Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says domestic violence has become the ugly underbelly of Fijian culture.

He spoke on the issue at the handover ceremony of the China Aid Fiji Rice Technical Machines at the Fiji National University grounds in Koronivia yesterday.

He said: “For the foreseeable future, I will be using every opportunity I have to condemn the epidemic of domestic violence in Fiji.

“It has been going on for many, many years. Every culture has its beauty, its charm and its ugly underbelly, and domestic violence has become the ugly underbelly of Fijian culture. It has been allowed to persist for too long.

“It came to be something we lived with. It wasn’t pretty, but it had always been with us, for as long as any of us could remember. And so it was one of those ugly things we learned to live with. But we can no longer accept it.

“Violence against women, children, the elderly and the weak diminish us as a people. It creates fear and distrust, it robs people of their potential, and quite simply, it is cruel. Domestic violence causes greater pain than other forms of violence because it is such a profound betrayal committed against family members by the very ones who should be giving love and protection.

“My Government has changed laws to protect women and children from abuse, by increasing the sentencing regime including new offences of sexual assault and removing thearchaic rules of corroboration which has made it difficult to obtain successful prosecution.

“But laws alone, even strictly enforced, are not enough to stop it. It is not just about shaming the man who beats his wife and children or to shun the rapist and make him reluctant to show his face in public. But we must shame or shun the person who even thinks about doing it in the first place.  We must prevent it from happening in the first place.

“That is why I am speaking—to ask every Fijian to look deep in his or her heart and declare that this must stop in our country.”