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Fiji Coup Plotters Armed by Israeli Ambassador, Court Told
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| Fiji’s coup
leader George Speight waves from a prison van after a court
appearance
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SUVA,
December 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Rebel soldiers carried
out the 2000 Fiji coup with weapons supplied by the Israeli
ambassador, a treason trial was told here Monday, December 2.
Army
Captain Jotame Misivono told the High Court here that the weapons,
which included Uzi sub-machine guns, gave the plotters an edge over
the regular army and police.
Politician
Timoci Silatolu and journalist Jo Nata are both on trial here for
treason over the ousting and hostage-taking of the government headed
by ethnic Indian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The
coup was carried out by special forces and led by failed businessman
George Speight, who has since been jailed for life.
Misivono
told the court an Israeli ambassador had brought the arms into Fiji,
supplying sophisticated machine guns to the special forces unit
involved.
“Those
are Israeli-made weapons brought into the country and given to the
unit by an Israeli ambassador while he was still in Fiji,” Misivono
told the court.
He
said the weapons gave the special forces an edge over the rest of the
uniformed services in Fiji.
Earlier
in May 9, 2002, the Prime Minister of Fiji, Laisenia Qarase, has
agreed with the Israel Ambassador, H. E. Ruth Kahanoff that the two
countries should strengthen their relations though they are so far
apart geographically.
He
expressed this sentiment while welcoming the Israel Ambassador
recently, upon her courtesy call on the Prime Minister.
Discussions
between Qarase and the Israel Ambassador included cooperation in human
resources development, tourism, trade, small and medium based business
enterprises, education, telecommunications, information technology,
cooperation and sharing of experience in national security.
Misivono
was present at the end of the coup when Speight and his followers
freed Chaudhry and fellow hostages and ceremonially handed the weapons
back to the military.
In
other evidence presented on Monday, a former government printer, Pio
Bosco Tikoisuva, said Speight had ordered him to print decrees which
would grant the coup leaders new powers.
“He
said if I don’t authorize the printing of their decrees then we’d
(Speight and his people) go down to the printery and force the staff
to print them,” he said.
“I
said I would authorize the printing because I feared for my staff.”
Amongst
decrees produced in the court was one that changed the command line of
the Fiji Military Forces, decreeing that the then army spokesman
Filipo Tarakinikini be the new chief of staff.
Tarakinikini
was posted to the United Nations in New York last year but refused to
return home after the completion of his term.
He
is understood to have claimed refugee status in the United States.
Speight
has already been found guilty of treason for his role in the coup,
which overthrew Fiji’s first ethnic Indian prime minister, Mahendra
Chaudhry.
Speight
initially faced the death penalty, but his sentence was later commuted
to life in prison.
Ever
since 1987, racial and political tensions have been a source of
domestic instability and international isolation for the islands.
In
1987, a coup by indigenous Fijians overthrew the elected,
Indian-dominated coalition. This triggered the introduction - and
subsequent withdrawal - of a constitution enshrining ethnic Fijian
political supremacy, BBC’s online news service reported.
A
further attempted coup in 2000, led by a local Fijian businessman,
George Speight, saw the ethnic Indian prime minister, his cabinet and
several MPs held hostage for several weeks.
According
to the BBC, Fiji’s population, is divided almost equally between
indigenous Fijians and ethnic Indians.
Mixing
between the two groups is minimal, and informal segregation runs deep
at almost every level of society.
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