On 1 October 2005, Commodore Bainimarama warned the Methodist Church, to which some two-thirds of indigenous Fijians belong, that their support for the Unity Bill would jeopardize their right to supply chaplains to Fijian soldiers performing United Nations peacekeeping duties in the Middle East. ""We will not be soft when it comes to the bill,"" he warned. ""I will not allow the pastors who support the bill to relay a different message to my troops, especially when the military is not for the bill."" He said that clergy seeking to travel with the troops would be required to state their attitude to the legislation, and that supporters of it need not apply. If the Methodist Church as a whole continued to endorse the bill, Bainimarama said he would ban all Methodist ministers from overseas chaplaincy roles and recruit Assemblies of God or All Nation Church ministers instead.