Former Fiji Prime Minister Rabuka denies involvement in mutiny

November 5, 2000
Web posted at: 10:53 AM HKT (0253 GMT)

SUVA, Fiji (Reuters) -- Former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said on Sunday he had been banned from entering military facilities after being accused by Fiji's fractured military of involvement in a failed army mutiny.

Rabuka's claim came as a nightly curfew was lifted at 6 a.m. (1800 GMT Saturday) and searches continued for the remnants of a group of 20 rebels who escaped after Thursday's mutiny.

Rabuka, leader of a coup in 1987 and former head of the South Pacific nation's armed forces, acted as a negotiator with rebel special forces soldiers during bloody gun battles at Fiji's military headquarters which left eight soldiers dead.

"I deny any involvement in the planning of the attempted takeover," Rabuka told Reuters.

"I am aware that I am not allowed into military premises, and this could mean that I am a suspect," he said.

The military put down the mutiny by the elite Counter Revolutionary Warfare (CRW) unit, members of which had backed a May coup which toppled the government of Mahendra Chaudhry.

Rabuka was caught in gunfire at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks as he tried to convince the rebels to lay down their arms.

The military says Rabuka was stopped at a checkpoint after he left the barracks and one of the alleged ringleaders of the mutiny, Warrant Officer Apaitia Waqaniboro, was found in his government-issued four-wheel drive vehicle.

"The rebel was ordered out of Rabuka's vehicle and was arrested on the spot," military spokesman Major Howard Politini told Reuters.

"He is believed to be one of the leaders of the mutiny and was involved in the shoot out," said Politini, who did not comment on whether Rabuka had been banned from army premises.

Rabuka did not deny driving Waqaniboro out of the barracks. Waqaniboro is among 23 CRW rebels being held in military custody after the mutiny.

The Fiji Times newspaper reported that some of the captured mutineers had implicated Rabuka in statements to investigators.

Searches are continuing in bush land around Suva for 11 CRW rebels still on the run.

More than 20 people were wounded in the gun battles, including several civilians hit by stray bullets. Five rebels and three soldiers loyal to military commander Frank Bainimarama died in the shoot out.

Fiji Human Rights Commissioner Justice Sailosi Kepa said in a statement on Sunday he would investigate how the rebels died.

Military-backed interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase has called on the rebel soldiers to give themselves up as Fiji struggles to recover from the effects of the May 19 coup by nationalist rebels under failed businessman George Speight.

The mutiny came at a bad time for Fiji's battered economy, which is based on tourism, sugar and garment manufacturing and was just starting to recover from damage caused by the May coup. The unpopular Chaudhry was Fiji's first ethnic Indian leader. Fiji's ethnic Indians make up about 44 percent of the 800,000 population and dominate the economy.

Suva's streets bustled with activity as the curfew was lifted on Sunday, with many people in the deeply religious South Pacific nation heading to church.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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