NZ leader's comments irk Tarakinikini
Suva (The Fiji Sun, Fiji’s Daily Post, The Fiji Times, Fiji Television/PINA Nius Online) – Former high-profile Fiji military spokesperson Filipo Tarakinikini is considering his future following comments by New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff, Fiji newspapers reported today.
I’m disgusted and appalled at the allegations,” the Fiji Sun quoted Lieutenant-Colonel Tarakinikini as saying of Goff’s linking him with Thursday’s bloody and unsuccessful mutiny at the Fiji Military Forces headquarters, in which eight soldiers died.
Tarakinikini, who rose to international fame as military spokesperson during the May coup crisis, said he had served his country to the best of his abilities.
He told the Fiji Sun that while there had malicious allegations against him “no evidence has ever been produced to prove these allegations or have I been investigated.
“It seems the harder I try to do my job the stronger the suspicion and allegations.”
Military spokesperson Major Howard Politini declined to comment on Goff’s allegations, saying Goff was someone far away who has never been of any help to Fiji.
In other developments:
* Fiji Television said Police Commissioner Isikia Savua has been cleared of allegations he was involved in the May 19 coup in which indigenous Fijian gunmen took hostage Fiji’s first ethnic Indian prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, and his government.
* The Fiji Sun reported two more rebel soldiers on the run since Thursday’s mutiny had given themselves in. Politini said 10 rebels from the Counter-Revolutionary Warfare Unit are still on the run.
* Fiji’s Daily Post reported interim government Home Affairs Minister Ratu Talemo Ratukele defended the military from allegations of brutality in the retaking of Queen Elizabeth Barracks in suburban Suva. He called the military action “decisive” and “very commendable.”
* The country’s biggest daily newspaper, The Fiji Times, said in an editorial comment: “Reports so far indicate some of the rebels died not from wounds suffered in the exchange of gunfire but from injuries suffered after their arrest. Should this be true the situation is unacceptable.” It said rebel troops found guilty must face the consequences of their actions but “not from a vigilante mob of soldiers whose motive is revenge.”
* Fiji’s Daily Post quoted Fiji Hotel Association president Hafiz Khan School as saying school closures and longer curfew hours may once again have a drastic effect on the local tourism industry. Curfew hours in Suva have been extended following Thursday’s mutiny and schools in the greater Suva area remained closed today.
