A soldier and a policeman died instantly early this morning at 3.00 am following
an ambush by armed men believed to be supporters of rebel
leader George Speight at Qiolevu Rd in Nausori. Three other soldiers who were
wounded have been admitted at Suva's Colonial War
Memorial Hospital.
One is in a serious condition. It has taken the death toll in Fiji's political
crisis to five. Army spokesman, Lt Col Filipo Tarakinikini said the
soldiers were attacked after they were dispatched to investigate reports of
gunfire in the area.
"When the army patrol arrived on the scene, they saw a white twin cab
with green canopy parked on the side. "As the soldiers were
disembarking, they came under heavy fire. One soldier and a policeman died instantly
from gunshot wounds and three suffered injuries."
Tarakinikini said the other seven soldiers were evacuated from the area via
a punt.
The pickup was later seen making its way into the interior of Naitasiri. Tarakinikini
issued a warning to people not to impede the vehicle's
movement or to confront the men, as they are armed and extremely dangerous.
The arms used by the rebels is believed to have been taken
from soldiers by Monasavu landowners when they took over the Monasavu Hydroelectric
dam several weeks ago.
The army, fearing an incident such as that happened early this morning, had
been working overtime in a bid to recover missing arms. About
27 pieces are still believed to be in the hands of the rebels supporting Speight
They were stolen from the military armoury by soldiers who carried out the
May 19 overthrow of the Mahendra Chaudhry government. All
arms were to have been given back to the army under the Muanikau Peace Accord
that was signed by Speight and army commander, Frank
Bainimarama. The surrender of arms was conditional to the immunity the rebels
were given in the Accord.
The DPP was contesting the amnesty given to Speight and the rebels under the
accord on the grounds that not all the arms were surrendered
and that the accord was signed under duress. Speight and his close aides, who
are in custody, could lose the immunity.
COMPENSATION claims for the Monasavu catchment area was raised from $35 million
to $52 million when three more clans joined the
dispute.
Suva lawyer Isireli Fa filed an Amendment Statement of Claim for Civil Action
(No. 576/98) for the landowners on June 28.
"This amendment does not introduce any new issues to the existing dispute
between the landowners, the government of Fiji, the Native Land
Trust Board and the Fiji Electricity Authority. All it does is to introduce
three new plaintiffs to the proceedings," Mr Fa said. Mr Fa said the
three new landowning units or mataqali are Narokomai, Naroko and Nadrau.
He said the inclusion of the three mataqalis resulted in approximately 6, 000
acres added to the landowners original compensation claim. Mr
Fa said this meant the compensation claim had to be increased. "The solicitors
for the three defendants in the civil action were fully aware of
these amendments and consented to it. "The court on June 1 gave permission
to the landowners to amend its statement to include these
parties," he said.
Mr Fa made the comments in reply to Suva lawyer Sam Matawalu, who is supposedly
representing the FEA. Mr Matawalu last week
defended the Authority over statements made by Mr Fa. Mr Matawalu said Mr Fa
had included the Authority in the dispute because of its
paying power.
He said Mr Fa had sabotaged negotiations for an out of court settlement directed
by the High Court on March 30 this year. However Mr Fa
said he prepared a Deed of Settlement on April 14 and sent it to all parties
for their comment.
"To date I have not heard a single word from the FEA, the government of
Fiji or the NLTB on the proposed Deed of Settlement," Mr Fa said.
Fiji's Daily Post
THE United States of America has urged the Interim Government to be more transparent
in working towards returning Fiji to democracy.
American Ambassador to Fiji, Osman Siddique yesterday said the Interim Administration
should quickly get on the path of national
reconciliation and reconstruction. Mr Siddique made the comments after meeting
Interim Prime Minister Lasenia Qarase yesterday.
"We will deal and work with the Administration as necessary," he
said "The Interim Administration should be committed to returning Fiji
to
full democracy to uphold and guarantee human rights of all Fijians in the country."
Mr Siddique said his meeting with Mr Qarase was a
courtesy call. "We met to assess the Fijian Government's stand and to express
ours.
We also asked the Prime Minister for a more transparent administration."
Mr Qarase has assured the US and the rest of the world that Fiji's
new Constitution will ensure that all citizens in Fiji continue to enjoy fundamental
rights and freedom. "No one in Fiji will be
disenfranchised." However, Mr Qarase said the new Constitution will have
to address the concerns and aspirations of the indigenous Fijian
community.
"We have to address the known imperfections of the 1997 Constitution in
light of experiences with the General Elections last year and
particularly in relation to the system of elections."
Trade and economic relations between Fiji and the US were also discussed at
the meeting.
Fiji's Daily Post
THE military is in full control of the situation in Labasa and the public can
be rest assured about the army's commitment towards maintaining
law and order in the country.
Military spokesperson Major Howard Politini yesterday said the situation in
Labasa and other parts of Vanua Levu is normalising .
