19 Dec 2006

Nationalist indgenous Fijian group announces support for military takeover

10:35 am on 19 December 2006

A group of nationalist indigenous Fijians who once set up roadblocks to support the May 2000 coup and protest the 1997 Constitution have come out in support of the military and set up an anti-corruption shrine.

The Fiji Sun newspaper quotes their organizer, Leone Matai, as saying their aim is identify the real issue that has affected indigenous Fijians which was the corruption of a Fijian-led government which used them as a means to an end.

Mr Matai says they support the removal of the SDL government as long as corruption is removed and justice is served.

On whether the military's clan-up campaign is illegal, Mr Matai says corruption is illegal.

He says motorists have been sounding their horns as they drive past the anti-corruption shrine which is displaying placards in support of the removal of a corrupt government.

Mr Matai says he paid for the erection of the anti-corruption shrine with his own money and is encouraging youth to come forward and support what the army has done.

He says they were used in 2000 by those who hid behind them, but Fijians are no longer ignorant and cannot be easily misled now.