Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Amnesty head says Fiji uprising not impossible

Posted at 19:41 on 04 October, 2011 UTC

The Secretary General of Amnesty International Salil Shetty says the popular mobilisations in the MiddleEast and North Africa show similar change is not impossible in Fiji.

He says if he’d been told a year ago that Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak would be gone he would have thought it impossible.

Mr Shetty says Amnesty worked for a long time documenting the abuses of the Mubarak regime as it’s doing in Fiji.

Amnesty International has recorded reports of torture and other human rights violations in Fiji and Mr Shetty says the situation is worsening.

“In all these places, we are talking currently about Syria, Yemen, I don’t see how Fiji is such an exception. If this level of violation of human rights continues and if people don’t have a voice and if they have no basic freedoms, in my view it’s a matter of time.”