Regime supporter and benefactor Sundip Patel has died of a heart attack at the age of 52.
The managing director of the CJ Patel Group, which includes the subsidiaries the Fiji Sun and CJ Farms (formerly Rewa Dairy), is believed to have collapsed while exercising on a treadmill at his Waimanu Road home in Suva.
It's understood Patel was known to have heart problems and had a bypass when he was just 30.
The Fiji Sun has paid tribute to Patel, hailing him as a 'trailblazing business leader' but his support of the military dictatorship and subsequent business benefits will not be forgotten by many.
Bloggers will remember him, too, from these pages as having been accused of price fixing and cheating Fijian provinces by selling merchandise at inflated prices as early as 2010.
CJ Patel went on to purchase the monopoly Rewa Dairy company, with substantial discriminatory assistance
from the regime, and raised the price of milk and milk products.
The company's financial controller (a Sri Lankan) has also been appointed by
and serves the regime on a wide range of influential government boards,
often as chair.
But it will be Sundip Patel's flagrant overlooking of the biased reporting by the Fiji Sun and endorsement of regime propaganda, especially during the September elections, that will be fresh in many minds.
Another regime favourite, former vice-chancellor of the Fiji National University Ganesh Chand, is also under the spotlight today.
Chand escaped a number of challenges in recent years, including a $1million law suit brought by a former lecturer for unjustified dismissal and claims of bullying, but was last week dismissed.
No official explanation has been given but a replacement is expected to be named today.
489 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 400 of 489 Newer› Newest»Then we read newspaper headlines, such as in the Niugini Nius of 3 October 1989 ('Troops up in arms over politicians), and 16 October 1989 (Civilian shot death in Bougainville raid), and 27 October 1989 (Shooting puts peace in doubt) and 23 February 1989 (Soldiers in Panguna go looting).
And there is Charlie Andrews, telling Bougainvilleans that his army is good.
In 1991, according to Karl Claston's 1998 book, Bougainville 1988-98, the PNGDF massacred Bougainvilleans. The bodies were dumped at sea from Australian-donated gunships. Who flew the choppers? I wonder where he was to tell a lie to my people.
In 1993, another well-known mental retard of Arawa was shot dead. Such people ought to be protected.
Earlier, a BRA man from Topinang village in the Arawa area was shot in an ambush near the Bairima junction outside Arawa.
His body was tethered to the end of the rope from an armoured vehicle. This was driven to the Tunuru Box-cut with the body burning with the friction against the tar.
Throughout the crisis, the PNGDF had no clearly defined target to attack.
So mortars landed on innocent Bougainvilleans as in Buin where nine children were killed at Malabita in the late 1990s.
And also in Arawa in October 1992, a pregnant mother from Pavaire village went down to a shell fired from the Tunuru Catholic mission.
With these incidents, what did that PNGDF helicopter pilot mean when said, 'God blessed them with big hearts. They are not there to destroy or kill...?'
Who exactly are his 'brothers and sisters' in Bougainville? What clan does he belong to? What is the traditional name of a piece of land he owns?
This was a slap in the face from a military man whom we saw doing bad to us on our own land.
The PNGDF actions on Bougainville might have been appropriate if we Bougainvilleans were having a slum camp in PNG and harming New Guineans in their land.
Adopting foreign concepts like 'brother in the name of Christ' does nothing good for us Bougainvilleans who have long being treated by aliens as cheap commodities since the colonial era.
There must be retributive justice to a heart that has been broken and shattered.
In Bougainville, during the crisis, especially around 1996 when 'Operation High Speed' was on, the popular remark was tha, the PNGDF was 'Michael Somare's personal bodyguards deployed on a mission beyond their comprehension and capability'.
That’s why they were reckless on Bougainville.
Australia's military role in Bougainville
Wednesday, October 26, 1994 - 10:00
By Ian Harrison
In the six years of the Bougainville war, the Australian government has directly invested over $200 million into the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF). According to Department of Defence information, around 100 Australian military personnel train or serve with the PNGDF each year.
Unofficial sources hint that the figure is considerably larger — particularly with regard to Australia's involvement along the Irian Jaya frontier, which seems to be considered as Australia's unofficial land border with Indonesia. Australian advisers train PNG soldiers in Port Moresby, teach specialist troops, introduce new equipment and training techniques and act as consultants to the PNG government.
PNGDF personnel also receive specialist training in Australia — signals at Watsonia; junior officers at Duntroon; senior officers at Queenscliff; pilots at RAAF Point Cook and Oakey in Queensland; naval officers at Launceston, Fremantle and HMAS Cerberus at Western Port Bay, where PNGDF officers are currently being trained in communications and gunnery. In short, training supplied by Australia has been absolutely central to the continuation of the Bougainville war.
The clearest example comes from 1991, the low point of the war for Papua New Guinea. Its security force abandoned Bougainville in 1990. Over the next two years, Australia trained more than 400 PNG soldiers in jungle warfare at the Canungra Warfare Centre behind the Gold Coast. The Australian government pumped $52 million into PNG's army in 1991 alone. The soldiers trained in Queensland then almost certainly participated in the invasion of Bougainville at the end of that year.
On Bougainville itself, RAAF personnel advise their PNG partners on establishing, maintaining and using the helicopters and Nomad fixed-wing aircraft that Australia has supplied. The Australian government also bankrolled the mercenaries who flew the choppers and Nomads until PNG pilots could be fully trained.
Australian navy advisers perform a similar service for the four Pacific class patrol boats that Australia gave to PNG. It is also known that two Australian "engineering" teams have been on Bougainville for at least a year. The Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) has encountered these fully armed "engineers" patrolling the jungles.
Virtually all PNGDF equipment comes from Australia. The design for their camouflage jackets is produced here; the rifles, machine guns, and mortars they use are of Australian manufacture; most of their rifle ammunition was produced at the Australian Defence Industries' old factory in Footscray, and mortar bombs at the St Mary's factory in Sydney. A "Supply Support Agreement" signed by PNG and Australia allows the PNGDF to treat Australian military depots like supermarkets. Australian arms manufacturers were not slow to become involved either, supplying a wide range of supplementary equipment.
Australia is up to its neck in the war. It did everything it could, short of sending in battalions of its own troops, to perpetuate the conflict with the hope of some sort of PNG military victory. Not surprising then, is the extreme hostility of the Bougainville people to Australian involvement in the peacekeeping force. Many Bougainvilleans have had members of their families and their friends killed by Australian-made weapons, carried by Australian-trained hands, in what is an Australian-inspired war.
The recent peace process was the third time talks have been held during this war. Belligerent militarism scuttled both the previous attempts to end the war. However, PNG now faces a severe financial crisis. The new prime minister, Julius Chan, is a child of the world economy. In purely financial terms, he sees the war as losing PNG millions of kina and producing no revenue whatsoever.
MR MODI ...
VILI RAKORODA ALSO NEEDS A TOILET PLS
India's government Wednesday announced a nationwide scheme to check whether people are using toilets as part of a cleanliness drive championed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Since October the government has provided 503,142 new household latrines. But experts say most of these end up being used as storerooms since many people consider toilets unhygienic and prefer to squat in the open, believing it more sanitary to defecate far from home.
35 dead and 42 injured in Shanghai stampede
Man injured by firework in Sydney's south
New Year chaos: Thousands stranded as trains come to a standstill
Sanitary inspectors will go door-to-door to "check and verify the use of toilets" with mobile phones, tablets or iPads and upload the results onto a website in "real time", a government press release said.
"Earlier, the monitoring was done only about the construction of toilets, but now the actual use of toilets will be ascertained," it said.
Modi announced the cleanliness drive in his Independence Day speech in August, pledging a toilet in every household by 2019.
UNICEF estimates that almost 594 million people -- or nearly 50 percent of India's population -- defecate in the open, with the situation worst in dirt-poor rural areas.
Lack of toilets and other sanitation problems costs India nearly $54 billion annually through illnesses such as diarrhoea and lower productivity, a 2012 World Bank study found.
The latest government monitoring programme is aimed at motivating people to use the toilet.
"Sanitation is a mindset issue. (The aim is to) create demand by triggering behaviour change," the government statement said.
Police station commander charged with rape
PNG Loop
Joy Kisselpar 0 Comment Feb 17, 2014
Wewak Police Station Commander Sakawar Kasieng has been charged with the rape of a teenage girl in a village at Dagua along with three of his officers.
Last week, he appeared in court on charges relating to assault. He was released on K2000 bail.
Two probationary constables, one civilian, and an auxiliary policman have each been charged with one count of rape, two counts of arson, and 2 counts of unlawfully wounding in Wewak East Sepik Province.
These officers were arrested and brought in during an early morning raid by members of the Mobile Squad 13 (MS 13) team, deployed from Port Moresby, on Saturday.
That marked the start of investigations into claims police were involved in raping a teenage girl, destroying homes, beating members of the public including women and church elders.
Deputy Director of Crimes, Donald Yamasombi is heading the investigations. The incidences late last year caused public outrage and only last week, East Sepik Governor Sir Michael Somare demanded the removal of the head of police in Wewak.
- See more at: http://www.pngloop.com/2014/02/17/police-station-commander-charged-with-rape/#sthash.Pr2DdFMO.dpuf
Peace has been signed and reconciliation on going in Bouganville.....PNG PM just visited there.....
So stop the bring up of the past you dickhead
20 February 2014
Australia's Justice Minister meets Papua New Guinea's newest Police recruits
Minister for Justice Michael Keenan saw first-hand today how Australia is assisting Papua New Guinea’s more modern police force, equipped with skills for fighting crime and improving community safety.
Mr Keenan was at Bomana Police College in Port Moresby this morning where six Australian Federal Police (AFP) advisors are working with the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) to train new recruits and deliver professional skills training to the PNG police.
Australia has recently deployed 50 AFP officers to Port Moresby and Lae to support PNG’s work to increase the number and quality of new recruits for the RPNGC.
“I was delighted to meet and congratulate some of the 223 new probationary constables who graduated last week,” Mr Keenan said.
“The training they have received and their ongoing professional development in years to come will be vital for the modernisation of the RPNGC.”
“Australia welcomes PNG’s allocation of funding to lift professional development opportunities and increase recruitment through to 2017 and we are committed to helping PNG realise this goal.”
As well as supporting management and trainers to develop and deliver a modern police curriculum, the AFP has helped PNG to deliver a six-month Senior Leadership Development Program through PNG-Australia Policing Partnership and the Australian Institute of Police Management.
PNG police slam Australian report into riots at the Manus Island detention centre
By PNG Correspondent, Liam Cochrane
Updated 29 May 2014, 3:58pmThu 29 May 2014, 3:58pm
An asylum seeker in Delta compound holds aloft a picture of slain asylum seeker Reza Barati.
Photo: Reza Barati died in what the Australian Government describes as a "disturbance" at the Manus Island detention centre in February. (AAP: Eoin Blackwell)
Related Story: G4S rejects suggestion PNG invited in Manus centre
Map: Papua New Guinea
PNG police have criticised the Australian report into the Manus Island riots in February, directly contradicting witness accounts of events and suggesting a "major cover up".
A statement from Deputy Police Commissioner Simon Kauba has called the administrative review by Robert Cornall "inconclusive" and says it "cannot be depended on to prosecute the case" of murder for the death of Iranian asylum seeker Resa Barati.
"In fact its release only hampers our ongoing investigation into the riot within the Manus Island detention centre," Deputy Commissioner Kauba said.
In the statement, he has raised serious concerns about the lack of cooperation extended by Australian agencies, the security company G4S and asylum seekers.
"The asylum seekers as well as G4S officials and other service providers refused to give their statements to us and made it known that they preferred to talk only to Australian lawyers," Mr Kauba said.
Despite the "complete lack of cooperation" by these key sources, police say their investigations have found the riot on February 17 was "a 10 to 15 minute disturbance… between asylum seekers and locals as well as expatriate employees of service providers including G4S".
The police blame the death of Mr Barati on two Papua New Guineans and two expatriates working at the Australian-operated detention centre on Manus Island.
Deputy Commissioner Kauba says police did not enter the detention centre either before or during the unrest.
He says police fired warning shots in the air “which helped to quieten the situation”.
Many of these claims contradict witness accounts and the findings of Robert Cornall’s 107-page administrative review, released this week.
The Australian review contains allegations a Papua New Guinean Salvation Army worker led the attack on Resa Barati, but it remains unclear who inflicted the massive head trauma that killed him.
Robert Cornall’s report described the PNG police mobile squad entering the detention centre and firing bullets that lodged at chest height in walls.
'Cover-up' of violent PNG police-army clash on Manus
Date January 5, 2014
Read later
Natalie O'Brien
Sydney Morning Herald
The Australian-run detention centre on Manus Island was gripped with chaos and confusion during a violent clash between the notorious Papua New Guinea police mobile squad hired to secure the centre and the PNG army, internal Immigration Department documents show.
The federal opposition and the Greens have accused the government of a ''cover-up'' over the seriousness of the ''critical'' incident that led to Australian expat staff being evacuated, while local staff and asylum seekers were left behind.
An investigation by Fairfax Media has uncovered details of the October 18 security clash that was played down at the time by Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, who said it was a ''matter for the PNG government''.
It comes against a background of simmering tensions on Manus Island over land issues and the detention centre. The police mobile squad, renowned for its brutal methods, was hired by the Australian government to secure the centre's perimeter.
The documents, obtained under freedom-of-information laws from the Department of Immigration, reveal that amid the panic security guards left their posts, communications broke down, there was no official chain of command and no emergency response plan was made for an outside threat. They also show that, after reports of guns being drawn, only expats were ordered to be evacuated, without the knowledge of the G4S security officers.
It was suggested earlier that Vili Rakoro is the pen name of Frank Bainimarama. That was just plain dumb. Frank Bainimarama doesn't like to read and can barely even string a sentence together. Also the man is cruder than Vili Rakoro.
