Fiji regime warns Methodist Church

Bangulzai SG

Fiji's military government warned the South Pacific country's Methodist Church not to call for a return of democracy, urging the powerful body on Saturday to refrain from destabilizing the country.

The warning, the first of its kind since military chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama seized power at gunpoint in December 2006, came five days after the regime arrested Rev. Manasa Lasaro, a senior Methodist minister, and began investigations into a sermon he gave that called for peaceful protests to restore democracy.

"The proposal appears to be against the rule of law and against government," government spokesman Lt. Col. Leweni said, without elaborating.

The Methodist Church of Fiji, whose more than 200,000 members account for a quarter of the country's population, is strongly opposed to Bainimarama's regime. Its leaders have not been vocal amid the latest political turmoil, but they backed a nationalist coup in 2000 and could be a powerful force if they began to mobilize their members. Bainimarama quickly crushed that coup nine years ago.

Lasaro was released from custody on Saturday, police operations chief Waisea Tabakau told reporters, but he did not say whether police had imposed any restrictions on Lasaro's activities.

Leweni said the government was appealing to Methodists not to be "misled by the antics of a few people who are trying to cause instability" ahead of their August annual conference.

The regime would "not hesitate to defer the conference indefinitely if the security forces suspect any motive to cause instability," he warned in a statement. The church conference will need a government permit to go ahead.

Under Fiji's military rule, all protests and public meetings are banned, censors sit in newsrooms and only "positive" news can be published. Already more than a dozen journalists have been arrested and interrogated for breaching the rules and at least three foreign journalists expelled from the country.

The military regime has said democratic elections won't be held until September 2014 so it can change what it calls the "race-based" voting system and root out corruption.