Amnesty International Presses China Over Fiji
FIJI was caught in “a downward spiral of human rights violations and repression”, Amnesty International’s Pacific researcher, Apolosi Bose, warned yesterday in launching a damning report on life under the military-installed government there.
Amnesty’s report urges international donors and investors to press the Suva military government – which has been in power for almost three years, and says it will not hold elections for a further five – to return to the rule of law.
“In particular, China, which has massively increased its financial assistance to Fiji since the 2006 coup, should use its influence to resolve the constitutional crisis,” the report says.
Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific deputy director, Donna Guest, said: “China has long claimed it doesn’t interfere in another country’s affairs, but in Fiji China has clearly favoured one side of a long political dispute, and in the process ignored the human rights situation.”
Mr Bose was in Fiji when the constitution was abrogated on April 10 after a Court of Appeal verdict declaring as unlawful military chief Frank Bainimarama’s seizure of power. He said he interviewed more than 80people from many organisations and backgrounds in researching the report.
Under the Public Emergency Regulations imposed in April, Amnesty says, “Fiji’s military and security forces retain absolute control over the country’s population, and soldiers and police enjoy complete immunity from prosecution for their actions, including serious violations of human rights.”
The organisation describes “a pattern of government interference in the judiciary, severe censorship of the media, and the harassment and arrests of government critics”.
Judges are now appointed by the President at his sole discretion without any professional or other criteria, says the report. And section 5 of the Administration of Justice Decree says the President’s abrogation of the constitution and decrees he promulgates cannot be challenged in any court.
The report describes a “climate of fear” in Fiji, and quotes a “human rights defender” as saying: “I am so frightened of what they will do to any of us if we speak out. This is not the time to protest, as they will surely hurt us. They have no restraint. Once they start, I fear for our staff and their families.”
Amnesty says eight soldiers and a policeman found guilty of beating 19-year-old Nadi youth Sakiusa Rabaka to death were released from custody after serving just six weeks, and a soldier convicted over the death of villager Nimilote Verebasaga served less than two weeks. All have been reinstated in their previous positions.
The report says the provisions of section 16 of the the emergency regulations – which include the capacity of the Permanent Secretary for Information, Neumi Leweni, to ban broadcasts or publications that “promote disaffection or public alarm” – have been used by the authorities “to arrest and deport journalists and severely censor the press, instilling fear among journalists”.
This has led to distortions, it says. For example, one news report said the EU supported the Fiji government, to which it would give funds. The EU complained that in fact the opposite was true.
Reports of civil unrest internationally – for instance, in Thailand – have been censored. Twenty journalists have been arrested in the past few months, and all have subsequently been released. Journalists have instead been ordered to start practising “the journalism of hope”, Amnesty says. By Rowan Callick, The Australian
Right To Access Quality Health Care
Let us refresh our memory that it’s been forty years since the passage of Lanterman Act. Forty years of difficult but steady progress towards realizing the dream of each families who believed that all citizens deserve a life of self-determination, dignity and quality. The right to choose where and with whom you live, the right to work and spend your money as you wish, and the right to access quality health care so you can stay healthy, mobile and self-reliant for as long as possible.
Well, talking about health care, it was noted that only a small percentage of the American population with disabilities will qualify for SSDI, otherwise known as Social Security Disability Insurance. You know, how difficult really it can be to get the disability benefits you deserve. However, we’ve observe that there are people who are consistent enough in following up your disability appeal, and as such we’re optimistic that you’ll obtain that long overdue benefits of yours whether applying it for the first time or appealing a denial.
Parts & Accessories
We are pretty lucky to have a number of automotive resources that are available to the average person in the community. One of the resources for works has repaired and or replaced a couple of our service vehicle bumpers over the years. And what made people look more on the chrome accessories is they have a reliable services that you can really count on, and which is why most of their customers tend to keep on coming back every now and then. So whatever your needs, when it comes to any kind of car parts & accessories, you are in the right place.
