Amnesty brushes off comments by Fiji AG

Transcript

KATE SCHUETZE: The important thing to remember here is that it is a very signficant step that for the first time in a long time - we're seeing an open debate in Parliament about the very significant issues we raised in our report. So, the AG did make some comments and you know, some of the developments he talked about in Parliament - we have acknowledged in our report and we welcome those developments. There are of course aspects of our report that he clearly disagrees with but I think the important progress to note here is that for one of the first times since Parliament has reconvened we're having an open and public discussion about how to address torture in the country.

AMELIA LANGFORD: So the main thing here is not whether he agrees with you or not but that they they are actually discussing it?

KS: Yeah I think it's still progress - the fact that they're discussing it. Of course, there's more we would like to see the Fijian Government do here. You know, some of the significant issues he talked about were particular provisions and legislation but the important part is - we were talking about historical cases where we know that military and police officers have been released early from prison...the fact that constitutional immunity still allow a number of people to get away with torture essentially and denies those victims justice, depending on when those events took place. We are seeing some willingness to change and address that through the first-hour reporting procedure but what we are saying essentially is that the Attorney-General's announced changes don't quite go far enough if there is a genuine attempt to address torture in Fiji.

AL: Just to emphasise I'm hearing what you're saying - Amnesty is pleased to hear there is some open dialogue about this report and the issues it brings up - but if I am to put to you that the Attorney-General said the Amnesty Report is 'legally biased, factually flawed and lacking in intellectual integrity' - what do you say to that?

KS: Well, I mean, he hasn't pointed at any facts in relation to the specific cases where he says we got it wrong. Until we have specific details of what he's saying we got wrong then I don't think there's much we can say in response to that. We always expected some pushback on a report of this nature but the reality is the A-G himself has acknowledged that there are practices in the police force that need to change and we would like to see more focus on that as the real issue here rather than on us as the report writers.