28 Sep 2009

SDL rejects Fiji claim at UN that coup removed terror government

12:47 pm on 28 September 2009

The ousted Fiji governing party has rejected an accusation by Fiji's interim leader that the former government had been involved in using terror to push a racist and corrupt agenda.

In a speech to the United Nations, Commodore Frank Bainimarama said the Fiji military had been forced to remove the government in 2006.

He said politicians, in league with those who employed terror as a tactic to push a racial supremacy and corrupt agenda, had become a threat to the safety and security of the people.

But Peceli Kinivuwai, the general secretary of the SDL party, which was ousted in the 2006 coup, says the former government was a multi-party government, and Commodore Bainimarama must produce evidence that politicians instigated racial hatred.

He says the United Nations has been following the situation in Fiji and will not believe the interim Prime Minister's claims.

"No-one would be fooled or hoodwinked by that word, they'd be laughing to themselves because he is the one who has instilled terror, he is the one who has instilled guns, he is the one who has removed the democratically elected government by force. It was never done by politicians."

He says Commodore Bainimarama is trying to shift the blame now his regime has become internationally isolated.