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Issue No: 632; 27 March 2001
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecution has again failed to prosecute a case involving a 1998 roadblock to the Monasavu Hydro-electricity dam. The high profile case involved a group of politicians and villagers who blocked the access to the dam and posted traditionally clad `warriors' at the dam access. The then SVT government of Sitiveni Rabuka had to mobilise the military to the area to clamp down on the group. This was the first post-independence confrontation involving the military and ethnic Fijian villagers. Yesterday the accused were let go by the Chief Magistrate Salesi Temo on grounds that the prosecution office had failed to get its witnesses in the case to the court. The Fiji Sun reports that the Prosecution office, Jo Waqavolavola told the court that his office was not prepared to bring the witnesses to the court. Magistrate Temo stated that it was a waste of time and dismissed the case. The accused included Samuela Konataci who is now facing treason charges together with terrorist George Speight and others. Meanwhile, today only one newspaper, the Fiji Sun reported the dismissal of the case. The state-owned Daily Post covered its local news pages with news from the Pacific Island region like ecotourism in Tonga, viability of Niue, revenue collection in Solomon Islands, and vanilla growers in PNG. |
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People's Coalition Government - Fiji Islands |
