Australia Accused of Behaving Like a "Colonialist"

The 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji continues to be marred by the diplomatic row between Australia and the Solomon Islands over Australian lawyer Julian Moti, who managed to escape from Papua New Guinea to the Solomon Islands on a military plane, given that he was wanted in Canberra on child sex charges, with yet another dramatic development taking place on Tuesday.

Yesterday, the leader of Papua New Guinea announced that it would recall its diplomat from Australia, while accusing the latter of behaving like a "colonialist" state.

This comes as a negative development not only in the relationship between Australia and the Solomon Islands, where Moti escaped, but also in the diplomatic relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea, since Moti used the latter's military resources. This is the reason why the Canberra administration had actually decided to cut off all ministerial contacts with PNG at the beginning of October.

As far as the President of the Papua New Guinea is concerned, he continued to deny that his government had allowed the flight and promised that he would launch a thorough investigation into the circumstances that led to such a situation. He also vowed that he would punish all people involved in it. Regarding the recalling of his envoy to Canberra, Prime Minister Somare highlighted that it was being performed in order for the former to brief his superiors on the ban imposed by Australia on all ministerial contacts, first announced by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander downer in a televised interview on October 16th.

"I just want to know the reasons for the prime minister of the sovereign state of Papua New Guinea being told through the press, and not diplomatic channels", Somare stated in an interview with New Zealand's National Radio station. "It was an outburst of his foreign minister who still thinks that PNG's a territory. Downer was acting like a ... colonialist", he added.