FIJIAN-BORN Australian academic Brij Lal has been ordered out of the Pacific nation just hours after speaking to the ABC about the current diplomatic stoush between the two countries.
Professor Lal's expulsion is the latest in a series by Fiji's military ruler Frank Bainimarama, who on Tuesday night expelled Australia and New Zealand's high commissioners.
Commodore Bainimarama claimed both countries had been trying to undermine Fiji's judiciary and weaken the economy.
Australia and New Zealand yesterday retaliated by expelling Fiji's top diplomats.
The professor's family says he was escorted from his home in Suva yesterday afternoon by the military, who refused to provide the reason for his detention or where he was being taken.
He was given 24 hours to leave the country.
Earlier, his family said the military had been refusing to confirm he was in custody.
Professor Lal, from the Australian National University (ANU), is an Australian citizen and a leading academic and researcher on Fiji's political history.
He was involved in drafting the country's constitution in 1997 and has been living in Fiji for the past three months.
The latest row has been described as a tragedy for the Fijian people, and one that will further isolate the Pacific island nation from the rest of the world.
Fiji thrown into confusion
Only hours before his arrest, Professor Lal spoke to ABC Radio's PM program about the sense of confusion among Fijians.
"I think that on the whole there's a sense of puzzlement and a sense of disappointment that this has come to pass," he said.
"This is unfortunately as tragedy for this country."
In September, Fiji was expelled from the Commonwealth for failing to agree to hold a democratic election by next year.
Professor Lal yesterday said he was doubtful Commodore Bainimarama's promised 2014 poll would come to pass.
"I just hope that these diplomatic rifts and other such issues will not be used to delay Fiji's return to parliamentary democracy because at the end of the day, any prolonging of this is simply going to compound the problems of ordinary citizens of this country," he said.
Rudd resists culture of coups
Fiji's acting Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khayum, told Radio New Zealand the sanctions imposed by Australia and NZ were hampering the rule of law in his country.
But Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says Australia is not about to back away from his government's tough approach to Fiji.
He says he does not want to see what he calls the culture of military coups spread in the Pacific.
"We are not about to legitimise what is a regime which has obtained power through military force," he said.
"We do not want that culture to spread anywhere else in the South Pacific."
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith insists expelling Fiji's diplomat is not a tit-for-tat response because Fiji had said it would recall its diplomat anyway.
"Very regrettably we came to the conclusion that the only response could be a proportionate response," he said. ABC News/Pacific Media Watch, 05/11/09.
