The brother of a Fiji man killed by a soldier after the 2006 coup said the Fiji government lied about human rights in the country at a UN forum in New York.
A statue of the Fiji statesman Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna stands guard outside Fiji's government buildings, Suva Photo: RNZI/Sally Round
Nemani Ramasei said full justice was yet to be done in the case of his brother Nimilote Verebasaga who died in 2007 after being assaulted by a Fiji soldier while in military custody.
In a statement to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at its meeting this month, the government said it is committed to the protection and full realisation of basic human rights in Fiji.
Mr Ramasei represented the Fiji Indigenous Peoples Foundation of Santa Rosa at the forum and he said he was disturbed by the statement.
"It's really shameful for the Fiji government to be lying to the United Nations that everything is OK with human rights in Fiji."
"The soldiers that died in 2000, you know nothing has been done to those cases and I lost a good relative in there and schoolmate, and again my brother died and there was not even a single apology from the Fiji military to my family about his death," he said.
Nemani Ramasei said the families of others killed after the 2000 and 2006 coups have also condemned the report.
The soldier who killed Mr Ramasei's brother was given a three-year jail sentence in 2009.
In its statement to the forum the government said it was committed to promoting the rights of all individuals and groups, including on cultural rights.
It said the rights are embedded in Fiji's constitution and there are adequate provisions within it for redress.
Mr Ramasei pointed out provisions in the constitution give immunity to coup-makers.
He said he made a request at the forum for help to get an investigation underway for action at the International Criminal Court.
