More revelations on Rabuka

website: www.pcgov.org.fj

PEOPLE'S COALITION GOVERNMENT, FIJI

More revelations on Rabuka

Issue No: 198; 13 November 2000

Rabuka wanted to replace the Commander of the Military on 19 May, says the Daily Post Acting Editor and columnist Mesake Koroi.

In this column today (13 Nov), he writes that soon after the terrorists had taken the government hostage, Rabuka "was the first to call on the then President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara and without a blinker of an eyelid asked the father of modern Fiji to appoint him Commander of Fiji Limitary Forces ahead of Commodore Frank Bainimarama".

Koroi also writes that Rabuka was "negotiating for higher stakes. He wanted to be President".

In another article, today's Daily Post quotes the Commander of the third Fiji Infantry Regiment, the team which led the assault on the rebels on 2 November as saying that Rabuka went to the military barracks on 2 November to prolong the standoff with the intention of getting civilians into the barracks. Col. Seruvakula stated that Rabuka wanted to create a similar situation to that in Parliament after 19 May where civilians were used as human shields. Seruvakula is quoted as saying that the soldiers have been frustrated by Rabuka's actions in the past. He used them in 1987 to get him to a position of political power and later abandoned them, said Seruvakula. They saw Rabuka's entrance into the Barracks on 2 November as another of his manipulative tactics to which they would not be puppets, said Seruvakula.

Meanwhile, in a TC news interview this evening, Rabuka denied that he was the main leader of the mutineers of 2 November.

END

13 November 2000

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