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Foreign Minister Murray McCully and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after signing an Arrangement For Cooperation On Nonproliferation Assistance - Source: Reuters -
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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Fiji's coup leader to restore democracy to the country and she backed a demand by South Pacific leaders for elections there this year.
With Foreign Minister Murray McCully at her side, Clinton said democracy must not be "extinguished" in Fiji, where the country's 2006 coup leader and self-appointed prime minister has said he will not hold elections this year as promised.
"We join New Zealand in encouraging Fiji's interim government to abide by the Pacific Island Forum's benchmarks and timetable to restore democracy to that country," Clinton said.
"We share a common determination that democracy must not be extinguished there," she added.
Coup leader Frank Bainimarama promised to hold elections last month, but then said Fiji must first change its racially based electoral system, which he blames for past instability.
Bainimarama, who is also Fiji's military chief, staged the 2006 coup, saying the government was corrupt and soft on the perpetrators of a 2000 coup.
Fiji has suffered four coups and an army mutiny since 1987. It is racially divided with tensions between majority indigenous Fijians and ethnic Indians, who control the business center.
