5 Jul 2010

Exiled Fiji group alarmed at decreed land changes

2:55 pm on 5 July 2010

The Australia-based Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement has spoken out against the interim government's amendments to the Native Land Trust Act.

The Movement says the regime has effectively disenfranchised the indigenous Fijians from their own land and their ownership is now in name only.

It says by removing the President and the Great Council of Chiefs, the decree shifts the power to the government via the minister, while Commodore Bainimarama has given himself the authority to appoint all ten native Land Trust Board members.

The Movement warns that the ill-conceived decisions by the interim regime have set the scene for future instability in race relations.

It says once the majority of indigenous Fijians wake up from their slumber to realise that their ancestral lands and fishing grounds have been removed from them, the military will no longer be able to control them.

The Movement also says no amount of dressing over can hide the fact that the regime is illegal and self-appointed.