Fijian community leader calls for democracy's restoration

Fijian community leader calls for democracy's restoration

BRISBANE — “Fifty two homes have been broken into. Families are
fleeing into the bush. Cattle are being slaughtered and police vehicles
are being used for cartage”, Fijian community leader Anukar Mishra told
a Green Left Weekly forum on June 7.

While international media have focussed on the parliamentary compound,
Mishra, chair of the Movement to Restore Democracy in Fiji (Queensland),
described an increasingly dangerous situation for Indian-Fijians in the
country's eastern provinces.

“Indians own only 2-3% of all the land in Fiji”, he said, rejecting
charges by coup leader George Speight that Melanesian-Fijians were losing
out to Indian-Fijians.

Even before the coup, “some chiefs had decided to take back land leased
to Indian farmers as their leases expire”, Mishra explained, saying that
control of the land was a central issue in the current crisis.

Mishra also argued that the coup against Chaudhry reflected a fear by
those who had done well under the previous government of 1987 coup leader
Sitiveni Rabuka that they would “lose their perks” and that Chaudhry would
win an even larger majority in the next elections. Reactionary elements
turned to Speight as their saviour.

Mishra argued that there was a “growing convergence of the indigenous
and Indian-Fijian masses”, which was worrying both the coup leaders and
the military, particularly in the urban areas but also in other regions,
such as the west.

Violence is restricted to the eastern areas where Speight is based,
Mishra said. In the eastern area, only 200 Indian-Fijians live alongside
5000 Melanesian-Fijian families. “Racism is just from a group of people
who have not lived with the other races”, Mishra said.

Mishra supported sanctions as the only practicable way to restore democracy
to Fiji. “I have been through sanctions in 1987, but I am in favour of
it” he said. “It is the only weapon we have.” 

From GLW issue 409