The idea of Meli Bainimarama writing under the pen name of Vili Rakoro, though, isn't so farfetched. Still an arsehole like his father, but a true believer with a vested interest in explaining away the regime's tyranny. Also someone I'm pretty certain we've read here before under other names and with greater frequency than his father, who only puts in a very occasional cameo appearance, consisting of coarse remarks punctuated by epithets.
Vili's unsupported assertions, disjointed reasoning, and silly rants definitely have a familiar feel to them. We've seen something like it before, but not from Frank. Whether it's Meli again, I'm not sure. But it could be.
Bandits ransack PNG airport
1st December 2014
Heavily-armed bandits robbed passengers and ransacked an airport in Papua New Guinea on Monday, Australia's foreign ministry said as it warned travellers to be cautious in the country.
Nadzab airport, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the port town of Lae, was overrun by the group in the early hours of the morning, with reports saying they held the airport for two hours.
"Approximately 30 heavily-armed criminals robbed passengers and caused significant damage to the terminal," Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a travel advisory.
"Travellers are reminded that crime rates in PNG remain high, and typically increase in the run-up to Christmas."
Reports said the group armed with pistols, rifles, homemade guns and machetes held about 30 people who were at the airport for an early morning flight at gunpoint before escaping across the runway
Media Release: 50 extra officers now in Papua New Guinea
Release Date: Saturday, December 21 2013, 09:34 AM
The final contingent of Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers have arrived in Papua New Guinea (PNG) today (Saturday) to work alongside their counterparts in community policing operations in Port Moresby and Lae.
Speaking at the arrival of the final 10 officers, AFP Assistant Commissioner Alan Scott said that this deployment brings the total number of sworn officers working as part of the PNG-Australia Policing Partnership (PNG-APP) to 62.
“We have met the Australian government’s promise of an additional 50 AFP officers to be working in PNG by the end of this year,” Assistant Commissioner Scott said.
“Now that the full contingent is here, we are looking forward to working in partnership with the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) to assist in developing their highly visible policing capability.”
In addition, the PNG-APP will continue to provide assistance to the RPNGC to meet the objectives of their modernisation program.
“Since the first additional group of 30 officers arrived in November, we have been working very closely with our RPNGC colleagues,” Assistant Commissioner Scott said.
“The goal of our enhanced mission is, in partnership with the RPNGC, to continue to develop the capacity of the RPNGC to provide sustainable and quality policing to the people of PNG.”
Australia’s High Commissioner to PNG, Ms Deborah Stokes, said partnership is at the heart of the deployment.
“The expanded police partnership is a demonstration of the closeness of our two nations and our shared commitment to the rule of law and democratic values and institutions,” Ms Stokes said.
“It takes place in the context of wide-ranging cooperation between Australia and PNG in the law and justice sector.
“Working together, we have already achieved some impressive results including the revitalisation of village courts, strong infrastructure development and establishment of a number of family and sexual violence units at police stations across the country.”
The AFP officers do not have policing powers in PNG, but provide advice, guidance and assistance for a range of day to day policing matters.
Media enquiries:
AFP National Media: +61 2 6131 6333
Australia:
Police deeply entrenched in Sydney’s drug traffic
By Mike Head
23 October 2001
Since coming to office in 1995, Bob Carr, the Labor Party Premier of New South Wales, has claimed that his government is cleaning up the Australian state’s notoriously corrupt police force, while boosting police powers and numbers under the pretext of protecting the public from crime and violence, particularly drug-related.
Yet, when the Police Integrity Commission opened an inquiry into police graft in Sydney’s northern districts this month a very different picture began to emerge. The Commission heard that there was “overwhelming evidence” of “systematic corruption”. Police officers, including high-level commanders, were videotaped giving the “green light” to major drug dealers in return for bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Their activities were not confined to accepting huge kickbacks—they recruited dealers, set up new drug networks and pressured petty traffickers to move into more serious dealing.
The evidence so far has focused on a single beach suburb—Manly—but the district appears to provide a microcosm of life in and around the police force. Tapes filmed with the help of a police informer show two detectives protecting at least seven drug dealers, and being paid monthly retainers or seizing large cash sums in the course of police drug raids. Over an 11-month period, from January 24 to December 16 last year, the pair stole or “taxed” $167,000 from dealers.
Tapes played to the inquiry showed police accepting bags full of money, stuffing stolen funds in their pockets, dividing the spoils of their crimes with superior officers and discussing their schemes in the crudest terms. “It makes it a pleasure to come to work,” M5, an unnamed police officer told his accomplices after taking his one-third share of $30,000 allegedly left by a dealer. “That’s why I came back,” a Detective Senior Constable replied. “Greed’s a bad thing,” joked another.
In one case, the two officers intimidated a small-time cannabis dealer, codenamed B5, into joining the area’s major heroin syndicate. In return for protecting B5, they demanded a $15,000 lump-sum payment and $2,000 a month. B5 became part of a network controlled by Vincent Caccamo, a confessed heroin dealer, who told the inquiry that officers had taken at least $92,000 from him in bribes and stolen money.
According to the tapes, police officers direct drug trafficking through a system of franchises. In one taped conversation, two drug dealers discussed their police protector. “You either gotta pay him and go ahead or you gotta quit ’cause he’ll pinch ya,” one complained. “It’s like paying rent, it’s like having a shop and paying rent. That’s all it is,” his associate replied.
Corrupt activities extend beyond the drug trade. Witnesses have told the Commission that detectives organised a convicted housebreaker to rob houses from Manly all the way to Palm Beach, at the furthest tip of Sydney’s northern beaches. Other tapes reveal police discussing bashing prisoners.
It appears that much more is to come. In his opening address, the counsel assisting the Commission, Peter Hastings QC said M5 would help to identify “hundreds of hours of recorded conversations,” that had been gathered via listening devices and phone intercepts. He gave notice that the material would extend beyond Manly, the immediate scene of the “sting” operation conducted over the past two years by the police Internal Affairs branch.
Australia funds lethal brute squad
Date August 4, 2013
Read later
Rory Callinan, Manus Island
The Age
Papua New Guinea's most thuggish paramilitary police unit - allegedly responsible for rapes, murders and other serious human rights abuses - is being discreetly funded by the Australian Immigration Department to secure the Manus Island asylum seeker detention centre.
The ''Mobile Squad'' officers, who just last month beat a local man to death on the island, are receiving a special living-away allowance of about $100 a day from funding provided by the department.
The Australian funding is a handsome bounty for the squad when the average local wage for security staff is about $1.50 an hour, and represents a previously secret aspect to Australia's ''PNG solution'' of directing asylum seekers to PNG.
James Sipuan, 65, said his son Raymond, 21, had only been drunk and swore at the officers when he was beaten in front of hundreds of horrified islanders in the main market on the island in July.
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He said Raymond left the police station later that day and was in the market when the officers saw him there and started brutally bashing him again, fatally injuring him.
''They picked him up like a rugby league tackle and speared him into the ground twice, according to witnesses,'' Mr Sipuan said.
The squad has also been provided with three rented Toyota Landcruisers at a cost of about $200,000, an amount paid for by Australian Immigration Department funds, according to the rental agent.
The cars can be distinguished from other rentals by the 28-man squad's practice of hanging their makeshift crowd-controlling whips made out of rubber fan belts from the side mirrors of the vehicles to intimidate the local population
The squad's name is a byword for police brutality in Papua New Guinea and many of its operations have been condemned by human rights organisations such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch for incidents of killings, rapes, bashings and evictions.
Last year Australian anthropologist Dr Andrew Lattas, who had done extensive field research in PNG, warned of the mobile squads being used as private armies by logging companies and said they had been beating up villagers, locking them in shipping containers and whipping them with sticks and fan belts to ensure logging projects went ahead, with police expenses paid by the companies.
The mobile squad has been stationed on the island since December.
Mr Sipuan said he believed his son had been killed at the market.
''I believe he was killed at that time. They took him to the police station and left him in the cells. They didn't try to take him to the hospital.''
Hearing about the bashing MrSipuan rang the police station and was told his son was asleep.
''I drove down there and I couldn't wake him up. We took him to hospital, but they couldn't revive him,'' he said.
Australian mining giant leaves environmental disaster in Papua New Guinea
By Will Marshall
9 April 2002
Australian-British mining giant BHP-Billiton announced at the end of January that it was severing all ties with the Ok Tedi copper mine in Papua New Guinea. Facing the possibility of legal liabilities amounting to billions of dollars due to environmental damage, BHP-Billiton secured a deal from the PNG government that indemnifies the company against all future compensation claims.
BHP-Billiton originally intended to close down the mine to avoid further litigation but was opposed by its minority partners, Inmet and the PNG government, which have retained their 18 and 30 percent stakes in the mining project. Mining is now expected to continue for the next 10 years. The cash-strapped government of Prime Minister Mekere Morauta was determined to extend the mine’s life in order to retain its share of the mine’s profits, plus $A30 million in royalties and taxes each year.
The PNG parliament passed legislation last December to rubberstamp an agreement to “discharge the Company, BHP, the Company’s Shareholders... from all and any demands and claims arising directly or indirectly from the operation of the Mine”. This cleared the way for the company, formerly the Australian-owned BHP, to hand over its 52 percent shareholding to a new entity, PNG Sustainable Development Program (PSDP), which the PNG government will effectively control.
BHP dumped 80,000 tons of tailings (rock waste) containing copper, zinc, cadmium and lead directly into the Fly and Ok Tedi Rivers every day for two decades. This has ruined the lands of thousands of subsistence farmers, poisoned some 2,000 square kilometres of forest, polluted the Ok Tedi River and contaminated a section of the Fly River, PNG’s second biggest river system, severely depleting fishing stocks.
According to a number of experts, the damage will continue for lifetimes. Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Professor Doug Holdway said: “We’re going to see a lot more damage in the future, not less. If you put 400 million tonnes of tailings down a river system, there should be no surprises that you’re going to have significant and biological impacts that will last for decades, possibly even centuries”.
Villagers' Houses Burnt Down Again at Barrick Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Repeat of 2009’s Gross Human Rights Violations Follow Failed Resettlement Negotiations
(Ottawa) In a pre-dawn raid on Friday, June 6, Papua New Guinea (PNG) police Mobile Units evicted residents from Wingima village near Barrick’s Porgera gold mine and burnt down some 200 houses, according to reports from eye witnesses in Porgera as well as from local Member of Parliament Nixon Mangape. Victims said they had no warning and were not given eviction notices in advance of the attack.
In a repeat of house burnings in 2009, MiningWatch has been informed that this raid was also accompanied by Mobile Unit police violence against villagers and the rapes of at least ten women and young girls.
The Tiene clan of Wingima, which was also targeted in 2009, are the traditional local landowners. People who have now lost shelter and the contents of their houses are Tiene landowners or relatives who can only live in the village at the invitation of the Tiene.
Barrick’s Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) mine houses, feeds, and financially supports units of PNG’s infamous Mobile Units, in spite of their reputation for violence and their previous involvement in hundreds of house burnings in the mine’s lease area, as documented by Amnesty International.
Fiji Tops Survey As ‘Happiest’ Country In The World
WIN/Gallup poll shows global happiness on the rise
SUVA, Fiji (Fijilive, Dec. 31, 2014) – Fiji has been ranked the happiest country in the world, according to an end-of-year survey of 64,002 people in 65 countries which also found happiness is on the rise globally. The market research and polling organisation WIN/Gallup found that Fiji was the happiest nation with 93 per cent of residents expressing contentment. Iraq was the least happy with 31 per cent. Africa appeared to be the happiest region in 2014 with 83per cent of those surveyed across the continent being content, followed by Asia (77per cent). Meanwhile, those from Oceania, MENA and Western Europe were the least happy with 14per cent, 13per cent and 11per cent respectively responding that they were either unhappy or very unhappy. Overall, 70per cent of people worldwide said they were happy with their life up from 60per cent last year, although just 42per cent believe that next year will be one of economic prosperity for their country.
The only thing Australian involvement in PNG appears to have created is instability.
Their AFP is "training" the PNG Police and their ADF is training the PNG Army.
And yet there is chaos.
And Canberra is funding the PNG Mobile Force which goes around PNG burning down the villages of landowners who refuse to sign contracts for oil and gas and logging on their land and even raping their women and girls and killing their men.
The PNG Mobile Force has now earned themselves the dubious distinction of being the Tonton Macoutes of the Sputh Pacific and Canberra is their Papa Doc.
Something is definitely wrong with this picture.....very wrong.
Fijians are the happiest people in the world. Also the dumbest. Is there a connection?
hahaha...yes indeed we are the happiest, dumbest and most pliant society. it does not help when we have the Jannifs, Seetos, and many others taking up leadership roles with the whole world to see how big their arseholes are.
I LOVE FIJI!!! NO PLACE LIKE FIJI!!
THE FRIENDLY ISLES, THE FRIENDLY FACES, THE SMILES...BULA!! :))
IT IS INDEED A BLESSED NATION WITH A WHOLE LOT OF CRIMINALS CONMEN AND THUGS LIKE IN FF GOVERNMENT BUT STILL....
IT IS THE PEOPLE AND THE PACE, THE SIMPLICITY BEAUTIFUL RELAXING LIFESTYLE. YOU COULD EVEN GET RICH LIVING IN FIJI!!
NO WONDER WE HAVE ALL THE STRESSED OUT EX FIJIANS WANTING TO RETURN TO THEIR ISLAND PARADISE!!!
DUMB IS THE DUMBASS @11.30AM WHO THINKS WE'RE DUMBEST. YOU NEED TO CLEAR OUT YOUR CIKA (THICKA!)!! LOL
FIJI!! FIJI!! FIJI!! FIJI!!
11.30am
Ma'am we have seasonal work visa abroad now. I suggest you contact Vili for visas and go slog your ass away..like the many, you may want to overstay.
I cant help seeing you live the futile effort of a lab rat trying to escape from this beautiful country while running around a maze like forever!! You write back and pretend all is well!!
Hahahahaha
FIJI....YOU ARE INDEED BEAUTIFUL!!!
Can u put your fucken PNG news somewhere else,We not interested Fuck PNG and fuck the monkeys from the highland.
We wana debate on issues affecting the Fijian & pls can u fuck Vili Rakoro too.
