Two weeks back, we highlighted the path followed by the deadly arms shipment to Fiji as it began from Hodeidah in North Yemen and moved through Sri Lanka and Singapore on its way to Darling Harbour in Sydney.
We said that Yemen was a war-ravaged country with porous borders because of a weak central government.
This helped both the procurement and shipment of weapons from there. We also highlighted that fractures in the power structure in Fiji after the May 1987 coup allowed for the weapons to pass undetected through security systems in place at Lautoka Wharf.
Here, we focus on the international arms environment that prevailed in the 1980s.
In order to understand the link between the international arms trade and the Guns of Lautoka we need to go back to World War II and the Cold War that followed it.
World War II
Any discussion about the Cold War has to start with WW II. This war raged for six years from September 1939 to September 1945. It pitted Germany and its allies against a grouping led by Britain and the USA. Unlike WW I which is widely considered to have been a “European War”, WW II involved countries throughout the world. This war witnessed the widespread use of fighter tanks and aircraft which proved to be critical in the setbacks and triumphs that followed key battles on various fronts in different countries. The B29 bombers used by the Americans, for instance, became the scourge of its enemies.
WW II also saw the first direct use of nuclear weapons on enemy targets when the US dropped “Little Boy” on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and “Fat Man” on Nagasaki three days later. Total deaths resulting from this is estimated to have numbered 150,000–246,000. Moreover, WW II is said to have resulted in a combined total of 70 to 85 million deaths. Of these, more than half were civilians who were not combatants. Many of the atrocious and egoistic ambitions of unscrupulous leaders that contributed to these casualties are well captured in historical novels as well as movies.
It needs to be noted that by mid-1944, the war was virtually over in Europe. This is why the Yalta Conference, held from February 4–11, 1945, involved heads of government of the US, the UK and the Soviet Union to discuss the post-war reorganisation of Germany and Europe. At this point, the Pacific theatre still flared and thundered as the Americans attempted to bomb and bludgeon capitulation from unrelenting Japanese Imperial Forces. This was to finally conclude with an unconditional surrender by Emperor Hiro Hito via the Jewel Voice Broadcast on August 15. The formal signing took place aboard the USS Missouri on September 2,1945.
The Russians claimed last swaths of the eastern parts of Germany and named it German Democratic Republic (GDR) or East Germany. Parts to the west occupied by the Allied Forces became known as West Germany. The huge Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) arose after WW II as Russia laid claims to the republics it saw as its own. The invasion of Crimea in 2014 and, more recently, Ukraine in February 2022 are linked to these historical developments and hegemonic designs of Russia and especially its current president, Vladimir Putin.
The dreaded and loathed Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to prevent East Germans from visiting West Germany as they were not likely to return and, more importantly, they could carry secrets about what life was really like living under the Soviet umbrella. This wall came down in 1989 under the combined pressure of popular uprisings in Moscow and Berlin as well as a weakening of hard line (largely) economic sentiments in the power circles of Moscow.
It is hoped that readers will realise that this is a general take on the political developments of the time. Much more discussion is needed to get to the undercurrents, the imperatives of policy makers, the sentiments of leaders, the arms race, etc. in order to get a better understanding of why the Berlin Wall fell and how the USSR disintegrated as the different republics subsequently formed their own governments. That detailed discussion is for other more focused and thematically organised settings. Here we need to get back to how the Cold War developed.
The Cold War
The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension that lasted from 1947 to 1991. It is directly linked to how WW II ended and how Germany was divided into two parts with East Germany becoming a Soviet outpost while West Germany moved into the western sphere of influence. Thus, the Cold War emerged as the US and its allies sought to contain the spread of communism, while the Soviet Union aimed to expand its influence globally on the appeal of communism as a political ideology. It was primarily a tug-of-war that was fought between the US and the Soviet Union on political, economic, and ideological fronts, rather than through direct military engagement.
Wikipedia says that key events during this period included the arms race, the space race, and various proxy wars around the world. The aim was to show how communism or democracy was the more successful form of government. Visible proof of superiority was needed. Thus, the space race was a keenly observed struggle for superiority. When Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the earth aboard the Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961, the Soviets appeared to have gained an upper hand on that front. This lead was short-lived as just three weeks later Alan Shepard followed suit becoming the first American in space on May 5, 1961.
The Soviets made another leap ahead when Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. Not only that, on June 16, 1963, aboard the Vostok 6 she orbited the Earth 48 times, spent almost three days in space, and is the only woman to have been on a solo flight in space. Not to be outdone, the American flag was planted on the moon by Neil Armstrong and his crew from the Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969. Some of us will recall the huge sense of relief, jubilation and triumph that accompanied that monumental achievement when Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon and declared, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
This is what attracted African, Asian and Latin American leaders and their supporters to armed struggle in their quest for revolutionary change in governments. And it is here that both the Soviets and the Americans supplied arms to further their competition for ideological, and by extension, geopolitical superiority. It is these weapons that found their way into the international arms market after hostilities ceased and new governments were set up in these troubled countries around the world.
And it is these weapons that international arms traders like Adnan Kashoggi were able to make available to those in need for a profit. Rafik Kahan was chasing this for an uprising in Fiji. Part of those weapons did arrive here in April 1988. Kahan himself was here to supervise the crucial offloading process and returned to Sydney to await further shipments. The next shipment arrived in Sydney in May 1988 and was apparently cleared for transit to Fiji when someone (or some people) who were part of the conspiracy alerted authorities in Australia.
Readers might ask why we have spent so much time on WW II and the Cold War here. This has been considered necessary because the ideological/geopolitical tug-of-war between the US and the USSR was also played out in the Pacific. Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara’s quietly purposeful trips to the East-West Centre in Hawaii, the alarm when Kiribati signed a fishing treaty with the Soviets in 1985, the bogus “Russia Letter” allegedly signed by SM Koya, the appearance of Colonel Vernon Walters in Suva just prior to the 1987 coup, the lukewarm and largely unhelpful response of the West to Timoci Bavadra’s righteous democracy campaign after that fateful 1987 coup — these are all linked to America’s concerns with the Soviets moving into the Pacific at that time as the Cold War seethed silently.
I will develop this further next week.
n Dr SUBHASH APPANNA is a senior USP academic who has been writing regularly on issues of historical and national significance. The views expressed here are his alone and not necessarily shared by this newspaper or his employers. He can be contacted on subhash.appana@usp.ac.fj
