BRIEF: Interim Government Claims Executive Privilege

SUVA, Fiji — The trial challenging the constitutionality of the Fiji Coup of 2006 has taken a new turn.  Last week lawyers for the interim government argued that the Fijian High Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case and this week they are attempting to argue that certain evidence should not be admitted into the proceedings in the interest of executive privilege.  Specifically, lawyers for the interim government wish to exclude the minutes from meetings between President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, Qarase and current interim Prime Minister Bainimarama that took place prior to the December 2006 takeover.  Transcripts of the meetings have been presented to the High Court by the President’s official secretary Tupeni Nacewa in the form of an affidavit.

Gerard McCoy, QC, a lawyer for the interim government, is arguing that revealing such information would be detrimental both to the public and to the office of the PM.  McCoy stated that the information contained within the affidavit is privileged because, “Nacewa is the passage through which official communications are committed – and parties were not at liberty to oust the crown privilege.”  Furthermore, he said, any information contained in the affidavit would distract the Court from its main purpose, looking after the public welfare.

Qarase’s lead counsel, Nye Perram, QC, countered that this evidence was vital to the Court’s consideration because it could give critical insight into the legality of Bainimarama’s military takeover.  He also argued that the public has a right to know what transpired in the lead up to the coup, “the public only knows what happened outside – and had a right to know the inside story.”

The matter is set for arguments on Tuesday before the Fiji High Court.

For more information, please see:

Radio New Zealand International — Fiji interim government lawyer says High Court has no authority to review President’s actions — 07 March 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Fiji interim government continues to claim executive privilege in legal challenge to coup — 07 March 2008

Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Limited — People have a right to know coup events: lawyer — 07 March 2008

Radio New Zealand International —Fiji court told to consider public interest as interim government claims executive privilege — 06 March 2008

Kidnapped Children to be Returned to their Families

hoto – CNN(AP)

By Christopher Gehrke
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, South America

N’DJAMENA, Chad – One hundred and three children will be reunited with their families after six French charity workers were convicted of attempting to kidnap to kidnap them.

Chadian authorities arrested the aid workers as they tried to leave Chad on a plane bound for Paris, said the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The charity said that the children were Sudanese orphans from the Darfur region, and were being taken to foster families in France.  Other charities, however, had determined that the majority of the children were Chadian, and had living parents.

The children – 21 girls and 82 boys, aged between one and 10 years – have been in an orphanage in Abeche since late October.  The children indicated that they were from villages near Adre and Tine along the Chadian-Sudanese border.

Chadians expressed their outrage by staging a stone-throwing, anti-French demonstration in the capital, N’Djamena, a few months ago.

French authorities called the charity group’s actions “illegal and irresponsible.”  The six aid workers were sentenced to eight years of hard labor in Chad.  They were sent to France, with the permission of the Chadian government, after French President Nicolas Sarkozy intervened on their behalf.  The six were sentenced to eight years in a French prison.

The children’s return home has been delayed until their guardians could be identified by Chadian officials.  The French charity involved left little paperwork about their children’s identities.  Despite this setback, UNICEF spokesman Jean-Francois Basse said most of the children’s guardians had been found.

“Out of the 103 children we were able to locate those who were in charge of the children for 97 of them,” he told BBC. UNICEF will travel to Chad next week to reunite the children with their families.

For more information, please see:
France24 – Children in Chad ‘kidnap’ scandal to rejoin families:  UNICEF – 7 March 2008

CNN – Kidnapped kids going back to families – 7 March 2008

BBC News – Chad’s ‘orphans’ returning home – 7 March 2008

Kidnapped Children to be Returned to their Families

By Christopher Gehrke
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, South America

N’DJAMENA, Chad – One hundred and three children will be reunited with their families after six French charity workers were convicted of attempting to kidnap to kidnap them.

Chadian authorities arrested the aid workers as they tried to leave Chad on a plane bound for Paris, said the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The charity said that the children were Sudanese orphans from the Darfur region, and were being taken to foster families in France.  Other charities, however, had determined that the majority of the children were Chadian, and had living parents.

The children – 21 girls and 82 boys, aged between one and 10 years – have been in an orphanage in Abeche since late October.  The children indicated that they were from villages near Adre and Tine along the Chadian-Sudanese border.

Chadians expressed their outrage by staging a stone-throwing, anti-French demonstration in the capital, N’Djamena, a few months ago.

French authorities called the charity group’s actions “illegal and irresponsible.”  The six aid workers were sentenced to eight years of hard labor in Chad.  They were sent to France, with the permission of the Chadian government, after French President Nicolas Sarkozy intervened on their behalf.  The six were sentenced to eight years in a French prison.

The children’s return home has been delayed until their guardians could be identified by Chadian officials.  The French charity involved left little paperwork about their children’s identities.  Despite this setback, UNICEF spokesman Jean-Francois Basse said most of the children’s guardians had been found.

“Out of the 103 children we were able to locate those who were in charge of the children for 97 of them,” he told BBC. UNICEF will travel to Chad next week to reunite the children with their families. 

For more information, please see:

France24 – Children in Chad ‘kidnap’ scandal to rejoin families:  UNICEF – 7 March 2008

CNN – Kidnapped kids going back to families – 7 March 2008

BBC News – Chad’s ‘orphans’ returning home – 7 March 2008

BRIEF: CNMI Seeks Alternative to S. 2483

SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands – Members of both the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and the Hotel Association of Northern Mariana Islands (HANMI) told Governor Benigno Fitial that CNMI must find its own solutions to immigration and minimum wage issues, and not cave to pressure from Washington.  The CNMI economy depends heavily on foreign workers and tourism, and S. 2483 would federalize CNMI’s immigration policies, which have been dealt with locally since CNMI became a United States dependent territory.

Jim Arenovski, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, said, “We need to be able to rely on our own organizations to go out there and tell them about the state of our economy.  We need to be able to go out there and meet with the folks in the committees that have jurisdictions over us.”  [Note: CNMI does not currently have a delegate to the United States federal government, an anomaly among the dependent territories.]  Arenovski believes that S.2483 was drafted to solve problems that no longer exist in CNMI.  “Our economy is completely different,” he said, “it no longer stands on two legs, it stands on one leg and that’s tourism.  We need to come up with some solutions.”

HANMI chairwoman Lynn Knight enumerated four reasons S.2483 is inappropriate for CNMI: it will cause population decline because of its cap on foreign workers, it does not provide a long-term solution for the CNMI workforce, the H-visa system is too inflexible to work for CNMI, and the tourist waiver would be inadequate for CNMI to maintain its current markets.

For more information, please see:

Marianas Variety – Fitial: NMI may lose foreign workers by 2013 if federalization bill becomes law – 06 March 2008

Saipan Tribune – ‘4 reasons why S.2483 won’t work for us’ – 06 March 2008

Saipan Tribune – ‘NMI must have a plan, alternative to S.2483’ – 09 March 2008

BRIEF: Observers Fear Fiji Elections Will Be Delayed

SUVA, Fiji – Observers are concerned that actions taken by the current regime indicate an unwillingness to remain committed to holding democratic elections in March 2009.  Additionally, Public Service Chairman Rishi Ram has announced that the appointment of a supervisor of elections will be delayed by two months.  There appears to be a lack of interest in the position, and those who have applied have been of “low calibre” the Fiji Times reports.

United States senior government official Glynn Davies was unimpress