September 19, 2007
By Michael Field 

Fiji’s self appointed prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama will tell the United Nations General Assembly what democracy in the Pacific nation is when he speaks in New York next week.

   The military commander, who overthrew an elected government last December, said he will plead the Fiji case.

    “I’m going to New York next week. I have been invited by the General Assembly to make a speech. Every head of State goes up and speaks in the General Assembly and they have invited us,” he told Fiji media.

   “I will tell them what democracy is like in Fiji, like the one’s that you people think we should have.”

   Its his first trip out of the country since the coup and comes as Fiji remains under recently re-imposed martial law.

   He said he would plead the case for Fiji.

   “One of the reasons we going there is to tell the international community what is happening in Fiji,” he added.

   Bainimarama has a list of “significant achievements” that he has retailed in Fiji speeches recently and is expected to do so in New York.

   He has also said he will attend the Pacific Forum in Nuku’alofa next month which is also to be attended by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Copyright: Michael Field