By Roland Koroi
SUVA (Fiji Broadcasting Corporation/Pacific Media Watch): News of New Zealand government spying on Fiji and tapping
phone lines before and after the 2006 coup comes as no surprise, says permanent Secretary for Information Sharon
Smith-Johns.
Smith-Johns says Fiji has always maintained that New Zealand was indeed spying on Fiji and the leaked documents revealed
today have validated those claims.
The cables released by the Wikileaks website show that NZ used signals intelligence to listen in on phone conversations
between Fiji’s military and leadership.
Smith-Johns say the Fiji government has nothing to hide and New Zealand could go on listening if they want.
>>> “Let them listen to what the government has to say. We’ve got nothing to say, we know where the Roadmap is
taking us, we know of elections in 2014, we know when the constitution will come into place, we talk about this openly
so let the NZ government spy on us and pass that information onto America or to Australia or to whoever they’re passing
the information to.”
Smith-Johns has also refuted claims in overseas media that the leaked reports would anger Fiji Prime Minister Commodore
Voreqe Bainimarama.
Smith-Johns says the reports only show that Fiji was right and that New Zealand was spying on Fiji.
ENDS