11 Nov 2004

Fiji senator on mutiny charges ordered arrest of military commander

10:10 am on 11 November 2004

The criminal trial of a Fiji government senator has been told that bullets would have to be used to arrest the military commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama.

Radio Fiji reports that according to a state witness, this statement was made by the leader of the Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit which staged the mutiny, Captain Shane Stevens.

In the witness box was Sergeant Manoa Bonafacio who is already serving a five-year jail sentence after a court martial for his part in the mutiny.

Sergeant Bonafacio told the Suva High Court that Senator Ratu Inoke Takiveikata had ordered the arrest of Commodore Bainimarama without any deaths.

But according to Sergeant Bonafacio, Captain Stevens said bullets would have to be used.

Present at that meeting were Takiveikata, Bonafacio, Captain Stevens and two other organisers of the mutiny, Metuisela Turagacati and Jale Kadi, who have become state witnesses in return for immunity for prosecution.

Sergeant Bonafacio said at a second meting at Takiveikata's home, he had promised civilian support for the mutiny.

But after the mutiny was staged, no civilian support was provided, and the mutineers fled the army camp in the face of a counterattack by loyalist troops.