IBook reveals plot to oust Rabuka

Press, 16 November 1988, Page 14

IBook reveals plot to oust Rabuka

PA Wellington Senior Army officers, politicians and businessmen were involved in a plot to overthrow Fiji’s military-backed Government, a New Zealand lawyer, Mr Christopher Harder, says in a new book.

He says the big arms cache intercepted by security forces in June was to be used by a secret, disciplined force of Indians, Fijians, and islanders from Rotuma and the Solomons. The militia force was to support elements of a divided Fijian Army in a rebellion against the military leader, MajorGeneral Sitiveni Rabuka. The aim of the countercoup was to return to power the former Fiji Prime Minister, Dr Timoci Bavadra. A compromise measure would have been to set up a government of national unity incorporating the present Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, to “defuse any urge for foreign intervention (and) to appease the greatest

majority of Fiji people.” The government of national unity would restore democracy to Fiji and seek its return to the Commonwealth. The plot collapsed when the cache of Soviet made arms were found by Fijian forces near Lautoka. In his book, “The Guns of Lautoka,” Mr Harder alleges that a Fijian-born Indian, Mohammed Kahan, aged 46, was implicated in the illegal importation of Soviet-made arms into Fiji earlier this year. Mr Harder names a number of other prominent Fijian people who he claims were involved. Mr Harder, who researched his book in Fiji, Canada and Britain, said yesterday his claims were all backed by signed

affidavits, including a statement written by Kahan on September 28 in Brixton Prison. Kahan was arrested on July 22 in London after the discovery of a number of automatic weapons, ammunition and hand grenades in Fiji in June. The Fiji Government is seeking Kahan’s extradition to face charges in connection with the illegal arms. A hearing over whether the extradition treaty between Britain and Fiji is valid since Fiji became a republic is due at the end of this month. Mr Harder quotes Kahan in his book as saying the Soviet weapons were “brought to Fiji for the protection of the Indian people during civil disturbances.” He says Kahan was con-

fident of what he was doing because “prominent people and persons of high rank” were implicated in the arms shipment. The arms were carried to Fiji on board the freighter Capitaine Cook 111. They were listed as used machinery, and according to the cargo manifest, had come from Yemen in the Middle East via Sydney. Mr Harder quotes Kahan as saying a committee involving individuals in Canada, America, Hawaii, Fiji, Australia and Britain discussed civil disobedience in Fiji. Initially the group numbered five but got bigger. He does not name members, nor say how big the committee eventually was.