Green Party MP Keith Locke says the Government should be asking the United Nations to be more socially responsible in its selection of troops for its peacekeeping missions.
Yesterday it was disclosed that further Fijian soldiers were to go to Iraq to help protect the UN mission there. Currently, Fiji has over 500 troops as part of the UN or Sinai peacekeeping forces.
“We should be asking the UN how this is consistent with former Secretary General Kofi Annan’s November 26 statement that a coup would affect Fiji’s participation in peacekeeping operations,” Mr Locke, the party’s Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, says.
“However, there is a deeper issue that should be addressed. While Fijian soldiers have made a laudable contribution to peacekeeping, and some have sacrificed their lives, there has been a big downside for the Fijian people, who have now been subject to four coups.
“The reality is that UN peacekeeping has been a money-making venture for Fijian governments. The UN payments per soldier are well in excess of what each soldier is actually paid. This has resulted in any army of 3,500 (plus reservists), well in excess of what that small island needs in the absence of any external threat.
“Fiji’s main security needs are a maritime surveillance capacity and an appropriately sized police force.”
The Green party remained critical of the coup and the harassment of those Fijians who opposed it, but believed New Zealand “should now focus on dialogue with all the political forces in Fiji, both inside and outside the interim administration, for a quick return to constitutional rule and an elected government,”.Mr Locke says.