Coalition of Six Political Parties Back Interim Government in Fiji

By Sarah E. Treptow
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – A new council made up of six political parties met in Suva to express support for the interim government to hold elections in 2011.  The council is called the Peoples Movement for Political Reform (PEMPOR) and is demanding that Australia and New Zealand withdraw sanctions against Fiji.  PEMPOR also proposes elections be held only for the right reasons and not due to threats of isolation, they also call for respect for the integrity of the judicial system in Fiji.

The parties involved in PEMPOR are the General Voters Party, the Conservative Alliance / Matanitu Vanua Party, the Justice & Freedom Party, the National Allicance Party, the Party of National Unity, and Soqosoqo Ni Vakavulewa Ni Taukei.  The chair of the meeting, John Sanday of the General Voters Party, said Fiji People’s Party General Secretary, Charan Jeath Sing also indicated his support.

Sanday said, “We are formed to support the Presidential Dialogue Forum, and we will work with the interim Prime Minister to move the country forward and help restore democracy in Fiji.”  The council said that general elections could be held in three years because the country needs time to make their operations “clean and transparent.”

Sanday added, “Fiji has a legitimate Government and elections should not be held with guns held to our heads and comply with the threat to do it their way or be suspended from certain groups.”

PEMPOR expects five more parties to join and plans to hold a meeting with the interim government to discuss ways to help move the country forward.  PEMPOR secretary Meli Bogileka said the members highlighted the fact that major political parties were working towards their own agenda.

For more information, please see:

Fiji Times – Parties criticise move to suspend Fiji – 15 December 2008

Pacific Magazine – New Political Coalition Backs Fiji Elections in 2011 – 14 December 2008

Fijilive – Political parties back 2011 poll – 13 December 2008

Vietnam Blogger’s Jail Term Sustained

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

HANOI, Vietnam – Today, nearly one in four Vietnamese use the internet and the number is steadily increasing. Vietnam authorities are worried over the growing number of bloggers and their increased use of the internet to express their views against the government. Currently, all Vietnam media agencies including televised news, radio and newspapers are state run. “They (state media) decide what we will hear, what we will read and what we will see,” said a blogger who identifies himself as Mr. Cold. “They are slaves of the Communists.”

In response, a senior Vietnamese internet security expert said that the Vietnamese authorities plan to police the content of dissident blogs through random checks and self-policing by the country’s blogging community. Authorities currently block some oversea websites that are critical of the government and authorities usually block anything they deem as encouraging public protest or any views that will anger China.

The government crackdown on bloggers has caused widespread criticism. “These new censorship regulations are not in accordance with freedom of speech, a right recognized by the Vietnamese constitution and international conventions signed by Vietnam,” said Le Minh Phieu, a Vietnamese legal scholar living in France.

On December 5, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court confirmed the September verdict and sentencing of Nguyen Hoang Hai, who uses the weblog name Dieu Cay and is a member of the online Free Vietnamese Journalists Club.

Dieu Cay has taken part in anti-Beijing demonstrations about a sensitive sea territory dispute with China and was arrested in April, days before the Olympic torch passed through former Saigon.
After a quick proceeding, the court upheld the sentence of two-and-a-half years imprisonment for Dieu Cay on the charge of tax fraud. “The police refused to let Dieu Cay pay his taxes in order to fabricate evidence of his guilt,” Dieu Cay’s lawyer told Reporters Without Borders. “This conviction was premeditated by the authorities.”

Many see Dieu Cay’s sentence as politically motivated. “The court took no account of new evidence submitted by Dieu Cay’s defence,” Reporters Without Borders said. “These rushed proceedings clearly show that the authorities are persecuting this blogger. The appeal court’s verdict was an unjust decision resulting from a trumped-up charge.”

Shawn Crispin, a Southeast Asia representative for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said “Nguyen Van Hai’s harsh treatment was meant to send a message to all of the country’s bloggers.”

For more information, please see:

AFP –  Vietnam Court Upholds Blogger’s Jail Term – 4 December 2008 

RFA – Vietnam to Police Blogs – 12 December 2008

RSF – Leading Blogger’s Conviction Upheld on Appeal – 5 December 2008

San Francisco Chronicle – Bloggers the New Rebels in Vietnam – 14 December 2008

Leaked Report: UN Will Not Deploy Fiji Peacekeepers

By Ryan L. Maness

Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Oceania
SUVA, Fiji – The Fiji Times is reporting that the United Nations has placed an immediate ban on deploying Fiji peacekeepers.  While Fiji peacekeepers will not be pulled out of any of their current positions, they will not be sent to any new locations.
The paper reports that a reliable source says that the directive was sent from UN Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon to the interim government, but had not yet been made public.  According to the source, the Secretary-General issued the directive because the Security Council adopted a resolution calling for the restoration of democracy in Fiji.

