Fiji

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Lovelee]

Fiji appeals to stay in Forum

Fiji’s military dictator Voreqe Bainimarama has launched a last minute bid to keep his country in the 16-nation Pacific Forum.

Fiji is expected to have its membership suspended on Friday night.

Bainimarama, who is in Indonesia appealing for aid money from the Asian Development Bank, earlier today sent a letter to the forum nations appealing to remain in the group.

His military appointed Attorney General, Ayaz Sayed Khaiyum, told Auckland Indian Radio Tarana that Fiji’s situation has changed following the Easter overthrow of the constitution.

They want an urgent Forum summit held.

“The letter primarily states that given that there has been a change in the legal order in Fiji and that now we have a new legal order given that the constitution has been abrogated by the president and that we have put in a new time frame for the elections and that we are working our way to hold those elections … that the forum and the other forum island countries need to re-engage with Fiji in a constructive manner,” Sayed-Khaiyum told Tarana.

He accused Australia and New Zealand of taking a dogmatic stance.

In an earlier interview with The Australian newspaper, Bainimarama said he wanted a “face to face” meeting with Prime Minister John Key and the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, in a bid to win support for his decision to refuse to hold elections.

He said elections this year – as demanded by the Forum - would only result in the restoration of the “racist” government of Laisenia Qarase, whom he deposed at gunpoint in 2006.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/2378611/Fiji-appeals-to-stay-in-Forum

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Lovelee]

Fiji: From big smoke to big smokescreen

The concept of media freedom is really very simple. The public has a right to know.

In the last two weeks I've watched good journalists struggling to deal with no freedom of speech . It's finally come to this - if they report what's going on they face prison, or worse.
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Just last week military leader and self imposed Prime Minister Voreque Bainimarama indignantly told a reporter:

"I allow free expression that's why they publish the paper every day, the television is on, the radio everything is broadcast - its irresponsible reporting I don't like".

The truth is what the Commander doesn't like is anything that deviates from or challenges his own inflated opinion. And that's why he's slammed media censors in every newsroom.

Free expression? What a joke.

For all his rhetoric, what Fiji has is a typical military dictatorship.

There would be few who do not believe Fiji's electoral system is in dire need of a hefty revamp. But to use this as an excuse to sack judges, censor media, threaten and lock up anyone who has a different opinion is criminal and arrogance of the highest order.

And so we come to World Press Freedom Day - a day where we defend media from attacks on their independence. It's a time when we think of our Fiji media friends whose words are monitored even when they travel overseas to conferences. It's a time when we think of our Fiji media friends who are under threat for simply doing their job. And it's a time when we applaud our Fiji media friends for their silent protest. They may not be publishing anything politically negative, but the positive stories are absent too.

Does Fiji deserve to get thrown out of the Pacific Forum ? Yes it does. Do the Fijian people deserve to be isolated from the region? No they don't. They deserve a media that's free and fair and they deserve to have a say in their country's future.

Fiji is no longer the big smoke. It is a smokescreen for power hungry men who will do anything to get what they want.
http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/fiji-from-big-smoke-big-smokescreen-2702004


Ive always admired Barbara Dreaver.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Lovelee]

Fiji censorship dangers revealed

A Fiji newspaper editor has given a striking account of the daily struggles in his newsroom to get stories past military censors.

Fiji Times editor Netani Rika told a Pacific journalists conference in Samoa that it was difficult to put into words what was happening "when you know that everything you say has the potential to be a threat to the very existence of 180 people with whom you work and close to 1000 who depend on them for a living".

Since Easter Fiji has been under dictator Voreqe Bainimarama's martial law rule which includes censorship of the media.

Mr Rika said under martial law each media organisation has a censor and an accompanying policeman.

"The police officer - we were told - was to protect the censor.

"We were not told from whom the censor would need protection."

He said rules change daily on what they can print.

"Basically any story on government must put the interim regime in a positive light or it will not be permitted," Mr Rika said.

Papers were not allowed to print United Nations and Commonwealth criticism of Bainimarama's actions, nor were they allowed to publish news of street protests in Thailand, nor investigation of a threatened assassination of US President Barak Obama.

Fiji Times reporters each day carry out normal assignments and their stories are assigned to pages that are sent to censors.

"More often than not these stories are declared unfit for consumption by the people and are knocked back by the censors.... It is an extremely frustrating exercise."

Last week Air Fiji was forced to close due to financial difficulties but the censor on duty insisted that they could only run the report if it carried a government quote.

"We refused and pulled the story. The following day we placed the same stories in front of a different censor - No worries, the issue was covered, albeit a day late."

Mr Rika said the Fiji media had been under fire since the coup of December 2006.

"We have been threatened, bullied and intimidated. Our cars have been smashed, our homes firebombed," he said.

