Fiji stops pensions to government critics

WELLINGTON - Fiji’s military strongman Frank Bainimarama said Tuesday that all pensioners who criticised his government were having their benefit payments stopped from this week.

Bainimarama, who seized power in a coup just over three years ago and has ruled with emergency powers including censorship of the media since April, said the government passed a decree to that effect last week.

He told the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation in an interview that he had hoped since taking over in December 2006 that all citizens would “work together to take the country to a new Fiji - unfortunately, many, including some pensioners, were still speaking against the government”.

Bainimarama said payments to dissenting pensioners were stopped as soon as the decree was issued.

He said “perhaps this would change their mind to support the government in its endeavour to take Fiji forward,” Radio Fiji reported.