Wow us brits sure do know how to leave a country in a mess!

[Disco_Destroyer]

Iraq, Palestine, Burma, Diego Garcia to name a few!

Fiji faces Pacific bloc suspension


Bainimarama, Fiji's military chief, has ruled out a return to democracy until at least 2012

Fiji will be suspended from South Pacific's key trade and diplomatic bloc if it does not immediately announce steps to restore democracy soon, New Zealand's foreign minister has said.

Murray McCully said Fiji's military government has until Friday to announce election dates, before the 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum moves to suspend its membership.

Fiji is the first country ever to face suspension from the group which was founded in 1971 as the South Pacific Forum.

"The deadline has been set and it doesn't look like we're going to see anything that will stave it off," McCully told reporters in Auckland on Thursday.

He said he expected other bodies including the Commonwealth, the United Nations and European Union to follow the forum's lead and move to further isolate Fiji.

"The deadline has been set and it doesn't look like we're going to see anything that will stave it off"

Murray McCully,
New Zealand foreign minister

The UN has already said it will bar Fijian soldiers from future peacekeeping missions, which have been a lucrative source of income for the military.

Australia and Fiji's Pacific neighbours have said they are prepared for an angry reaction from Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the head of Fiji's military, if the country is suspended from the Pacific forum.

Earlier this month Fiji was plunged into fresh political crisis after the president reappointed Bainimarama as interim prime minister, less than two days after a court ruled his 2006 coup and subsequent government was illegal.

Bainimarama had promised to hold elections later this year, but has now ruled them out until at least 2012.

He has since imposed new emergency restrictions, including sending troops and police into media and government offices to gag opposition to his reform plans.

Fiji, a former British colony, has suffered four coups and a military mutiny since 1987, fuelled by tensions between indigenous Fijians and economically powerful ethnic Indians.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/04/200943085439315 49.html