Vili Rakoro is Meli Bainimara....oso tobo tale o Van Damme......ra kutu sebe.
@12.00pm
Man gosh, what did they do to you
beta??
People climb their way up the ladder of success with sheer determination and hardwork?? Unless, people become unprincipled and yes, corrupt!
No wonder Meli Bainimarama. The arsehole has been wanting to be kai Natasiri for long time.
Hosanna should have dealt with him properly.
May be next time
@ 12.23pm
Woilei ..I know right?
Fallah going bonkers and we're only into the 2nd day of January 2015!!
Vili!! What the heck?? You smoking again??
Hahahahahaha
hahahahahaha
Vaniqi dies after short illness
By FELIX CHAUDHARY
Friday, January 02, 2015
Update: 12:15PM SUGAR permanent secretary Lieutenant Colonel Manasa Vaniqi passed away at the Lautoka Hospital on Thursday after a short illness.
For a better Fiji
Nasik Swami
Friday, January 02, 2015
THE New Year will be about putting proper structures in place to carry Fiji into the future, says Prime Minister Rear Admiral (Ret) Voreqe Bainimarama.
HOW ABOUT A BETTER SHIT PIPE TO CARRY THE SHIT COMING FROM THE PM OFFICE.
Rajen Chaudhry saying Sundip was self-serving, and gloating over his passing. sandip wasn't as self-serving as rajen's daddy, mahen, who for decades masqueraded as 'Mr Clean' and 'People's Champion', then proceeded to siphon of millions of dollars raised in the name of the poor.
The same Chaudhry used taxpayer funds to renovate his private property, including home gym for bodybuilding sons rajen and Sachin.
rajen's lack of self-awareness is breathtaking. daddy shows same trait. daddy has developed amnesia over the fundraising scam and continues to pontificate as if nothing happened. Both are clearly psychopathic.
For a family leeching off taxpayers and farmers and poor Indo-Fijians, it's a bit rich of Rajen to describe Sandip as self-serving.
Rajen needs to look in the mirror. His own baap, mahen, is the bapu of self-serving!
Outstanding improvements to PNG Police standards with Australian training, funding and technical support
Kimbe in chaos after police shooting
PNG Loop
10th December 2014
Kimbe is emerging from chaos after police allegedly shot a hospital patient and local people set up roadblocks and burned tyres in angry protest.
Passengers travelling out towards Hoskins, Buvusi, Galai and Bialla have been stranded in front of the Kimbe provincial hospital since 5:30 this afternoon.
They were stranded after local land owners at Morokea set up road blocks in retaliation over an alleged shooting of a man from their area.
According to a hospital staff member, MS19 (mobile squad) members were chasing some criminals this afternoon around the Section 21 area when a man who was a psychiatric patient at the hospital was shot and died.
PNG Loop was told that the victim was the son of a Morokea elder and had been receiving treatment at the hospital at the time of his death.
Presently the site leading onto the main highway is a scene of chaos as tires are being burnt with locals taking to the streets.
Police have been met with resistance as locals have taken to stoning any police vehicles going anywhere near the road blocks.
Attempts to speak with the police commander or any of the provincial authorities have been in vain.
Outstanding Australian training for PNG Police elicits results
Bystander at PNG sports tournament shot by intoxicated police
Updated at 7:28 pm on 20 May 2013
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A Papua New Guinea man has been accidentally shot by intoxicated police officers during a sports tournament in Kimbe.
EMTV reports that police opened fire on the crowd at the Muthuvel Cup tournament on Friday night while under the influence of alcohol.
The wounded man, Peter Lilibu has been transferred to a hospital in Port Moresby where he remains in a critical condition.
Australian military training of PNGDF applauded for outstanding results
PNG Troops Burn Down Border West Papua Refugee Camps As Refugees Flee To The Jungle
Investigative Report by Nick Chesterfield
westpapuamedia.info
January 28, 2011
These children at Blackwara camp are now in custody from Operation Sunset Merona burnt down 19 houses in a dawn raid - photo UNHCR
Scenes of terror and destruction have erupted around the Papua New Guinea's frontier town of Vanimo, as an unprecedented and contentious PNG military operation against unarmed West Papuan refugees has arrested scores and burned over 30 houses to the ground.
79 people (28 Men, 24 Women and 27 Children) are currently being held in cramped and hot conditions at an interim processing facility outside the Vanimo Police Station, which has been taken over by police from Port Moresby after local police refused to cooperate. Special taskforce Police are refusing to provide meals, which are having to be supplied by the local Vanimo Catholic diocese, although there are no current allegations of mistreatment whilst in custody.
Nine men have been charged with unspecified charges relating to armed activities though refugee advocates have denied that these people are residents of the camps raided. Enquiries by West Papua Media have found none have access to legal representation at this stage.
On January 23 at Blackwater refugee camp outside Vanimo, 19 houses were set on fire by Police and Soldiers from Port Moresby, while residents were rounded up on trucks and taken to Vanimo Police Station. According to a detailed witness report provided by the coordinator of West Papuan refugees living in Vanimo, Barias Jikwa, the operation began at 1:00 am local time when houses were surrounded, and houses began to be razed at 04:00 am. Troops then used spades and guns to destroy the refugees' food and edible crops.
@7.53 PM
I can see why the Fijian authorities haven't solved the issue: Foster is supporting Bainimarama, and Laisa is supporting Foster...but opposing Bainimarama...but connected with some important people of the Bainimarama government... Yep... a first class kalavo.
As for the australian authorities, I suppose they are just waiting for Laisa so visit their country to arrest her, as they would be reluctant to collaborate with the regime in Fiji. Let us know when Laisa is seen in Australia again... just a thought!
It has been reported by a few travellers in 2013 that they saw Laisa in and out of Brisbane on the very week-end where Foster appeared in the newspaper.... so who is dumb, tell us?
Papua New Guinea government under siege after police kill three protesters
By Will Marshall and Mike Head
29 June 2001
The Papua New Guinea government faces continuing unrest following the police killing of at least three anti-government protesters on Tuesday night. In an attempt to contain further student-led demonstrations, Sir Mekere Morauta’s government has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew throughout Port Moresby until July 10, but it is far from being in full control of the situation.
Students are demanding answers about the police actions and sections of workers are on strike. The trade union leaders have felt compelled to call a national stoppage. Schools and government offices, as well as many shops and businesses, are starting to reopen after a week of protests led by University of PNG students against the government’s plans—dictated by the IMF and World Bank—to privatise nearly all public enterprises.
There is widespread outrage over the unprecedented gunning down of protesters. For the first time since PNG independence in 1975, heavily-armed riot squad members opened fire with live ammunition on demonstrators after using tear gas and automatic gunfire bursts into the air to break up a five-day sit-in at the central government offices. The death toll is likely to rise because another 18 people were shot and some were critically injured, including a female worker and a 10-year-old boy.
Standoff over deployment of Australian police to Papua New Guinea
By Will Marshall
14 April 2004
A standoff is continuing between the Australian and Papua New Guinean (PNG) governments over a key aspect of Canberra’s $800 million Enhanced Cooperation Program (ECP): the granting of full legal immunity to 230 Australian police being sent to PNG. The program, which involves the dispatch of officials to take up top posts in the PNG police force, courts, financial and planning agencies, customs and civil aviation, is part of Canberra’s aggressive re-assertion of Australian interests throughout the Pacific.
From the outset, the PNG government objected to the entire plan. Prime Minister Michael Somare declared last year that PNG was a sovereign country that did not need Australian officers to “run the show for us.” After branding the plan as “neo-colonial,” he finally relented after the Howard government made clear that Australia would not continue to provide foreign aid unless the proposals were accepted in full.
The first Australian police officers began to arrive last December. Canberra demanded, however, that its police and officials be given the same type of legal immunity that was granted by the Solomon Islands government to the Australian-led intervention force dispatched to that country last August. This would mean that Australian police and public servants operating under the ECP could not be tried within PNG for any offence they might commit.
PNGDF learn village burning tactics from Australian military training and apply it in PNG
PNG Soldiers Burn Houses In Kirakira Revenge Attack
Police are investigating, arrests of those involved reportedly imminent
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Radio New Zealand International, June 23, 2014) – Soldiers in Papua New Guinea have burned down nine houses and destroyed several others in Kirakira village in Port Moresby.
PNG Loop reports police saying the incident was a revenge attack after a soldier died in a fight with villagers.
Oh dear, the dork with the PNG old news fetish hasn't climaxed yet.
Copy and paste another article, sit and read it, tense your muscles and pull harder.
fuck PNG...please can u post ur fucken idiot PNG news somewhere else
...u fucken useless piece of shit
This is why Suva and Canberra engagement on Defence and at other diplomatic levels will never be allowed to return to pre 2006 levels.
And why Fiji will never rejoin the PIF whilst Canberra's destabalising and negative influence on the PIF is uncurtailed.
Australian military plans for invasion of Fiji and PNG
By James Cogan
12 June 2012
The Australian reported in its weekend edition that military strategists drew up detailed plans for the invasion of the island-states of Fiji and Papua New Guinea (PNG) as part of the Labor government’s 2009 Defence White Paper. The plans were part of a “top-secret Force Structure Review and analytic documents supporting it—which were prepared in conjunction with the white paper—and were presented to the National Security Committee of cabinet for consideration.”
The Australian had previously revealed that the 2009 White Paper also contained a “secret chapter” dealing with how the Australian military would assist American forces impose a naval blockade on Chinese trade in the event of a US-Sino war and assessed the prospect of retaliatory Chinese missile strikes on Australian territory. (See: “New book confirms US-Australia plans for war on China”)
The military preparations for the small Pacific Island countries of PNG and Fiji stem from their economic and strategic importance to Australian imperialism. The contingency planning is part of Canberra’s response to China’s growing relations with the two countries. PNG, Fiji, and the entire South Pacific have historically been viewed by the Australian political establishment as part of its “sphere of influence.” PNG was a direct Australian colony until 1975 and Australian banks and corporations have significant stakes in its economy. US transnational Exxon-Mobil, along with various Australian-based partners, has committed some $16 billion to develop natural gas fields in PNG, which are expected to begin production in 2014. Australian companies also have substantial interests in Fiji’s sugar and tourism industries.
BRA wrecks Australian war plan for subduing Bouganville by proxy
Volume 1 Number 1 No God, No Master
PACIFIC'S LONGEST WAR -by Brendan Greenhill
--------------------
The 25th South Pacific Forum held in Brisbane in August failedto
officially recognise the Pacifics longest war since
WW2.Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating dismissed criticism
ofthe handling of the issue and the then PNG Prime Minister
PiasWingti claimed Bougainville was an internal matter for
PapuaNew Guinea. As he spoke, the troops of the PNG Defence
Forcewere mounting their most ambitious operation. This was
theassault on the Australian owned CRA copper mine at Panguna;the
main prize for the government in its effort to eliminatethe
Bougainville rebels (Conzinc Rio Tinto Australia, asubsidiary of
Rio Tinto Zinc - ed.
Despite reports that the PNG government was going bankrupt,the
money was found for one last offensive. Heavy fightingtook place
along the Panguna Mine Access road between thePNGDF and the
Bougainville Revolutionary Army from the 31st ofJuly and early
August. Patrols pushed towards the mine butwere met by BRA
resistance.
HIGH SPEED
On August 15th, Papua New Guinea began an assault to take themine
site. Called Operation "High Speed", it involved a majorthree
pronged advance to Moroni village, overlooking the minesite. The
advances were backed up with helicopter landings ofmore troops.
One PNG soldier was killed on the first day
At this news Pias Wingti proclaimed that the civil war wasover
and the mine was taken. He was uncriticly reported by
theAustralian media. Newspapers and media outlets such as theAAP,
ABC, Age, Sydney Morning Herald, the Courier Mail and
theAustralian Democrats Vicki Bourne all believed this was
thecase. By the 17th the PNGDF had moved near the mine
site,including Guava village, the home of President of
theBougainville Interim government, Mr Francis Ona.
Brigadier General Ted Dademo, the PNGDF's top officer claimed it
was captured and that a care centre was being set up there.
Itseems that no one told the people at Panguna as villagers
went about their daily chores near the mine
DRAWING THE PNGDF OUT
At first the BRA offered little resistance to troops movinginto
the area. The strategy of the BRA was to draw the PNGDFout of
their bunkers on the coast into the mountains were theywere more
vulnerable to attack. The PNGDF was also at the endof a
precarious supply line with the only hope of supplies,relief or
reinforcements for some soldiers being byhelicopter. And they
soon found out how precarious it was. OnMonday the 15th of
August, a "civilian" helicopter owned byHevi Lift, a helicopter
contractor for the PNG government washit by BRA ground fire at
Tonu. The New Zealand pilot, MrDennis Killip, was wounded in an
attempt to evacuate a woundedPNGDF soldier from the battlefield
in Siwai, South West Bougainville. The damaged helicopter was
grounded at Wakunaion Bougainville. And later on Friday the 19th,
the BRA counterattacked at Moroni near Panguna in Operation Warm
Up.Over 100 rounds were fired at a PNG helicopter by the BRAusing
homemade guns, SLR and machine guns at Moroni. Accordingto the
BRA this helicopter was owned by the "NationalEmergency Service"
and bore an Australian flag. The helicopterwas forced to limp
back and make an emergency landing atWakunai. According to the
BRA the European pilot was alsowounded
Because of lack of air support, the PNGDF were in a
panic.Counterattacks were made at Dampari, Java, Moroni and
thePanguna mine site. At Lambalam, the PNGDF and
militia"resistance forces" (Bougainvillians supporting supporting
thePNG forces) were attacked on the 19th of August.
