Word: bainimarama
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Dates: during 2006-2006
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Since overthrowing Fiji's government earlier this month, Military Commander Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama has made few public comments on how he came by the political opinions that motivated his actions. Over the past year Bainimarama has regularly complained about new laws proposed by the government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, justifying the Dec. 5 coup by referring to the need to stop some of them from being passed. One of these was the Qoliqoli Bill ? controversial legislation designed to hand back control of lagoon, beach and reef access rights to indigenous Fijians...
...hearing last April, the court was told that after he was first picked up, Selesitino had a 30-minute meeting with Bainimarama and was then taken to the local police station on the Commander's orders. He was later taken from the station by four or five soldiers. Acquaintances of his told the court they were working in a building next door to the police station when soldiers arrived with Selesitino. They said they heard him crying out for help as he was driven away in a military vehicle. According to the judgment of Magistrate Ajmal Gulab Khan...
...three suits include Bainimarama as a defendant, charging that as military commander he was responsible for the actions of his troops. Police have interviewed 12 soldiers about the bashings, but the military has reportedly insisted that a senior officer attend all interviews; in at least one case, the officer prematurely terminated the interview. When Time put Lotawa's allegations to Bainimarama's spokesman, Major Neumi Leweni, he said, "Who told you that?" He has since refused to speak to the magazine...
...Police have told Time the military conducted its own investigation, under the supervision of then officer Jack Koroi, Bainimarama's hand-picked new acting Police Commissioner. None of the alleged perpetrators named by Lotawa and his fellow survivors has faced any military trial or disciplinary hearing. Police are unhappy about Koroi's appointment. Says one officer, who asked to remain anonymous: "Koroi knows what to look for in the files. He's a former Criminal Investigations Department officer and he was the point of contact up at the barracks for people wanting to interview soldiers in the past." Contacted...
...OUSTED. Laisenia Qarase, 65, Fijian Prime Minister; in a coup-the island nation's fourth in 19 years-led by Fiji's top military leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama; in the capital, Suva. The bloodless coup, prefaced by weeks of rumors and military movements, is widely attributed to a feud between Qarase and Bainimarama over amnesty for the leaders of a 2000 coup, which Bainimarama had helped quell. Bainimarama placed Qarase under house arrest, dissolved Parliament, imposed a state of emergency and installed Jona Senilagakali as interim Prime Minister. Senilagakali, a military doctor with no political experience, told reporters that democratic...