Pacific

SDL party member threatened by Fiji military

13:09 pm on 15 May 2007

A member of Fiji's former government says she was intimidated and frightened when she was taken to the military camp and threatened.

Losena Salabula says she was not physically harmed but it was made clear to her that she and her colleagues, from the SDL party, would have to stop speaking out.

The news of the warning follows a report by a Fijian businessman that he was beaten by the military last week for alleged involvement in an anti-military website.

Mrs Salabula says the commanding officer of the Fiji Infantry Regiment told her that the SDL party would never return to power and then she was given a warning.

"He told me that I have to tell the deposed prime minister not to say too many things while he is there in his village otherwise, if they're going to continue talking too much, they will take us all and throw us in Naboro prison, one of the prisons in Suva."

Mrs Salabula says the military also told her that the money offered by the European Union meant nothing to them.

The EU says 400 million Fiji dollars is at risk if the interim regime does not lift the state of emergency, uphold human rights and hold general elections by March 2009.