Interim Minister of Defence, National Security and Immigration, Ratu Epeli Ganilau denies receiving such a communication from the United Nations.  “If something like that was on the horizon, we would expect to hear it and not come in as a bang. It would come through my portfolio but I have not heard anything,” he said.

The struggle over Fiji’s role in international peacekeeping extends back to 2006, when then Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Fiji that he would limit their involvement in future peacekeeping duties.
Fiji peacekeeping forces are currently serving with the Multinational Forces & Observers Sinai (MFO) and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
For more information, please see:
Fiji Times Online – No new mission for troops: UN – 15 December 2008
Pacific Magazine – Fiji Barred from New UN Peacekeeping Missions: Report – 15 December 2008
Radio New Zealand International – UN reportedly bans Fiji peacekeepers – 14 December 2008

Update: Khmer Rouge Trial Might Face Another Delay

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Dutch’s trial is pushed back due to prosecutor’s appeal to include more charges. Thus far, Dutch has been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The prosecutors want to expand the scope of Dutch’s indictment to include conspiracy to murder and starving and torturing Cambodians in the 1970s.

However, the judges of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal rejected the prosecutor’s appeal for conspiracy and allowed for pre-meditated murder and torture. In part, the court’s reasoning for rejecting the conspiracy claim was to expedite the trial.

There is also disagreement between the prosecutors themselves whether to charge more people involved in the Khmer Rouge regime, under which 2 million lives perished. Currently, there are five key members of the Khmer Rouge regime awaiting trial. International co-prosecutor Robert Petite believes that several more ex-Khmer Rouge members should be investigated; however, Chea Leang, his Cambodian colleague, sharply disagrees. They might file a joint letter of disagreement to the court asking judges to intervene.

This disagreement represents the first conflict between international and domestic officials. Even though the Khmer Rouge Tribunal is a UN funded court, it is still a Cambodian court. The government’s involvement in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal has been under scrutiny since many of the high officials were ex-Khmer Rouge members.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Khmer Trial Clears Final Hurdle– 5 December 2008

BBC – Prosecutor Dispute at Khmer Trial– 9 December 2008

Phnom Penh Post – Tribunal Hit by Row Over New Probes– 9 December 2008

Bainimarama Wants Travel Bans Lifted

By Sarah E. Treptow
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji– Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama has said Fiji’s interim government will not be deterred no matter how cruel travel sanctions are to Fiji’s poor, young and innocent.  If the sanctions remain Bainimarama said his government will continue with their agenda.  Since the interim government seized power in 2006 the agenda has been to, “bring peace, durable stability and progress to Fiji.”  He told the foreign ministers from Australia and New Zealand this while urging their countries to life their “arbitrary travel bans.”

When discussing the bans Bainimarama said, “These sanctions have been harsh in their impact on us.”  He went on to say, “they have restricted the participation in Government from the pool of competent and non-political, and non-Military, Fiji people who are ready to take on appointments to serve on key institutions of the State including Government-owned entities and statutory bodies.  As a result, the nation as a whole is suffering and our efforts at service delivery and removal of corruption are being hindered.”

Bainimarama also highlighted the impact on education opportunities and bans on Fiji’s mens and womens sports teams.  He said, “I therefore appeal to you to re-examine the travel sanctions policy; and I urge you to use your influence to constructively assist Fiji, in more concrete ways, to help us move forward and to find durable solutions to our entrenched problems.”

New Zealand foreign minister Murray McCully and Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith said before the meeting with Bainimarama that their policies remain.

Bainimarama responded, “The Fiji Missions of both of these countries now only engage with those who are in opposition to the interim Government.  The two missions, by and large, do not engage with the Government at all.”

For more information, please see:

Fijilive – Travel ban forces state CEO out – 13 December 2008

Islands Business – Sanctions won’t stop us, says Bainimarama – 12 December 2008

Radio New Zealand International – Fiji’s interim Prime Minister says interim government won’t be deterred – 12 December 2008