Issue No: 528; 28 February 2001

In its annual report on Fiji, the US government says, amongst other things, that:

* The regime's human rights record deteriorated during the year and is generally poor.

* With the ouster of a democratically elected Government, the purported abrogation of the Constitution in May, and the installation of a military-backed civilian interim administration in July, citizens lost the right peacefully to change their government.

* A major human rights problem remains ethnically based discrimination. A number of government policies, including hiring practices, education policies, and land tenure preferences continue to provide protection for indigenous Fijian interests.

* Other human rights problems include several political and extrajudicial killings; occasional police and military abuse of detainees and suspects; informal and formal constraints on the freedom of speech and the press and self-censorship; restrictions on freedom of assembly and movement; violence and discrimination against women; instances of abuse of children; racial discrimination and violence; reports of forced labor; and trafficking in persons.

* Ethnically motivated societal violence led to abuses, including looting and destruction of property.
* Rebel forces committed abuses, including killings and beatings.
* several resorts were taken over and some foreign tourists were held hostage.

* Roads were barricaded, public and private property was seized by rebel sympathizers, troops on Vanua Levu mutinied, Indo-Fijian settlements were terrorized by Ethnic Fijians, and Indo-Fijian businesses were looted and burned

* There were reports of arbitrary arrests of persons by civil and military authorities, followed by beatings and release in remote places.

* A number of steps were taken to limit citizens' ability to speak publicly or privately about issues such as human rights and democracy; meetings and protests concerning such topics were cancelled and otherwise limited by the authorities

* The media operate without prior censorship but with considerable self-censorship. Government ownership of shares in the Fiji Post newspaper and its links to the Fiji Sun newspaper through Fijian Holdings, an investment company on whose board a number of ministers have served, call into question the complete independence of the press.