2 May 2007

Fiji interim government implies emergency regulations will be gone at end of May

7:33 pm on 2 May 2007

Fiji's interim attorney general says the interim administration is within its rights to extend the emergency regulations until the end of the month.

It announced an extension yesterday - the latest such move since the coup last December.

Last month, Fiji's delegation to the European Union in Brussels said it would end the restrictions unless there were threats to national security, public order and safety.

Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the extension to the end of May does not contravene this commitment.

"The commitment itself, it says that the interim government intends to not extend the public emergency regulations beyond May 2007, so the extension is not beyond May. So we are fully within the commitments that we have made."

Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the extension is necessary because there are still weapons unaccounted for following the coup in 2000, and that there are number of people who might take advantage of a lapse in security for their political gain.