By Angela Marie Watkins
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – Fiji will likely be suspended from the Commonwealth bloc, New Zealand said Wednesday — a day after Fiji’s military ruler strengthened his grip on power by replacing the ailing president with a stronger ally.

Commonwealth ministers will consider this week whether to suspend Fiji from the 53-nation group after the military-led government delayed elections until 2014, rather than 2009 as had earlier been promised. Suspension from the Commonwealth would see Fiji lose access to the body’s $7.5 billion aid budget and further isolate the government.

At its last meeting in March, a Commonwealth committee warned Fiji it would be thrown out unless it made progress toward restoring democracy.

Since then, self-appointed Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who seized power in a December 2006 coup, has rejected international demands to restore civilian government by the end of the year. His ally, President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, in April abrogated the constitution, fired the judiciary, censored the media and reappointed the military government for five years.

Bainimarama announced Tuesday Iloilo will retire on July 30. Vice President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau will serve as acting president until the Cabinet and chief justice decide on a replacement. Observers in Fiji say Iloilo’s replacement by Nailatikau, a former army commander who helped guide Bainimarama’s rise to military power, only underscores the regime’s dominance and could strengthen it.

With no constitution in place, the president has absolute power and rules by decree, but is widely viewed as answering to Bainimarama.

Bainimarama says he wants to change the electoral system in the ethnically divided nation before holding a ballot. Under the present system, people in some constituencies can only vote for candidates from their ethnic community.

The 944,000-strong population is made up of 57 percent indigenous Fijians and 38 percent ethnic Indians, according to U.S. government data. Three of the nation’s four coups in the past 22 years were sparked by ethnic tensions.

In the latest crackdown on freedom of speech, the government banned Fijian Methodists from holding their annual conference, saying it was too political and might encourage anti-government sentiment.

The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group will meet in London July 31, according to a statement. The Commonwealth is largely composed of countries with historic links to Britain and includes Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

For more information, please see:
Associated Press – Fiji faces possible suspension from Commonwealth – 30 July 2009

Associated Press – President of military-led Fiji plans to step down – 29 July 2009

Bloomberg –  Commonwealth to Consider Suspending Fiji Over Election Delay – 29 July 2009

The New Zealand Herald – Fiji may face full suspension – 29 July 2009

By Angela Marie Watkins
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesian opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri launched a Constitutional Court challenge Tuesday to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s landslide re-election victory.

Megawati received 26.79 percent of votes in the July 8 poll and Kalla 12.41 percent, while Yudhoyono received 60.8 percent, according to the final count released by the General Election Commission Saturday.

But Megawati believes she has won 35.09 percent compared to 48.70 percent for Yudhoyono, close enough to force the pair to contest a run-off in September, her chief legal adviser Gayus Lumbuun said.

“A lot of foul play in the election has meant people in this country have not been able to use their constitutional rights,” Firman Jaya Daeli, a member of Megawati’s camp, told reporters.

Megawati claims millions of voters — out of around 170 million who eligible in the world’s third-biggest democracy — were disenfranchised by inaccurate voter lists and insufficient polling booths in key districts.

Both defeated candidates had alleged that the voter lists were flawed in the run-up to the elections, amid claims that duplicate names and those of dead people were appearing on the electoral rolls.

Kalla has also challenged the results at the Constitutional Court. He said his challenge was about protecting the future of democracy in a country that emerged from 32 years of dictatorship only 11 years ago.

“The principle is that this nation must progress properly, honestly and democratically, because the democratic process must be implemented correctly and fairly,” Kalla said

Supporters of Kalla have alleged that electoral lists contained around 20 million duplicate names.

Election Supervisory Body chief Nur Hidayat Sardini said that “there were many violations,” but said the polls were “considered a success.”

President Yudhoyono was elected president in 2004 and Indonesians have, correspondents say, been impressed by his ability to manage the economy and clamp down on corruption.

Many see President Yudhoyono as someone who has turned the economy around and brought much-needed stability and security to the country.

