Fiji villager killed in pre-election clampdown

SUVA - A villager was shot dead as he tussled with Fiji security officers during a police raid on a huge marijuana plantation staged as part of a security crackdown ahead of national elections.

Police estimate marijuana crops worth up to $10 million are being cultivated in the highlands. Most of the crop is believed to be smuggled into Australia or New Zealand.

The unidentified man - said by police to be the leader of a mob which confronted the security forces - was shot as he tugged at a soldier's M-16 rifle during the raid in Navosa province in the rugged highland region of the main island of Viti Levu.

"The army officer was punched and hassled as the gang leader tried to pull the gun away," Police Commissioner Isikia Savua told reporters.

"In the struggle, the villager was accidentally shot in the chest."

Savua said police on horseback and in four-wheel drive vehicles raided a plantation near the village of Keiyasa in the Navosa highlands last Friday and Saturday, seizing marijuana crop they valued at about $1.7 million.

They returned to the area yesterday, but retreated after being confronted by an angry mob of about 30 villagers, Savua said.

Police then enlisted army reinforcements and the fatal clash broke out when they went back to the area.

Savua said the drug raids were part of a clampdown on crime in the lead-up to elections from August 25 which were called after a racially inspired coup in May 2000 toppled the government of former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry.

"This is a warning to not only marijuana growers, but troublemakers that the police and the army are looking at national security during the general election," Savua said.

Nationalist gunmen stormed parliament last May in the name of indigenous rights, saying they wanted to limit the political influence of Fiji's economically powerful ethnic Indian minority.

Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian leader, and most of his multi-racial cabinet were held hostage for almost two months before they were released under a deal reached between rebel leader George Speight and the military.

A caretaker administration under indigenous interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase was installed as part of that deal.

Chaudhry and Qarase are among the front-runners for the election. Coup leader Speight, who is being held on a prison island off the capital Suva awaiting trial on treason charges, has also declared himself a candidate for election.

Police sources said earlier yesterday that seven explosive devices found by the military on Tuesday on the outskirts of Suva were most likely only crude bombs made by fishermen to catch fish.

A number of people were taken into custody yesterday after military forces confiscated the explosive devices.

Two of the bombs detonated in a house which was damaged in the incident and a soldier from the bomb disposal was injured when one of the devices went off at army headquarters.

- REUTERS

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