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Issue No: 673; 11 April 2001
The highly decorated soldier, Lt-Col Viliame Seruvakula charges that prominent people in Fiji are behind the terrorists. In an interview with today's Fiji Sun, Seruvakula responds to the question whether there are businessman, chiefs and failed politicians behind the terrorists, as follows: "Definitely, there are failed businessmen, chiefs and politicians. It is going to surface in the investigations…The people in Nukulau, none of those people came out with the ideas to plot a coup to take place. They are men in the middle. People who came up with the idea are still walking the streets, working and getting paid today." He also revealed that during the first week of the hostage taking, "a substantial sum of money" was sent to him. "From where it came, I was pretty sure that investigations will get to that". Seruvakula also stated that he did not talk to the leader of the terrorist, George Speight, who is his cousin. But he said, he "spoke to a very prominent politician who asked whether I was with George and I said no. And he said people in parliament think that you should support him and that was the evening of Friday (May 19). I told them no, straight up…". These revelations continue to confirm the allegations that prominent businessmen, particularly ethnic Indians, and defeated politicians of the SVT-NFP Coalition were behind the terrorist uprising. Seruvakula knows the identity of the prominent politician who asked him to support the terrorists. Some terrorists claimed that they were waiting for former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and Police Commissioner Isikia Savua to turn up together with other soldiers to the Parliament Complex after they took the government hostage. Could the non-appearance of Rabuka and Savua be explained by the lack of support from Seruvakula's unit? It is clear that the military knows much more that what has been revealed to
the public about the personalities involved in holding the country to a ransom.
This information ought to be bought out to the public if the military is to
regain its standing within Fiji and outside. A failure to do this will continue
to raise suspicions of the military as being a party in some form to the
miseries which people are suffering in Fiji.
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People's Coalition Government - Fiji Islands |
