Tonga monarch, King George Tupou V, a distant relative of the father of the Mara Mr.
Contrasting fortunes switches does not end there. Tonga, long an autocratic monarchy, took a giant step towards democracy in November, when the country elected its first elected Government. Meanwhile, Fiji has entered into increasingly more authoritarian.

 Draconian public emergency regulations have been in force, with few let-ups, since a military coup in December 2006.
Until it was suspended in October, Mr Mara was commander of the regiment of Fiji. He had been a loyal ally of the coup leader and military Chief, Frank Bainimarama. Now in freedom in the capital of Tonga, Nuku'alofa Mr Mara denounces what he says is hurtful Commodore Bainimarama Government control exercised by the Attorney general, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. It calls for regime change.



In a television address, Commodore Bainimarama, who also serves as Prime Minister, replied condemning the role of the Navy of Tonga in the extraction of Mara Lord of the territorial waters of Fiji. Minister of Tonga, Lord Tu'ivakano, says that the impartial courts will consider a request for extradition. For all their protests that King George hospitality does not imply a guarantee of immunity for Mr Mara, judiciary in Tonga still must respond first and foremost to the King, not the elected Government. Also happens that the judge of Tonga, Michael Scott, a former judge of the Supreme Court of Fiji and himself a refugee from Fiji coup, he is an opponent of Fiji judge Anthony Gates, controversially appointed following the acquisition of Bainimarama. A bitter dispute between these two judges British was a lively history of events leading up to the coup of 2006. Scott justice probably will take a dim view of the impartiality of the courts of Fiji.
The suspension of Mr Mara and the Commander of the forces of former land in October was due to allegations of a counter-coup planned. Both officers were brought before the courts earlier this month and charged with incitement to mutiny.

The flight of the Lord Mara of Fiji is another sign of the growing gap between Commodore Bainimarama and the dynasty of Mara. Ratu Mara died in 2004, but his family played a key role in support to the coup of 2006. Brother-in-law of Lord Mara is the current President, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau. Another brother-in-law resigned as Defense Minister in November after a quarrel with Commodore Bainimarama on arbitrary taxes imposed a bottler of mineral water. After a flight of the Lord Mara, Minister of foreign relations of New Zealand suggested that "there is much that still play". Rumors in the capital of Suva, Fiji, swirls. Although some claim that the President is forehead courage to remove the Prime Minister, Commodore Bainimarama is more likely that eventually of usurp the position of the President.
from the print edition | Asia
View the original article here