Fiji government ignore landowner pleas over forced eviction

Transcript

The President of the Jittu Land trust in Fiji say government authorities have ignored their pleas for help over the forceful eviction from their land.

Anup Chand says Rear Admiral Frank Bainimarama breached an agreement they made by handing over some of their land to the People's Community Network or PCN behind their back.

He told Indira Moala they have received ongoing threats from the PCN and are worried for the safety of families living there.

ANUP CHAND: Threats have already been put into action. There was a house that was demolished while the owners of the house were away. And the belongings were burnt in the presence of the police and to date, no one has been arrested. And they've disconnected the electricity and water. You know, these sort of tactics they use to get rid of people to get out of there.

INDIRA MOALA: PCN have said they are there to do development work on the land that's supposed to benefit everyone. Were the residents of Jittu land aware that this was even happening?

AC: The residents of Jittu bought this land from the previous owners and it was handed to the government via an agreement that the government would subdivide the land and allocate a lot each to each of the residents, those who contributed in the buying. But instead, the government has leased this land to People's Committee Network and we have to move into Barracks. That's what we don't want. We want a piece of land. We paid for the land. We did not give the land to the government to lease it out. Some of us, officers of Jittu Land trust have even received letters from PCN to take our families and get out of Jittu estate.

IM: And have you sought help from higher authority in the government?

AC: Yeah, we've knocked on every door of the government. But we were very sad that no one was ready to listen to us.

IM: What kind of response did you receive?

AC: In one particular meeting with the Lands department and the Attorney General's office - we were told to raise our issues and the issues were handed to them one week in advance. And when we went there the issues were dealt with very unprofessionally. We were told that they would look into the financial side of this, when the handing over was done. But behind our back, the next day, we heard that this land was given to PCN and we didn't know that. This sort of thing's been happening behind our back but when we ask them, they said they've got orders from higher authority. And maybe it's the PM.

IM: Have you approached the Prime Minister's office about what's going on?

AC: We wanted to meet the PM - for three years we've been running, running, running and at last we got a chance to meet him. When we went there, he was not ready to listen to us or to see our agreement. He just said "I have given this land to the PCN for development, and you are to take orders from PCN" that's all. And when we told him the law side he said "Ok, no I don't know the law side, you talk to my lawyer." He was not ready to listen and talk to us. It was very very very disappointing. We are very very very disappointed. People at Jittu estate, they no longer have faith in this government.

IM: Did the PCN ever discuss with the residents of Jittu land that they had been given the lot by the government and that they had plans to develop it and that the local residents would need to relocate?

AC: Well, we received lots of letters of certain nature, we received lots of threats. But according to our constitution under page 36, if you'll see the arbitrary eviction orders, it is clearly written there to evict anyone or any house, you need to get a court order and we are waiting for a court order. But these people have failed to get any court order. They haven't done anything lawful. Everything done was unlawfully.