Last week, we highlighted the centrality of Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara in the Pacific within the framework of the Cold War between the Soviets and the US with supporters aligned on both sides of what was widely viewed as an ideological divide. We said Ratu Mara was a key member of the pro-Western alliance in the Pacific. It was he who stood as a bastion for democracy and free enterprise in the Pacific as concerns began to gain traction about the encroaching Soviet threat. That was one of the key considerations in the lead-up to 1987. Here, we move focus back to the Guns of Lautoka after covering police action that followed the tip-off from Australian Police (FT 12/04/2025).
The Gun Gang
AFTER learning of the container full of arms that had already reached Fiji in April 1988, intense police investigations led them to Ba and then to Lautoka, where the police team found the container at a man’s compound along Tavakubu Rd, close to the former Governor-General’s bure in Lautoka. The container was empty. The house owner was taken in for questioning and after about seven hours of interviewing (more likely interrogation), the man confessed and told police where the weapons were. We said earlier that 25 men were arrested on this tip-off (FT 12/04/2025). The process was not as simple as that because the investigation actually snowballed until the total number arrested reached 25.
Sergeant Ponipate Lesavua revealed in an interview that his team “arrested 11 people during the raids and they told us that they were just told to keep the weapons and ammunition and someone would pick it from them” (FT 23/06/2015). He further stated that some members of the deposed Bavadra Government were also taken in for questioning by police in connection with the arms find, but they were later released. It was obvious that not everyone who was arrested was charged; there were a good number who were not charged and were released at some stage after being interrogated and investigated.
In the meantime, Fiji stood on tenterhooks as the darkly forbidding investigations proceeded. It didn’t help that the media was tightly controlled at the time and information came into the public domain in either dribs and drabs or through the conspiracy laced and alarmist coconut wireless. What everyone was sure about is that police and military personnel were continuing with their investigations, and that whoever was caught would certainly face unbelievably brutal deaths. On June 8, 1988, The Fiji Times finally reported on the front page that 21 men had been charged for their alleged involvement in the illegal shipment of arms and ammunition to Fiji in April that year.
When the guns of Lautoka arrived in Fiji in April 1988, the illegal possession of arms, ammunition and explosives was a minor issue and armed insurrection was not part of life in the country at the time — it was a very foreign phenomenon. There is overwhelming evidence that the coup forces were desperately attempting to control and counter the dire threat that the appearance of arms outside official military circles posed for the coup regime that had usurped power in Fiji. To this effect a reactive and highly prohibitive Internal Security Decree was promulgated on June 17 1988.
Among its more ominous provisions was the fact that the Home Affairs Minister could make an order against a person “directing that such person be detained for any period not exceeding two years, provided that such detention shall be reviewed every six months by the minister”. A closer look at the Internal Security Decree of 1988 clearly reveals that it was a firefighting attempt to ward off potential resistance and insurrection emanating from the coup of 1987. More importantly for this article, it made the illegal possession of arms, ammunition and explosives punishable by life imprisonment.
Thus, all 21 Gun Gang members were remanded in custody by the Lautoka Magistrates Court amid much fear about their ultimate fate. Among those charged were Rewa chief, Ratu Mosese Tuisawau and Lautoka lawyer, Haroon Ali Shah. Ratu Mo was charged with conspiring with two others between March 30 and April 16 to illegally import arms and ammunition into Fiji. Shah faced a charge of failing to prevent another person from committing an offence and another of concealment. Around June 18, Haroon Shah was released on bail by the High Court in Lautoka. Very interestingly, the judge who heard his bail application criticised the handling of the case by the magistrate.
It needs to be noted that the High Court in Lautoka was considered to be uncompromised by the coup at that point in time. Anyone under threat of coup considerations preferred his/her case to be moved to Lautoka. In fact, alarm bells had already begun to ring at Delainabua (RFMF HQ) about the “noncompliance” of that court at that juncture. There would be intriguing manoeuvrings around this until the High Court in Lautoka also gradually fell into the highly compromised and unpredictable sway of the coup. The coup-makers finally had total control — legislature, executive and judiciary — of the country.
In the meantime, the search intensified as police and the military continued with their investigations into the arms find. The public did not know at that time, but it was suspected that not all the weapons had been recovered. In the end, of the total of 25 people arrested, 21 were charged. And of the total of 18 tons of arms that was supposed to be in the fateful container, 15 tons was recovered. We highlighted earlier that the search for these still-missing weapons intensified during the 2000 and 2006 coups.
There is also some confusion around exactly how much arms was packed in that one container. In 2003, Chair of Parliament’s Justice, Law and Order Committee, Ratu Rakuita Vakalalabure, who was facing serious charges for his role in the May 2000 coup at the time, said that 18 tonnes of arms from the container sited at Nagan’s in Ba were already dispersed into the population, but only 12 tonnes were ever recovered (RNZ 10/06/2003). This means that six tons was outstanding. Ponipate Lesavua put the missing amount at three tons.
There was also a discrepancy between the six pallets/packets mentioned by Australian authorities and the four packets of used machinery declared by Mohammed Shariff of Speedy Clearance and Ralph Kahan, the kingpin to customs in Lautoka. Research revealed reports that while he may not have seen the illegal weapons that were sent to Fiji, Dr Tupeni Baba believed some of the weapons were in Parliament after the opportunistic and highly ambitious coup led by George Speight in 2000.
He was reported to have said, “when I was held hostage in 2000, I saw the shotguns and AK47 guns being carried around by the Counter Revolutionary Warfare (CRW) unit soldiers and rebels in Parliament” (FT 30/06/2015). In the same The Fiji Times article, Ponipate Lesavua was reported to have said, “I also saw seven bazooka or rocket propelled grenade launchers when I was with George Speight in his office in Parliament”. He swore that those were the weapons he had invited the late Colonel Savenaca Draunidalo, who was in-charge at the military camp in Lautoka then, to view and identify as they were neatly laid out in the back yard of Lautoka Police Station. The Colonel identified the AK47 rifles (and most of the other weapons) as Czech made and said it was the first time for such weapons to be seen in Fiji.
While all this was going on, and abject fear gripped those who were part of the guns’ conspiracy, something was happening behind the scenes that led to the unexpectedly sudden and soft releases of all the suspects. I will develop this further next week.
