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Frank Bainimarama - Source: ONE News -
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One of Australia's leading experts on Fiji has been given 24 hours to leave the Pacific nation after giving media interviews on the current political stand-off.
Professor Brij Lal's expulsion is the latest directive to come from Fiji's military regime, just a day after it gave similar marching orders to the top diplomats from Australia and New Zealand.
Lal, a long-serving academic at Canberra's Australian National University, was taken into custody on Wednesday from his home in the Fijian capital of Suva.
There was no explanation for his detention, but it came shortly after Prof Lal gave comments to AAP and various other media outlets on Fiji's latest political drama.
He accused Fiji and its leader, self-appointed interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, of trying to boost the military's position in Fiji by ousting the Australian and New Zealand representatives.
"Bainimarama claims this is all a reaction to attempts to stop judges getting visas in Australia and New Zealand," he said.
"And while Australia was delaying travel visas for some Sri Lankan judges heading to work in Fiji, it was willing to discuss the matter.
"It's my view that these are beside the point, that they are just excuses to react, and react very strongly against these so-called regional bullies, because they don't support the regime."
Shortly afterwards, Prof Lal, an outspoken critic of the military regime, was being questioned by military officials and told to leave the country, according to media reports.
The Canberra-based scholar, who has written numerous books on Fiji with a particular interest in Indian-Fijian issues, is believed to be headed back to Australia.
It is the latest development in the increasingly fraught relationship between Australia and Fiji.
Australia, responding to Fiji's expulsion of High Commissioner James Batley on Tuesday, replied in kind, telling Fiji's High Commissioner in Canberra he also had just 24 hours to leave.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd insisted Australia would not allow Fiji's "coup culture" to spread throughout the Pacific, but stopped short of imposing further economic sanctions.
"When the dust settles on this episode we again hope to find some way back of having a dialogue with Fiji to bring Fiji back to democracy," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith added.
Relations between Australia and Fiji have soured since the 2006 coup - the country's fourth since 1987 - in which Cdre Bainimarama ousted then-prime minister Laisenia Qarase.
Australia has repeatedly urged Fiji to hold democratic elections.
