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Pacific News Minute: Fiji Arrests Dozens in Plot to Set Up Breakaway State

Wikipedia Commons
Wikipedia Commons

As many as 60 people are under arrest in Fiji on charges of sedition, amid allegations of military training aimed at the establishment of a breakaway Christian state. More from Neal Conan in today’s Pacific News Minute.

While the details of the charges remain murky, the reaction of the authorities is anything but.  Fiji's Prime minister, Frank Bainimarama declared "There will be no so-called independent states established in Fiji.” Put simply he added, "any insurrection will be crushed."

Dozens have been arrested and charged with sedition over the last month, amid unsubstantiated reports from government sources that a Fijian national who previously served in the British Army had run secret military training camps in several villages as part of a plot to set up a breakaway Christian state on the island of Viti Levu.  The veteran has not been identified.

Police Commissioner Ben Groenenwald said he could not confirm that firearms were involved.  Private ownership of firearms is illegal in Fiji… nor would he comment on any connection to weapons that reportedly went missing during the 1987 and 2000 coups.  There have been four military takeovers in Fiji since 1987, the most recent, in 2006, saw former naval officer Frank Bainimarama seize power for a second time, and install himself as prime minister. Last year, his Fiji First party won a landslide victory in a poll that international observers deemed credible, and Fiji has since been re-admitted to the Pacific Islands Forum.

Over 36 years with National Public Radio, Neal Conan worked as a correspondent based in New York, Washington, and London; covered wars in the Middle East and Northern Ireland; Olympic Games in Lake Placid and Sarajevo; and a presidential impeachment. He served, at various times, as editor, producer, and executive producer of All Things Considered and may be best known as the long-time host of Talk of the Nation. Now a macadamia nut farmer on Hawaiʻi Island, his "Pacific News Minute" can be heard on HPR Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
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