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RR RUEHPB
DE RUEHSV #0152/01 1140732
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 240732Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY SUVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1165
INFO RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 2220
RUEHPB/AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY 1678
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 0279
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0412
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SUVA 000152 
 
SIPDIS 
 
PASS TO EAP/ANP AND INR/EAP 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/24/2019 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM FJ
SUBJECT: ANXIOUS FIJI MAINTAINS SURFACE CALM 
 
 ¶1.  (C) Summary:  Two weeks after the abrogation of its 
constitution, life largely continues as normal in Fiji. 
Beneath the surface, many Fijians remain fearful and angry 
over the recent events.  Some Embassy contacts warn of civil 
unrest in the upcoming months, but most discount the 
likelihood.  The de facto government,s campaign of 
intimidation against the press and human rights groups 
continues with censors in newsrooms and implied threats of 
arrest for dissenters.  No one has yet been charged with an 
offense under the Public Emergency Regulation (PER), although 
two journalists and the Fiji Law Society president have been 
detained.  The de facto government has found it difficult to 
re-establish the upper courts of Fiji,s judiciary due to the 
reluctance of lawyers to accept senior judicial positions. 
Local leaders of opposition political parties, diplomatic 
missions, the business community, non-governmental 
organizations (NGOs) and academia overwhelmingly support 
continued U.S. engagement as one of the few remaining avenues 
for influencing Bainimarama and his cohorts.  End summary. 
 
FIJI REMAINS CALM ON THE SURFACE 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶2.  (U) Two weeks after the abrogation of Fiji,s 
constitution, day-to-day life continues much as it did before 
the issuance of the Public Emergency Regulation.  People go 
to work, children go to school, public service continues 
without interruption, restaurants and the movie theater are 
open, sporting activities are well attended, and resorts 
welcome tourists, albeit in somewhat fewer numbers than 
before Abrogation.  What few police or military checkpoints 
exist are not new, and no incidents have occurred to suggest 
a breakdown of public order.  An American visitor to Fiji 
commented that he would not have known anything unusual was 
occurring had he  not been told.  Some Embassy contacts 
insist, however, that beneath this semblance of calm, many 
Fijians are scared and angry. 
 
TROUBLE ON THE HORIZON? 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (C) In separate meetings with Embassy officers, retired 
army colonel and former Ambassador to China Jeremaia 
Waqanisau and SDL Party Director Peceli Kinivuwai gave 
worrisome predictions of future unrest.  They said that it 
takes time to organize in Fiji, but we should expect to see 
some action over the next few months.  Waqanisau informed us 
that a think tank associated with the Methodist church is 
compiling derogatory information on what the de facto 
government has been doing and plans to disseminate it to the 
provinces next month    He predicted that this information 
would spark civil unrest among ethnic Fijians that could 
become violent.  Kinivuwai warned that something would happen 
and indicated it could be as early as mid-May.  He would not 
say exactly what was being planned.  He did claim it would be 
peaceful, but massive.  Waqanisau suggested that Land Forces 
Commander Pita Driti might rise up and overthrow Bainimarama, 
adding that Driti had sent a civilian emissary to him to 
discuss possible actions and immunity.  However, Kinivuwai 
said it was more likely that someone outside the military 
would lead the counter-coup, possibly a retired Colonel. 
 
(OR JUST MORE OF THE SAME? 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (C) Most Embassy contacts in the business community, 
academia, media, and NGOs discount the idea that there will 
be any civil unrest.  They say Fijians are too respectful of 
authority, too intimidated or just too complacent.  For 
example, one of the most influential traditional chiefs in 
the country, Ro Tememu Kepa of Rewa, Paramount Chief of the 
Burebusanga Confederacy, which covers a third of Fiji, called 
on Charge Pruett April 24 to discuss issues important to Rewa 
in the context of recent events.  A former minister in the 
deposed Qarase government and an outspoken critic of 
Bainimarama,s interim government, Ro Tememu said she wanted 
no part in any street demonstrations, should they occur.  She 
said she had heard talk a &big bang8 would come, but to her 
relief Fiji has not experienced even a &little bang.8  She 
welcomes Fiji,s national Methodist convention in August as a 
positive event that might help to distract the disaffected. 
Asked about the rumors in Para 3, Ro Temumu replied that she 
hoped the Methodist Church would refrain from taking a 
political role.  (Comment:  Ro Temumu,s statements seem to 
confirm similar statements by Qarase to Congressman 
 
SUVA 00000152  002 OF 003 
 
 
Faleomavaega on April 19, in which the deposed prime minister 
favored a return to dialogue rather than resort to street 
protests.  End comment.)  Ro Temumu observed that Fijians are 
anxious because, unlike transparent democracies, dictatorial 
regimes are capricious and unpredictable. 
 
