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FM AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3574
INFO RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA IMMEDIATE 4642
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON IMMEDIATE 0152
RUEHMJ/AMEMBASSY MAJURO IMMEDIATE 0105
RUEHPB/AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY IMMEDIATE 0626
RUEHSV/AMEMBASSY SUVA IMMEDIATE 0548
RUEHBN/AMCONSUL MELBOURNE IMMEDIATE 0082
RUEHDN/AMCONSUL SYDNEY IMMEDIATE 0485
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI IMMEDIATE
RHHJJAA/JICPAC HONOLULU HI IMMEDIATE
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 WELLINGTON 000966 
 
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: 12/06/2016 
TAGS: ASEC PGOV PREL FJ NZ
SUBJECT: NEW ZEALAND INCREASES SANCTIONS ON FIJI 
 
REF: A. CANBERRA 1940 
     ¶B. WELLINGTON 951 
     ¶C. WELLINGTON 938 
 
Classified By: DCM David Keegan, 
for reasons 1.4(b) and (d) 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary: At 4:45 pm on December 6 local time, Prime 
Minister Helen Clark and Foreign Minister Winston Peters 
announced stringent new sanctions "in response to the Fijian 
Military's unlawful seizure of power."  In a public 
statement, Clark and Peters said the Cabinet had approved the 
measures that morning.  They also said, "These measures are 
designed to reflect New Zealand's abhorrence of the actions 
taken by the Fijian military...They must cease their 
disgraceful acts and restore the legitimately elected 
government, or suffer the consequences of their grossly 
illegal acts." 
 
¶2.  (C) The measures announced are more extensive and 
stringent than those Deputy Foreign Secretary Alan Williams 
outlined to us earlier and may reflect political pressure 
from the public to take significant action.  Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) Pacific Islands Director 
Heather Riddell told the Wellington diplomatic corps today 
that the GNZ will continue to consider further measures. 
End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (U) Begin text of new measures: 
 
Bilateral Contact 
-- Ministerial contact with any purported new government in 
Fiji will not take place, unless it is for dialogue and 
mediation purposes. 
-- Members of any purported new Fijian government will not be 
permitted to travel to New Zealand. 
 
Immigration Matters 
-- The ban announced yesterday on senior RFMF officers and 
their families traveling to New Zealand will be extended to 
include all members of the RFMF and other individuals 
connected with supporting the coup. 
-- Such individuals already legally in New Zealand will not 
be able to extend their permits. 
-- Fiji's participation in the new Recognized Seasonal 
Employer scheme will be frozen with immediate effect.  (Fiji 
is to be excluded from this scheme which is designed to help 
Pacific Island Forum members gain better access to seasonal 
work opportunities in New Zealand.) 
-- No applications from Fijians for entry to New Zealand for 
seasonal work will be accepted from today. 
-- The eligibility of Fiji's citizens to take part in future 
immigration ballots under the Pacific Access Quota has been 
suspended.  (This will not affect those who have been 
selected from previous ballots, provided they apply for 
residence by 11 January 2007.) 
 
Defense Matters 
-- All Fijian military officers currently in New Zealand, 
studying or training in New Zealand are being asked today to 
leave.  (They will have a reasonable period of time to do so.) 
-- Fijian military officers currently training with the New 
Zealand military will not be able to participate in any 
activities associated with that training, with immediate 
effect, pending their departure from New Zealand. 
 
Sporting Matters 
-- Fijian sports teams and Fijian sports people at all levels 
will be banned from coming to New Zealand for the purposes of 
sport, unless international sporting and legal obligations 
require otherwise.  (For example, where New Zealand is 
hosting an international sports tournament where we are 
legally obliged to accept international participants, it will 
not e legally possible to ban their entry, subject to them 
meeting other immigration requirements.) 
-- Discussions will be held with New Zealand sporting 
organizations scheduled to attend international tournaments 
 
WELLINGTON 00000966  002 OF 002 
 
 
in Fiji, and the organizers of such tournaments (such as the 
2007 Netball World Cup), to assess the safety of participants 
and the scope for seeking alternative venues. 
 
Development Assistance 
 
The Government has decided to: 
-- Freeze any new development assistance initiatives which 
provide assistance to or partner with the government in Fiji, 
and review current such activities. 
-- Discontinue the awarding of new government managed 
scholarships and training. 
-- Review and reconsider New Zealand's assistance to the Fiji 
Electoral Office. 
-- Suspend the Fiji public sector's eligibility for training 
initiatives under regional governance programs. 
-- Review planned support for people in squatter settlements, 
with a view to assessing the scope for providing such 
assistance through NGOs and relevant regional agencies, 
rather than through the Fiji government. 
 
International/Regional Diplomacy 
New Zealand will work with the Pacific Islands Forum, 
Commonwealth, UN and like-minded countries to explore what 
further steps can e taken in response to the coup.  These 
include (but are not limited to): 
 
-- Taking forward the discussion held among Forum Foreign 
Ministers, at their special meeting in Sydney, last Friday on 
whether Fiji, under a military-led illegal government, can 
continue to hold the position of Forum Chair. 
-- Reassessing the role the Fijian military has hitherto 
played in protecting peace and democracy abroad, given that 
those same troops have removed their own government from 
power. 
 
End text of new measures 
 
¶3.  (U) The new sanctions come on top of three measures 
announced yesterday: 1) imposing travel bans on senior RFMF 
officials and their families; 2) discussing with Commonwealth 
Secretary Don McKinnon (a Kiwi and former NZ Foreign 
 
SIPDIS 
Minister) the likelihood that if the coup was not stopped 
Fiji would be suspended from the Commonwealth; and 3) 
suspending bilateral defense ties with the exception of 
maritime patrolling, disaster relief, and search and rescue 
activities. 
 
¶4.  (U) Clark has also appeared on a number of media programs 
since Commodore Bainirama's December 5 press conference. 
Minutes after the conference, she called Bainimarama "clearly 
deluded," and chastised him for claiming he was protecting 
the law when he clearly was actually breaking it.  On a TV 
interview on December 6, Clark said she had tried to phone 
and text PM Qarase but could no longer get through.  She also 
said there was no direct threat to New Zealanders, "but it's 
the equivalent of a holiday in hell to go to a place where 
the military are strutting the streets and proclaiming a 
coup."  (New Zealand strengthened its travel advisory on Fiji 
on December 5.) 
 
¶5.  (C) Comment: The measures announced are more extensive 
and stringent than those Deputy Foreign Secretary Alan 
Williams outlined in his December 5 DVC with EAP/ANP Director 
McGann.  Williams also noted the Cabinet was urging Clark to 
take the strongest possible measures, while Clark was 
hesitant not to be seen as implementing sanctions that would 
declare Bainimarama the victor even as she continued to 
insist Qarase was still in charge.  After the DVC MFAT 
contacts observed it would be impossible for GNZ to resist 
political pressure from the public to take significant 
action.  End comment. 
 
 
 
McCormick