Lawyer’s view of Fiji

Press, 4 March 1989, Page 23

Lawyer’s view of Fiji

The Guns of Lautoka. By Christopher Harder. Sunshine Press, Auckland, 1988. 249 pp. (Reviewed by Pramil Masih) This is a counter-attack by an Auckland lawyer on the Fijian regime of Major-General Sitiveni Rabuka after Harder’s detention in the military state. It is an attempt by the author to tell the world of the real situation in post-coup Fiji. The treatment of political prisoners, specially Indians, is disturbing — a sorry tale of the degradation of basic human rights. Sadly, Harder gets carried away with self-indulgence and one wonders if the book is about Fiji or is a vehicle of self-promotion. He give rather laborious details of his past court cases, but the latter part of the book is interesting once he concentrates on “The Guns of Lautoka” and the suspected gunrunner, Mohammed Rafiq Khan. Harder’s political involvement begins when the exiled “King of Rotuma” recruits him in Auckland to defend eight Rotuman chiefs charged with sedition. This leads to his case of defending

six of the 21 people charged in connection with the importation of illegal Soviet weapons into Fiji. Here he falls foul of Rabuka and spends time detained in the military barracks and is finally booted out of the country. He then goes to London to meet the much travelled Khan, where the latter is arrested. Khan implicates the interim Prime Minister, Ratu Mara, and some top Indian businessmen in the arms consignment, claiming it was Mara’s plot to rid the country of Rabuka. The writer labels Rabuka a “thug” and Mara a “commercial bandit.” Harder also claims that Rabuka has Israeli links and Khan will be executed by the army if he is extradited. He also touches on the breakdown of law and order in Fiji. One judge is said to be still in occupation after using a four letter word twice in court. One can only get away with it if one is related to the Major-General. Many questions about the arms shipment are still unanswered, but the book is worth a read for those following the Fijian revolution.