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The Republic of Fiji Military Forces is the military force of the Pacific island nation of Fiji. With a total manpower of about 4,000 active soldiers and approximately 6,000 reservists, it is one of the smallest militaries in the world. The Ground Force is organised into six infantry and one engineer battalions.
Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka, OBE, MSD, OStJ, is a Fijian politician best known as the instigator of two military coups in 1987. He was later democratically elected as Prime Minister of Fiji, serving from 1992 to 1999. He went on to serve as Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs, and later served as Chairman of the Cakaudrove Provincial Council from 2001 to 2008. He was elected to this position on 24 May 2001 and re-elected for another three-year term on 13 April 2005.
Josaia Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama is the 8th and current prime minister of Fiji since 2007. A member of the Fiji First Party, he began his career as a naval officer and commander of the Fijian Military Forces.
Laisa Vulakoro is a Fijian singer known as the Queen of Vude. She comes from the island of Yacata in Cakaudrove Province. Her music combines disco, rock and Fijian folk music. Vulakoro has performed since the 1980s and has released sixteen albums. During a period in Australia in the 1990s, Vulakoro performed with Australian rock singer Jimmy Barnes. Now a resident of Suva, Fiji's capital, Vulakoro is seen regularly at major national events. Her style incorporates a unique blend of Fiji traditional music, R&B, jazz and rock. She has been described as Fiji's answer to Renée Geyer.
Two military mutinies took place in connection with the civilian coup d'état that occurred in Fiji in 2000, the first while the rebellion instigated by George Speight was in progress, and the second four months after it had ended.
Andrew Charles Hughes was an Australian police officer of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) who served as the Chief Police Officer (CPO) for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Head of the United Nations Police Division. The CPO position is similar to the role of Australian Commissioners of Police, that is, the chief executive of the ACT Policing component of the AFP. ACT Policing forms one of the larger operating components of Australia's national policing agency, the Australian Federal Police. He was also Commissioner of Police in Fiji from 2003 to 2006. Hughes died of bowel cancer in 2018, aged 62.
The tension between Fiji's government and military forces, which had been simmering for more than two years, appeared to escalate in late December 2005. Tension between the government and the military had been simmering throughout the year, with Commodore Bainimarama and other military officers making strongly worded public statements opposing certain government policies, including the early release from prison of persons implicated in the Fiji coup of 2000, and the government's promotion of controversial legislation to establish a Commission with the power to grant amnesty to perpetrators of the coup.
Viliame Seruvakula is a former Fijian military officer who played an instrumental role in the aftermath of the Fiji coup of 2000.
The Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit or CRWU was the common name for the First Meridian Squadron, the unit's formal name, which had been disbanded in 2000. It was the only special forces group of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, and was the brainchild of former Military Commander and former Prime Minister, Major-General Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka.
The Fijian coup d'état of December 2006 was a coup d'état carried out by Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, against the government of President Josefa Iloilo. Iloilo was removed as president, but he was later reinstated by Bainimarama on 4 January 2007. The coup occurred as a continuation of the pressure which had been building since the military unrest of the 2000 Fijian coup d'état and 2005–06 Fijian political crisis.
Jona Baravilala Senilagakali was a Fijian medical doctor and diplomat who briefly served as Prime Minister of Fiji from December 2006 to January 2007. Subsequently, he was Minister for Health from 2007 to 2008.
Virisila Buadromo is a Fijian political activist and former journalist, who was the executive director of the Fiji Women's Rights Movement (FWRM) from 2001 to 2015. She used to be the news director for FM96.
Richard Naidu is a Fijian lawyer of Indian descent. A partner with the Munro Leys law firm, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Presidency of the Fiji Law Society on 9 September 2006.
Imraz Iqbal Ali is a Fijian businessman, political activist, and former Television journalist, of Indian descent. He does not normally use his last name, except for legal purposes. Together with Laisa Digitaki, he is the co-owner of a magazine, Fiji Living, based in Digitaki's home in the Lami suburb of Vugalei. Iqbal also hosted a popular Fiji Diving adventure show during his Television Career.
Laisa Digitaki is a Fijian businesswoman, originally from Moala Island in the Lau Archipelago.
Ratu Rakuita Saurara Vakalalabure is a Fijian lawyer and former politician. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1999 and following the elections after the 2000 political upheavals was a candidate of the Conservative Alliance (CAMV). He was re-elected to the House of Representatives, winning the Cakaudrove West Fijian Communal Constituency in the parliamentary election of 2001, following in the footsteps of his father, Ratu Tevita Vakalalabure, who claimed to hold the chiefly title of Vunivalu of Natewa, in Cakaudrove Province, and who served in both houses of Parliament from the 1970s to the 1990s. He was subsequently appointed Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, but on 5 August 2004, he was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for his role in the Fiji coup of 2000, however the sentence was successfully reduced on appeal.
Fiji's fourth constitution was signed into law by President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau on September 6, 2013, coming into effect immediately. It is the first to eliminate race-based electoral rolls, race-based seat quotas, district-based representation, the unelected upper chamber, and the role of the hereditary Council of Chiefs. It vests sole legislative authority in a single-chamber, 50-seat, at-large Parliament, to be first convened following general elections in 2014. It is also the first ever to grant the right to multiple citizenship, and lowers the voting age to 18.
Colonel Jone Baledrokadroka is a former career soldier who joined the Army in 1981 and was commissioned after attending an Officers commissioning course in Fiji. He was briefly the Acting Land Force Commander in January 2006. He was dismissed from this position on 13 January 2006, after only two days in the post. He disagreed with the Commander on issues affecting the Military and attempted to shut out the Commander from the barracks. His attempt to rally the troops to his cause failed; they saw it as a coup attempt against the Commander and withheld their support for his actions. Baledrokadroka was dismissed as a result. Prior to his appointment as Acting Land Force Commander, Baledrokadroka had attended the Defence and Strategic Studies Course at the Australian Defence College, Canberra,in 2003.
A series of events took place in the Pacific republic of Fiji in 2006, involving an ongoing public feud between the government and military. Tensions took a dramatic turn for the worse on 11–13 January, with reports of unusual troop and naval deployments, crisis meetings of the National Security Council, and the erection of police roadblocks. Rumours also swept the capital that the Military Commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, had been arrested by the police on government orders, but the Military denied this. The crisis came to a head on the 13th, with Bainimarama announcing that he had dismissed the Acting Land Force Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Jone Baledrokadroka for insubordination. This event was a precursor to the military coup that finally took place on 5 December 2006.
References
- ↑ "Background to Fiji's four coups". BBC. 8 December 2006. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
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