"Despite this, our staff have remained committed to the ideals of a free media, telling the stories that must be told, exposing the weaknesses in State policies and also covering human interest assignments."

Each day was a challenge getting stories by the censor.

"Sometimes we are lucky and the occasional story slips through the net. On those days we celebrate quietly."

He hailed Fiji journalists.

"They have bravely stood up to intimidation, rejected censorship and recognised that when a nation is controlled by usurpers it is imperative that the public's right to know is protected at all costs.

"And they are determined to break the culture of silence which so often surrounds our leaders - elected or otherwise."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/2396860/Fiji-censorship-dangers-revealed

[Lovelee]

Two journalists detained in Fiji

Updated at 8:29am on 11 May 2009

Two journalists from a news website in Fiji are being detained.

Dionisia Turagabeci and Shelvin Chand, who work for the website Fiji Live, were taken to Suva's central police station over the weekend.

Radio New Zealand International's correspondent in Suva Matelita Ragogo says colleagues have not been allowed to visit the pair.

Ms Ragogo reports the two journalists were arrested over stories relating to the release of soldiers from jail shortly after they were convicted of manslaughter.

She understands the pair have been charged, but it is not clear what they have been charged with.

Under emergency regulations in force in Fiji media organisations there are not allowed to report on anything which might cast a negative light on the interim regime.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2009/05/11/1245afc6a46f

[Lovelee]

Fiji military seize minister

A top official of the powerful Fiji Methodist Church has been seized by the military regime this morning, say sources in Suva.

Few details are known, but former church president, Reverend Manasa Lasaro, is understood to be being held at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks.

It's believed he may have knowledge of, or be organising, a protest march.

Lasaro is an indigenous nationalist calling for a Christian state in Fiji.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/2407443/Fiji-military-seize-minister

[Lovelee]

Fiji judicial system set to fall
The last resistance in Fiji's faltering judicial system is about to fall.

ONE News has learned the military government is now moving to control all practising lawyers there, and it comes as people fighting for democracy in Fiji took to the streets of Sydney.

On government orders, court officials have raided Fiji's law society office, taking files and computers.

It's understood that a decree will be issued on Monday disbanding the Law Society.

"Once you cancel that element of independence you don't have an effective judiciary at all. It is a police state just like you had in Nazi Germany," say Peter Williams QC, NZ lawyer.

Williams is no friend of the military government. He was instrumental in freeing New Zealander Ballu Khan, who was badly beaten by police and accused of treason.

It now appears lawyers will have no legal right, unless the military regime says they do
http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/fiji-judicial-system-set-fall-2755238

[Lovelee]

Fiji editor speaks out


A leading journalist in military ruled Fiji has spoken out about the dangerous silence afflicting her country.

The speech by Fiji Times Associate Editor Sophie Foster has not been reported in her own newspaper because under dictator Voreqe Bainimarama strict military censorship is imposed on all media.

Journalists who in the past who breached the rules were taken into military custody with several suffering beatings and threats.

Bainimarama overthrew a democratic government in 2006 and in Easter this year he purported to suspend the constitution and impose what he called a "new legal order".

Foster told an Emerging Leaders’ Forum in Suva that the greatest danger facing the generation was silence.

"A dangerous, pregnant silence into which many things fall," Foster said.

There was the silence of the leaders who fail to speak out and the silence of the people.

Since the new legal order was imposed "silence has been so obviously seen, read, and heard across the pages, screens and airwaves of the mainstream media in Fiji".

Foster said the military had "wide-ranging and arbitrary powers to decide what the people of Fiji should not be told".

They are never told what can be reported and what cannot be.

"Even as I speak, that challenge continues, as a group of civil servants systematically attempts to erase any trace of 'dissent' or 'disaffection' in the media.

"They arrive after 6pm and leave somewhere around 10. In between that time, they shred to pieces our intrinsic right to freedom of expression."

Truth still existed, even if it is censored out.

"The censors may stop the media from saying there’s a teacher shortage or a blackout at Nabouwalu, but that does not mean that these things are not happening," Foster said.

"The people at Nabouwalu know that they’ve had no electricity for a week now. Students and their parents know that they’ve had no teacher since Term 2 began."

Even with censorship, communities talked to themselves, they complain and they pass their frustrations on to others.

"The danger is when these frustrations build up with no vent, or they reach people for whom there seems to be nothing left to gain - or lose."

Reporters continued to try and tell the story "but it takes courage to be able to look real issues in the eye. It takes courage to be able to sustain threats, bullying, intimidation, and even firebombing," Foster said.

"So why do we do the job we do? Why do journalists continue to turn up to work every day? Why continue to report on stories as they always did - even if it means the stories could be crossed off with a cheap black pen every night?

