Coup planned weeks in advance

Press, 19 May 1987, Page 1

Coup planned weeks in advance

By

KAREN MANGNALL

“NZ HERALD”

Fiji’s military leader, Lieuten-ant-Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka, says he began planning Thursday’s coup almost three weeks in advance and his troops underwent special training for the raid on Parliament In an exclusive personal interview with the “New Zealand Herald,’’ Colonel Rabuka said yesterday that his coup was “one of thp most widely publicised coups in the world.” “It was common talk. People were expecting it to happen, Fijians mostly,” he said. Fijians had concluded there would be a military take-over but did not know who would do it — the commander of the Royal Fiji Military Forces, Brigadier Epali

Nailatikau, or one of the other senior Army officers. “I don’t believe the two officers senior to me ever thought about it because it is against our oath of Allegiance to Her Majesty and that goes for her Government,” he said. They never discussed the coup because it would have been unprofessional and probably mutinous. '.

Colonel Rabuka said he had spoken about it to “nobody, nobody at all." “It was a single-minded plan." The troops had been doing normal military training but with more emphasis on aspects useful in a coup or the “mass snatching of people.” ‘ At 8.30 a.m. on Thursday, Colonel Rabuka' had told his troops they were going to seize the Government members of

Parliament and anyone was allowed to withdraw if they wanted. Nobody did. Troops increased from 60 at 10 a.m. to about 2000 by 3 p.m. “Everything went exactly to plan. If the people at the New Zealand Staff College could have seen my operational plan they would never have believed it could work,” he said.

Colonel Rabuka had drawn on his 0.8. E.-winning experiences in Lebanon and had drawn a coup plan which extended as far as General Elections, but no specific; dates were set.

He always intended staging the coup when his commander was absent from Fiji but chose last Thursday because “the operational climate was right for the little clinical operation I had planned?’

His plan Included selecting civilians for. his council of Ministers.

“I had already picked who of these would support my views and who would be able to stand with me and risk life and victimisation to come along and support the cause I was fighting for, although there had been no fighting.”

Colonel Rabuka said he knew failure would mean being tried for treason, which carries the death penalty. He became concerned during the election campaign at the strategic implications to Fiji of an Indian-dominated Parliament with a coalition Government committed to non-alignment and a nuclear vessel port ban. “I realised we would very

slowly be drawn into foreign policy that would be harmful to the traditional alliances' we had had. “When I first planned the coup, there had been r some softening in their stand as far as non-alignment and nuclear port bans were concerned. ‘ / "If that was the only ground I was fighting on, if I had waited then perhaps they would have come back to my way of thinking,” he said.' 1 His principal motivation was the threat to Fijians’ rights from an Indian-dominated Government ■ £'• ; ■? He had always worried about any threat to traditional Fijian rights and In the past had worked up ’.’scenarios” to safeguard those rights. He had done some "war-gam-

■ meant a political pwty swiiiili During the election campaign he had realised the coalition was not sympathetic to Fijian value*. “I am a commoner and to see my high chief (Rata Slr.Kamisese Mara; the former Prime Minister) being accused of corruption with no proof ..." he said. ’ ti -. ■ "The , language used against him I will never accept nor would any right-thinking Fijian, I don’t think.”