Fiji, PNG condemned in Amnesty report

Updated May 29, 2009 16:11:54

Amnesty International has used it's 2009 annual report to condemn Fiji's interim government over the suspension of democratic and legal processes, and a continuing climate of fear. The human rights organisation wants China to use its influence in Fiji to press for the restoration of democratic and legal processes.

Amnesty has also highlighted high levels of violence in Papua New Guinea, and poor infrastructure for thousands of people across the Pacific. It has, however, praised Australia's role in pressing human rights concerns in the region.

Presenter: Linda Mottram, Canberra correspondent
Speaker: Donna Guest, Amnesty's Asia-Pacific Deputy Director

GUEST: Without a judiciary, without a constitution, there is absolutely no recourse for people for human rights violations, so that is part of the reason there is such a climate of fear. And I should say, we had somebody on the ground in Fiji during that crisis, so we have very excellent first hand information. The other big concern of course is this pattern of short term arrests, particularly of journalists. Of course some journalists have been deported - journalists, jurists, other human rights activists - and this all helped to engender a climate of fear.

Most recently, the Fiji Law Society has come under attack by the authorities. Their role has been taken away of licensing lawyers, so this is really absolute rule by decree. It's very concerning and of course as you know the Pacific nations have expressed grave concern about this and have sort of temporarily suspended them from their groupings. So we certainly are calling on the Fijian authorities to restore the Constitution, to restore the judiciary, to ensure the independence of the judiciary and to stop arresting people merely for peacefully expressing their views. And this also, I might add, major crackdown on the media - not just deportations and arrests, but actually sitting in offices, going over every single piece of copy that goes out.

MOTTRAM: Do you see any sign that Frank Bainimarama's interim government is in anyway responsive to these issues, because of course along with abrogating the Constitution, he's said there will be no chance of elections until about 2014?

GUEST: Indeed, indeed. I mean he certainly does not appear very responsive to the Commonwealth or to the Pacific nations, which is why we're calling on China to raise this issue with the Fijian Government. Because of course China gives them quite a bit of aid, and we feel that this is very important. And in general, China now really is a world player. It needs to start expressing more concern where it does have influence.

MOTTRAM: Have you had an indication that China is willing to go down path?

GUEST: That's difficult to say, I mean it's probably early days. It certainly is something that we are asking the Chinese authorities to take up. And it's also in their interest. I might say that businesses having a big struggle in Fiji, because of course there are no courts and there are no legal recourse for businesses and so they are really suffering. The tourist industry is suffering, so basically human rights are good for business. If they get the rule of law back and start protecting everybody's rights, this will help the climate of business to, which will help Fiji economically. So I mean this is something that China should be concerned about.

MOTTRAM: And looking elsewhere, Papua New Guinea - which has had a lot of attention from Australia's point of view in terms of broad human rights issues. What's your take on what's your assessment of how the situation is there?

GUEST: We have a lot of concerns there, notably the high level of violence and difficulties the police have in containing this, particularly violence against women, sexual violence is very high and of course particularly in the Eastern Highlands we see phenomenon of people being accused of witchcraft and sorcery. People who die of natural causes, perhaps HIV Aids, or then other people are being accused of putting a spell on them and these people are actually being killed. So asking the PNG authorities, particularly the Royal PNG Police to really be much more vigilant about this and to investigate and bring to justice people who are responsible for this level of violence.