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Issue No: 966; 24 July 2001
Senior officers of the military demanded key government posts at the height of the hostage crisis. This allegation is contained in a report compiled by a soldier who has supports the soldiers now charged with the mutiny of 2 November. The report states that there were "demands made by officers who marched into camp to support the military during the coup." It goes on to say: "They had demands for top government positions, promotion in ranks and most of these were done." "Some marched in as non-commissioned officers but left the camp after they were commissioned. From this point one can clearly see they had marched into camp not to serve but to fill their pockets." "Commodore Bainimarama had written to the Ministry of Information stating the PS position to be vacated and be given to Lt Ro Alipate Mataitini (now caretaker PM's public relation and media officer)." "The Ministry of Information still have a copy of the memo. There are other posts they had demanded, which I will speak later if time permits. I will not hesitate to speak out as most of the demands are not met yet, this should warn us that we should not relax as they can strike back again." "The other demand was fifty-five mobile phones to be purchased by the Ministry of Finance." "This is something an elected government does not practice. Only ministers and permanent secretaries (PS) are allowed to use mobile phones as it was costly but the Army's demand was met otherwise." "One of the mobile phone which belonged to the PS of the Ministry of Health with number 905-331 is now in the hands of Captain Pio Tikoduadua (Com Bainimarama's private secretary)." The military has not responded to the report despite it being
publicly available for the past 2 months. |
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People's Coalition Government - Fiji Islands |
