VZCZCXRO8467
PP RUEHPB
DE RUEHWL #0930/01 3301832
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 261832Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3530
INFO RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 4623
RUEHPB/AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY 0616
RUEHSV/AMEMBASSY SUVA 0536
RHHJJAA/JICPAC HONOLULU HI

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 WELLINGTON 000930 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR D (FRITZ), EAP/FO, EUR/RPM, AND EAP/ANP 
NSC FOR VICTOR CHA 
SECDEF FOR OSD/ISD JESSICA POWERS 
PACOM FOR J01E/J2/J233/J5/SJFHQ 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/24/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PREL TN NZ
SUBJECT: TONGANS IN NEW ZEALAND APPALLED BY VIOLENCE BUT 
STILL BACK REFORM 
 
REF: SUVA 508 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Classified By: Consul General John Desrocher for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d 
). 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary.  A prominent member of the Tongan community 
in Auckland reports that, while local Tongans were shocked by 
last Thursday's violence in Nuku'alofa, it has not dissuaded 
them of the need for democratic reform.  Local Tongans put 
much of the blame for the violence not on the pro-democracy 
movement but on thugs in the employ of various business 
rivals.  Far from decrying the New Zealand/Australian 
intervention as antidemocratic, most New Zealand Tongans 
support it as necessary for law and order.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  (C) Sefita Haouli, a New Zealand-based Tongan, operates a 
local radio station that serves the Pacific Islands 
community; Haouli is well plugged in to local Tongan opinion. 
 He told the Consul General that New Zealand's 50,000-strong 
Tongan community was shocked by last week's events. 
According to Haouli, Tongans in New Zealand maintain strong 
interest in their homeland through bonds of family, village 
and church. 
 
¶3.  (C) Haouli was dismissive of suggestions that local 
Tongans might oppose the presence of Australian and NZ forces 
in Tonga as a prop for the monarchy.  Haouli argued to the 
contrary, reporting that local Tongans believe the 
NZ/Australia intervention was inevitable and essential to 
restoring order.  Despite the initial reaction of some 
pro-democracy activists, most local Tongans see violence as a 
far more serious threat to reform than the NZ/Australia 
intervention. 
 
¶4.  (C) Haouli considers himself a moderate, but one who 
sides much more with pro-democracy forces than with the 
monarchy.  He feels in step with the rest of the Tongan 
community in New Zealand, which he describes as generally 
pro-reform.  Tongans resident in New Zealand, he explained, 
appreciate first hand the benefits of democracy and a 
transparent, free market economy.  Haouli did not think last 
week's violence would weaken the cause of reform or frighten 
off those who support democracy.  Haouli argued that the 
nature of the violence was key in that regard. 
 
¶5.  (C) Closely echoing reftel, Haouli attributed the 
violence not to the pro-democracy movement directly but to 
criminal deportees from Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. 
Haouli described a complicated web of business rivalries, 
with factions hiring deportees to intimidate and sabotage 
their opponents.  These business factions have connections 
with various political elements, including reformers. 
Reformers, he said, took advantage of these connections to 
whip up public support, a plan that spun out of control last 
Thursday. 
 
¶6.  (C) This criminal involvement, Haouli said, meant that 
Tongans in New Zealand did not see last week's violence as an 
attack by pro-reform forces on the status quo, but rather 
looting (with a clear anti-monarch and anti-foreigner slant) 
by criminal thugs.  Had deaths or injuries occurred among 
political figures on either side, as opposed to people 
Tongans consider common criminals, Tongans might have been 
much more inclined to reconsider reform. 
 
¶7.  (C) Like Sitiveni Halapua (reftel), Haouli put 
considerable blame on PM Sevele for creating the conditions 
that led to the violence, but Haouli stopped short of calling 
for Sevele's resignation.  Like Halapua, Haouli said that 
Sevele's presentation of an alternative proposal for reform, 
outside the framework set up by Halapua's National Committee 
on Political Reform, was the spark that set off the 
conflagration.  Haouli noted that demonstrations in 
Nuku'alofa had grown more and more frequent and that violence 
may have been inevitable. 
 
¶8.  (C) Haouli passed on a report about two businessmen 
particularly close to the King (possibly brothers Sefo and 
Soane Ramanlal) who fled to New Zealand during the violence. 
Haouli reported that the men, who had a very difficult time 
 
WELLINGTON 00000930  002 OF 002 
 
 
getting out of Tonga, had called the King upon their arrival 
in New Zealand and berated him in very harsh terms for not 
better protecting them and their businesses.  If true, Haouli 
said, this would be an extraordinary case of lese-majeste and 
a significant blow to the King's prestige.  Haouli found it 
interesting that the government had not intervened more 
aggressively during the violence, suggesting the King was not 
confident of the support of his police. 
 
¶9.  (C) Kalolo Fihaki, a Tongan who works for the New Zealand 
Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs in Auckland, generally 
agreed with Haouli's assessment.  He confirmed that Tongans 
in New Zealand overwhelmingly support the intervention by 
Australia and New Zealand, noting that those two governments 
had been the strongest proponents of reform.  Fihaki argued 
that no one had benefited from last week's events.  The King 
had been unable to stop the violence, the PM had looked 
incompetent, the democracy movement had associated itself 
with thugs, and the Nuku'alofa business district had gone up 
in smoke. 
McCormick