December 28, 2007
By Michael Field
PM' CEO Chand writes about his wife's trip to New Zealand.
A key figure in Fiji's coup regime is in New Zealand tending sick wife just a week after 10 youthful scouts were excluded on the grounds of their relationship to the military.
The
military appointed head of the Prime Ministerıs Office, Premesh Chand, is
in Auckland, according to Fiji media outlets, on "compassionate and
humanitarian grounds" after his wife was taken ill.
Mr Chand, the former South Pacific Trade Commissioner based in Ċuckland, assumed his key role just days after military commander Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase in December 2006.
The Chand's in 2000. Michael Field photo
An Indo-Fijian, Mr Chand has been a strong and outspoken supporter of the Commodore and as recently as last week was condemning New Zealand for its "smart sanctions".
News of Mr Chand's entry represents a significant departure from the rules as his role has been as a key handmaiden to the military and symbolic of the Indo-Fijian support for the coup.
He told the Fiji Times he was granted a visa on "compassionate and humanitarian grounds" and he was happy the New Zealand government was understanding of his situation.
Mr Chand said his case was a genuine one as he had to be with his wife who was taken in to hospital as an emergency case.
''She was taken in but was not admitted and she is now recuperating at home,'' Mr Chand told the Times.
He did not divulge his wife's medical condition only saying she is recovering well.
Mr Chand, who is on leave and spent Christmas in New Zealand, refused to comment on New Zealand's double standards on its bans on Fiji citizens.
''I am on a private visit and I would like to keep it at that,'' Mr Chand said.
He is due to return to Fiji tomorrow.Earlier yesterday the Fiji Times, one of the strongest critics of the military regime, attacked New Zealand over its policy which saw 10 out of 50 scouts prevented from coming to Christchurch for a jamboree.
The 10 were not formally banned but the New Zealand High Commission warned scouting authorities in Fiji that because their parents were in the military they were affected by the sanctions imposed following last yearıs coup.
The country's biggest daily, the News Corp paper said in an editorial that the travel ban on people linked to the coup was a joke.
"These young people were forced to bear the brunt of our neighbour's anger over their parents' involvement in the overthrow of a legally-elected government," the Times said, noting it had not condoned the coup or the rape of the democratic process.
"At the same time, we will not be silent over the treatment of innocent children."
It said the New Zealand High Commission will not say how many children and families have suffered from the travel ban in the last year.
It said New Zealand had banned a soccer player who was not linked to the military but had a fiancé who was. It had banned the scouts and yet had allowed a military appointed cabinet minister in.
He had been allowed in because it was a regional event that would benefit education.
"These are fine sentiments. But would not the same argument work in the case of the scouts?"
The newspaper said the head of the Prime Ministerıs Office, former New Zealand resident Parmesh Chand, had been allowed into New Zealand on medical grounds.
"New Zealand cannot continue to play flip-flop politics with Fiji and other Pacific states.
"If
it wants to ban people involved in the events of 2006 and the interim
administration, go ahead.
"New Zealandıs ban must be all or nothing.
"It must be all or nothing. If New Zealand decides to choose who is or is not banned on a case by case basis, the ban is an exercise in hypocrisy," the Fiji Times said.
"New Zealand must decide once and for all whether her borders are open or closed to the interim regime."
Earlier in the week a former coup leader and prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka condemned New Zealand over the scouts and newspaper letters in Fiji have been running heavily against Wellington's decision.
Writing in the Sunday Fiji Times Mr Rabuka, who staged two coups in 1987, said the ban on the scouts was sad because they had no say in the role their senior relatives played.
"It has been difficult to follow the logic or rationale in some of the decisions being made by very senior people in governments around the world nowadays, and people are asking so many questions because they no longer understand," Mr Rabuka said.
"Please,
pray for the young victims of the travel ban by New Zealand. Pray for them
to be real scouts and forgive the government and the people of New Zealand
for not allowing them to join their brother scouts at their
Jamboree."
Meanwhile the Fiji Government yesterday announced that Mr Bainimarama, who remains head of the military as well as self appointed prime minister, spent Christmas with Fijian troops serving with the United Nations in Baghdad.
Earlier in the week Mr Chand had told local media he would be with Fijian troops in the Sinai on the border between Israel and Egypt.
The government said Mr Bainimarama attended a church service in Baghdad on Christmas day and spent the day with troops at Irbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region close to the Turkish and Iranian borders.
In the statement he said most of the soldiers "were all in fine spirits".
Mr Bainimarama is due back in Fiji today.
Copyright: Michael Field
