31 Jul 2003

Fiji court martial told of military spying on senior politicians

10:19 am on 31 July 2003

There have been more revelations in Fiji of spying by soliders of the unit which carried out the coup and mutiny three years ago and who are now facing court martial.

The Fiji Times reports that a prosecution witness, Captain Jack Moceica, has admitted that members of the Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit were ordered to spy on the deputy prime minister in the deposed government, Adi Kuini Speed.

This happened as early as August 1994 when the then Rabuka government had called a snap general election after losing a buget vote.

Captain Moceica said the spy mission was code-named REESE and they were ordered to gather information on Adi Kuini's life and monitor her movements.

At one time, they hid just five metres from her home outside Suva and entered the premises to look for documents when she left.

In the 1992 general elections, they also took propaganda leaflets defaming the Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry, to his electorate in Ba.

Captain Mocieca admitted that some of the operations they carried out were illegal.

The army commander at the time Ratu Epeli Ganilau, who is now chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs, said he was not aware of the now disbanded unit's secret operations and was not at liberty to discuss military matters.