PRESS STATEMENT (222/07)
17th October 2007

FORUM RETREAT MAKES DECISIONS ON FIJI SITUATION


Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting at their retreat in Vava’u in the Kingdom of Tonga today have made decisions on the situation in Fiji.

Here is the full copy of the decisions which was announced at a press conference by the Chair of the 38th Forum Meeting and Prime Minister of Tonga, Hon. Dr Feleti Sevele before the retreat ended.

DECISIONS ON THE FIJI SITUATION 

• Endorse the findings of the EPG Report following its mission to Fiji from 29 January to 1 February 2007 and the outcomes of the Forum Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in March 2007 as an appropriate way forward to the restoration of constitutional and democratic government in Fiji;
• Welcome the undertaking by the Leader of the Fiji Interim Government to the Forum Leaders today that a parliamentary election will be held in the first quarter of 2009, and note that he also stated to Forum Leaders that he and the RFMF will accept the outcome of the elections in the first quarter of 2009;
• Calls on the Fiji Interim Government now to work with the Forum-Joint Working Group to produce a credible roadmap to those elections at that time according to the Constitution and law of Fiji, and urges the Interim Government to accord the highest priority to this task;
• Note that the Interim Government is pursuing an initiative to produce a People’s Charter;
• Express appreciation for the support which members of the international community have accorded to the Forum’s actions in addressing the pathway to election by the first quarter of 2009;
• Commend the work carried out by the Fiji/Forum Joint Working Group in seeking to advance the pathway to elections by the first quarter of 2009;
• Call for a meeting of the Forum Foreign Ministers in January next year to review the progress being made towards the election in the first quarter of 2009. 

ENDS.