Pacific

Amnesty fears for Fiji human rights as clampdown muzzles media

16:04 pm on 22 April 2009

Amnesty International says it fears human rights could be abused in Fiji because of the unbridled power the interim regime now wields.

Amnesty's Pacific Researcher Apolosi Bose has just spent two weeks in Fiji on a factfinding mission.

He says critics of the government are afraid to speak out because there is now no constitution, no judiciary and the media has been censored.

"There is no limitation or accountability for those in government so they have almost absolute power over their citizens. It's creating a situation where there is a lot of fear because they have unbridled power and what's there to stop them from being violent to the public if they speak out."

Apolosi Bose says he also talked to lawyers in Fiji who received death threats when they tried to return to work after the constitution was abrogated.