NGO backs Fiji govt claim travel ban hinders judiciary
Updated
Earlier this week, the local chapter of Transparency International backed Fiji's Chief Justice Anthony Gates in his call for the New Zealand and Australian Governments to lift travel bans against members of the judiciary. Transparency International Fiji told Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Ltd that it supports any initiatives to strengthen the Fiji judiciary and the rule of law.
It says Fiji must have an effective judiciary and that it should be allowed to operate independently and free of outside interference, adding that the travel bans would only affect the calibre of judges Fiji was able to attract.
Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Dave Aidney, Chairman of Transparency International Fiji
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AIDNEY: I think it's particularly evident in the sense that it's not only the rule of law and the judiciary, but it's basically anyone who takes up a government appointment. In our particular case of Transparency International, our executive officer, for example, is married to a member of the military band and she's not able to travel to New Zealand to attend Transparency International anti-corruption workshops, which I find ludicrous.
COUTTS: At Transparency International Fiji do you suggest then that Australia and New Zealand should do nothing in recognising the fact that it's a regime running Fiji at the moment and not a democratically elected government?
AIDNEY: No. What we're suggesting is that they don't do nothing, but that Australia, for example, Australian government people have continuously said that they will not do anything that will affect the average person in Fiji, and I'm afraid that when we come to the judiciary which is paramount for upholding law and order in Fiji, if the judiciary is weakened and not allowed to operate at full strength and get the best calibre judges available for Fiji to uphold law and order, it will affect business in Fiji. It will affect potential investors in Fiji. All of whom employ the average person in Fiji. So I'm saying that unless we have a strong independent judiciary, the average person in Fiji will be affected.
COUTTS: The current regime says that the judiciary has always been independent and yet once the constitution was abrogated in April it therefore necessarily followed that the judiciary was sacked. If it was independent at that time why aren't those judges being rehired?
AIDNEY: Because of the threat of these travel bans.
COUTTS: No they were in the country at the time. They were working in Fiji prior to the abrogation.
AIDNEY: Everyone had to resign on the abrogation of the constitution.
COUTTS: Yes so why aren't they being rehired and they were already in the country and travel bans don't make any difference then?
AIDNEY: No they would because if they're in the country and they wanted to return to see their family in Australia or New Zealand they would probably have trouble doing so unless of course they're on a New Zealand or Australian passport, in which case they wouldn't be allowed to attend their country of birth, but definitely other places.
COUTTS: Now are you aware that the latest expulsion from the country is Dr Brij Lal, the political commentator?
AIDNEY: No I haven't heard of that.
COUTTS: And that would be because of censorship of the press and that would also have something to do with democracy as well as a free judiciary?
AIDNEY: Yeah I don't really want to get into the politics of this, Geraldine. Really all we're saying is that we want to support the rule of law, the strengthening of the judiciary, without which we will see a breakdown in law and order and that will be a sorry day for Fiji and I'm not really sure . . .
COUTTS; Well that's what we're talking about now because apparently the interrogation of Brij Lal was violent so this is another demonstration of a breakdown in the rule of law surely?
AIDNEY: No I'm not privy to that information; I haven't heard anything about Professor Brij Lal's case.
