Church challenges Fiji regime's power 

Source: ONE NewsFrank Bainimarama

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Fiji's military regime is facing a heavyweight challenge to its power, this time from the church.

Fijian Methodists have been banned from holding their annual conference but are refusing to buckle.

High chief Ro Teimumu Kepa spent two days in military and police custody and the stress was clear as she was taken to court.

Her crime is that she supports and has offered her village as a venue for a Methodist conference next month.

"I don't know why they are making a big deal out of this because the government and the military have said 'no'. That's where the matter should rest," says Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Fijian Prime Minister.

That's because his regime has a volatile relationship with Fiji's Methodist Church.

Its congregation, largely indigenous, makes up a quarter of the population. And it includes many members of the elected government Bainimarama overthrew.

The government portrays the Methodist Church as being purely a conspiratorial political organisation and therefore identifies the church as being a security risk," says Dr Steven Ratuva of the University of Auckland.

Its one of the reasons for Ro Kepa's arrest. As well as being a high chief, she's a former government minister.

ONE News spoke to her when the military forced her out of office.

"For myself I am not worried for me. If they want to come after me they come after me," she says.

It has taken two-and-a-half years, but come after her they did.

Bainimarama knows he has a challenge on his hands from the church.

He says if the church were to apply for a fresh permit for a meeting it would not be granted.

Ro Kepa and a number of top church officials have been released on bail on condition they not meet or talk politics.

Whether that happens remains to be seen.