This is from the Dec. 5th briefing received via email:
QUESTION:Fiji.
MR. MCCORMACK: Fiji. Yes.
QUESTION: What's your response to the coup?
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, we condemn the action that General Bainimarama has
taken. At the moment, the events are still unsettled. The Prime Minister has
refused to resign. The President, the Vice President, the chief of the -- the head of the Council of Great Chiefs has rejected this move by the general. We do not view this as something that is irreversible, so we would call for those forces who are attempting to seize control of the Fijian Government to stand down and to return to a constitutional order.
QUESTION: You said before -- before this coup, you had said in recent weeks, I think, you essentially warned the military against the possibility of this.
MR. MCCORMACK: Yes. We as well as others.
QUESTION: Yeah. And I think you had also made the point that under U.S. law certain forms of assistance, unless there is a waiver, must be cut off. Is it now your intent -- one, do you regard this unmistakably as a coup? You referred to it as "the action." And two, if you do, will you then begin a process to determine whether or not to cut off aid? And then three, how much aid is involved?
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, sure. On the last question, I don't know. It's in the -- it's a relatively small number, in the lower millions of dollars, but we can check for you on that. *
QUESTION: Thank you.
MR. MCCORMACK: In terms of the aid, certainly the lawyers will take --
the lawyers and the policy people will take a look at what we may or may not be obligated to do under Section 508(c) of the law. And that governs assistance when there is either a coup or a coup attempt. And we have, while that review is ongoing, suspended assistance.
And as to your first question, I think, at this point, because the situation is fluid, we look at this as a coup attempt. We don't view this as something that is irreversible, and quite clearly the Prime Minister has said that he is not resigning in the face of this action. And the political leadership of Fiji has also rejected this action. So again, the situation is not -- it's not exactly clear where we stand right now in terms of a political act. The Fijian Government says it is standing in there. The streets in Suva are calm at the moment.
So that's our assessment, what we know right now. We're seeing close contact with other governments who are following this closely as well; the New Zealanders as well as the Australians.
QUESTION: One -- thanks for all that. One thing I'm not sure I understood, when you were asked -- talking about the answer to question two, you said, "We have suspended assistance."
MR. MCCORMACK: Yes.
QUESTION: So you have, as of now, suspended all assistance?
MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, we have suspended assistance. We are going to do a deeper look as we -- as the events unfold here and become a little bit more clear, specifically under 508, Section 508.
QUESTION: So you've suspended assistance because of the coup attempt so as to --
MR. MCCORMACK: Yes.
QUESTION: -- determine whether or not you have to find them --
MR. MCCORMACK: Right.
QUESTION: Thank you.
MR. MCCORMACK: Yep.
QUESTION: And the amount suspended is in the low millions?
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, that's just off the top of my head, George. I'll get you guys a firm number on that.
* Approximately $2.5 million.
This doesn't appear as if we have sufficient leverage to "bribe" Fiji back on to the path of democracy via sanctions. I suspect we're going to eventually get the diplomatic equivelent of "we'll deal with it" here real soon...which really isn't a solution at all, but that is what I have come to expect from the State Department.
