From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 15, no. 2, June 2000.

If Australian trade sanctions against Fiji cut off Tonga’s oil supplies, which come through Fiji, Tonga will be forced to find other sources of fuel.

While the coup attempt in Tonga’s neighbour, Fiji, has affected many Tongans, a major concern for Tonga is the trade sanction that Australian dock workers have put on Fiji, by refusing to load any cargo, excepting medical supplies.

Tonga imports Australian fuel from Fiji, and already Australia during the second week of June refused to load a fuel-tanker in Melbourne bound for Fiji. The President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Sharon Burrow, warned that further fuel shipments could be threatened if the political crisis in Fiji was not resolved. It was reported that five cargo ships arrived empty in Fiji from Australia.

Tonga is served by three oil companies, British Petroleum, Shell and Three Star Petroleum, and all these companies import fuel from Fiji.

The Tongan manager of Shell, Fuka Kitekei’aho, did not anticipate any shortage of fuel. “This is the advantage of being part of a big multi-national corporation like Shell, because we could bring fuel to Fiji from other sources, Singapore and even Saudi Arabia.” Fuka said that Shell had enough fuel in Fiji to meet their Tongan commitment for a month, “unless someone goes out and sets fire to our depot!”

Tonga and Fiji signed a bilateral trade agreement in 1995 and it is believed that very little will hamper trade between Tonga and Fiji, excepting Australian products that Fiji re-exports to Tonga.

With Fiji’s other major trading partner, New Zealand, the NZ Council of Trade Unions were to ban cargo to and from Fiji starting from June 20. Rugby ties between the two countries were suspended and as a result a Fiji under-19 rugby team could not participate in a tournament in New Zealand. Tonga sent an under-19 team, replacing Fiji.

The impact of the coup attempt in Fiji, was first felt by Tonga when more than 100 Tongan students in Fiji were evacuated back to Nuku‘alofa in early June.

Students from the University of the South Pacific had not finished their first semester when the university was closed for what was initially expected to be a three weeks break.

In tourism, a number of tourists who were destined for Fiji ended up in Tonga. Foreign investors who were interested in the Pacific are now having a good look at Tonga, as the most stable country in the region.

Meanwhile in Fiji, the Fijian Ministry of Labour reported on June 17 that 4,122 people had been laid off from their jobs.

Foreign judges who are serving in Fiji were reported in the Fiji Daily Post to be considering a mass resignation after the suspension of the 1997 Constitution. Concerns were also being raised in the Australian and New Zealand judicial circles that Fiji’s Chief Justice, Sir Timoci Tuivaga, was co-operating with the military government. Leaving Fiji also are 26 expatriate lecturers at the University of the South Pacific who have tended in their resignation.

The latest development in Fiji before Matangi Tonga went to press on June 19 was that the military government under Commodore Bainimarama had agreed in part to a list of 20 names submitted by the hostage-taker George Speight to serve in an interim government. If both parties have nominated names and are agreed to the members of an interim government, then there is a belief that the hostage crisis might be nearly over. See article: "In a climate of trendy racism, common thugs are able to justify treason" [2]