YAREN – Nauru’s leaders are reportedly “mocking” New Zealand’s efforts to engage with them, a lawyer for a Nauru MP says.

David Lambourne is one of a number of lawyers who have been blocked from entering Nauru to represent opposition MP Roland Kun, who has had his passport cancelled by Justice Minister David Adeang.

Kun had his passport cancelled in June, despite not being charged for any crime.

His wife, who lives in New Zealand with their three young children, had earlier been banned from Nauru.

New Zealand announced it was withholding its aid funds to the Nauru Justice Ministry this year, prompting a rebuke from Nauru President Baron Waqa that New Zealand was misinformed and bullying the tiny island.

Lawyer Lambourne said there should be stronger international reaction to the apparent disregard for rule of law on Nauru.

He said the efforts of New Zealand to withhold funding and put pressure on Nauru have been met with a mere shrug of shoulders in Nauru.

“Certainly I’ve seen the way in which President Waqa and Minister Adeang mocked the New Zealand government and the New Zealand government’s attempts to try and discuss their concerns with Nauru.

“President Waqa and Minister Adeang think this is a joke, and, really, countries like Australia should be joining New Zealand in its expression of concern about the complete erosion of the rule of law in Nauru.”

Nauru was benefiting financially from Australia’s asylum seeker detention centre in Nauru and didn’t miss New Zealand’s funding, he said.

The country’s rule of law had totally broken down, Lambourne said.

He said Minister Adeang had a personal vendetta against his client that he was executing at will and there was no chance his client would be able to reach his family for Christmas.

“This is all part of the game that Minister Adeang in Nauru is playing. As far as I can work out, his whole objective is to try and make life as difficult as possible for his political opponents.

“And so he is using every legal means he can to try and disrupt their lives and cause as much grief as possible.”

Adeang was employing delay tactics as he knew he was wrong to cancel the passport, Lambourne said.

Kun hasn’t been charged with anything but four other opposition MPs are in court facing charges over a protest outside Parliament in June.

Lambourne says it’s a “horrendous situation”, particularly for Kun, who has not even been charged.

“I don’t know what other work the department of justice and border control is doing at the moment because it seems to me that they’ve devoted all of their legal resources in the pursuit of Minister Adeang’s Quixotic headlong rush to try and crush the opposition.”

Since the June protest, there has been very little dissent in Nauru.

The former resident magistrate, Peter Law, who was deported last year, says there’s a reason for that.

“There’s a level of intimidation which can’t help but make people very apprehensive or fearful about doing anything.

“Public servants who were at the demonstration have been sacked. So that’s fairly intimidating behaviour.

“It’s very hard to get a job on Nauru, if you get one you don’t want to lose it, because the government really operates most businesses. There’s very little private enterprise.”

Law says Australia needs to put more pressure on the island nation, given it’s bankrolling the Nauru government with the controversial asylum seeker detention centre.

The Australian media have battled, largely unsuccessfully, to get access to Nauru, prompting cynical response from the Nauru government.

In a statement the government said: “The Australian media approaches us with great arrogance and an air of racial superiority, which is highly offensive to us. They do not show us the respect of a sovereign nation and in return we have little respect for them.”

Lambourne says he’s not holding many hopes for Kun. Even if the Supreme Court decides there’s been injustice, it can only refer the matter back to the minister for him to reconsider.

- RNZI