While tourists flock to Fiji's white beaches in search of underwater paradise, the country's military officers threaten human rights defenders with a different underwater experience.
UN members should press Fiji’s military government during a review of its human rights record to end arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment in detention, and interference with judicial independence, and to ensure a swift return to democratic rule.
Australia has a good track record of principled diplomacy and implementing targeted sanctions against abusive military governments in Burma and Fiji. Yet it's relatively easy for Australia to speak out about countries where it has few economic interests. It takes more courage and principle to turn up the heat on countries where it has significant economic and strategic interests.
Fiji’s interim government continues to commit human rights abuses two-and-a-half years after a military coup. Human Rights Watch urged leaders attending the Pacific Islands Forum to agree to push Fiji’s interim government to cease these abuses immediately, when the region’s leaders meet on August 5 and 6 in Cairns, Australia.
Fiji's interim government should immediately reinstate the Constitution, restore judges unlawfully removed from office, and withdraw government censors from newsrooms.
In a letter sent today marking the two-month anniversary of interim Prime Minister Voreque Bainimarama’s military coup in Fiji, Human Rights Watch called on him and President Ratu Josefa Iloilo to ensure the swift return to an elected government.
