Rudd slams Fiji "dictatorship" 

ReutersKevin Rudd

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Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has described Fiji's newly reappointed government as "virtually, a military dictatorship", after the South Pacific nation's president ignored calls by a court for fresh elections.

The former British colony has suffered four coups and a bloody military mutiny since 1987, fuelled by tensions between indigenous ethnic Fijians and the large and economically powerful ethnic Indian minority.

After abrogating the 1997 constitution on Friday, President Ratu Josefa Iloilo on Saturday reappointed military chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama as prime minister and then reappointed his former government.

Two days earlier a court had ruled the 2006 coup that brought Bainimarama to power was illegal. It called for the appointment of a new prime minister pending fresh elections. Iloilo also sacked the judiciary, including the Australian judges who made the ruling.

On arrival back in Australia after his plane was diverted from Thailand on Saturday due to protests which forced the cancellation of a regional summit, Rudd said Bainimarama's actions would undermine the welfare of ordinary Fijians.

Since his reappointment, Bainimarama, an ethnic Fijian like the 88-year-old president, has moved to impose censorship.

"Australia condemns unequivocally this action by the military ruler of Fiji to turn this great country Fiji into virtually, a military dictatorship, with the suspension of freedom of the press and actions which undermine prosperity for the ordinary people of Fiji," Rudd said.

Events in Fiji have been widely condemned overseas, including by the United Nations and the Commonwealth, which has called for a special meeting to discuss the situation in Fiji, amid talk of sanctions.

Ethnic Fijians dominate the country's military. The abrogated 1997 constitution was intended to ease ethnic tensions, but instead fuelled a decade of political instability after an ethnic Indian was elected prime minister in 1999.