WORLD

US. ‘blessed’ military coup in Fiji

“No one was surprised when the
Fiji Times reported that the U.S.
blessed the military coup in Fiji
and said that it was ready to grant
aid to the regime,” Boris Olegov, a
political correspondent for the
APN news agency reported in a
commentary last week.

Olegov pointed out that the mil-
itary overthrow of the democra-
tically-elected coalition government
headed by Labor Party Prime Min-
ister Dr. Timoci Bavadra is of
obvious benefit to the U.S., in par-
ticular because it heads off any
immediate action on the Labor
Party’s promise to ban. nuclear
weapons from its territory and to
join the Non-Aligned Movement.

The coalition of the two-year-
old Labor Party and the National
Federation Party scored a major
election victory in mid-April, win-
ning a four-seat majority over the
pro-U.S, Alliance Party which had
ruled Fiji since the island won its
independence from Britain in 1970.

The Labor Party, the main
partner in the coalition, was
founded in July, 1985 with the
support of Fii’s trade union
movement. Its leader, Dr. Bavadra,
was sworn in as prime minister fol-
lowing the election victory.

The election brought a low-key
but swift reaction from U.S. ruling
circles which suggested that the

“nuclear allergy” of New Zealand
might be spreading.

On May 14, barely a month after
his government had taken office,
Bavadra was overthrown by a mil-
itary coup which installed a Coun-
cil of Ministers dominated by
members of the Alliance Party and
headed by Governor-General Ratu
Sir Penaia Ganilau, a long time ally
of the Alliance Party leader.

“Labor’s policy was a challenge
to the Pentagon’s plans for the
Pacific. It was an expansion of the
anti-nuclear ‘allergy’ begun by
New Zealand in barring nuclear-
carrying U.S. warships from its
ports,” Olegov stated in his com-
mentary.

He emphasized: “There is clear
evidence of the U.S. role in recent
Fiji events, including a warning last
year by U.S. Pacific Military
Command Chief, Ronald Hayes,
who stated on television: “I am
concerned about the growth of the
Fiji Labor Party. We'll have to
keep our eyes on Fiji ...’.”

In addition, said Olegov, “there
was the visit to Fiji just prior to the
elections by former CIA deputy
director Vernon Walters who is
widely known to have had a hand
in preparations for the 1964 mil-
itary coup in Brazil, the 1973 coup
in Chile as well as the groundwork
for the 1983 invasion of Grenada.”

doctrine:

arms;

Europe;

tions;

Bulgaria.

Warsaw Pact calls
for NWF zones

From Berlin

Gerry van Houten

BERLIN — In a new initiative aimed at facilitating con-
fidence-building, the seven members of the Warsaw Pact meeting
here May 29-30, called on NATO to begin discussions comparing
and analyzing their military doctrines.

To encourage this process, the Pact’s Political Consultative
Committee issued a six-point statement outlining its own military

e Animmediate end to the testing of nuclear weapons as a first
step toward stopping the development and production of nuclear

e Prohibition of all chemical weapons; :
e Reduction of armed forces and conventional weapons in

e Strict verification procedure including on-the-spot inspec-

e Formation of chemical and nuclear weapons-free zones;

e Dissolution of both the Warsaw Pact and NATO alliances.

Ata press conference here, an official said the Warsaw Pact is
prepared to discuss ways and means of overcoming existing
military asymmetries between the two alliances. However, it
would prefer to cut back to equal levels rather than, as proposed
by some in NATO, increase to equal levels.

Stating that the Warsaw Pact is ‘‘always optimistic that an
agreement could be reached removing intermediate-range nu-
clear missiles from Europe, the official expressed his alliances’
hope that U.S. President Reagan’s words that a deal could be
reached by the end of 1987 was true. He observed that such an
agreement would be the first to actually dismantle and destroy
existing operational nuclear missiles.

