By Pesi Fonua

Tonga is not in support of an idea to suspend Fiji's membership from the Pacific Islands Forum, Tonga's Prime Minister Dr Feleti Sevele said this afternoon.

"Tonga's position on the Fiji situation is that we would work toward finding a way forward for Fiji," he said at a press conference called by the Prime Minister's Office.

The PM said he would be attending a meeting of Forum countries with the objective of finding a way forward for Fiji. He emphasised that Tonga is not in support of the idea to suspend Fiji's membership from the Pacific Islands Forum.

Pacific Leaders are scheduled to meet for a special session on the Fijian political turmoil in Port Moresby on January 27.

Dr Feleti Sevele will be travelling together with the Samoan Prime Minister to Port Moresby on a private aircraft of the New Zealand Prime Minister.

He said that the flight from New Zealand to Papua New Guinea will be an opportunity for him and the Samoan PM present their case to the New Zealand PM about a demand by Air New Zealand for Tonga and Samoa to subsidise the Air New Zealand flight from Auckland through Tonga and Samoa to the USA and back. He said that Air New Zealand had agreed to continue with the service, but they had not made a final decision on the subsidy.

War cry

Meanwhile, a war cry by some Fijian politicians this week has echoed throughout the Pacific Islands.

A political party in Fiji, the Conservative Alliance Matanitu Vanua Party (CAMV) in a press statement yesterday called on "the Melanesian Brotherhood of Nations to stand beside Fiji", against a move by Pacific countries to suspend Fiji's membership from the Pacific Islands Forum.

The CAMV party spokesman Ropate Sivo, condemned the move and pleaded with the Melanesians to vote against the motion , he said "that is being engineered by New Zealand, Australia, Samoa and the Polynesian and Micronesian members of the Forum".

He claimed that the move was a bid by Samoa to have the Forum Headquarters moved from Fiji to Samoa, "and this is being backed by New Zealand".

Ropate added "CAMV will not stand back and watch Fiji's sovereignty being treated like a small boy."