Detained Fiji Reverend unrepentant over criticism

Updated May 18, 2009 15:40:18

One of the leaders of Fiji's Methodist Church, Reverend Manasa Lasaro, says despite spending two days in detention for his criticism of the country's military backed interim regime, he will continue to speak out. Last week, Reverend Lasaro was detained and questioned over statements he released, which publicly criticised the emergency laws under which Fiji is being governed, and the interim government.

Fiji's interim government says the Reverend is still under investigation, and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and the country's Chief Censor, Lieutenant Colonel Neumi Leweni, says if the criticism continues, he will consider refusing permission for the annual Methodist Conference, scheduled for August.

Reverend Lasoro's unrepentant, saying the church, which has Fiji's biggest Christian following, answers to a higher authority than the interim government. Reverend Lasaro speaks to Campbell Cooney about the reason he was given for his detention, and the ongoing police investigation.

Presenter: Campbell Cooney
Speaker: Reverend Manasa Lasaro, who is the Secretary for Christian Citizenship and Social Service with Fiji's Methodist Church

LASARO: I issued some statement, the statement from my department in relation to the churches stand against the military junta.

COONEY: What exactly were your concerns that you raised in those statements?

LASARO: We reiterated the resolution made by the church's conference last year in relation to the military regime, that the church was opposed to the military regime in terms of oppression, in terms of intimidating people, in terms of detaining people and taking people up to the military camps and the police stations, and we were asking the military regime to consider the stand of the church in relation to bringing about a more democracy back into the country through general elections. The only new development was April 10th, that was Easter Friday, the military junta threw out the Constitution and reappointed the president and the prime minister, the commander of the Fiji military forces, and the interim Cabinet.

COONEY: Since then, Fiji has been under public emergency regulations, that's meant strict censorship of the media, it's meant a limit on public gatherings and certainly a crackdown, as you have experienced yourself, on statements that are seen or judged by them to be anti-the interim government and anti- their actions. This would seem to be the reason why you were detained?

LASARO: Yes, certainly, certainly. That was under the public emergency regulation.

COONEY; Given the fact that you were detained, do you still stand by what you said at those statements that got you that ended up with you in prison for a couple of days?

LASARO: Certainly not. We are not going to back away. We stand by those very high principles, those moral, spiritual and ethical principles that we stood by.

COONEY: The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Fiji's chief censor, Lieutenant-Colonel Neumi Leweni, has released a statement saying that the churches should be careful and in particular, the Methodist Church should be careful, because if people accept the statements that were made by you, they will not have any concerns about deferring your upcoming Methodist Church Conference. Have you seen those statements?

LASARO: Yeah, I have seen those statements. They are seeing that they can of course withdraw, sorry they can disallow the annual conference to be held in August, meaning that they want issue a permit for that particular conference. That is our annual conference, in which hundreds-and-thousands of people from all over the country gather together for the week, for choir singing, choral festival, as well as our annual conference.

COONEY: What's your response to that statement then being made by the interim government? It basically will shut down your biggest event of the year?

LASARO: That will not stop us, that will not stop us from holding our conference. There are other avenues in which we can explore of course. We are not going to be stopped by the military junta to do what we ought to do. We are accountable to God in the first place, not to the military junta.

COONEY: You have already experienced two days in detention for your statements. Your statements and what you have got to say as well as anybody's is not appearing in local media, but they are watching what's happening in international media. Does it concern you that even perhaps by talking to us you might be putting yourself in the firing line once again?

LASARO: Yes, I know. The risks are high. But risks that the church is taking for the sake of democracy, good governance, good leadership and humanity in this country.