Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Fiji’s Rabuka queries moves to silence SDL

Posted at 05:04 on 28 September, 2007 UTC

Fiji’s former prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, says his call to silence the deposed SDL party through a court order does not violate the party members’ basic human rights.

The interim government has re-introduced public emergency regulations earlier this month explaining the deposed prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, poses a threat to national security.

Mr Rabuka says if the interim government regards the SDL party as dangerous it should apply for a court order to restrict what it could do and say.

“If we do not have the emergency regulations, you can still have a court injunction preventing certain people from making statements in the anticipation that those statements could destabilise the situation.”

Sitiveni Rabuka says this would be better than to impose emergency regulations on all residents.

The emergency regulations are expected to be lifted in a week.