Word: suva
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...first sign that something was afoot came at 4 p.m. last Friday, when armed troops invaded the offices of two newspapers and a commercial radio station in the Fijian capital of Suva. Within an hour, Army Commander Lieut. Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka then confirmed the flying rumors. His forces, he announced over the radio, had "reasserted their authority over the government." It was Rabuka's second coup in four months...
...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...
...takeover, though, fueled rather than cooled ethnic tension. Early last week business in Suva was at a standstill after fearful Indian shopkeepers boarded up their stores with storm shutters and retreated to their homes. Army units patrolled the streets, keeping watch on loitering gangs of Fijian youths. Eventually, some 500 native Fijians gathered in the center of Suva and began to run riot. They swarmed through the city, wrecking the stalls of Indian traders. One group hauled Indian taxi drivers from their vehicles, beating them and breaking car windows. The mob then charged 1,000 Indians in a city park...
Barely two weeks after the election, 6,000 people marched through the streets of Suva to protest that only seven of the ruling coalition's 28 M.P.s were indigenous Fijians. The demonstrators declared they had no confidence in the new government and demanded changes in the constitution to guarantee Fijian rule. In the weeks that followed, Bavadra's opponents announced plans for a campaign of civil disobedience. Government buildings were damaged in a series of gasoline-bomb attacks...
...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...