Iran Snubs Proposed Nuclear Talks
Iran’s president has said that discussions over his country’s nuclear programme are “finished” and Tehran will neither back down nor negotiate further.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that Tehran’s nuclear plans were an issue of rights, declaring that the country’s uranium enrichment efforts would continue.
“From our view point [discussion of] our nuclear issue is finished … we will never negotiate on the Iranian nation’s obvious rights,” he told his first news conference since he was sworn into office following a disputed re-election in June.
The comments come two weeks before the start of this year’s UN General Assembly meetings in New York and the deadline given by several Western nations for Tehran to respond to a proposal for talks.
‘Stalemate’
They also come as Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, admitted on Monday to a “stalemate” in efforts to resolve questions over Iran’s nuclear programme.
An August 28 report by the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran had granted the agency’s demand for tighter monitoring of its Natanz nuclear fuel production site and restored some IAEA access to a heavy-water reactor site of proliferation concern.
But it also said Iran had increased its number of installed centrifuge machines by 1,000 to 8,300, boosting potential enrichment capacity, and was still blocking an IAEA inquiry into allegations it has tried to “weaponise” the enrichment process.
Except for Iran’s two new gestures of co-operation, “on all … issues relevant to Iran’s nuclear programme, there is stalemate”, ElBaradei said in remarks opening a quarterly meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors on Monday.
In particular, he highlighted the blocked weaponisation inquiry, Iran’s refusal to suspend enrichment as demanded by the UN Security Council, and its failure to adopt an IAEA protocol permitting inspections beyond declared nuclear sites.
Monday’s developments come just a week after Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said his country was ready for fresh talks with world powers over its nuclear programme.
Jalili had said Iran had revised its proposal to the West and hoped “a new round of talks will be held for reaching a world full of progress and justice”.
Ahmadinejad’s latest comments and Elbaradei’s report provide fodder for Western powers trying to persuade Russia and China to back tougher sanctions against Iran.
Sanctions threat
Western nations, which suspect Iran is seeking to produce nuclear weapons, had given Tehran until the UN General Assembly meeting which goes from September 23-25, to take up an offer of talks on trade benefits if it stops uranium enrichment, or face harsher sanctions.
But Ahmadinejad said on Monday that “co-operation based on respect and justice is contradictory to setting a deadline”.
Instead, he invited officials from the so-called six powers – the US, Britain, China, Russia, France and Germany – to take a look at Iran’s forthcoming package of proposals addressing the “main challenges facing humanity”.
Iran is ready to negotiate and co-operate on making “peaceful use of clean nuclear energy” available for all countries and in preventing the spread of nuclear arms, he said. The semi-official ISNA news agency said Iran was likely to unveil the package by the end of this week.
Iran, which has always maintained that it seeks nuclear technology only to make electricity, has often said nuclear arms have no place in its defence doctrine and has called on the US and other countries with such weapons to dismantle them.
The UN Security Council has already imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran since 2006, targeting Iranian companies and individuals linked to the nuclear programme.
It may next impose sanctions against petrol imports into Iran, which although the world’s fifth biggest oil exporter, imports up to 40 per cent of its petrol.
In an apparent move to counter any such sanctions, Iranian media reported that Venezuela had pledged to export 20,000 barrels of petrol a day to Iran, in a deal struck during a visit by Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, on Sunday. By Al Jazeera
Best For Their Child In Style
Is it good? The very way in which young parents’ faces life shows that it has to enter another door of life which opens out into a vast field of opportunities and choices. One problem after another might come up one day that may probably at first, puzzled them as new parents. Well, it is time to make decisions – decisions which will shape their children’s future, bring joy or pain and which will allow them to stand tall with great pride or how low with regret about what could have been.
Nevertheless, every parent desires to obtain that one baby gear item that will magically make life simpler for them. Whether it is a luxurious car seat that every celebrity mom snuggles their little one in, or a vibrant baby swing made of the softest material ever. But the top item that most parents splurge on is the uppababy vista stroller which is for parents who want the best for their child in style, comfort, ease-of-use, and over-all daily use.