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Issue No: 800; 28 May 2001
Former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has come to the defence of an alleged terrorist financier. According to media reports, Rabuka has asked the Qarase regime to bail out the troubled Valebasoga TropicBoards Ltd. The company is under receivership. The owner of the company was reportedly investigated for financing the terrorists last year. Rabuka has proposed to the Qarase regime that it should consider treating the company's debt as a grant from the government to the company, and allow the state owned Fiji Development Bank to write off the loan. Alternatively he suggested that Qarase should allow the company to reprogram its debt servicing, or to suspend the debt repayments until the political economic situations stabilises. Rabuka cited the cases of Emperor Gold Mining and Fiji Forest Industries where his regime had intervened. He stated: "Financial assistance to Emperor Gold Mine, Mt. Kasi and Fiji Forest Industries come to mind as their problems relate to events not of their own making, like the 1987 military coups and the low gold price". Emperor Gold Mining Company had financed a large part of the destabilisation campaign in 1987. In return the Australian owned company continued to seek and receive public funds under the Rabuka regime. Rabuka's intervention exposes the Rabuka modus operandi: seek funds and assistance for toppling elected governments from private companies whose operations are less than transparent, and fund them back through taxpayer money when in power. Meanwhile, the Labasa bus company which had gone on strike last month citing poor road conditions, has had a bank seize numerous buses for non payment of loans. It is understood that the bus company was using the strike action in a bid to get the Qarase regime to provide it financial assistance. A prominent Labasa politician who was defeated in the last election, and who is alleged to be a financier of the terrorists, is also associated with the bus company. |
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People's Coalition Government - Fiji Islands |
