Saturday, May 9, 2009
Happy Mothers' Day to all our courageous Fiji Bubus, Nas, Naus, Neis and luvequs
God bless you all!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Military regime trying to win UN's favour?
Is this a way to win back the UN's favour? We would think that the UN will hold on to their moral values and not being gullible or just being selective of their dealings with these thugs. This regime didn't accept the previous UN contingents because they were going to look into the more important facets of our society, namely the judiciary and human rights abuses undertaken by this military regime.
Uphold your values, principles and morals UN? That's the least you can do for the restoration of our fragile democracy.
UN team to assess Fiji’s compliance
“We have a team that is here today, obviously we welcome them and are quite keen that they visit us and they are here for the next two days and they will be assessing us in terms of compliance to the articles,” Sayed-Khaiyum welcoming the team into the country.
Fiji volunteered to be the subject of this pilot project.
Head of the mission John Sandage said the team would analyse and make recommendations on Fiji via a report to the United Nations.
Sandage said: “Fiji is party to the UN Convention on Corruption and they volunteered very kindly to participate in this process. My friends here from France (Mr Valery Turcey) and Serbia (Ms Milica Djunic) are here to view state of Fiji’s compliance”.
Turcey said: “Fiji is participating in a pilot project aimed at defining the terms of reference of the future of UNCOC. We are trying to rejuvenate that. We will make a report, which will be used by the United Nations, in deciding on the future conventions”.
Earlier today, the team met with officials of the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) who handed to them a report on Fiji.
The high-powered delegation’s three-day assessment on Fiji’s performance and efforts in combating corruption will see them hold consultation with Sayed Khaiyum as acting Prime Minister and AG, Solicitor General Christopher Pryde, Police Commissioner Esala Teleni, Deputy Supervisor of Elections Soro Toutou, Chief Magistrate, Chief Registrar, Finance Department, Public Service Commission and the Financial Intelligence Unit.
The UN team consists of two officials from Serbia, one from France and two from the UNCAC Secretariat in Vienna (Sandage and Ms Elsa Gopala-Krishnan).
Friday, May 1, 2009
It's official..(kinda)
Fiji suspended from Pacific Islands Forum
By Aleisha Preedy
May 01, 2009 08:24pm
FIJI will be suspended from the Pacific region's trade and diplomatic group tomorrow for refusing to restore democracy, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says.
Commodore Frank Bainimarama ousted the ethnic Fijian-dominated government in 2006 and has vowed to rewrite the constitution and electoral laws to remove what he says is discrimination against the country's large ethnic Indian minority before holding elections.Earlier this year the Pacific Islands Forum, made up of 16 nations, threatened to suspend Fiji if Cdre Bainimarama did not announce a date for elections.
Meeting with his Japanese counterpart in Perth today, Mr Smith said given Fiji had shown no intention on a return democracy, the threat would be instated.
"The effect of the resolution passed unanimously ... is effective tomorrow, the first day after May 1," Mr Smith said.
"Fiji has shown no intention to return to democracy and on the contrary has torn up its constitution.
"The effect of that resolution will be Fiji is automatically suspended from the forums and the meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum itself."
Cdre Bainimarama said there was no need for such action because no one was being killed in the streets in Fiji, and no nation had ever been suspended from the forum before.
"If it was up to me, we would remove Australia and New Zealand from the forum. They're putting undue pressure on the Pacific islands," Cdre Bainimarama said in an interview with Sky News.
He insisted there would be no election for five years, but offered to talk it through with the leaders of Australia and New Zealand immediately, provided they accepted his point of view.
"I'd love to see them face to face."
Cdre Bainimarama also claimed in the interview that Australia has threatened to invade Fiji.
Australia's defence force chief Angus Houston made the threat in 2006, shortly after the coup that brought him to power, Fiji's self-appointed interim prime minister said.
"He woke me up early in the morning to tell me don't ever do anything that will pit my troops against yours," he said.
"It was a threat, he made a threat."
Cdre Bainimarama also indicated curbs on the Fijian media would continue for some time, adding the extended emergency measures would include censorship.
"We want this calm to continue for a while.
"If I don't muzzle the press, is it going to bring extra food on the table?"
Fijian newspapers have been allowed to run few political stories or open criticism of the government since military censors were put to work.
"That's the way things should happen in Fiji - rugby back on the front page," Cdre Bainimarama said.