Word: fiji
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...brief time last week, it seemed as if paradise had been regained in the South Pacific archipelago of Fiji. Just ten days after Lieut. Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka marched into Parliament and arrested the recently elected government, a relaxed crowd of some 3,000 Fijians gathered outside the Civic Center in the capital city of Suva. People danced to pop tunes played by the Royal Fijian Armed Services band, which included in its program, appropriately, Bridge over Troubled Waters and Onward Christian Soldiers. When Lieut. Colonel Rabuka appeared, the band enthusiastically struck up the song...
...work sugar plantations, have come to dominate the country's economy. Ethnic Indians make up 49% of the population and are the largest group on the islands, much to the chagrin of the indigenous Fijians, who make up 47% of the island nation's 715,000 people. Since Fiji gained independence from Britain in 1970, racial tensions had been held in check by the government of Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. But in April -- with the support of Indians and both poorer and educated young Fijians attracted by his left-leaning coalition's pro-labor platform -- Bavadra, an ethnic...
...week's end, when Indian shopkeepers and workers went on strike to protest the coup, Rabuka abolished trade unions. He simply ignored the Governor General, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, the representative of Queen Elizabeth as Fiji's head of state, who declared a state of emergency to meet an "unprecedented situation which must not be allowed to continue...
...regime lost no time cracking down on other forms of dissent. The day after the coup the Fiji Sun said in an editorial, "Democracy died in Fiji yesterday." That night Rabuka shut down all newspapers. In tropical Suva, the big chill...
...against President Chun Doo Hwan' s decision to postpone electoral reform. -- Projections indicate that Aquino' s slate won an overwhelming victory in the Philippine elections. -- A peace initiative threatens to topple Israel' s unity coalition. -- The trial opens for the accused "Butcher of Lyons." -- A coup shatters paradise in Fiji...