For more information, please see:
BBC – Indonesia poll result challenged – 25 July 2009

Reuters – Indonesia president’s rivals cry foul after poll win – 25 July 2009

AFP – Megawati challenges Indonesia vote result – 28 July 2009

By Angela Marie Watkins
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Three more people were wounded by gunfire Wednesday at the world’s largest gold mine, the latest ambush targeting employees of U.S. conglomerate Freeport in Indonesia’s underdeveloped Papua province.

Freeport said in a statement that several employees and their security detail were fired upon Wednesday while driving along the road where the previous shootings occurred to help a broken down vehicle. A mechanic and two policemen were shot, it said.

National police spokesman Nanan Sukarna said the attack was carried out by unidentified gunmen and that the three injuries were caused by shrapnel. The culprits escaped.

Two other policemen died Wednesday when their car flipped “while driving at high speed through a dangerous area” a few miles (kilometers) away, said local police chief Lt. Col. Godhelp Mansnembra.

It is the sixth attack by an unidentified gunman on the Phoenix, Ariz.-based company in under two weeks and the road targeted by the shootings, which links the Grasberg mining complex with the town of Timika, has been declared off limits unless employees travel with security. In the same area, a 29-year-old Australian, an Indonesian security guard working for Freeport, and a policeman died in ambushes earlier this month. In the same area, two American teachers and their Indonesian colleague were killed in a 2002 attack.

The series of attacks, which have killed two people and wounded dozens since they began July 11, comes as Indonesia recovers from twin suicide bombings in the capital, Jakarta, that killed seven people and wounded dozens, including two Freeport executives.

Wednesday’s attack comes a day after authorities said they rounded up 15 suspects allegedly behind the recent killings. Freeport CEO Richard Adkerson said Tuesday that six of them had been charged, including a man who apparently acknowledged being a sniper.

Papua is home to a four-decade-old, low-level insurgency against the government, and members of the Free Papua Movement who see Freeport as a symbol of outside rule and were initially blamed by authorities for the latest violence.

However, some experts believe the shootings resulted from a rivalry between the police and military over multimillion-dollar illegal gold mining or protection businesses at the mine. Others blame criminal gangs.

It is difficult to get accurate information out of Papua, a remote and highly militarized area that is off limits to foreign journalists.

Freeport has been targeted with arson, roadside bombs and blockades since production began in the 1970s during the U.S.-backed Suharto dictatorship. It is also regularly the focus of protests by local residents who feel they are not benefiting from the depletion of Papua’s natural resources.

For more information, please see:
CBS News – Freeport’s Workers Again Under Attack In Indonesia – 24 July 2009

Jakarta Post – Shooting incident hits Freeport again – 25 July 2009

Jakarta Post – Freeport employees back in work – 25 July 2009

By Angela Marie Watkins
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – Two detained Methodist leaders were released on bail Friday but warned not to meet.

The Reverend Manasa Lasaro and the Reverend Tomasi Kanailagi, both former Fiji Methodist Church presidents, appeared in court Friday afternoon on charges of contravening the Public Emergency Regulations.

The ministers were among several top clergymen arrested by police because of plans to go ahead with the church’s annual conference in spite of its cancellation by the interim government.

The interim government has banned the conference on the grounds that is is a political maneuvers by the ousted SDL Party but as yet the church has not issued an official statement canceling the event.

The SDL’s member for the Lami Open Constituency, Mere Tuisalolo Samisoni, says the Methodists make up the majority of Fiji’s population and the interim government is wrong to ban the conference.

“The people’s spririt cannot be stopped and that’s what democracy is all about. People’s right to choose, it’s a human right and that right is inalienable and for somebody to come, for a group of elite people to stop it, they cannot stop it. I mean it is the people who will choose to attend it or not,” Samisoni said.

Thursday, the church’s president and general secretary, along with the country’s highest ranking female chief, were also released on bail but prohibited from making public statements.

For more information, please see:
New Zealand International Radio – Church will never back down says Fiji’s SDL Party – 24 July 2009

New Zealand International Radio – Two more Fiji Methodist leaders released but warned not to meet – 24 July 2009

New Zealand International Radio – Fiji’s interim government accused of overstepping mark with church – 24 July 2009

The Christian Post – Fiji Church Leaders Freed, But Warned Not To Meet – 24 July 2009