LOCAL PRESS INTIMIDATED 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶5.  (C) The media remains functioning but muted under the 
Public Emergency Regulation forbidding media criticism of the 
presidentially-appointed regime.  Fiji TV has shortened its 
6:00 p.m. nationally televised news from one hour to 30 
minutes.  Censors from the Ministry of Information,s civil 
service are posted in all major newsrooms.  While it is clear 
that many of these bureaucrats detest their assignments, in 
these dismal economic times, they do what is asked to protect 
their jobs.  The press is cooperating begrudgingly and is 
effectively providing self-censorship, but it remains 
uncertain over just what may be printed and what is 
impermissible.  Even environmental articles get a 
three-times-over scrutiny.  Fiji TV has suspended &Close 
Up,8 the weekly interview broadcast of subjects discussing 
salient issues.  The Fiji Media Council is hopeful that media 
restrictions will ease with the lifting of the PER May 10. 
(Comment: Embassy expects the de facto government to extend 
media restrictions beyond the PER deadline.  Even if current 
sanctions are lifted at the 30-day mark, Post expects 
vigorous self-censorship by the press to continue.  End 
comment).  Many citizens turn to the Internet and a variety 
of active blogs for information, many of which contain both 
accurate and inaccurate comments and articles.  Government 
censors remain in Internet cafes, which have had their 
opening hours restricted to business hours. 
HUMAN RIGHTS A CONTINUING CONCERN 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (C) Human rights organizations in Fiji are intimidated by 
the de facto government, which they feel is hindering their 
efforts to document human rights abuses.  The Fiji Women,s 
Rights Movement office was broken into 11 days before 
Abrogation by unknown intruders who took only a digital 
recorder containing interviews with victims of alleged human 
rights abuses.  A fire bombing attack on the house next door 
occurred during the same period.  Consequently, the 
organization feels vulnerable and now claims to focus more of 
its energies on improving security rather than continuing its 
work.  The organization,s executive director Virisila 
Buadromo said there are reported incidents of police beating 
suspects in the open because they now feel that the PER gives 
them the authority to act with impunity.  (Comment: Embassy 
has no information to confirm these allegations and believes 
that the police are mostly just following the orders of the 
military.  End comment.) 
 
¶7.  (C) Police have detained some members of the local press 
and of organizations that have spoken out against the 
abrogation.  Fiji police aggressively questioned a young U.S. 
citizen journalistic researcher for over an hour on April 17. 
 The U.S. citizen, who was in Fiji to research a story on 
Fiji Water, went to a local Internet shop to read and respond 
to emails.  A government censor intercepted her emails and 
misinterpreted a response to a colleague at Rolling Stone 
magazine.  The censor assumed the U.S. citizen to be a 
journalist in Fiji in order to conduct surreptitious 
political reporting.  The censor summoned the Fiji police, 
who took the U.S. citizen to the nearby central police 
station for interrogation.   Embassy officers met with the 
U.S. citizen following her release from the police.  She 
returned safely to the United States on April 20 without 
further incident.  On April 24, police picked up a U.S.-Fiji 
dual national and detained him under suspicion of 
distributing material unfavorable to the regime until his 
release April 24. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Fiji,s Human Rights Commission was abolished with 
the Constitution and has not been reinstated.  Other 
constitutional offices that have not been reinstated include 
the Ombudsman and the Director of Public Prosecutions.  With 
the abrogation of the Constitution, laws are now made by 
degree signed by the president and approved by the cabinet. 
The abrogation of the Constitution and the absence of the 
High Court leaves no avenue for constitutional redress or 
hearing petitions for habeas corpus.  While the lower court 
now has nine magistrates (compared to 20 before the 
 
SUVA 00000152  003.3 OF 003 
 
 
abrogation), the Chief Justice and judges for the High, 
Appeal and Supreme Court have yet to be appointed.  Fiji,s 
law society president says that those who accept judicial 
appointment now would be committing treason.  However some 
eminent lawyers disagree, saying that Fiji,s people deserve 
competent people in the judiciary. 
U.S. ENGAGEMENT ENCOURAGED 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Local leaders of opposition political parties, 
diplomatic missions, the business community, nongovernmental 
organizations and academia continually ask Embassy officers 
to work in support of continued U.S. engagement with the de 
facto government.  With access to the regime by these 
organizations and by historic regional partners Australia and 
New Zealand effectively cut or closed off, the United States 
remains the one major power in the region that can still 
speak with and possibly influence Bainimarama and his 
confidants.  Newly-arrived British High Commissioner Malcolm 
&Mac8 MacLachlan, during an April 23 call on Charge, 
indicated his government intends to pursue a similar policy 
of calibrated engagement with the de facto government, even 
though he fully expects the Commonwealth to drop Fiji,s 
membership. 
PRUETT