By Sia Aston
The most recent New Zealand diplomat to be thrown out of Fiji, says the rest of the diplomatic community was outraged at the expulsion, and pleaded with commodore Bainimarama not to do it.
The New Zealand Government says the situation with Fiji can now only be described as hopeless and diplomatic relations are strained beyond recognition.
Todd Cleaver says Cdre Bainimarama wanted him gone in 24 hours, leaving little time to pack or say goodbye.
Mr Cleaver and his family left much behind and have returned to New Zealand with no home to go to.
“Personally it's been distressing, on Wednesday had to tell my son to go to school and say goodbye to his friends - a pretty hard thing to do to a six-year-old,” he says.
Yesterday, Fiji’s entire diplomatic corps turned up to say their goodbyes, in a show of solidarity.
Mr Cleaver says many tried vainly to reason with Cdre Bainimarama and spoke with undiplomatic frankness about the decision to expel New Zealand and Australia's diplomatic envoys.
Cdre Bainimarama accuses New Zealand and Australia of political interference, though Mr Cleaver says it was made clear that the expulsion was not about him - but about government policy.
Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said today he would not gloss over the fact that the situation was grim.
“I'm not going to try and sell hope I think hope is a very distant concept in Fiji and short of some radical reappraisal by the commodore we're not going to see hope for a while yet,” he says.
The High Commission is now down to one junior diplomat and two administration staff - a skeleton crew unlikely to cope with 20,000 visa applications a year from Fijians wanting to come to New Zealand.
And Kiwis travelling to Fiji can expect no consular help except for humanitarian crises.
No further sanction against Fiji is being considered, Cdre Bainimarama says he doesn't care if they are.
He says talks are unlikely to resume with New Zealand or Australia until after Fiji’s 2014 elections - so with no hope on either side the incident is a diplomatic stalemate.
3 News