9 Jan 2007

Fiji Human Rights Commission looking into military and police

4:25 pm on 9 January 2007

And the Fiji Human Rights Commission says it will investigate all cases about human rights violations by the military or police.

The statement was made following reports that a former minister, Kenneth Zinck, was taken away by the military and assaulted after he made comments about the new interim prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama.

The human rights commission's director, Dr Shaista Shameem, says it is acting on all accusations and has taken up the case of Kenneth Zinck although it had not been reported to the commission.

"The human rights commission just received secondary reports, just through the newspapers, about what had happened to him. So, I wrote a letter to the Commodore seeking an investigation of the allegations and report to the commission."

Dr Shameem says she has not received a reply from Commodore Bainimarama yet.