The Native Land Trust Board, apparently backing coup leader George
Speight, has circulated a paper titled Deed of Sovereignty to
garner support from indigenous landowners.
The Deed, modeled on the 1874 Deed of Cession, is a 24-page
document calling for the chiefs to hand over governance to the
Civilian Taukei Government declared by Speight.
The military government has put a stop to further dissemination of
the document.
The general manager of NLTB, Maika Qarikau, in a covering letter
to the document, asks clan leaders (traditional head of clan-held
land) to "carefully consider the deed" and sign it.
Qarikau says he has already sought legal approval for the Deed.
The document, obviously a counter to the military position, states
that the only solution to the present impasse was for the chiefs
to hand power to Speight's Taukei Civilian government.
The NLTB is the administrative body set up to look after all
native land which is communally held.
Qarikau has been a vocal opponent of the deposed government which
had decided to replace present leasing arrangement of native land
with a set-up called the Land Use Commission.
This text may have been edited to protect the writer.
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last revision June 7, 2000