Calling for disarmament on the basis of equality and equal
security, the official re-affirmed the Warsaw Pact’s position that
it ‘‘is and will remain opposed to war, whether conventional or
nuclear.’’ The meeting was attended by representatives from the
USSR, Poland, GDR, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary and

Olegov noted a speech last year
by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorba-
chev in which he stated, “Wherever
independence becomes a tangible
international value and a threat to
the exploitative interests of impe-
rialism emerges, its resorts ‘to its
favorite methods: economic black-
mail, intrigues and plots, interfer-
ence in internal affairs. It backs
separatists and finances and even
directly arms counter-revolution
and terrorists.”

In fact, as the current U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations,
Walters has been ideally located as
the Reagan administration’s envoy
for covert action. He has a record
of involvement going back to the
1953 overthrow of the Mossadegh
government in Iran and one of his
recent accomplishments was to
bring together the various bands of
former Nicaraguan dictator Anas-
tasio Somoza’s National Guards-
man that were left after the
Nicaraguan revolution and to
arrange for them to be merged to
form the base for the contras.

Significantly, press reports in
recent months have noted that
Walters is often absent from his
UN seat because he is travelling to
various places in the world on
secret missions.

The New Zealand Tribune, pub-
lished by the Socialist Unity Party,

Ot

also drew attention to the visit to
Fiji by Walters, noting that his
appearance coincided with a meet-
ing of regional right-wing leaders.

In an editorial in its May 25
issue, the paper said that the
defeated Alliance Party had organ-
ized demonstrations among native
Fijians against the Labor Party
government and had inflamed
racial tensions between native Fiji-
ans and those of Indian descent in
an effort to destabilize the govern-
ment.

But when those demonstrations
had subsided and the government
had been successful in restoring
calm, the army engineered the mil-
itary coup, led by Colonel Sitiveni
Rabuka, third in command of the
Fijian Army.

The Alliance Party, under former
Prime Minister Ramisese Mara,
had long depended on British-
inspired racial division to maintain
its rule. The population is roughly
evenly divided between native Fiji-
ans and Indians, the latter being
the descendants of contract labor-
ers who were brought to the island
by the British in the 19th century.

SERPS SE ey ee

Following the Labor Party elec-
tion, the Alliance Party inflamed
tensions with suggestions that
land, most of which is held by
native Fijians, would be threatened
under the new government. Accor-
ding to the New Zealand Tribune,
the issue created mass confusion
because the country’s constitution
is not written in Fijian and villagers
have traditionally relied on the

hereditary chiefs to explain it to
them.

The paper noted that CIA con-
nections in Fiji have been “vast
— through businessmen, educa-
tionalists, U.S. aid, U.S. trade
union support and other channels.

“The Alliance Chiefs are closely

TOP: Labor Party Prime Minister
Dr. Timoci Bavadra addresses
meeting during April election
campaign. Left, coup leader Col.
Sitiveni Rabuka. Bottom: Ver-
non Walters.

tied to international business,” it
added.

In New Zealand, the overthrow
of Labor Party Prime Minister Dr.
Timoci Bavadra has touched off
protests in several major centres
and both Australian and New Zea-
land trade unions have imposed
trade bans against Fiji to protest
the coup. The International Con-
federation of Free Trade Unions
has also called for an international
trade ban.

In Wellington, hundreds of
people turned out to the airport to
greet Labor Education Minister
Dr. Tupeni Baba and two other
Labor ministers as they arrived for
a series of meetings with New Zea-
land supporters of Fijian demo-
cracy.

The Coalition for Democracy,
backed by trade unions, church
organizations and peace groups,
was founded in both Auckland
and Wellington, New Zealand to
press the demand for the restora-
tion of democracy in Fiji. Several
mass meetings have called on the
New Zealand Labor Party govern-
ment of David Lange to recognize
only the Bavadra government and
demand its reinstatement.

Strikes have also been launched
in Fiji by the labor movement in
protest over the coup.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 10, 1987 e 9

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