New Zealand to raise rights concerns with Nauru

New Zealand on Tuesday pledged to raise "serious" concerns with Nauru about an alleged clampdown on basic freedoms in the Pacific island nation. Foreign Minister Murray McCully listed the situation in Nauru as one of his priorities at a gathering of top Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) diplomats in Sydney this week. "New Zealand is taking the reports coming out of Nauru very seriously and this meeting is an opportunity to pass on our concerns," he said in a statement. International monitors have criticised the tiny nation of 10,000 after it introduced laws carrying heavy jail terms for political protesters and curbed access to Internet sites such as Facebook. Both the United Nations and US State Department have called for Nauru to restore freedoms, saying they are essential for healthy democracy. But the Nauru government has rejected criticism as misinformed, saying the laws are similar to those in many other countries and Internet curbs are needed to bar access to pornography. Three opposition politicians were arrested after a protest outside parliament last month, which the government described as a violent riot, and are set to face criminal charges. The opposition was already hamstrung after five of its seven members were suspended from parliament last year for criticising the government in international media. New Zealand is a major aid donor to Nauru's justice sector and McCully said he would use the Sydney meeting to discuss Wellington's contribution with the island's President Baron Waqa "in light of recent events". New Zealand Prime Minister John Key this week said the situation in Nauru was "worrying", while the New Zealand Law Society said it was "fast becoming intolerable". "This cannot continue. Nauru has to restore human rights," Law Society convenor Austin Forbes said. Nauru, about 2,800 kilometres (1,750 miles) northeast of Australia, is the smallest island country in the world, with an area of just 21 square kilometres (eight square miles). Once a major phosphate producer, it is now is home to an Australian-run asylum-seeker detention camp, which is a major employer and source of income in the island. Since 2013 Australia has sent all asylum-seekers arriving by boat into detention on Nauru and Papua New Guinea, and denied them resettlement in Australia despite an outcry from rights groups.