TheBougainville Revolutionary Army shot 8 army and
resistancefighters and suffered 1 casualty themselves
MOUNTING CASUALTIES
At the Mt Kaupara repeater station, a PNGDF unit that waslanded
there by helicopter was cut off due to lack of airsupport. They
later had to retreat and a soldier was woundedon the 22nd of
August. No helicopter was available to evacuatehim. The same day,
BRA were able to attack the provincialcapital, Arawa and 1
soldier was shot at Arco motors. On the24th, 7 casualties were
suffered near Guava. 3 were confirmedkilled. Also killed was
Major Kekebogi, the commander of theattack on Panguna; he died
near Guava. More casualties wereinflicted at the Mt Kaupara
repeater station on the 24th. LtColonel Jerry Singarok, the PNGDF
commander on Bougainville,was wounded on the 26th. His Iroquois
helicopter was also hiton a mission to recover the casualties
from Moroni. Thisheralded the disintegration of the offensive.
PNGDF were inretreat and BRA were on the offensive to regain the
advantage
According to BRA sources, casualties suffered by both sides
upuntil the 26th of August were: PNGDF and resistance forces
41killed or wounded.They described these as conservativefigures.
BRA had 1 killed and 3 wounded in action.
REMODELLING
One further clash occurred on Sunday the 4th of September.
ThePNGDF burnt down 34 houses at Moroni. This village was
a"model" village set up by Bougainville Copper Ltd when themine
was established in the '60s. The PNGDF attacked despiteorders to
remain in static positions. Local BRA who lived atMoroni
retaliated and killed at least 2 soldiers. One body wasevacuated
by helicopter. This was the most serious breach ofthe ceasefire
but it has not jeopardised the peace process.
THE OFFENSIVE COLLAPSES
The collapse of the offensive and the rout of the PNG forceswas
now complete. Units were cut off and cut to pieces,officers were
being killed and wounded, helicopters were beingshot up and their
pilots wounded.It was obvious operation"High Speed" had failed.
what made these successes by BRA more amazing was that their
commander, Sam Kauona had left Bougainville as the attack on
Panguna started. He describedthe attack as a complete flop and an
insult to the peaceprocess which the Bougainville people had
embarked on. MartinMirori from the Bougainville Interim
Government stated thatthe fighting has helped the BIG negotiate
from a position ofstrength. He said "The fighting has made a
difference in thenegotiations because of the pressure the BRA is
putting on thePNGDF in the battlefront".
UN PRESSURE
The United Nations is also putting pressure on PNG to resolvethe
Bougainville conflict. The UN Human Rights committeepassed a
resolution on Bougainville on 25th of August. Theresolution
called on PNG to return to the negotiating table,to immediately
allow medical supplies into the areas beingblockaded by PNG and
urged PNG to cooperate with the SpecialRapporteurs on Torture and
Extra Judicial Executions to enablethem to investigate reports of
human rights violations onBougainvillle. The resolution also
requested the SecretaryGeneral of the UN to consider the
appropriateness ofappointing a Special Representative concerning
the humanrights situation on Bougainville. This move served to
furthererode PNG's reputation in the international community
Sam Kauona arrived in the Solomon Ils on Friday the 26th ofAugust
and met with Francis Saemala, Foreign Minister of theSolomon Ils.
Mr Saemala then convened a meeting betweenofficials of the
Government of Papua New Guinea and "theOrganisation known as the
Bougainville Interim Government" andthe Bougainville
Revolutionary Army on Saturday the 27th. SamKauona was present in
negotiations for the first time sincethe crisis started in 1989.
The meeting was held in a full andfrank atmosphere and resolved
that the first priority wasceasefire and peace. Other issues to
be discussed were theconvening of a Pan Bougainville peace
conference between allBougainvillians to resolve their
differences. Consultativemeetings were held between the BIG, the
BRA and the sevenBougainville Interim Authorities starting on
Monday the 29thof August. The Bougainville Interim Government
demanded thisfrom the PNG negotiators. Recommendations were then
put to aMinisterial meeting held on the 2nd of September.
EXIT PIAS
In the meantime, politics caught up with Pias Wingti. He
hadresigned from the Prime Minister's job last year in order
tothwart a vote of no confidence in him. He was then reelectedand
became Prime Minister again. The PNG opposition pursuedhis
constitutional coup though the courts and the SupremeCourt found
that he had acted against the PNG constitution. Hewas forced to
act in a caretaker role as Prime Minister. Whenthe vote for a new
Prime Minister was held on the 30th ofAugust, his supporters fled
him and supported Sir Julius Chan.Chan was then elected the new
Prime Minister of Papua NewGuinea. His first priority was the
Bougainville issue andpeace talks. The one mystery of this little
saga is why the PNG Supreme court brought down its decision at
such a crucialtime for Pias Wingti. The Supreme Court had been
consideringthis case for some time and the decision could not
have comeat a worse time for Wingti. Who knows what went on
behind the scenes.
The parties agreed to cease operations from the 3rd ofSeptember
and all military units were to remain in placepending an official
signing of instruments of ceasefire. Afurther clash occurred on
the 4th but apart from this, noother fighting has occurred so
far. The ceasefire wasdifficult for the BRA to enforce due to
communicationdifficulties. According to Martin Miriori, despite
the bestefforts of the BRA leadership and broadcasts over Radio
FreeBougainville, it may take weeks for all the BRA units to
be contacted.
The Ministerial Meeting was held in the Solomon Islands on the2nd
of September and was chaired by Solomon Island Deputy Prime
Minister Francis Saemala. Sir Julius Chan led the PNG delegation
and General Sam Kauona of the BRA led theBougainville Interim
Government/BRA delegation. Called the Honiara Commitments to
Peace, this agreement brought in apeace agreement for a cessation
of the five year war onBougainville. Sam Kauona said that the
consultative processneeded time and should not be rushed. He
wanted the roots ofthe war to be addressed carefully. Mr Kauona
stated that PNGfought the war to enforce its sovereignty but the
Bougainville people fought to protect their rights, land rights,
economicand political rights. The ceasefire came into effect
onmidnight, Friday 9th of September 1994, seven days after
the meeting.
so glad to hear the regime crony is dead. all before the lynching when the time for retribution comes.
Hey, PNG guy is almost there, come on everyone cheer him on.
Sad when so much effort is needed to reach the end.
Rajend Chaudhry is the last person to critcise Sundip Patel. As an adult, Rajen can't even support himself financially. He is still sucking on daddy's tits and living off daddy's ill-begotten wealth in Sydney. I am talking about millions raised in the name of the poor.
While the parasitic Chaudhry's have been leeching off farmers and FLP supporters, CJ Patel employs thousands of people and pays millions in taxes. Sundip, through hard work and acumen, expanded the family business while the unemployable Rajen sits on his fat backside and defames people, including the dead.
Instead of building, rajen and his daddy drove FLP to the ground and destroyed the legacy set by Bavadra and others.
RC is a waste of space!
He he its just a ploy by FF supporters to frustrate confuse distract us.
Somebody is definitely frustrated - Vili aka Fiji Qorvis is having tantrums coz he cannot find any answers to Kua Ni Rere's questions. Probably bald from tearing his hair out!
SO VILI...HAVE YOU FOUND THE LIST OF QARASE'S POLICIES THAT YOU SAY WERE RACIST?? WE ARE WAITING IN EARNEST..HE HE HE HE
So what if Laisa brought the newspaper from Australia that Peter Foster used. It shouldn't be a crime to let someone read a newspaper — unless it was the Fiji Sun, that is, which is itself a crime against journalism.
@alex3
Ever thought that maybe the lynching business can also backfire as it did on 2nd November 2000- ?
It takes two to Tango.
Just make sure you are the one who finishes it and is still standing after its all said and done because hat's the "only rule" at that primitive level.
Big Boys rules.
Kill or be killed.
And that is not something we need in this country Fiji anymore.
Those who manipulate for that sort of thing must be exposed so that they cannot do it to our country.
It is far better to expose then to fight and engage in killing when it has all fallen apart. As happened in the past.
@3.20pm You want some papua new guinea dick!?hahahahahaha
Go read the BOI report and also read the Fiji Post story on the findings of the Post Mortem by the Australian specialist sent here by Canberra to assist with the examination of the fall out of 2000.
Nasty mess when a BHP is levered to the back the head and fired at point blank range, leaving the tell tale burn mark on the skin and blowing the head apart leaving a mess on the floor.
Nasty mess when the remains of human excretion (just in the moments before death the body lets go of its urine and empties the contents of the stomach). The blood on the floor. The urine. The excreta. The smell.
The brutality.
The primitive barbarism.
The inhumanity of it all.
Hindsight.
There is no 20/20 vision in the heat of battle. Only the fighting and carnage and bloodshed. And the dead, and the living who are condemned to live with those memories.
Fiji does not need to go back to that way of doing things, and its upto everyone of you to take responsibility for making things better.
@4.22
Looks to me like the Australians got a good stuffing of Bouganville dick.
The SASR advisers to the PNGDF got done over on Bouganville by Kauona's boys as well didn't they ?
Those Huey's got peppered as well. The M60's and RAAF pilots and gunners weren't much use weren't they ?
Canberra thought it was dealing with a group on bandits on Bouganville.
What they did not know what the Sam Kauona and other guys from Bouganville had scrapped their PNGDF pips and gone back home and started organising the boys on Bouganville into formations as part of the BRA.
He taught them small unit infantry tactics and ambushes and fire and manouver
They applied to the Aussies and PNGDF a simple strategy.
They allowed the Aussies and PNGDF to take ground and then they strangled the lines of supply and forced the Aussies and PNGDF into isolated pockets.
The linkages between the different pockets had to be by road and so as the PNGDF and the Aussies moved on the roads they were ambushed on the roads.
So they started using helicopters but Helicopter landing sites were not protected. So the BRA placed ambush teams at those landing sites and as the helicopters came in or were taking off they placed massed fires onto the helicopter. In some of their ambushes they used flares (the normal flare gun for yachts) and shot down the helicopters.
In the biggest disaster for the Aussies and PNGDF, Gen Sigirok (then Lt Col Sigirok) was shot whilst in an Iqoruis (Huey) as it was hovering above ground. It was brought down with massed fires from multiple directions by the BRA. He had to be evacuated from Bouganville with injuries.
And he was the Commanding officer of the PNGDF on Bouganville and surveying the battlefield when his chopper was shot down !
The net result is as the Helicopters became unsafe the PNGDF had to send out aggressive fire mission patrols from its bases, both as recce patrols and fire patrols for search and destroy ops.
It did not work because the BRA retreated further inland as the patrols came towards them and so forced the PNGDF to take longer and longer patrols to make "contact". The net result of walking with all that ammo and weapons was the heat had a severe effect on the PNGDF. The PNGDF guys went in full combat gear and water and food for those patrols.
The BRA only took their weapons and ammunition in webbings. They travelled light.
All that the BRA did was ambush them as they were returning to base at the end of the patrol (when they were tired after a long patrol and frustrated of having found nothing).
Kauona's boys simply came into their own. They did ambushes non stop.
Kauona was also a demolitions specialist in the PNGDF and he taught them how to set up IED's and use that for ambushes.
The PNGDF troops on Bouganville were working with the Australian SASR as well as the RAAF who were flying fire missions using the Hueys.
Kua Ni Rere - your simplicity and jealousy knows no bounds. You state:
"In Australia,UK and India, when you finish your LEASE, THE LANDLORD TELLS YOU TO FARK OFF...."
Are you are moron!! Lot of leases are renewed everyday in every country.
When leases are not renewed as a means of racial vendetta than there are no winners. How much of that land is now idle - travel around Vanua Levu and you will see what has happened.
And do yourself a favour BOY! Stop the swearing and yelling you racist pig.
@641pm
"And do yourself a favour BOY! Stop the swearing and yelling you racist pig."
Your idiocy and simplicity is just as bad BOY!.
You've just encouraged 'Scarface' to do more damage. Now you've made things worse. What the heck!
We need to organize a march to protest against all those bad things.
"We need to organize a march to protest against all those bad things."
Now where have we heard that before?
Update: 7:58PM AN Environmental Emergency Declaration under the Environment Management Act is now confirmed for parts of the Cunningham River in Suva, as well as the Suva Coastline beginning from the mouth of the Rewa River up to the FDB foreshore in Suva.
This was confirmed in a Government statement issued minutes ago following a meeting of the Inter-Agency Emergency committee that met in Suva earlier today.
The declaration is effective as of December 31, 2014.
The statement said that because of serious health concerns, there shall be no fishing or any other recreational activity in these waters.
Areas declared under the Environmental Emergency Declaration are from the mouth of Rewa River to Fiji Development bank foreshore area, including Nukulau Island, whole of Laucala Bay area and 3 km further up the Cunningham River mouth
@8.15
I know what you think, but we must keep trying.
Happy New Year C4.5
Wish You a Great, Prosperous, Blissful, Healthy, Bright, Delightful, Energetic and Extremely Happy, HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015
Rajend Chaudhry is conducting a personal vendetta against government for his father's sacking as finance minister and court conviction. What really stung and angered the Chaudhry family was the $1million fine, even though it was money raised in FLP supporters' name and pocketed by the Chaudhry family, as documented by Victor Lal, aka Fiji's Sherlock Holmes.
Rajen is trying to hurt and exact revenge from the Bainimarama Government by any means possible, lashing out at everyone and everything. He is even associating with racists and allowing anti-Indian comments on his blog. His is trying to start a racial and religious war — anything to topple this government.
He has developed a hatred for Indians for not voting for his father's FLP party. It's beyond the psychotic chaudhry family, including Rajen, to understand that his father had hoodwinked voters and used his position to line his pockets and feather his nest. Typical of their narcissist thinking, the chaudhry's believe mahen was god's gift to Fiji. But Indians see him as nothing but a petty crook.
For all of Rajen's rantings against the government, we should never forget that Mahen Chaudhry aided and abetted the 2006 coup. He supported Bainimarama to thwart investigations into the fundraising scam. He used the regime apparatus to get Russell Hunter expelled from the country for exposing the truth, with threats made to Victor Lal's life.
We do not like this government, but we are not fooled by Rajen: his so-called support for democracy is as false as his parasitic father's so-called advocacy for the poor and downtrodden.
