FED: Bainimarama to seek support from China

AAP General News (Australia)
12-30-2006
FED: Bainimarama to seek support from China

SYDNEY, Dec 30 AAP - Fijian military dictator Frank Bainimarama says he will seek support
from China and other Asian nations if Australia continues to campaign against his leadership.

Commodore Bainimarama said he assumed China "would always be there" to support Fiji.

"We have always had close ties with Beijing," Bainimarama told The Weekend Australian newspaper.

"I've already made an official visit there at the invitation of the People's Liberation
Army and we've had two senior officers at China's defence college since 2000."

Malaysia, South Korea and Japan were also named as possible allies.

Bainimarama said he'd told Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, he intended
to remove the Qarase government three weeks before the event.

He expressed "disappointment" at Australia's failure to understand the true nature
of events in Fiji.

"(Downer is) harping on about democracy," he said. "Everyone knows that democracy isn't
about numbers in an election; it's about the rule of law, it's about good governance,
law and order, which this last government has not provided."

Bainimarama also said he was keen to get back the expelled director of public prosecutions,
Australian Peter Ridgeway, to help investigate alleged corruption in the Qarase government.

AAP ajc/rs

KEYWORD: FIJI CHINA

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