‘Mysterious’ Fijian finds

Press, 29 February 1984, Page 20

‘Mysterious’ Fijian finds

NZPA special correspondent Suva A Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion combed the southern Fiji waters at the week-end where two military assault-type dinghies and a sealed steel container were found in mysterious circumstances on the island of Kadavu.

The Royal Fiji Military forces maintained a blanket of secrecy over the operation, as a combined force of soldiers and members of the naval squadron continued scouring the western tip of Kadavu Island, south of Suva.

Nobody would say what they were looking for, but according to reliable sources the hunt was on for possible foreign intruders. A contingent of troops was rushed to the island on Thursday to hunt for a group of mystery men who were ’believed to have landed on the island illegally. Villagers reported finding two rubber dinghies hidden in shrubs on the beach near Lomati village. The dinghies were fitted with inboard Japanese Yanmar diesel engines and the propellers had been removed.

The dinghies, both light blue, have only the numbers 103 and 101 painted on them for identification.

Villagers found the boats last Tuesday. They were beached and had been dragged up and hidden in the undergrowth. Branches and leaves hacked fifem

nearby trees were used to camouflage parts of the boats which were showing. The dinghies have been taken to the island’s government station at Vunisea. The steel container, said to resemble a large safe, was in the water near the spot where the dinghies were discovered. It was retrieved by members of the naval squadron and was being brought to Suva. The chief of staff of the Army, Colonel Jim Sandy, refused to discuss the operation. But the pilot of the R.N.Z.A.F. Orion said the crew flew and searched around the island on their way to Nandi on Friday afternoon and on Saturday, without finding anything.