So now we know that the guy with the PNGDF fixation is the same guy who earlier claimed that the Free Syrian Army was trying to get the Fijian UNDOF contingent killed in the Golan. He also claimed that it was the Filipino contingent's actions that made the Golan a no-go zone for the UNDOF, not Al-Nusra's. When I challenged him to back up his allegations with facts, he couldn't. He pulled a Vili Rakoro instead.
Now he's back again with cut and paste stories about the PNGDF, stretching back for years. And he makes no effort to explain his point in posting these on a Fijian opposition website.
These pointless postings are crowding out the legitimate comments of C5's readership. They amount to a distributed denial attack against C5.
Yes @ Anonymous January 3, 2015 at 2:11 AM.
His postings are irrelevant and unnecessary.
You are so right @ January 3, at 11:39 PM.
The Bainimarama illegitimate regime and supposedly "legitimate" government, and Mahendra Chaudhary's goal are the same, to empower and enrich themselves with the sweat blood and tears of the common people. Their additional goal is to create racial division in attempting to hoodwink ethnic groups that their is hatred among themselves thus dipping their greedy hands into the coffers of the hard-earned tax dollars of the people.
The proverbial cliche "there is no honour among thieves" is very true in this case. It is sad that most of the people are not aware of this truth.
In the mid-early 1980s when the FLP was founded, I was an enthusiastic advocate of the party. Our goal then was just to have a few of the party candidates elected to parliament as workers' representatives in government because the Alliance Government at that time was claimed as anti-workers. These few parliamentarians were to fight for workers' rights at parliament level.
When FLP, through Chaudhry, Bavadra and others, decided to form a coalition with NFP to take over the Government in the 1987 elections, many workers decided to opt out of the FLP. The rest is history. Our dream of having the FLP a true workers and employees multi-racial party was sadly extinguished by the greed or power, fame and fortune of some party leaders such as Chaudhry. It is equally sad, and ironical, that FLP is now "extinguished" while Chaudhry still lives to see the sorrowful tale of the party's demise. Perhaps it is now time for him to retire from politics as a political failure.
Hey coup 4.5. Nice to feel your presence amongst us.
Have a great 2015 and keep up the fantastic work!!!
We're with you!!!
Blaming An Act of God on the Govt is ridiculous.It was a normal natural disaster,that is why it is termed Natural Disaster,an act of Nature or An Act of God.
But we should be thankful that God allowed the disaster during our watch [FFP] so we can put a permanent fix on the pipe.
Raw Sewage has been dumped to the sea in most areas esp those close to Housing Authotiry in Votualevu,Nadi Kalabu Housing in Nasinu,Nadera after it has been treated, plus all the squatter settlements.
Symptoms include overgrowth of algae along the sands,shore and reefs.The algae will compete with the all organisms under sea including fish for oxygen.
The natural habitats and ecological niches of all sea dwelling organisms will be affected and sea shells will become poisonous [ kaikoso etc] so a ban on the harvest of 'kaikoso' and 'nama' from Nasese should also be included as I have noted that only swimming and fishing are banned.
The air has been polluted also, there is a mixture of raw sewage and chemicals in the air so all residents along the sea shore should keep window and doors closed, all joggers shouls avoid this place as well.
"Their additional goal is to create racial division in attempting to hoodwink ethnic groups that there is hatred among themselves thus dipping their greedy hands into the coffers of the hard-earned tax dollars of the people."
This statement is so obvious - we see FF working hard at it.
It is very sad that the people of Fiji cannot wake up to see this.
They've divided the itaukei people with all their lies, that's for sure.
Another obvious thing is their repetitive brain-washing theory in their effort to undermine Qarase's government and the ones before. To justify their treasonous and illegal takeover. To conceal all their corrupt practises themselves, they like true hypocrites make an all-out effort to degrade the past government.
Aiyaz & Bainimarama's speeches or comments will always have to implement the same thing over and over again - they mention the 'corrupt practices' of the past government and 'the past government was racist', 'they're here to move the country forward' as before the country was stagnant and racist and no real success.
If we pay close attention, almost all their speeches contain the same remarks. Like Vili Rakoro for example they parrot the same accusing statements over and over again.
Sounds like a brainwashing program going on or some kind of indoctrination to get the people to believe or agree and submit to their ideologies. All smooth and subtle.
Aiyaz and Frank play on the desperation, weakness, vulnerability of the people.
VERY SAD INDEED.
@ 9.46AM
Tui Viti, if you can see the sewerage spillage as an act of God and not FF government's fault, then should'nt you and the rest of the FF goonsquad take note???
There's always a message in the signs or happenings when God does act upon a nation you know!!
Its the lies and corruption that you lot try to cover up and you think you can go on fooling the people?
The sewer spillage incident is meant for us the people to see the similarity of what comes out of your mouths - the tonnage of lies and hypocrisy that is ongoing.
WHO ARE YOU LOT TRYING TO FOOL HUH? TROUBLE IS YOU THINK THE LORD IS BLIND. WELL, STAY TUNED TUI VITI AND YOU VILI RAKORO!!!
SHAME!! SHAME!!
@Tui Viti 9:46 AM
Well said.
Too often the masses overlook the obvious and are too quick to blame others.
If only they would make the same uproar about the shit and rubbish being deposited deliberately into the shores around Suva by the squatter settlements on a daily basis 365 days a year.
Disasters happen and lessons can be learnt but turning a blind eye to everyday occurrences of deliberate pollution by the authorities is a greater disaster.
Philippine peacekeepers pull out from Golan
Filipinos repatriated one months earlier because of the deteriorating security situation in the area, Philippine military spokesman says.
AP, AFP
Published: 09.19.14, 09:19 / Israel News
The Philippine military said Friday the bulk of Filipino peacekeepers of more than 240 soldiers have pulled out two weeks early from the UN mission in the Golan Heights due to escalating fighting in the region.
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The 244 Filipino soldiers and support staff will arrive in Manila on a UN-chartered plane on Friday, Military spokesman Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala said.
A smaller batch of 85 soldiers will arrive Sunday from the Golan, ending a five-year Philippine peacekeeping role that has been marred by Syrian rebel kidnappings and attacks.
Zagala said the long-planned withdrawal is not connected with differences between Filipino security officials and the UN peacekeeping force commander over the recent handling of a now-resolved hostage crisis involving Filipino and Fijian troops in Golan.
"Troops are being repatriated because of the deteriorating security situation," Zagala said, adding the United Nations had approved the withdrawal.
"Protection of our soldiers is in the national interest."
Indian officer with UN breaks silence on peacekeeping row
Manu Pubby New Delhi, September 3, 2014 | UPDATED 20:37 IST
A top Indian Lt Gen commanding the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) -- that is currently engaged in a confrontation with the Al Nusra rebel group of Syria -- at Golan Heights, has broken his silence on major a controversy that erupted this week after the Philippine military sough a formal investigation against him for allegedly endangering the safety of its peacekeeping troops.
After reports from Manila, in which the Philippines armed forces chief alleged that Lt-Gen Iqbal Singh Singha endangered the Filipino troops by ordering them to lay down their weapons to Syrian rebels to ensure the safety of 44 Fijian peacekeepers earlier taken hostage, Singha told the India Today that both the UN and the Indian Army backed his decision that has so far not resulted in any UN casualties.
Speaking over the phone from Golan Heights, Singha said that disregarding his orders of putting down arms, the Filipino troops had endangered the lives of 44 Fijian peacekeepers who have been besieged by the rebels and are in the conflict area. "The non-professional actions of the Filipino troops have endangered the lives of the Fijian soldiers. They have defied orders at a time when we had negotiated a ceasefire with the rebels to ensure that all troops in the conflict area could exit," Singha said. The officer, who has had a vast experience of commanding troops in Kashmir and other conflict zones, added that the UN has supported his call on the issue. "The higher UN echelon as well as the Indian Army agrees with me that the decision was correct. It is an act of cowardice to desert posts especially when a delicate ceasefire was in place," the officer said. "They broke the chain of command and UN orders", he added.
Lt Gen Singha is from the Rajputana Rifles the most senior Rifle Regiment of the Indian Army.
It was one of the most active Regiments of the British Army and remains an active regiment of the Indian Army today operating in Jammu and Kashmir and other border areas of India
Its is a warrior regiment with a warrior heritage stretching all the way back to the 1700's.
Its Battle Honours run almost the length of an A4 page, no other regiment in the Commonwealth (other then the UK regiments) probably has Battle honours this long and going all the way back to Napoleon in Egypt :
Mangalore 1874
Mysore 1786
Srirangapatnam 1799
Egypt 1802
Koregaum 1818
Beni Boo Ali 1821
Kirkee 1827
Hyderabad 1831 - 1843
Meeane 1843
Punjab 1848
Central Indi 1858
ABYSSINIA-1868
KANDAHAR - 1880
AFGHANISTAN-1878-80
BURMA-1885-87'
SOMALI LAND
(DHARATOL) – 1901 – 04
EAST AFRICA -1914
BAGHDAD-1917
EGYPT-1916-17
KUT-AL-AMARA-1917
PALESTINE-1918
GAZA -1918
NABLUS-1918
SHARQUAT
MEGIDDO
MESOPOTAMIA-1915-18
ADEN-1914-19
AFGHANISTAN-1919
TIGRIS-1919
KOHIMA - 1944
KALEWA - 1944
NAGA VILLAGE - 1944
FORT DUFFERIN - 1945
PWABWE - 1945
CAPUTRE OF MEIKTILA - 1945
DEFENCE OF MEIKTILA - 1945
PEGU-1945
TAUNGTHA - 1945
GURAIS - 1948
ASAL UTTAR - 1965
JARPAL - 1971
CHAKRA - 1971
TOLOLING & TIGER HILL - 1999
It was part of Gen Allenby's march in the capture of Jerusalem from the Turks and it has fought in all British campaigns since it became a part of the British Army during the Raj winning 6 Victoria crosses amongst its many honours.
The Rajputana Rifles is the most senior rifle regiment of the Indian Army. It was originally raised in 1921 as part of the British Indian Army, when six previously existing regiments were amalgamated to form six battalions of the 6th Rajputana Rifles. In 1945 the numeral designation was dropped from the title and in 1947 the regiment was transferred to the newly independent Indian Army. Since independence, the regiment has been involved in a number of conflicts against Pakistan, as well as contributing to the Custodian Force (India) in Korea under the aegis of the United Nations in 1953-54 and to the UN Mission to the Congo in 1962.
Taliban take control of Uruzgan as Australian Generals admit defeat
Major-General John Cantwell (CENTRE) in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, in 2010. © Brent Tero/ISAF Media
Cover: October 2012
October 2012
There can be no happy ending in Afghanistan.
From January 2010 to January 2011, I was the National Commander of Australian defence forces in what our military refers to as the Middle East Area of Operations. I was responsible for a portion of the globe slightly larger than Australia, but almost all my energy was focused on one blighted province, Uruzgan, within a country beset by war for generations – Afghanistan.
I went to Afghanistan optimistic. I was sure that our military campaign to defeat the Taliban and to help to train the Afghan army was both right and achievable. When I left a year later I was crushed by sadness at the loss of too many good men, disheartened by the incompetence and corruption of the Afghan government, and fearful that all the blood and tears expended there would be wasted.
Eighteen months later, the situation hardly appears better. The Afghan government is as ineffective as ever, the Taliban remains a serious threat to security and now our troops confront a disturbing threat from within the ranks of the Afghan soldiers they are trying to train. Yet we are approaching the end game, when the international community departs, weary and bloodied, and we pass security responsibility to the fledgling Afghan National Army.
As I write these words, 38 Australian troops have been killed in action, and more than 240 wounded. For this expenditure, our soldiers have fostered the growth of the 4th Brigade of the Afghan National Army – the people we are training. Our special forces have significantly disrupted insurgent networks in Uruzgan and neighbouring provinces. Security is still poor but it’s better than it was. Some of the people of the province have an improved quality of life. I wonder, though, whether anyone in Afghanistan will thank us when all is said and done, or even remember our sacrifice.
News - Afghanistan
Taliban Surround Uruzgan's Gizab District: Officials
Sunday, 19 October 2014 14:27
Last Updated on Sunday, 19 October 2014 16:27
Written by TOLOnews.com
Local officials of southern Uruzgan province said on Sunday that the Taliban insurgents have besieged Gizab District of the province, blocking all routes into the capital.
Prominent SODELPA/SDL/SVT and former Taukei movement member Ratu Epaneisa Cakabou has no loyalty towards his brother and is denying his brother Ratu George Cakabou the chiefly title. This thug also supported 2000 coup. If he is not loyal to his brother than how he will be loyal to Bau confederacy. On the other hand SODELPA supports people like them. SODELPA is a racist party who are hell bent in getting power at any cost. They are a party for a few rich elites.
Taliban take over Oruzgan as Australians Forces retreat
28 Sep 2014 - 11:18am
Australia leaves Afghanistan, but situation in Oruzgan is unclear
After fighting in Oruzgan province for most of a decade Australian troops withdrew last year but no one really know how the province is doing now.
28 Sep 2014 - 5:03 AM UPDATED 28 Sep 2014 - 11:18 AM
For most of a decade, Australia spent blood and treasure in Oruzgan Province, withdrawing all forces at the end of last year.
What's happening there now, no one really knows - though the consensus from Australian commanders is that it's doing OK.
Commander of Australian forces in the Middle East, Major General Craig Orme said Australia had no ongoing presence in Oruzgan but there was some reporting through the International Security Assistance Force's regional command south,
"It certainly hasn't gone to hell in our absence. It is tracking along with the general performance of Afghanistan," he said.
"We made a valuable contribution. The people of Oruzgan remember Australians with fondness and a great deal of affection."
Australian troops first deployed into Oruzgan Province in 2005, with more than a 1000 serving there at the peak. All withdrew at the end of last year but some 400 Australian personnel remain in a variety of mentoring and assistance roles in Kabul and Kandahar.
Most of Australia's 41 casualties occurred in Oruzgan.
Major General David Coghlan, a senior Australian officer in the International Security Assistance Force joint command, said as coalition forces withdrew, less and less was known about the regions they vacated.
He said official Afghan reporting ranged from all was going great to everything was going bad, which meant please provide more resources.
