Issue No: 748; 11 May 2001

In an interview with today's Fiji Sun, Waqanisau stated:
"You see, coup d'etat is becoming an embarrassment for a small country like Fiji. TO me, I'm concerned because I studied defence analysis and security and I have a Masters degree in that. Every time you think of coup d'etat, when you study coup d'etat, the more you hate coup d'etat. That's a fact. It's the last thing you would like to happen in your country".

He explained that this was because of the consequences on the nation:
"When you study coup d'etat you study many examples of coup d'etat all over the world. Hoe did it start? How did it end? The consequences the country faced. For me as a soldier, it's an embarrassment. The world knows Fiji for only two things now - sevens rugby and coup d'etat".

Waqanisau was responding to allegations by soldiers charged with mutiny that he supported the terrorists. Waqanisau stated that he did not support the terrorists, nor to what happened. His only role, he said, was to present the sevusevu to the terrorists to get them to the negotiating table again.

Waqanisau got into the spotlight when the soldiers now charged with mutiny wrote a report alleging that he was pro-terrorists. Waqanisau was earlier on record as saying that people involved with the terrorists should not be investigated because it was a hindrance to reconciliation. More recently, he referred to the deposed President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara's allegation that police commissioner Isikia Savua and former PM Sitiveni Rabuka were involved with the terrorists, as "unending wild accusations". He also stated that there will be no more investigations into Savua's involvements with the terrorists.