Major Politini said businesses and schools were slowly getting back to normal.
"The military is still out in large numbers taking full control of
the place. I will be going back to Labasa soon, just to monitor the situation
but I must say that things are improving."
Major Politini said the 150 George Speight supporters who were captured in
Labasa last week will appear in court later this week. He said a
team of police is in Labasa to take statements from those arrested and once
the paper work is over, the court proceedings will follow.
"The paper work is taking a lot of time," he said Meanwhile, the
business houses have expressed their gratitude towards the military's active
involvement in apprehending the rebels, who are causing havoc in the friendly
North. Business owners said they are hoping business will
begin to roll in the coming days.
Two of the school heads interviewed by the Daily Post said their schools recorded
good turn-outs yesterday. "The turn-out for schools should
improve slowly. It is understandable that some parents are still worried about
the safety of their children at school." However, the school
heads advised the children to put their grievances aside and get back to their
books and concentrate fully on their school work.
The Labasa hospital should begin to offer normal services from today as the
hospital had to close outpatient services over the weekend .
Hospital MedicalSuperintendent, Dr Esala Nainoca is hoping things will normalise
today.
Dr Nainoca said the hospital had provided services during the militaries shoot
out with the rebels last week. "We have treated six people, who
needed some minor attention, four of who have been discharged."
Fiji's Daily Post
THE Fijian Teachers Association has expressed its concern about threats made
to its members said general secretary Maika Namudu.
An FTA member teaching at Dawasamu District School was forced to leave the school
after the rebels engaged in unlawful activities in the
area threatened to burn his house. He was advised to leave after meeting the
school committee. They said they could not guarantee him and
his family their security.
Mr Namudu yesterday said the unlawful activities around the country had harmed
the interests of the very people they were supposedly
fighting for, indigenous Fijians. Students in Dawasamu have been deprived their
basic right to education because of the continuous threats
made by the rebels. Mr Namudu said the Dawasamu teacher had to use the Queen
Victoria School truck to bring his belongings to Suva. The
teacher told Mr Namudu he had been threatened many times. It started with children
relaying the threats to him. After that, the rebels
themselves personally threatened him.
Mr Namudu said the FTA will not tolerate such barbaric actions. He said the
FTA will take immediate action against any school where its
members are threatened. The FTA will make sure the teacher is not replaced by
any of its members and will strongly recommend to the
Ministry of Education not to send a teacher to the school concerned, Mr Namudu
said. This may be tough to many, but Mr Namudu said the
safety of the FTA members is the association's priority.
He said the FTA was very willing to participate in moves to bring back stability,
peace and harmony to the people and the country as a whole.
Students have suffered enough and they were innocent victims of the May 19 illegal
overthrow of government by George Speight and his
rebel group.
Mr Namudu has appealed to all, to help in seeing that the school is not interrupted
as it will be the future leaders of tomorrow who will suffer.
Fiji's Daily Post
FIJI as a whole will now be focussing on nation rebuilding and bringing back
the country's reputation.
The resumption of the Korean Air Fiji Service flights, is the first positive
step for the rehabilitation process of the tourism industry which has
already taken off. Korean Air begun its twice weekly round trip flights yesterday
with the first arrival of 200 commercial passengers after it
discontinued services in March 1998 as a direct result of the economic situation
in Korea.
Korean Air's Fiji-based regional manager Chang Nam Yang said he hoped the Korean
Air Service would make good opportunity to enhance
Fiji's economy and have a better commercial relationship between Korea and Fiji.
"Korean Air has put together some very attractive packages
until October when the airline will revert to its winter schedule," Mr
Yang said. "We believe Fiji as a holiday destination has a lot to offer
the
market," Mr Yang.
The service has been greatly welcomed by the Fiji Visitors Bureau. Chief Executive
Sitiveni Yaqona said the bureau has been working closely
with the Tourism ministry and its Seoul-based representative office. "Our
local industry hosted a group consisting of the airline and six top
tour operators in June for a week educational tour to key tourist regions.
"This service has come at a time when Fiji needs visitors and this can
only get better for us as airlinks are a normal precondition for visitor
arrivals to increase. Mr Yaqona added the service expected to bring in reasonable
number of visitors from other parts of the world, including
continental Europe.
The 200 commercial passengers who arrived yesterday on this flight will spend
five days in Fiji and will be staying at Mana Island Resort,
Sheraton Fiji Resort and Yanuca Island's Shangri-La's Fijian Resort. Shangri-La's
Fijian Resort General Manger Wolf-Dieter Flecker has
welcomed the resumption of service and said this was a positive sign of Fiji
and will hopefully assist in restoring confidence in Fiji,
particularly in the Asia market.
Meanwhile, Korea Air will operate two weekly services to Fiji using a 747-400
aircraft on its Sunday and Tuesday services. This is expected to increase to
three weekly flights during the South Korean winter schedule in October.
Fiji's Daily Post
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