Rotuma to be independent’

Press, 13 May 1988, Page 10

Rotuma to be independent’

PA Suva Seven Rotuman chiefs were reported under arrest on charges of sedition yesterday as their leader circulated a proposed constitution giving their island links with the British Crown and New Zealand.

“King” Gagaj Sau Lagfatmaro has said his Malmahao clan on the island, 400 kilometres north of Suva, will declare it independent from the Republic of Fiji today. The “king” on Thursday night was at his home in Auckland, where he is also known as Henry Gibson and runs a martial arts studio.

Meanwhile, copies of a Rotuman constitution drafted with the help of a lawyer, Tevita Fa, were being circulated among Malmahao clansmen in Rotuma and in Suva.

According to Rotuman sources, it appoints the Queen as the Queen of Rotuma. Her Governor-General in New Zealand would hold a similar position in Rotuma where he would be represented by a resident high commissioner.

There also would be a “House of Chiefs” for the seven district chiefs and a 14-member legislative assembly. A chief justice would preside over a high court of Rotuma. The sources said the constitution made no mention of the Gagaj or his assumed kingship of the Malmahao. Rotuma was annexed by Britain on May 13, 1881, and since then has been administered from Suva, the Fijian capital, with a Rotuman district council.

Reports reaching Suva

say seven Malmahao chiefs were arrested by a visiting police party last week and will appear in a special magistrate’s court on Monday, charged with sedition.

Fiji’s chief magistrate, the director of public prosecutions and his principal legal officer will fly to the island at the weekend to take charge of proceedings. A Fijian naval squadron patrol boat carrying 10 soldiers was due at Rotuma yesterday. A senior Army officer said on Tuesday that all were Rotumans returning for brief home leave, but would stand by in case of disturbances tomorrow. Also due at Rotuma today was the British communications maintenance ship Pacific Guardian, carrying the British Ambassador to Fiji, Mr Roger

Barltrop, on his first visit to Rotuma.

The Gagaj spoke to a “Fiji Times” reporter from his Auckland home.

The “Times” quoted him as saying of the arrest of his clansmen: “Maybe this is the price we have to pay to get what we want. If that is the price, let it be.”

The Gagaj asked what authority Fiji’s republican Government had over Rotuma and its 3000 mainly Polynesian residents.

He said Rotuma was no longer part of Fiji since it became a republic after last year’s two coups de’etat, and Fiji’s laws no longer applied to Rotuma. Britain Embassy spokesmen say London’s position is that it considers Rotuma still part of Fiji.