"One of the difficulties with any province we have lifted off is we just don't know," he said.
"My understanding (of Oruzgan) is that by and large it's under control."
In the case of Oruzgan, there were pockets where the Taliban were trying to reassert themselves but the governor and chief of police down there are doing a good job, he said.
Another Australian officer who commanded Australia's special operations task group in Oruzgan and now commands all ISAF NATO special operations forces said it was difficult to gain a sense of what was going on.
"I monitor reports of the insurgency in the south. However, it's difficult to gain informed views on the security situation in TK (Oruzgan Province capital Tarin Kowt) and the old stomping grounds of northern Kandahar," he said.
He said there was no sense that conditions in Oruzgan were significantly deteriorating.
"We have some Australian staff embedded in regional command south that I expect would get a better sense," he said.
3 May 2012, 10.58am AEST
Truth in war: what the ADF won’t tell us about Afghanistan
When independent analysis of the progress and effects of Australia’s intervention has been attempted it has met with hostility.
It’s unclear whether our 11-year presence will have any effect in Afghanistan.
In a draft report on developments in Uruzgan since August 2010, The Liaison Office, an Afghan NGO dedicated to the improvement of local governance, noted that, despite Australian claims to the contrary, the Taliban still controlled more than half of Uruzgan and remained “an ever-present threat”. Based on more than 180 interviews with Uruzganis, the report was rejected by AusAid officials who “objected to the tone of the report, questioning its accuracy and disputing its analysis”.
By far the greater part of the news that Australians get from Afghanistan originates with PA personnel;, as does the majority of the moving and still images of the war. This material flows into newsrooms in a state of crisis.
In Australia, the collapse of the traditional media-funding model has seen a sharp downturn in editorial staff, fewer dedicated defence and foreign correspondents and less funding to support their coverage. Scarce resources and less time to critique the steady flow of Defence press releases results in more of what is effectively ADF PR material finding its way into the papers and onto our screens as “news”.
The mythical war
Yet the success or failure of the ADF mission in Afghanistan has never been measured in purely military outcomes.
Consigned to a geographical and strategic backwater, unable to influence the broader outcome of the war, the principal responsibility of Australia’s fighting forces in Afghanistan has been to honour and emulate the defining myth of military service and nationhood.
As such, the ADF’s true mission in Afghanistan has not been to defeat the Taliban but to live up to and embody the traditions of Anzac and its key ideological and informational resources have been deployed to this end.
The resulting coverage of the conflict confirms that if truth is the first casualty of war, then myth is its perennial survivor.
Fiji, one day the people may evolve.........
Update: 9:46AM A MAN is dead after an accident along a feeder road in Deuba yesterday afternoon.
The man in his 40s died instantly after the vehicle he was travelling in tumbled and landed in a drain at about 4:30pm.
Police spokeswoman Ana Naisoro said the victim was sitting at the back of the four-wheel drive vehicle with others when the 30-year old driver from Serua allegedly lost control of the vehicle while trying to negotiate a bend.
"There were 11 other passengers, all of whom and the driver were alleged to be drunk," she said.
Ms Naisoro said the driver is in custody at the Navua Police Station while investigations continue.
I see the cut-and-paste moron is back. Australia, Afghanistan, PNG, any topic except Fiji. The guy can't write, but he sure can paste!
Crikey, are we really going to do this again? Go back to September news reports in order to give a one-sided, self-serving account of the Golan Heights incident in which the RFMF surrendered its troops and weapons to Al-Nusra terrorists without any resistance and then apparently ransomed them back, with the help of one or more foreign governments? Try to paint the Filipinos as cowards even though they did resist, drove back their attackers, and then skillfully exfiltrated successfully without loss of man or weapon? He tried this historical revisionism on another string, but was shown up as a fool by the following two more recent stories, which provided additional context.
The Indian Army may be in for some embarrassment after Philippines has reportedly demanded an investigation against UNDOF commander Lieutenant General Iqbal Singh Singha, who is heading the multi-national troop force in Golan Heights, for allegedly putting Filipino soldiers in harm's way.
On 28 August, Syrian rebels reportedly took a group of Fijian peacekeepers hostage and later surrounded the encampments of Filipino peacekeepers in the Golan Heights.
The rebels demanded the surrender of Filipino troops which was immediately refused by them, despite orders from Lt Gen Singha who wanted them to raise the white flag and drop their arms. The Filipino soldiers were backed from their own army commanders and it reportedly sparked a 7-hour long gun battle between the two sides.
UNDOF commander Lieutenant General Iqbal Singh Singha (C). Image courtesy UNDOFUNDOF commander Lieutenant General Iqbal Singh Singha (C). Image courtesy UNDOF
A Rappler report said despite being told to lay down their arms to ensure the safety of Fijian peacekeepers, the troops refused to and managed to walk with arms and ammunition to the next UN encampment during a lull in fighting in the night.
Clearly expressing disappointment at the role played by the Indian general, Philippines Armed Forces chief General Gregorio Catapang Jr said that he wanted the UNDOF commander investigated for allegedly taking life-threatening decisions regarding the Filipino soldiers.
"First, in the terms of reference, it was not indicated there that we can be ordered to surrender our firearms. The UNDOF commander wanted to save the Fijians at the expense of the Philippines," Catapang Jr told reporters on Monday, the Rappler reported.
Oct. 10, 2014
UNDOF commander Singha now says Filipino troops bravely faced Golan Heights incident
“The Filipino and Fijian peacekeepers bravely faced the situation, and exhibited raw courage, resilience and patience,” UN Disengagement Observer Force Commander (UNDOF) Lt. Gen. Iqbal Singh Singha said in a briefing with United Nations Security Council.
“Despite of all such challenges, it is to the credit of the senior management and peacekeepers from all the troop-contributing countries that in all incidents of detentions since last year, all peacekeepers have been released safely without any harm,” Singha added.
Singha previously said that Filipino peacekeepers act unprofessionally and defied orders. “It is an act of cowardice to desert posts especially when a delicate ceasefire was in place.”
Weeks after the incident last August, all Filipino peacekeepers went home. Peacekeepers were welcomed as heroes by President Aquino. During an event in Malacanang, Aquino said the Filipino troops were put in a “mission impossible.”
Currently, the Philippine government is waiting for the result of UN probe regarding the Golan Heights incident. Result of the probe will determine if Philippines will redeploy troops.
On Christmas Day, no less, this cut-and-paste blogger did a hit and run against the Free Syrian Army and the Armed Forces of the Philippines by alleging that the FSA deliberately tried to get the Fijian UNDOF contingent killed and by blaming the fact that the Golan Heights is now a declared no-go zone on the AFP. When specifically challenged on these points, the slanderer did not respond, except to cut-and-paste more stories that didn't support his earlier allegations in the least. When it was demanded he put up or shut up, he instead used cut-and-paste to cut and run.
This Tui Viti is such a crackpot. A broken sewerage pipe is now an Act of God? Come now! A broken sewerage pipe is a manmade object that was broken through normal usage and neglect. The neglect consists in the fact that it wasn't inspected and repaired or replaced earlier. But that neglect doesn't fall on any one government or regime. Even under a government of angels the pipe might eventually have broken before anyone knew it needed replacement. The scandal in this matter is not that the pipe broke. It was bound to break eventually. The scandal is that when it did break, the regime was incapable of effecting the needed repairs, allowing countless tons of crud to spew out of the Vili Rakoro and into our water.
Professor Ian Rouse has had a good start as acting FNU vice chancellor. He has been welcomed by all staff. They are relieved that their tormentor Ganesh Chand is finally gone. Sometimes it is best to have an expatriate to head an organisation.
Hopefully this is the end of Ganesh Chand's empire building days at the expense of staff and students.
Coup 4.5 - Can you delete or obliterate the cut-n-paste FF idiot who is posting here, wasting his time and ours kerekere?
The Rajputana Rifles are not at issue here. The RFMF is, and so is Lt. Gen. Iqbal Singh Singha, who ordered the RFMF's surrender in the Golan Heights.
The RFMF surrendered its UNDOF contingent to al-Nusra, apparently without firing a shot, and reportedly on orders from Suva. The Filipinos, on the other hand, stood their ground under orders from Manila.
Singha first accused the Filipinos of an act of cowardice for not laying down their weapons and surrendering as he'd ordered. But the Filipinos pointed out that their terms of reference with the UN did not state that the UNDOF commander could give such an order. So Singha is now backtracking, trying to reconcile with the Filipinos, in order to stave off a Filipino critique of his leadership and the angry withdrawal of the Filipinos from UNDOF, which now looks likely.
If the UNDOF TOR didn't authorise such orders, then that only reinforces the claim that the order for the Fijian troops to surrender came from Suva. An order of that magnitude could only come from the top, but the regime won't reveal who gave the order, presumably out of embarrassment.
It's small wonder that the order came from the top, isn't it, since that's where the cowardice within the RFMF is most concentrated. If this regime is so proud of the RFMF's conduct in the Golan, then it shouldn't feel too embarrassed to reveal who gave the surrender order, now, should it!
According to Fiji Sun report, FNU staff shed tears of joy when Ganesh Chand took his belongings and left the building.
@ 4.28pm
Yes the act of surrender was based on COWARDICE!
The Filipinos on the other hand are the TRUE HEROES and they deserved the heroes welcome back home.
As for our wannabe soldiers, we know they're good at threatening and harming civilians at home but just goes to show their TRUE COLOUR - they were indeed COWARDS and we see them as such.
Funny how they will try to say otherwise, BUT WE THE PEOPLE KNOW THEY WERE COWARDS PERIOD!
And Lt Singh whatever has lost face and desperate! lol
THEY DEFINITELY SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES AND KEEP THEIR BIG LYING MOUTHS SHUT ABOUT PUTTING UP A BRAVE FRONT BY SURRENDERING??
Even school kids watching war movies and cowboys-and-indian movies will tell a grown up who is the COWARD and who is the HERO just simply using COMMON SENSE AND TRUE JUDGEMENT!
Some good concerned citizen in the papers today asked a very valid question.
WHY IS IT THAT SOME PROMINENT AND FAVOURITE ONES IN THE CIVIL SERVICE ARE GIVEN EXTENSIONS TO CONTINUE WORK EVEN WHEN THEY HAVE TURNED 55.
He goes on to compare these ones with those people who were given the marching orders when they turned 55 years??
Doesnt this rule apply to ALL?
FIJI FIRST HYPOCRISY - FAVORITISM AND NEPOTISM AND MORAL CORRUPTION AT WORK!!!!
@4.28pm
We would like to see all the overpaid airheads take their belongings and leave for a good life sentence in Naboro once the Auditor General's Report has been investigated!!
Yes, sometimes it's good to have an expatriate and FNU is no exception. In fact, we should bring back the white man altogether because we just don't have what it takes to run anything let alone a country. We need the white man to take back control. They are superior beings and we are savages and always will be.
How sore is this? All Parliamentarians, even for short term or default by coup, are actually paid life pensions without even contributing a single cent??
@ 4.54pm
I hate to say but seems like I agree with you 100%!
Give these people a chance and they muck it up through and through and say ' why the white man? we want positions localised' and yet.... OMG~(
With regard to the Fijians surrendering their post to Al Nusra and the Filipinos holding on to their post from Al Nusra attack, UNDOF Commander Singha actually said that these were both acts of bravery.
Is this General thinking that we're stupid to be told that cowardice (Fijians) and courage (Filipinos) are similar in meaning?
"Raw Sewage has been dumped to the sea in most areas esp those close to Housing Authotiry in Votualevu,Nadi Kalabu Housing in Nasinu,Nadera after it has been treated, plus all the squatter settlements."
Why do you think the people are very difficult to educate on matters relating to environmental hazardous issues? Do we blame them or blame the Authorities of past and present governments for not imposing harsher penalties on offenders or even holding educational forums to EDUCATE the people.
Just reflect on how the people will not even listen to road and traffic rules?
Like a herd of dumb stubborn cows the people cross, run across or trot at their leisure at RED traffic lights. Some even threaten drivers to stop and allow them to cross.
What's happening with the Police? Too much time for 'meetings around the grog bowl' during office hours or what? Why aren't they following through with the strict rules they had implemented??
So, are the people educated yet?? hahahaha, no, not at all!
So, for 2015, we will continue to expect to find shit and garbage disposals of any kind dumped at the foreshore to our displeasure. That's exactly how it is.
The Authorities need to wake up. The people need to be educated. And if they wont listen, be consistent like those blooming "Pain-in-the-A" LTA Officers who fine us left right and center for even small traffic/vehicle offences. Well, guess what, we'd have to agree that their consistency at keeping their eyes out for offenders are actually working!!
Cant see why they cant handle the rest of the 'shitty problems' that cant seem to have an end to them.
Consistency, efficiency and enthusiasm might help! And all the maladies reflect on the Authorities themselves!!!!!!
@Anonymous 5:35 PM
All you say is correct and the only solution is for the authorities to start actually doing something.
Unfortunately the Fijian mentality is one of not caring or recognising how your own actions affect others. A culture of selfishness primarily instilled in people through the long-standing behaviour of the religious organisations.
Selfishness is common within every bad practice seen in Fiji, whether it be litter dumping, antisocial behaviour, poor driving habits or slack working.
With the amount of NGOs, higher educated people at the top and access to worldwide standards problem areas are easily recognised. What Fiji has not yet got is a middle management, such as councils and institutions where there is a will to correct the bad practices.
As for education that is NOT the problem, there are no bad practices undertaken of which the offenders do not know they are wrong.
What is needed are harsh deterrents, people with the ability and mindset to monitor and then take action.
That is where the problem lies, police and local councils being the best example of where absolute laziness takes precedent to working towards making things better for all.
And here you have an example of one of the dumbest institutions in Fiji.............
Remember the bus fires a year or so ago and all we heard about was LTA and it's magnificent quality system QAMS it HAD put in place, a year on and they produce this today !
Update: 4:43PM PLANS are in the pipeline to certify all buses in Fiji under the Quality Assurance Maintenance System in order for them to be given fitness certificates to operate.
