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Alert

Journalist shot, TV station ransacked

(PINA/IFEX) - An international television journalist was shot and wounded and Fiji's national television service's station was ransacked and put off the air in growing violence in the Fiji Islands following an attempted coup.


On 27 May 2000, Associated Press Television News cameraman Jerry Harmer was shot in the arm as he filmed a confrontation between Fiji Military Forces soldiers and armed supporters of attempted coup leader George Speight near Fiji's parliament in Suva. "The Australian" newspaper of 29 May reported that Harmer had been evacuated to Australia and taken to a hospital in Sydney. It said Harmer was a 38-year-old Briton who had been sent from Bangkok to cover the ongoing Fiji crisis.

On 28 May, a policeman was shot and killed and the Fiji TV station was ransacked and put off the air in overnight violence in Suva, Fiji newspapers reported. Shots were fired as men believed to support Speight went to the Fiji TV station and forced their way in, smashing equipment and forcing staff to flee. Radio Fiji reported a member of Speight's self-declared government as saying people were "upset" over Fiji TV airing two programmes. These were a news conference by President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara and comments by guests on the "Close Up" current affairs programme, he said.

On 29 May, PINA appealed to all sides in the Fiji conflict to respect the crucial role the news media are playing in informing people during the current crisis. PINA condemned the attack on Fiji TV and described such incidents as "attacks on the right of the people of Fiji to be fully informed". PINA appealed to the police and army to ensure the safety and security of the country's news media so that all people in Fiji can continue to get all the information they need.

Also on 29 May, Fiji Islands radio stations reported that the Fiji Military Forces were calling for all reservists and territorials to report for duty immediately. Soon after this the radio stations carried announcements that the Fiji Military Forces are imposing a 48-hour curfew.

This came ten days after Speight, a businessman, and a group of armed men, including some soldiers, stormed parliament and seized Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and parliamentarians. It came amidst a march through Suva by indigenous Fijians protesting against what they say are threats to indigenous Fijian rights and land ownership. Indigenous Fijians then looted and burned shops in downtown Suva owned by ethnic Indians. Speight and his men have continued to hold Chaudhry and some parliamentarians in the parliamentary complex. A state of emergency has been declared in the Fiji Islands.

Background Information

Chaudhry won power as Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister in general elections in May 1999. His Fiji Labour Party formed a coalition government which included some indigenous Fijian parties. The events of 19 May followed growing protests by indigenous Fijians, who are concerned about the protection of indigenous rights and land.

Fiji's ethnic Indians are mainly descendants of indentured plantation labourers brought from India by the British colonial government in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

In 1987, following widespread unrest and growing violence following the election of what was seen as an Indian-dominated government, Sitiveni Rabuka, then a colonel, led two coups by the army. Fiji returned to parliamentary government in elections in 1992, with Rabuka voted into power as a civilian prime minister. Chaudhry's government was elected under a new multiracial constitution adopted in 1997.