Rabuka appeal

Press, 24 July 1987, Page 4

Rabuka appeal

By

PETER BALE

NZPA-Reuter Suva Fiji’s military strong man, Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka, appealed for calm yesterday after youths went on the rampage and an explosion rocked a nightclub in Suva.

The disturbances came after a decision by Fiji’s chiefs, seeking to restore democracy after a military coup two months ago, to increase the number of parliamentary seats for indigenous Fijians.

But the chiefs shelved a move by the extremist Taukei movement to turn Fiji into a republic and cut ties with the British Crown.

Fijian youths shouting “Fiji for Fijians” rampaged through Indianowned shops in Suva on Wednesday. The police said one person was arrested. All Indian shops in Suva immediately put up their shutters.

Later, the explosion occurred in a toilet at the popular Chequers Nightclub in central Suva. No-one was hurt.

The police said they believed it was a bomb, but there was no immedi-

ate indication of who had planted it. Colonel Rabuka, who toppled the Indian-domin-ated Government of Dr Timoci Bavadra in a lightning military coup on May 14, said yesterday he would meet the militant youth wing of the Taukei movement next week.

Taukei, which led agitation among indigenous Fijians after Dr Bavadra’s election in April, has agreed with the chiefs to temporarily withdraw its demand to turn Fiji into a republic. But the youth wing apparently remained defiant.

Colonel Rabuka warned two days ago that he could not prevent bloodshed and killings if the Great Council of Chiefs failed to achieve the aims of his coup. “If the Fijians don’t get what they want ... there will be rioting and perhaps killing,” he said in a radio interview. Colonel Rabuka has the backing of the Taukei movement in his aim to prevent Indians from achieving. political power over Fijians, whom they slig&tly outnumber in the population.

Taukei is a Fijian word meaning “owner” and in a broader definition "indigenous people.” Fiji is now being administered by the GovernorGeneral, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, representative of the Queen, who remained head of State after independence from Britain in 1970. He has appointed an interim administration and a committee to review the Constitution before fresh elections.

The Great Council of Chiefs which has backed Colonel Rabuka and Taukei, agreed to press Ratu Ganilau for an extra 10 exclusively Fijian seats in Parliament to enshrine for ever a majority for the indigenous people.

The former Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, who ruled for 17 years after independence, developed the compromise plan in the council to offset hardliners demanding the immediate declaration of a republic, council delegates told Reuters.

Ratu Mara met Fijian lawyers and a panel, including Colonel Rabuka and Taukei sup»rters, yesterday. "