4 Feb 2004

Fiji Labour Party MP gives police commissioner fresh coup information

4:26 pm on 4 February 2004

The Fiji Labour Party MP Lavenia Padarath says she has met with police commissioner Andrew Hughes to ask about the prosecution process over the May 2000 coup.

Mrs Padarath, along with the Labour Party president Jokepeci Koroi, gave Mr Hughes fresh information about the coup.

She says the information is about powerful people who helped fund the coup, but would not disclose names.

But as victims of the coup, Mrs Padarath says she and Mrs Koroi have yet to be fully questioned about what happened and are dissatisfied with the delayed investigation.

She has questioned the choice of witnesses.

"How did they arrive at those people, because some of us felt they picked on people who were only there for 48 hours as witnesses; and they picked on our Indo-Fijian colleagues and we thought, some of us from the Fijian side, that we were there for longer, and where we were in the chamber, we saw a lot more happening outside."

Lavenia Padarath.