Mr Bainimarama’s lively reform programmeEARLIER this month in Fiji’s capital, Suva, a convoy of lorries, carrying 25 sealed shipping containers and under a heavy military guard, dodged the potholes along Mead Road and snaked into the Queen Elizabeth Barracks. In the containers were Russian weapons, ammunition and vehicles supposed to be destined for use by Fiji’s international peacekeepers in the Sinai desert in Egypt and along the Israel-Syria frontier on the Golan Heights. The opposition cried foul, claiming that the arms had entered the country illegally, without proper police authorisation. Some dared suggest the weapons might even be for the purpose of threatening the opposition.
The opposition politicians seem not to have appreciated how firmly the police have been under the control of the army since the (South African) chief of police, Ben Groenewald, resigned in November. He left in protest, accusing the armed forces of undermining his investigation into police brutality—they had even recruited the suspects into the army’s own ranks, despite the allegations hanging over them. Mr Groenewald’s successor is a...Continue reading
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