Mr President, I generally welcome the comments both of the previous speaker and Commissioner Nielson who made a statement on behalf of the Commission. I am not as convinced as he is that the violence is actually over in Fiji. I had the opportunity last week, along with a number of colleagues from various parties and groups here, to meet with Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry who reported to us that violence against the Indo-Fijians is still continuing in Fiji. Secondly, I disagree that there is a fundamental ethnic antagonism in Fiji. It seems to me, if one looks at the origin of the coup d'état, that one should follow the money rather than the ethnic relations. I welcome the fact that Article 366 of the Lomé Convention has been invoked. If we look back at the history of what has happened in Fiji, we see a sweeping electoral victory by the Fijian Labour Party in the May 1999 General Election when they won, with their supporting parties, 58 out of the 71 seats, ousting the incumbent right-wing government. Following that, there has been a systematic attempt to destabilise the new government led by elements of the former governing party and extreme nationalist gangs under the flimsy pretext of protecting indigenous interests. It is interesting that, although Mahendra Chaudhry is an Indo-Fijian, twelve out of the 18 members of his cabinet are, as it were, indigenous Fijians and a majority of indigenous Fijian MPs actually supported the Government. The destabilisation operation was financed by sections of private enterprise, frightened by the government's radical programme of social reform and poverty alleviation and by its close association with the trade union movement. This financing was led by corporate groups bidding for the right to exploit mahogany and native hardwood forestry. The police and the military singularly failed to protect and defend the government. Alongside George Speight and his gang, when the people's coalition government were taken hostage on 19 May, were members of the armed forces' counter-revolutionary warfare unit. What has happened in Fiji is nothing less than a coup d'état by the military industrial complex. In fact, it is another Chile written small. As a result, the 1997 Constitution has been ripped up. A government has been imposed in power by the military that it is effectively controlled by those supporting the coup and the military is trying to offload the blame by prosecuting one small section of those involved, namely the gang around George Speight I believe Parliament, the Commission and the Council of Ministers must back the proposals by the Labour led people's coalition for reinstatement of the 1997 Constitution and, in the spirit of national conciliation, for the formation of a grand coalition for the government in Fiji. Unless this is achieved, unless the slide towards a form of apartheid in Fiji, where Indo-Fijians who comprise nearly half the population are rapidly becoming second-class citizens, driven from their homes and jobs, is stopped, then we should demand support for sanctions against the current government. We should support the moves by Premier Helen Clark from New Zealand for a concerted action at bilateral, regional and global levels, which should include, as Mr Van Hecke said, ‘smart’ sanctions targeted at those involved in the coups, denying them the freedom to travel, freezing foreign assets and threatening them when they are apprehended with the consequences of the UN Hostage Convention. Second, Fiji should be banned from all international sporting and cultural events. Third, there should be a denial of all economic and military assistance to and through the present government. The issue of Fiji is important, not only in its own right, but because it will set a precedent as to whether semi-clandestine coups-in-waiting along similar lines will see the light of day and whether Europe and the rest of the developed world is prepared to tackle the issue of indigenous rights – the Third World's variant of the racism that is threatening us all.

Political group: PSE