Saturday, January 06, 2007



Fiji: now they're killing people

Fiji's coup has just gone from bad to worse. This morning, soldiers took a man to the Queen Elizabeth barracks in Suva for "questioning". He came out in a body bag. The soldiers, it seems, killed him during interrogation.

There's a name for this: murder. And those responsible should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Unfortunately, a key task of Commodore Bainimarama's interim government is to ensure immunity for the military and prevent any prosecution for their abuses. So instead of facing the justice they deserve, Fiji's soldiers will be declared above the law and allowed to get away with murder.

3 comments:

This TIME magazine article suggests luxury resort owners influenced Bainimarama's opposition to the qoliqoli (fishing rights) bill and financially backed the National Alliance Party headed by Epeli Ganilau.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1571756,00.html

Posted by Anonymous : 1/06/2007 07:50:00 AM

Re. the death at QEB, here's a local report (posted on a news discussion thread, so of unknown veracity) giving some background to the incident that led to the military's heavy-handed intervention.

http://www.fijivillage.com/fvtalk/topic.php?id=460

Posted by Anonymous : 1/06/2007 12:11:00 PM

Just read the Time article, and must say I am not surprised to see the right is behind this atrocity. They are the same the world over.

Posted by Anonymous : 1/07/2007 09:08:00 PM