While this may take time to eventuate, the Land Transport Authority is adamant that this is another way forward in providing all Fijians with safe and efficient bus services.
Authority spokesman Iliesa Sokia says they have started inspecting all buses as part of the system and most of them were well-compliant.
QAMS is a guideline given by the authority to all bus companies and is expected to be adhered to by them in terms of maintaining their buses and keeping them fit for operation on a daily basis.
What's the betting they make a similar statement next year?
They also made the statement very clearly well over a year ago that they did not allow loud music in buses due to the safety implications.
So what happened to that one?
@4.54 humans are the same no matter the color of the skin : cultural, historical and environmental factors explain differences. It is true that Fiji is often failing to produce competent and honnest CEO, but that's because we export a lot of them... there is a serious problem of integrity here, and the fact that Bainimarama, like previous leaders, has become so corrupt and that nepotism is oftem triggered by traditionnal "obligations" is a permanent worry. In some small communities of Fiji, everybody knows who get a little help from their relatives in Queen Elizabeth Parliament... Clean-up campaign my arse... :(
I totally support Ratu George Cakabou to be the chief of Bau Confederacy.
@Anonymous 10:01 AM
You say;
"Fiji is often failing to produce competent and honest CEO, but that's because we export a lot of them"
That's very hard to believe.
What happens in Fiji is that it loses lots of very young potential with none or very limited experience.
A big difference.
@Anonymous 7:45 PM
You say;
"Fiji is often failing to produce competent and honest CEO, but that's because we export a lot of them"
That's very hard to believe.
What happens in Fiji is that it loses lots of very young potential with none or very limited experience.
A big difference.
January 3, 2015 at 8:32 PM
De Mahen Reddy wifey has engaged in revenge fuck with a young, single male teachers at Bhawami Dayal after Kanwa reddy had an adulterous affair with the wife of a taxi driver. Stay tuned in for more!
8.39PM
Silly sod - take it to the TAKI station where endless time is spent around that grog bowl by SELFISH men who have forgotten what it means to be married and to be around for their wives and children, instead, they indulge in FILTHY business for hours and stagger home in the early hours, drunk as skunk from grog! REAL CRAP! KANI KANI!
Fornication
Sexual intercourse between a man and woman who are not married to each other. This usage comes from Latin fornicari, meaning vaulted, which became the nickname for brothel, because prostitutes operated in a vaulted underground cavern in Rome. Fornication is still a misdemeanor in some countries, as is adultery (sexual intercourse by a married person with someone not his/her spouse), but is virtually never prosecuted. If such anachronistic laws were enforced, the Fiji cells would have no room for robbers, murderers drug dealers and the like.
You reap what you sow: Mahend Reddy the oppressor at FNU and education ministry and adulterer and fornicator is getting as just deserts.
Daddy's boy Rajen Chaudhry is spreading rumours on Facebook about people's private lives, and childish name-calling.
He calls Fiji Sun journalist Jyoti Pratibha a whale. At least Jyoti is earning a living everyday. Not like unemployable Rajen, sitting on his big, fat backside, living off daddy's millions, stolen from donations meant for cane farmers and FLP supporters.
At 50 years of age, the bastard can't even get a job and stand on hs own two feet, the leech!
Luckily he is now unemployable in any reputable work because of his Facebook rantings.
Nothing superior about the likes of Tony Gates, Graham Davis, Christopher Pryde, and Sharon Smith-Johns.
All these white people you mention are heroes. Without them, we would have got SODELPA. With them. Fiji has a future.
Sharon SJ has gone but If we could clone the likes of Gates, Davis and Pryde, we would be in a very good position. Three people that Fiji is lucky to have and all of them at the top of their fields.
Have a look at Rajen's Facebook page. He is totally insane.
Gates, Davis, Pryde and Smith-Johns are only tops in their fields if you consider their fields as injustice, deceit, repression and treason. They wouldn't be able to find work outside of Fiji, except, perhaps, in Sri Lanka, or Riusian-held East Ukraine.
MONEY is so corrupting that even the simple act of thinking about it can lead people to act in unethical ways.
The real notorious mafia lot who lead by bad example and have gained much for the unlawful acts and injustices they created are Gates, Sharon-Smith Johns, Pryde, the Shameems, Aiyaz, Frank, the Chaudhries, Qarase etc etc.
ALL FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY!!!!
Given the seemingly strong relationship between money and bad behavior, FICAC and the FIJI LAW SOCIETY are/were supposed to be curbing financial corruption and illegal practices in the government workplace and business organisations etc.
BUT lo and behold FICAC is now being viewed by many as a corrupt institution and the true Driver of Conflict!!
Who are the losers here? Gates and Pryde kept the judicial system functioning when Australia and NZ set out to destroy it. Davis and Smith Johns used their media expertise to turn Bainimarama from a military dictator to a popularly elected leader who won the September election in a landslide. So be honest. That's why people like you hate them. They made sure SODELPA was defeated and kept you out of government.
An Aussie friend who visited Fiji not long ago, had spent 8 years in Fiji as a child in the 80s. Surprisingly he said nothing has changed.Really? After reading about the positives of the current Fijian Government I am now wondering if these are just "hot air". In other words "katakana va kuro kava"
@ 1.54am
Punishment for the Unrepentant. One of them is INSANITY OF THE MIND!!!
The consciousness that wrongdoing must be dealt with is so strong in human beings that sometimes one person begs another for punishment of some sort so that he (i.e. the wrongdoer) will be able to feel better. The wrongdoer may say:
"Go ahead -- sock me one. I deserve it!" In certain societies (the kind some people call primitive), there is a specific price to pay for wrongdoing: people know in advance what must be done by way of atonement. Some of the legislation in the Old Testament also recognizes the need for punishment and restitution to make it possible for human beings to go on living side by side after one has wronged the other.
I believe there is wisdom in all of this. When someone accidentally steps on your toe and quickly apologizes, you accept the apology and there are no aftereffects, for the offense was trivial. But even in such a case, what if no apology was offered? You would be a bit out of sorts.
Here, too, we see that wrongdoing must be acknowledged and dealt with.
Proverbs 28:14
Blessed is the one who always trembles before God, but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble.
Revelation 2:21
I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.
Romans 2.5
The fact is that in the stubbornness of your impenitent heart you are treasuring up against yourself anger on the day of Anger--the day when the righteousness of God's judgements will stand revealed.
If your Aussie friend hung around with you, no wonder he didn't notice any change. Same old BS.
Gates and Pryde connived with Bainimarama and Sayed-Khaiyum in the total destruction of our judiciary's independence. Davis and Smith-Johns used their questionable talents to justify the muzzling of Fiji's media and to try to cover the truth about Bainimarama's regime with a tissue of lies.
The election "landslide" can easily be explained as the result of tampering with the electronic voting terminals by Khaiyum's Indian IT specialists, plus ballot tampering by the election officials, handpicked by Khaiyum, who were allowed unscrutinised access to the ballot boxes for at least an hour after balloting closed. Not to mention the phantom call centers, the change in polling dates, the regime's unchallengeable campaigning for the past several years, etc.
Now, can I PROVE the elections were stolen? No, I can't. I certainly don't think, though, that Khaiyum was put in charge of them in order to ensure that they would be free and fair. The regime spurned several calls to take steps to ensure the elections would be free and fair. We can draw the appropriate conclusions.
The real reason that Gates and the rest are hated is that Fiji was meant to fall over after 2006 and it didn't. The Aussies and the Kiwis thought that if they could put the screws on Bainimarama, he wouldn't last and they could put their stooge Qarase back. Gates and the others mentioned thwarted them. They could see the corruption and the racism and supported Bainimarama as the best hope to take Fiji forward. A tiny minority of SODELPA people hate them but the overwhelming majority are grateful because Fiji is a much better place.
According to Fijileaks: Its 2015 and FICAC is yet to take former Health Minister into custody, for Khaiyum has leaned on FICAC not to pursue Dr Neil Sharma for trial will expose Khaiyum!
SO TRIAL WILL EXPOSE KHAIYUM.
Toso tiko! The pit is getting hotter for these crooks. 2015 is going to be an interesting, very nervous year though for Fiji First!!
Yes, you can't prove the election was rigged. Because it wasn't. It is incredible that when observers from nearly 20 countries led by Australia, India and Indonesia gave the election a clean bill of health, people continue to peddle the idea that it was crooked. This is so deluded. WAKE UP! The opposition will never win an election in Fiji with this attitude. I can't stand the current government but stop blaming the referee which is the Fijian people. They chose Frank and rejected you. Now think about why. Because you stand there crying foul when the other side has scored a decisive win and will score again in 2018 unless people like you wake up to yourselves
Looking back Apr 15 2009
Ian Lloyd, who has returned to Australia, said the state of affairs boded ill for ordinary Fijians.
“We’re very, very sad that these actions have occurred now and it beckons very badly for the people of Fiji,” he told ABC TV.
***There he goes again, just because the self appointed illegal pm cannot string a sentence together he has to gag the rest of us, oh man, ole piggy should sit mada on that finger he’s forever pointing (norchi) and spin va’a lailai, it may rearrange whatever brain cells (huh) he may have and allow the cloud to lift then maybe, just maybe (we could be so damn lucky) a bit of reasoning, yes reasoning, not seasoning cebo, we’re not making a junglee kari here, to register so he can realise (?) the folly of his recalcitrant, demonic ways & restore Fiji to the way it used to be, a wonderful democratically governed Island Nation where love of family, peace and prosperity for everyone was paramount in our lives.
Give one bipolar pig a bit of responsibility and the whole scheme of things is shot to hell. This is what happens when a two bit piece of shit is allowed power, he thinks he is a big time wheeler dealer captain of industry, bloody ignorant potentate, iye mai aso!"
Sa dina. No hope unless the Opposition changes its attitude.
Time to get rid of Ro Teimumu for a real leader. She is hopeless.
@ 9.23am
And here we go again another Parrot parroting Vili Rakoro's statement just because he isnt around at the moment, this joker is replacing him.
Hahaha - sad to know that these lying fowls need to rest but simply cant...they're automatically tuned to play and replay CRAP! They may as well record themselves and hit the play back to find some contentment.
We know better than to even bother with LIES!
Fiji did fall in 2006, and it was Bainimarama who pushed her.
Qarase wasn't Canberra's stooge. He was Bainimarama's. It was Bainimarama who put Qarase in power through extraconstitutional means.
When Qarase won authority under his own right and tried to take steps to curb Bainimarama's overreaching power, Bainimarama overthrew our constitutional government and usurped Qarase's position.
Treason, pure and simple. And Gates etc. are his henchmen and ennablers. They stole the election, and they should hang.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all, words around the tanoa and fish market that Bainimarama is planning to move in to the President Palace by June / July this year and taking with him his 202,459 votes from the FFP 293,714 total votes... FFP 91,255 votes, Sodelpa 139,857 Votes... what now ASK?
Yes @ Anonymous January 03, 2015 at 9:07 PM.
Fornication and adultery have a similar meaning. The 10 Commandments places "thou shalt not commit adultery" as more serious than stealing, lying and coveting. It's seriousness is only after the crime and sin of murder.
But man's laws will put thieves, perjurers greedy swindlers in jail because many lawmakers and law makers, judges, law enforcers and lawyers themselves are adulterers and fornicators. So man-made laws are legislated just to suit the lusts whims and weaknesses of man ... and, perhaps, not to morally strengthen them?
More responsibilities for Fijian troops 09:15 Sat Jan 03, 2015Military Spokesman Col. Sitiveni QilihoTaken from/By: FBC NewsReport by: Watisoni RaikodrokaFijian peacekeepers have taken up more responsibility in the Golan Heights after contingents from other nations pulled out. The RFMF soldiers have been spread across three positions in the Golan Heights since September of last year. This has been confirmed by Land Force Commander Colonel Sitiveni Qiliho. “We are currently occupying three positions. The bulk of the troops are in Camp Zouanni which used to be the logistic camp but is now the main camp of UNDOF in the Golan Heights. There is position 80 which has 86 of our troops which was vacated by the Philippine battalion that is just sitting on the fence on the Syrian side of the tactical fence however they walked through the fence from the Israeli side to mend their position and they are position there permanently. We also have 6 of our personnel occupying observation post 5/4 so six of our personnel are permanently manning that.” The repositioning of troops in the Golan Heights came into effect after 45 Fijian peacekeepers were taken hostage by the rebel group – Al Nursa Front. - See more at: http://www.fbc.com.fj/fiji/25715/more-responsibilities-for-fijian-troops-#sthash.fsSERTCi.dpuf
Colonel Kalouniwai appointed Chief of Staff of UNDOF
Wednesday, 17/12/2014
Colonel Jone Kalouniwai
The Land Force Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, Colonel Jone Kalouniwai has been appointed the Chief of Staff of the United Nations Disengagement Observers Force.
Kalouniwai who was recently promoted from Lieutenant‑Colonel said he was informed about the new position at UNDOF yesterday which was the long term plan of the Commander of the RFMF.
Colonel Kalouniwai said he was interviewed by the Peacekeeping Department from New York after his name was short-listed for the post.
He said the new position comes with responsibilities.
Fijians for UNIFIL
Torika Chandra
Sunday, December 14, 2014
FIJIAN peacekeepers will soon be deployed to Lebanon under the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
The last time Fijians served in UNIFIL was in 2002.
RFMF Commander Brigadier-General Mosese Tikoitoga said more than 100 Fijian peacekeepers serving under the UN Disengagement Observer Force at the Golan Heights would be deployed to Lebanon early next year.
"There are preparations underway to commence peacekeeping efforts with UNIFIL. Towards the end of the year or early next year, we will deploy men from Golan Heights to Lebanon," he said.
He said RFMF had a long and distinguished history of more than 20 years in Lebanon.
"I am grateful for the opportunity that we have been given to go back there but we will also need to prepare ourselves physically and mentally as next year the RFMF will be engaged in peacekeeping operations in Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon."
Prime Minister Rear Admiral (Ret) Voreqe Bainimarama, who visited the troops on the Golan Heights earlier this month, commended the RFMF for expanding its commitment to international peacekeeping by re-joining the mission in Lebanon.