Ad Feedback "It’s because we cannot and must not stand silently or idly by.

"ur duty is to continue to uphold the right to freedom of expression, to gather a variety of views, to provide our people with information with which they can make informed choices."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/2460664/Suu-Kyi-ready-for-verdict

[Lovelee]

Fiji Methodist church ordered to cancel conference


The Fiji military regime, in its latest crackdown, has ordered the Methodist church to cancel its annual conference.

A joint statement issued by the military and police accused the church of trying to bring instability to the country.

Police say the crackdown follows information that "inciteful issues are going to be discussed at the conference".

The statement said the Methodist church could not hide its involvement in politics and part of the agenda for the August conference focused on the current political situation.

Earlier this month, a former Methodist church president was detained after delivering a sermon calling for peaceful protests to restore democracy to Fiji.

Reverend Manasa Lasaro has been at the forefront of opposition in the Methodist church to the 2006 coup in which military chief and self-appointed prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government.

The Methodist church is the dominant denomination among the devout indigenous Fijians, who make up 57% of the total population of around 840,000.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2009/05/31/1245b0f8fc3c

[Lovelee]

Fiji's military has hailed public silence as evidence of happiness, but some individuals are resisting censorship and speaking out.

Dictator Voreqe Bainimarama, who overthrew a democratic government in 2006, on Tuesday extended martial law.

It follows the banning of the annual Methodist Church conference and ordering tomorrow's Fiji Institute of Accountants Congress to cancel three speakers.

Bainimarama's spokesman Neumi Leweni, said yesterday that the martial law extension was "highly pragmatic".

Leweni, a former drummer in the military band who has risen rapidly through the ranks since the coup, said Fiji was benefitting from censorship.

"The absence of politics from the national agenda ... is contributing positively to the peace and stability of the nation," he said.

One of the banned accountant's speakers, former Fiji Law Society head Graham Leung, released his speech, saying dictatorship has replaced the rule of law, democracy and human rights.

"We have a regime whose authority is based on force rather than the consent of the people."

Mr Leung, who has previously been taken into military custody, said the military had removed the Fiji Reserve Bank Governor, Savenaca Narube.

No one protested.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/2492650/Fiji-critics-resisting-censorship

[Lovelee]

I wonder if 4 years will satify the rest of the nation of the Pacific, and what does Bananaman have in store for the next 4 years.  He will have borrowed heavily from China or where ever, I doubt he will leave any money in the coffers.

Fiji's military ruler: New constitution by 2013

SUVA - Fiji will have a new constitution in 2013 that abolishes the current split-race voting system in anticipation of democratic elections the following year, the nation's military ruler said on Wednesday.

Work on the new constitution will start in 2012, self-appointed Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, said in a nationwide address, unveiling his "road map" for a return to democratic rule.

The military regime threw out Fiji's old constitution in April. It has since tightened its grip on power, imposing a state of emergency, sacking the judiciary and tightening restrictions on media. At least a dozen critics have been arrested.

International bodies - led by the South Pacific Forum of 16 nations and including the United Nations, Commonwealth and European Union - have all demanded an urgent return to democracy since Fiji's bloodless military coup in December 2006, its fourth since 1987.

Bainimarama has said elections will be held in the South Pacific nation in September 2014.

The proposed new constitution, Fiji's fourth since it gained independence from Britain in 1970, will be based on the regime's so-called "Peoples' Charter," drawn up after widespread community consultation, Bainimarama said.

"It will include provisions for a voting system that allows for common and equal citizenry," he said.

Abolishing the "race-based" voting system has been a central plank in Bainimarama's programme "to build a better Fiji" since he overthrew the democratic government.

Under the current voting system, the indigenous Fijian majority votes for candidates in Fijian seats, ethnic Indians vote in separate Indian seats, and other races in a third grouping.

Bainimarama also said Fiji's voting age would be reduced to 18 from 21, the number of seats in the 71-member Parliament - suspended in December 2006 - would be reviewed, as would the five-year term of a government and the need for a Senate, or upper house of parliament.

Since the 1997 constitution was abrogated in April, the regime has issued a series of decrees to impose new laws.

As part of its crackdown, the regime deported three foreign journalists and placed censors in all local media newsrooms. At least a dozen local journalists, lawyers and others who have spoken against the armed forces' controls have been arrested.

The military government has also banned the powerful Methodist Church from holding its annual meeting next month, demanding it remove "politics and instigators" from its ranks and stop calling for a return to democracy.

Among other proposed changes, Bainimarama pledged "a radical overhaul" of the nation's complex land tenure system in a country where more than 90 per cent of all land remains in the ownership of indigenous Fijians.

Promoting the nation's battered economy, Bainimarama claimed the 20 per cent devaluation of the Fiji dollar in April had produced improvements in foreign reserve levels, liquidity, balance of payments and tourist arrivals.

