FIJI-AUSTRALIA: Academic deported for criticisms

An Australian National University academic Professor Brij Lal was arrested and then deported from Fiji last Thursday after criticising the military regime during media interviews. Lal teaches at the ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific and, although born in Fiji, he has Australian citizenship, is an expert on Fiji politics and helped draft the country's constitution in 1997.

He was arrested at his home in Fiji's capital Suva, held for an hour and interrogated then told to leave the country within 24 hours "or else". Lal had been living in Suva since August and was writing a book on the island nation's poor.

After arriving in Canberra, he told reporters he hoped to return to Fiji and to see an end to the military regime which has ruled the island nation since the December 2006 coup.

"There was no physical assault but a lot of verbal violence, a lot of foul language, a lot of explosive anger and a clear threat," he said. "It's not something I would wish on my worst enemy."

Lal said he was worried about possible repercussions for his friends and family still in Fiji, including his wife who remained behind in Suva. He said his Australian citizenship may have been his saving grace during the interrogation.

His forced departure follows a decision last Tuesday by Fiji's military ruler Commodore Frank Bainimarama to expel senior diplomats from Australia and New Zealand for alleged interference in Fiji's judiciary. In a tit-for-tat exchange, Australia ordered Fiji's acting High Commissioner in Canberra, Kamlesh Kumar Arya, to leave.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told ABC radio he was concerned to ensure the Fiji's coup by Bainimarama was not seen as "in any way as normal" and did not spread to other parts of the South Pacific.

Rudd said Bainimarama's actions over the previous two days showed normal dealings with the junta were out of the question: "You cannot send anything less than a clear-cut message to the people of Fiji, the Fijian regime and more widely the people of the South Pacific - that the governments of Australia and New Zealand will not simply stand idly by while this Fijian regime fundamentally breaches its democratic principles," he said.

Australia's National Tertiary Education Union formally protested at Lal's expulsion. The union's assistant National Secretary Ted Murphy said the deportation was a direct violation of free speech and academic freedom.

"We are concerned that the actions of the Bainimarama regime will destroy many decades of partnership building between Australian academics and universities and those in Fiji," Murphy said. "The actions of the Bainimarama regime are likely to deter Australian academics and universities from participating in research or education projects in Fiji because of the risk that their academic rights will be infringed."

"This will ultimately be to the detriment of both Fiji and its future prosperity but also to Australia's research and academic community, which has spent many years building up strong relationships with colleagues in Fiji."

geoff.maslen@uw-news.com