Reconciliation and Unity Commission - Changes Recommended By The Parliamentary Committee

Changes Recommended By The Parliamentary Committee

Manasa Tugia, Chairman of Parliament's Justice, Law, and Order Committee, tabled the committee's report on the bill, on 1 December. He revealed that the parliamentary committee had received a total of 124 written and 148 oral submissions on the bill. The majority of organizations who presented submissions supported the legislation, he said, but the reverse was true of members of the public. He alleged that many people on both sides of the debate were supporting or opposing something they had not read. He expressed disappointment that few submissions had been received from the Indo-Fijian community. "We thought they would come forward to use this opportunity to air their views. But everyone was given a fair opportunity to air their views on the draft Bill," he said.

Tugia said that in attempting to reconcile the diametrically opposed views on the bill, the committee had studied similar legislation in countries like South Africa, Timor Leste, and the Solomon Islands, and had borrowed and synthesized elements from them in order to come up with a model for Fiji. A priority was that "necessary reconciliation" should take place between the perpetrators and the victims of the coup, he said. The bill's preamble, which emphasizes the rights of indigenous Fijians, should be deleted, the committee proposed.

The committee recommended retaining the most controversial part of the bill, the amnesty clauses, but proposed that they be reworded to clarify "that amnesty is to be granted in-line with the constitution and not the through the President as proposed by the Bill". It proposed replacing the word "offenders" with "wrongdoers" and felt that there should be no blanket amnesty, and that constitutional procedures should be followed scrupulously It called for the exclusion of murder, rape, and other sexual offences from amnesty under the bill. Grievous bodily harm and offences against public order should also be excluded, the committee said, but amnesty could be granted for non-violent crimes like unlawful assembly and illegal demonstrations, committed during the 2000 coup and its aftermath. Persons currently under investigation for coup-related offences could also apply for criminal immunity, on condition of their seeking forgiveness and reconciliation with their victims. In the event of their refusal to answer any question asked by the Reconciliation Commission, the case should be referred directly to the courts, the report proposed.

Prime Minister Qarase and Opposition Leader Chaudhry withheld comment pending a study of the proposed changes, but Fiji Law Society President Graeme Leung cautiously welcomed the committee's recommendations. The society had wanted the amnesty clauses deleted, he said, but the amendments went some way towards allaying their fears. "The recommendations make a very good effort at trying to ensure compliance with the Constitution," he said. He commended the committee for telling the government that if it wanted to pass the bill, it was very important to consult the public.

Attorney-General Bale said on 15 December that the government was considering the committee's recommendations, and would make a decision before the resumption of Parliament in February 2006. Prime Minister Qarase announced on 11 January 2006 that certain amendments, which he did not specify, had been decided on by the Cabinet, and would be brought before Parliament in the session beginning on 13 February.