A prominent Fiji lawyer says the amnesty provisions of the government's Reconciliation and Unity Bill may be unconstitutional.
Richard Naidu, who was the guest speaker at the National Federation Party's 40th annual convention at the weekend, said the Bill legitimises criminal acts.
Mr Naidu said he could not understand why a political crime was considered more worthy of forgiveness than an ordinary one.
He said torture, mass murder, and terrorism take place daily in the name of politics and questioned what there was to forgive about this.
Mr Naidu said if Christian values were called in now to promote forgiveness, people were entitled to ask where Christian values had been during the coup when people were kidnapped at gunpoint, policemen and soldiers shot dead and houses and shops looted and burnt.
Mr Naidu said he couldn't understand that indigenous Fijian values and religious beliefs were so different from those of others in Fiji that this Bill should be passed.
He said he believed he was in good company because the military, the police, civil society groups, the trade union movement and many of Fiji's Christian churches agreed.
