Bainimarama "Severely Deluded"?

Frank Bainimarama was "severely deluded" and had taken "complete leave of his senses" in ousting Fiji's elected Government, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday. "He called on people not to break the law, but the military commander has just ripped up Fiji's constitution and chucked it out the window," she told New Zealand television. "It is supreme arrogance to say other people shouldn't break the law when you have just single-handedly set out to destroy the law." She described the military commander's actions as "simply an extraordinary display of military arrogance".

Earlier, as the coup began to unfold, she said New Zealand was suspending defence ties with Fiji and barring Commodore Bainimarama from visiting the country, where members of his family live. "This is an outrage what is happening in Fiji today," she told Parliament. She later told the BBC: "The international community should be communicating its support for the democratic process in Fiji . . . and urging the commander to back off before he completely destroys his country and his people's prospects." Japan called for a peaceful return to democracy. "The Government hopes the unrest will be peacefully resolved and the country will restore democracy as soon as possible," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. "Japan will continue co-operating with concerned nations."