• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
grubsheet

grubsheet

#110 UN BACKS FIJIAN PEACEKEEPERS

Posted on July 16, 2012 2 Comments

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon inspects Fijian troops (Photo: UN Media)

Fiji’s contribution to United Nations peacekeeping efforts has risen by almost 30 per cent in the past year alone, as the world body defies attempts by Australia and New Zealand to have Fijian troops excluded because of the 2006 coup. Figures obtained by the NZ investigative reporter, Selwyn Manning, for his intelligence company, 36th Parallel Assessments, show that Fiji’s UN contribution is at record levels. The number of military and police officers supplied to various operations increased by 29 per cent between April 2011 and May 2012 – more than the combined total provided by Australia, NZ and Canada.

Here’s a link to Manning’s illuminating report on Pacific Scoop NZ, which also demonstrates how much the United Nations is in a cleft stick, trying to balance its need for more Fijian troops while trying to placate the demands of the Australian and NZ Governments. Fortunately for Fiji,  its soldiers are in such demand because of their high calibre and willingness to put themselves in harm’s way that the UN has turned a deaf ear to the calls to reject them. Manning’s report won’t be welcomed in Canberra and Wellington. It’s a major diplomatic embarrassment and further proof – if any were needed – of the folly (and failure) of Australian and NZ attempts to isolate Fiji.

 

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anonoymous says

    July 17, 2012 at 12:48 pm

    “it is likely that Australia and New Zealand governments will publicly begin to soften their positions against the military regime, and will probably use the 2012 Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ summit as an opportunity to articulate an incremental re-engagement plan”.

    Manning’s last sentence.

    Manning makes the assumption that Fiji will want to rejoin the Forum should the Forum leaders decide to incrementally engage Fiji at the August meeting in Rarotonga.

    What if Fiji takes the same stance it has taken on Pacer Plus? i.e. ignore the Forum, choose to stay out of it and concentrate instead on the MSG?

    This is a very plausible scenario.

    What has Fiji to gain?

    The fact is the Forum needs Fiji more than Fiji needs the Forum.

    Forum leaders should realise that their hard line stance against Fiji – at the behest of their paymasters in Canberra & Wellington – is not working and all that it has achieved is split the Forum irreparably.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Email
  • LinkedIn

About Grubsheet

Graham Davis
Grubsheet Feejee is the blogsite of Graham Davis, an award-winning journalist turned communications consultant who was the Fijian Government’s principal communications advisor for six years from 2012 to 2018 and continued to work on Fiji’s global climate and oceans campaign up until the end of the decade.

 

Fiji-born to missionary parents and a dual Fijian-Australian national, Graham spent four decades in the international media before returning to Fiji to work full time in 2012. He reported from many parts of the world for the BBC, ABC, SBS, the Nine and Seven Networks and Sky News and wrote for a range of newspapers and magazines in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

 

Graham launched Grubsheet Feejee in 2011 and suspended writing for it after the Fijian election of 2014, by which time he was working at the heart of government. But the website continued to attract hits as a background resource on events in Fiji in the transition back to parliamentary democracy.

 

Grubsheet relaunches in 2020 at one of the most critical times in Fijian history, with the nation reeling from the Covid-19 crisis and Frank Bainimarama’s government shouldering the twin burdens of incumbency and economic disintegration.

 

Grubsheet’s sole agenda is the national interest; the strengthening of Fiji’s ties with the democracies; upholding equal rights for all citizens; government that is genuinely transparent and free of corruption and nepotism; and upholding Fiji’s service to the world in climate and oceans advocacy and UN Peacekeeping.

 

Comments are welcome and you can contact me in the strictest confidence at grubsheetfeedback@gmail.com

 

(Feejee is the original name for Fiji - a derivative of the indigenous Viti and the Tongan Fisi - and was widely used until the late 19th century)

Copyright © 2025 Grubsheet - All Rights Reserved - For permission to republish any content or images from this blog please contact the author directly.