Fiji bans youth speakers

Reuters

DEMANDS: Fiji's interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama has called for the resignation of Fiji Rugby Union chief executive.

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Fiji’s military regime has banned a prominent critic from taking part in an international youth congress.

The move against the Pacific Youth Festival comes ahead of a planned announcement on Wednesday by dictator Voreqe Bainimarama on the country’s future.

Fiji will next month host the Unesco backed Pacific Youth Festival, which will see 600 delegates from 30 countries and territories take part in a week-long series of events.

Bainimarama has imposed martial law on Fiji and recently banned selected speakers at the Society of Accountant’s annual meeting and ordered the cancellation of the Methodist Church annual conference.

The military has also imposed tight media censorship.

No announcement has officially been made on the youth festival, but one of the banned speakers is the Fiji Times associate editor Sophie Foster.

In May she spoke at a Fiji Women's Rights Movement event and warned that a “dangerous, pregnant silence” had fallen on Fiji.

She gave a vivid account of censors operating in the newsroom and how news of any trace of disaffection was kept from publication.

But, she said, people knew what was happening.

“In their own circles, their own communities, these people talk. They complain. And they pass their frustrations on to others. The danger is when these frustrations build up with no vent, or they reach people for whom there seems to be nothing left to gain or lose,” Foster said.

The chairwoman of the festival's organising committee, Jacque Koroi, said the military had vetted their speaker’s list and banned some participants.

Meanwhile, Bainimarama will tomorrow unveil his plans for a new constitution and elections in September 2014.

The speech, "Fiji's strategic framework for change", will reinforce Fiji’s breach of an earlier promise to hold elections this year.

The country has been suspended from the Pacific Forum and the Commonwealth for its failure to restore democracy, lost in 2006 when Bainimarama staged Fiji’s fourth coup.

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Sitiveni Nabuka   #3   10:19 pm Jul 04 2009

I am sure Justin Latif would have approved of Mussolini had he travelled to Italy under similar circumstances just prior to WWII. After all, at least Mussolini got the trains to run on time.

Reijeli K   #2   11:39 pm Jun 30 2009

Its easy to make a comment by Justin when just passing through. It would be great for him to live in the country for a while and observe the actual situation on the ground. Can Justin justify why the security representatives pulled a show on 'suicide' from a local tv station on the assumption it painted a bad picture of our community? Or why pull a story on the 'water shortage' faced by a village, cause it would reflect on the current government? Or detain people simply for expressing a different opinion to the current government? Can Justin, ensure 'security' around shops that have been bullied by lower rank security officials demanding cash if they would like to operate according to their permits? How can someone passing through, have an opinion on the real case scenario? Ms Foster, has been brave to tell the story as is-go for it Ms Foster, you are right, people are talking in smaller circles.

Justin Latif   #1   10:30 am Jun 30 2009

This article paints an unfair view of Fiji. I recently went there for work. The country seems to be moving along nicely. People aren't living in fear. Businesses are doing well. I even saw that alot of companies were offereing pay rises to many of it's employees. Tourism seemed healthy, hotels were fully booked, restaurants and resorts were busy and there was a lot more construction going on compared to when I last went in 2004. Most of the roads have been improved as well. I also spoke to many different people, part-europeans, indians, and full-blooded fijians. They are all positive about the country's future and believe the changes happening are necessary. I wonder if the writer's source, Ms Foster, is part of the disgruntled opposition who are bitter the corrupt, racist government is no longer in power and it's a shame the writer of this article couldn't have furnished this piece with more sources to provide balance to his article.

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