Media join in opposing Bainimarama
AS dictators go, Frank Bainimarama is turning out to be his own worst enemy.
Every move he makes seems designed to draw attention to the fact that Fiji is in the hands of a despot who has little time for democracy, the rule of law, judicial independence and freedom of speech.
Last week he further alienated legal opinion when he prevented Australian lawyer Felicia Johnston and a d
elegation from the International Bar Association from visiting his domain.This week he picked a fight with the world's media by deporting Fiji Sun publisher Russell Hunter.
Hunter had barely touched down in Australia when the international lobby group Reporters Without Borders lined up with the IBA to condemn Fiji's increasingly erratic behaviour.
"Hunter's expulsion is unacceptable and contrary to all of the Fiji Government's international undertakings," said the press freedom organisation.
"This arbitrary decision deprives the Fiji Sun of its publisher and managing editor and sends a disturbing signal to other Fijian journalists thinking of publishing information that could upset the authorities.
"We call on the Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, to reverse this decision and to allow Hunter to resume working in Fiji."
The IBA and Reporters Without Borders are the latest organisations who have been unable to ignore this man's behaviour. His conduct has caused him problems with the United Nations, the European Union, the Pacific Islands Forum and the government of Australia - under both Howard and Rudd.
Consider his record: since the coup that brought him to power in 2006 Bainimarama has suspended Fiji's chief justice and appointed a replacement who has so much respect among lawyers that six expatriate judges - Australians and New Zealanders - resigned; he has excluded lawyers who wanted to enter Fiji to work on cases that he found threatening; his bully boys have beaten critics of his regime; and there have been three deaths in police or military custody since the coup.
Johnston and Hunter grabbed Australia's attention, but the people of Fiji have suffered far more.
Chief justice Daniel Fatiaki was suspended from duties in January last year for what was alleged to be misconduct.
Since then, the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption has struggled to find any substance in the allegations again Fatiaki.
The charges against the chief justice were failure to uphold the dignity of his office and, of all things, failure to remain independent of the executive.
Fatiaki has been fighting back. He is currently challenging his suspension, the constitutionality of the Fiji Judicial Services Commission and the appointment by the Fiji regime of an acting chief justice - a man called Gates.
Fiji's ousted prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, is also fighting back. His proceedings against the regime started in September last year. Bainimarama lodged a counter-claim alleging that Qarase had failed to keep the president informed of issues relating to the governance of Fiji.
That case was postponed late last year by Gates when Qarase's lawyer brought expanded charges. The case had been due to resume this month. It has not.
Bottom line: Fiji's former prime minister is tackling the dictatorship in the courts and the courts - under Gates - are going slow.
Then there is the case of Ballu Khan, the New Zealand citizen who is alleged to have plotted to assassinate Bainimarama. Khan was detained on November 3 last year and severely beaten.
On January 8, after Khan was released from hospital, he was charged with three counts of conspiracy. That case has not proceeded.
The composition of the courts has been severely affected by the post-coup regime. Six expatriate judges resigned from the Fiji Court of Appeal on September 3 last year citing concern over the way Gates was administering the court system.
Another expatriate judge, Roger Coventry, resigned from the Fiji High Court on January 9, citing a deterioration in the relationship with Gates.
There have been other matters of concern. In October last year eight soldiers and one policeman were alleged to have been involved in a beating that led to the death of a Fiji citizen. Those involved attempted to leave Fiji for a UN military deployment in Iraq. They were stopped at the airport by police after the local media and an organisation known as the Pacific Centre for Public Integrity raised concerns about their departure from the jurisdiction.
There have been three deaths in police or military custody since the 2006 coup. There have also been several cases in which critics of the regime have been verbally or physically abused.
None of the cases against those who are alleged to be responsible for those attacks has been concluded.
In June last year, Australian lawyer John Cameron was prevented from entering Fiji and was deported to Australia. He had been due to appear on June 26 in the Fiji High Court on behalf of pro-democracy activist
Angie Heffernan.
Heffernan is executive director of the Suva-based Pacific Centre for Public Integrity - the same organisation that later raised concerns about the planned departure from the jurisdiction of police and soldiers who were allegedly responsible for a fatal beating.
Heffernan had taken proceedings against Bainimarama, the Royal Fijian Military Force and the interim Attorney-General.
Cameron had also been due to appear for the Fiji Law Society in its application against the appointment of Gates. Cameron, who also holds New Zealand citizenship, is based in Perth. He has been a strong critic of the regime.
One of the strangest developments involved the Fiji Women's Rights Movement and the Fiji Sun newspaper. These organisations were summoned before the Court of Appeal on February 12 after the Sun had published a statement from the women's group.
That statement had criticised appointments to the Fiji Court of Appeal. There were no formal proceedings but, in open court, the two organisations were simply chastised.
The Australian government raised its concerns about Fiji with the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on three occasions last year.
The Pacific Islands Forum extracted an undertaking from Bainimarama in October that he would hold elections in the first quarter of 2009.
But his actions, as opposed to his words, are causing concern across the globe.
The European Union has activated a provision of what is known as the Cotonou Agreement on development co-operation. This means the EU is holding back development assistance to Fiji's sugar industry until democracy is restored.
