Australia's foreign minister expressed optimism on Friday that Fiji would change a proposed law granting amnesty to people who carried out a coup in 2000, but rebuked the country's military commander who has threatened to intervene to block the legislation.
After talks with Fiji Foreign Minister Kaliapote Tavola, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he had been assured that the Reconciliation and Unity Bill's provisions that extend amnesty to coup participants would be amended.
"I'm optimistic now, without being 100 percent certain, that they're going to handle this in a sensible way," he told Australia's Radio National from Fiji's capital Suva. "They understand our concerns. I mean we're partly concerned with the principle itself -- that people who've been involved in a coup would get amnesty."
In a later meeting, Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase also confirmed to Downer that the bill would be changed.
"I did say that there will be some changes made to the amnesty clause of the bill," Qarase was quoted saying by news Web site Fijilive. The report did not elaborate on the changes.
Downer publicly rebuked the South Pacific state's armed forces commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, for intervening in the nation's politics.
Bainimarama has been at loggerheads with Qarase's government for months, warning that the army might step in to stop parliament from passing the bill allowing coup supporters to be pardoned and freed from prison.
"It is not the job of the military commander to play politics," Downer told reporters.
Downer later met Bainimarama but would not divulge the details of their discussions which he described as "a private conversation."
Bainimarama said he had failed to persuade Downer the army had to make a public stand against the bill.
"He has come here with a preconceived idea that the military is doing everything wrong by delving into politics," Bainimarama told reporters.
"I told him he was talking against the only establishment that would help bring stability to this nation if all hell breaks loose and that he shouldn't be shooting the messenger," he added.
Downer also met with opposition Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry, whose government was overthrown in the coup.
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