Foreign reserves now stood at $F660 million ($504.79 million), compared with $F440 million before devaluation, he said.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10581910&ref=rss

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Lovelee]

The former head of Fiji's land forces has applied for a protection visa to stay in Australia, and says he would not be welcome back in his own country.

Colonel Jone Baledrokadroka's application is being considered by the Australian Government.

He is a visiting fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra, where expelled Fiji-born academic Professor Brij Lal also works.

The colonel says Professor Lal, a colleague, is "quite well known to be a critic of Bainimarama and a critic of all coups back to Rabuka".

Colonel Baledrokadroka says Commodore Frank Bainimarama is sending a message to Australia that he does not want anyone butting in on what is happening in Fiji.

The Colonel says he had a political argument with Commodore Bainimarama in 2006 over his belief that Fiji's military should be apolitical.

"He wanted obviously to politicise the military as it is at the moment," he said.

Colonel Baledrokadroka says on present indications he would not be allowed back by the military-backed regime.

"Obviously no. It seems he is hell-bent on this tit-for-tat sort of childish response," Colonel Baledrokadroka said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/05/2733985.htm

[Sir Blodsnogger]

A person with a name like Brij Lall is on a hiding to nothing when it comes to living in some countries where Indians are unwelcome. Fiji seems to be such a place.
Lall should realise he is on a bridge to no where.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Fiji leader threatens to cancel elections

By MICHAEL FIELD - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Wednesday, 14 July 2010



FIJI MILITARY LEADER Voreqe Bainimarama has threatened to cancel democracy-restoring elections in 2014, saying Australia and New Zealand are constantly interfering in the country.

His threat came after he suffered a humiliating cancellation of a Melanesian summit in Fiji next week when Vanuatu publicly questioned Fiji's lack of democratic values.

Commodore Bainimarama, who said Vanuatu had acted after lobbying from Canberra, expelled Australia's acting high commissioner, Sarah Roberts, yesterday.

Commodore Bainimarama, who seized power in a coup in 2006, has reneged on earlier promises to restore democracy and last year, when he abrogated the constitution, said there would be no elections before 2014.

Yesterday he told Auckland's Indian Radio Tarana that he might cancel elections again.

"In fact, I am all of a sudden thinking we might not be ready for 2014 for election if we don't get any assistance from Australia and New Zealand for instance," he said.

"If we reach 2014 and we are not ready because of constant interfering, we are not going to give up our government to political parties ... I am seriously thinking about the date of the elections, the interference by these people, but I can tell you nothing is going to stop us from doing what needs to be done continuing on this pathway we need reforms.

"That is going to happen, whether Australia likes it or not, whether New Zealand likes it or not, they don't live in Fiji, they don't know what is happening in Fiji."

Fiji has been suspended from the 16-country Pacific Forum but was to use next week's four-nation Melanesian Spearhead Group meeting, with the small non-Melanesian states of Tuvalu, Kiribati and Tonga, to create a new Pacific support base.

Current MSG chairman and Vanuatu Prime Minister Edward Natapei called off the summit, saying the group needed to uphold democratic values.

"There are basic fundamental principles and values of democracy and good governance that our organisation is built on and we must continue to uphold them," he said.

Commodore Bainimarama said Mr Natapei had been listening a lot to Australia and New Zealand.

"Australia and New Zealand are trying to embarrass Fiji by dissolving the MSG. If there is no MSG, then MSG leaders will be reluctant to come forward and discuss their issues and problems."

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said Fiji's action against Ms Roberts was "completely unjustified and very disappointing".

The expulsion was "counterproductive on almost every level". He rejected any suggestion of pressure on the MSG.

"It is deeply insulting to Natapei to suggest that his decision to defer the MSG meeting was made because of pressure from New Zealand and Australia," Mr McCully said.

"Prime Minister Natapei needed no help from New Zealand or Australia to work out that democratic principles should prevail within the region," he said.

The move would further diminish Fiji's standing in the eyes of the region and the international community, and further delay any recovery in Fiji's economy.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/politics/3915705/Fiji-leader-threatens-to-cancel-elections


Time for both New Zealand and Australia to ban all direct airline flights to and from Fiji methinks.

[Lovelee]

Queen Elizabeth is to be removed from Fiji’s bank notes and coins, in favour of local iconic flora and fauna .

Fiji Live reports this follows cabinet’s approval of new designs based on a submission made by the interim prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama.

Cabinet has also approved designs selected by the currency design committee for a new two dollar coin to replace the two dollar banknote.

The new design notes and coins, including the new two dollar coin will be introduced into circulation around June 2012.

http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=59093

[Magoo]

I would have thought they would put Barney on the dosh.