UN COMMENDS FIJI FOR PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS
5/16/2014
The UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) Under Secretary-General Mr Hervé Ladsous has commended Fiji military’s efforts in difficult peacekeeping operations in the Middle East and Africa.
Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) Commander Brigadier General Tikoitoga in the company of Fiji's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Peter Thomson, met USG Ladsous as part of a productive schedule of meetings at the United Nations in New York, which was concluded this week.
Brigadier General Tikoitoga assured USG Ladsous that he will convey the UN's thanks to the Government of Fiji and to Fijian peacekeepers in the field.
The discussions at DPKO addressed peacekeeping resources that will be required for existing and future UN peacekeeping operations.
Discussions also covered the training and equipping of peacekeepers to properly prepare them for the increasingly complex task of peacekeeping.
Brigadier General Tikoitoga and Ambassador Thomson also held meetings with Director Antonella Caruso of the UN Department of Political Affairs to discuss conditions in the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), for which the RFMF provides the Guard Unit.
Discussions addressed the forthcoming rotations of personnel, visa requirements and welfare of Fiji's personnel at UNAMI.
As part of the meetings, the RFMF Commander also met with other sections of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, along with Ambassadors and officials at the United Nations.
Brigadier General Tikoitoga left New York yesterday for a tour of Fiji's UN peacekeeping operations in UNAMI, UNDOF, MFO (Sinai) and UNMISS (South Sudan).
Sloppy Australian soldiers shoot dead of two Afghan children and ADF apologises for "mistake".
Know your target before you shoot. Look at what you are shooting at before you take your finger off the trigger guard and press the trigger. Basic soldiering skills.
Australian troops 'kill two Afghan children'
Date March 2, 2013
Australian soldiers in southern Afghanistan shot dead two children tending cattle, local officials said on Saturday as the international coalition launched an inquiry into the incident.
Civilian casualties caused by NATO-led troops have been one of the most contentious issues in the campaign against Taliban insurgents, fuelling public anger and often triggering criticism from President Hamid Karzai.
The two children, aged seven and eight, were killed on Thursday morning as Australian soldiers fought back after a Taliban attack in southern Uruzgan province, said provincial governor Amir Mohammad Akhundzada.
"The children were killed by Australian troops, it was a mistaken incident, not a deliberate one," Akhundzada told AFP, adding that insurgents had first shot at a helicopter carrying Australian soldiers.
Sloppy Australian Special Force Sergeant shoots and misses his target and instead hits a child in Afghanistan
Very sloppy shooting. An SF sergeant who cannot hit a target at 75 meters (even a moving one) shouldn't be shooting at all.
Very sloppy. Must be the same things they're teaching the PNGDF as well.
Australian soldier shot a child in Afghanistan
Date May 5, 2014
Read later
Rory Callinan and David Wroe
Details of the 2012 shooting have raised questions about the Australian force's Afghan rules of engagement.
Details of the 2012 shooting have raised questions about the Australian force's Afghan rules of engagement. Photo: ADF
An Australian soldier accidentally shot a child when he tried to fire at two unarmed men who had refused to stop moving during a mission in Afghanistan, a Defence Force report has stated.
The details of the 2012 shooting raise questions about the Australian force's Afghan rules of engagement, which have been kept secret to avoid giving any tactical advantage to the Taliban.
The 17-page report, which is heavily censored, exonerates the soldier involved but criticises the civilian casualty tracking process in relation to the incident on May 1 in in the Uruzgan province.
The victim, a 13-year-old boy, survived and was later discharged from hospital, the report says. The report was submitted to the Defence Force in May last year but released only last month.
The boy received compensation through the Australian special operations tactical payment scheme and the provincial government after the investigation was completed.
The report says the shooting occurred near a "blocking point" during a combined Afghan-Australian special operations mission to track down a mid-level Taliban commander.
A special forces sergeant is alleged to have seen two men about 50 metres to 100 metres moving away in a poppy field and called out to them to stop in the local language.
When the men continued to move towards a rock wall, which was described as being of tactical advantage, the sergeant fired a single shot that missed, the report says.
The men moved faster towards the rock wall and the sergeant "engaged" the lead Afghan and saw a third person fall nearby, the report says.
Australian soldiers found the wounded boy when they approached the two men. They provided first aid and a helicopter transfer to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) hospital at Tarin Kowt, the Uruzgan capital.
The retarded, deranged leach Rajend Chaudhry continues with personal attacks on Jyoti Pratibha. His racist followers like Vasiti Ritova making comments like "typical Kaidia", with Rajenwa responding, "well said."
Someone truly said Rajen had developed a hatred for Indos after they kicked his thieving/cheating/ conniving father's arse by rejecting FLP at the elections.
Rajenwa boasts about his Australian education for four years, conveniently forgetting to mention that it was paid for by monies daddy raised in the name of the poor, but siphoned to his own account.
Anyway, what's the use of the education when you can't work.
Daddy is still supporting Rajenwa from the stolen donations. Rajenwa is over 50, but still like a baby who needs daddy's financial support because he is unemployable, and can't work for a living.
He can only sit on his arse, stuff his face, get fat, and defame people from the safety of Sydney, the coward.
He is asking if Jyoti is traumatised by his father's defacto relationship.
Given Rajenwa's physchotic behaviour, one wonders if he was traumatised by his daddy's decades long extramarital affair with skirt journalist Asha Lakhan, who is still daddy's rakhel (kept woman) under the guise of FLP media liaison, drawing a salary from FLP coffers.
What a corrupt and immoral bunch, the Chaudhry clan.
Apologies to the blogger who posted the comment regarding Basundra Kumar; it has been accidentally deleted. This is an interesting issue so kerekere .... repost to enlighten readers unaware of the controversy. Vinaka - C4.5 Editor.
Who cares about Fiji peacekeeping abroad.
Same old self-praise and macho talk but at the same time very smart to surrender weapons and selves to Al Nusra!
FIJI MILITARY BIG COWARDS!!!
@Anon 10:35...It has been 27 years,living under the Coup.Our judiciary system failed us,and Army and Police,need to be taught,the difference in their responsibility.For 27 years of being corrupt,is too long,and until we see people involved in the Coup are in Prison,we will see change in attitude.
After the Golan Heights incident Fiji has had new missions offered to the RFMF as well as the appointment of senior RFMF officers to head UN field missions.
That event in the Golan showed two things from the military standpoint.
The discipline of the Fijian soldiers in following General Singha's commands to submit to Al Nusra and the discipline of the RFMF command in Suva not to interfere with that decision or challenge it after the troops were taken into custody by Al Nusra is what battlefield commanders want.
Troops must follow orders in the field even if it appears at the tactical level that you are putting yourself at risk in following those orders. Those orders are given by the Command because there are strategic reasons for giving them.
A soldier does not ask why, his is to do and die.
That is what the 44 did.
They were ordered to submit to al Nusra by their Commander and they did so, without reservation and unflinchingly.
General Singha's decision was premised on a number of factors not the least of which was (i) that the hostages taking in that area of UNDOF personnel had never resulted in casualties (Filipino troops were taken hostage in 2013 and freed after talks with the UNDOF command) (ii) that the Liason officers with the Militant Groups were feeding information to the UN Command which showed that their intent was not to harm the Fijian troops but to take them to safe positions whilst they engaged in that area around the Fiji positions as well as the Filipino positions.
What has since happened after that incident is the promotion of Fijian officers within the UN Command structure and the deployment of more Fijian troops to UN missions.
That is a positive.
That is also an endorsement of the discipline and professionalism of the troops who followed Command at great risk to themselves.
How the UN Military command views Fiji's performance can now be seen in the promotion of Fijian troops and new deployment to new missions post Golan. That speaks for itself as an endorsement no amount of propaganda can vilify.
True they surrendered, but they did so under Orders from their Commander. They did so following the chain of command. knowing the risk full well of doing so.
That's a soldier, and its why Fijian troops are held highly as soldiers and why the RFMF has that reputation.
The soldiers are well trained and most importantly disciplined and follow commands.
Aussie RAR Special Forces massacre civilians in Afghanistan.
Simple indiscipline. Even the IC of the Unit is being Court martialled for failing to follow general orders.
That means they had directives from their Command on what they are supposed to be doing and they just ignored it.
Sloppy and Undisciplined
Australian soldiers charged over civilian killings in Afghanistan
By James Cogan
1 October 2010
Three special forces’ commandos were charged this week by the Australian Director of Military Prosecutions (DMP) over the killing of five Afghan children on February 12, 2009, in the village of Sur Murghab, in Afghanistan’s southern province of Uruzgan.
One soldier has been charged with manslaughter or, alternatively, dangerous conduct. Another, believed to be the commander at the scene, has been charged with “failing to comply with a lawful general order”. The charges against the third man, believed to be a higher ranking officer, have not been revealed as he is travelling overseas. At the time of the incident, all were members of the Sydney-based 1st Commando Regiment, which is made up of both regular and reserve soldiers. The three men are still serving, one in the regular Army and two as reservists.
Aussie SF murder another 5 children in Afghanistan.
Again indiscipline and poor soldier skills. They are supposed to have verifiable Intelligence before they plan and execute an operations like that.
So these guys go and attack without coordinating with the local Afghan Forces (because they don't trust the Afghan Forces) and then the information they have based that attack on is dodgy and the sloppy work means they end up murdering 5 innocent children.
And these are supposedly Australian Special Forces.
Australian troops kill 5 Afghan children
Date February 14, 2009
Brendan Nicholson
AUSTRALIAN special forces soldiers have killed five children in an attack on a compound in Afghanistan.
The tragedy has triggered a strong warning from the Afghan Government that civilian deaths are playing into the hands of the Taliban.
Afghan ambassador Amanullah Jayhoon said his Government was very concerned that the Australians had not co-ordinated the operation with Afghan security forces.
The ambassador said 1000 civilians were killed by Coalition forces last year and such killings were eroding support for the Afghan Government.
Another Aussie Special Forces massacre of civilians in Afghanistan.
Again indiscipline.
Just trigger happy gung ho so called "Special Forces".
Poor fire discipline.
Military in Afghan cover-up
Date May 11, 2009
Nick McKenzie and Ash Sweeting
Lawmaker Abdul Khaliq with his injured son, Mohammed Yousaf, 9, at the Kandahar Hospital in southern Afghanistan in July 2006. The attack also killed his brother-in-law, blinded his wife and wounded his daughter.
Lawmaker Abdul Khaliq with his injured son, Mohammed Yousaf, 9, at the Kandahar Hospital in southern Afghanistan in July 2006. The attack also killed his brother-in-law, blinded his wife and wounded his daughter. Photo: ALLAUDDIN KHAN
Australian military personnel were involved in a cover-up of an investigation into the alleged role of special forces soldiers in the killing and maiming of Afghan civilians.
Information held by the Department of Defence contradicts the claims of Defence Force chief Angus Houston that Australian SAS soldiers had nothing to do with the 2006 incident that left an Afghan man dead, a woman blinded and her daughter badly injured.
Air Chief Marshal Houston told a parliamentary hearing in early 2007 that a quick assessment investigation had found no substance to the allegations Australian special forces were involved in the shooting near Tarin Kowt in southern Afghanistan in early July 2006.
But The Age has uncovered information gathered by military officials in Afghanistan that revealed grounds to implicate Australian forces in the shooting. It is believed some of the information was uncovered in the quick assessment ordered by the Australian Defence Force.
A Defence source said there was pressure on Defence personnel in Afghanistan to cover up the shooting.
Information about Australian involvement in the incident is believed to have been stored on ADF computers in Afghanistan. It is almost certain this information did not make its way to Air Chief Marshal Houston before he was questioned by the Senate Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.
Afghan parliamentarian Haji Abdul Khaliq, whose relatives were the victims of the attack, told The Age he was convinced Australian soldiers were responsible.
Mr Khaliq said the attack on his relatives' car had killed his brother-in-law Abdul Baqi, blinded his wife and badly injured his daughter, who later had a leg amputated. His son, a niece and nephew were injured.
"Australian forces attacked my family … they started shooting them," Mr Khaliq said.
"We asked the governor and police chief who made the investigation. They said that they were Australians (who had fired at the car). They did not give any sign to stop. And my car's windows were not dark. Inside the car was visible."
None of the Australian soldiers helped the injured. "They didn't even give them a bottle of water and they didn't even take them to hospital."
Thanks to the Fiji First Govt, Fiji has been listed as the 5th happiest place on earth,now that is another achievement by the PM.
Fiji wasnt even on the happy list when SDL and other Govt were in the drivers seat.
That is another legacy by the Govt of the day, so stay tuned, it is only January,more to come.
Cheers!!!
Thanks to the Fiji First Govt, Fiji has been listed as the 5th happiest place on earth,now that is another achievement by the PM.
Fiji wasnt even on the happy list when SDL and other Govt were in the drivers seat.
That is another legacy by the Govt of the day, so stay tuned, it is only January,more to come.
Cheers!!!
Aussie SF murder two children tending cattle in Afghanistan
From the Newspaper
Published Mar 03, 2013 03:49am
KANDAHAR, March 2: Australian soldiers in southern Afghanistan shot dead two children tending cattle, officials said on Saturday, in an incident likely to escalate tensions over the conduct of international troops.
Civilian casualties caused by Nato-led forces have been one of the most contentious issues in the campaign against Taliban militants, often triggering widespread public anger and harsh criticism from President Hamid Karzai.
Aussie SF murder more civilians and children in Afghanistan
Poor tactical skills. To get "one suspected insurgent" these so called Special Forces kill the whole village.
"Suspected insurgent" simply means he wasn't armed and probably wasn't even shooting at them.
Afghanistan: Australian troops kill children, again
Saturday, February 21, 2009 - 11:00
By Tony Iltis
Five children were shot dead by Australian troops on February 12, near the village of Sarmorghab in Oruzgan province.
A February 13 defence department statement admitted the children, and an undisclosed number of other civilians, were killed, along with a "suspected insurgent".
The department promised an investigation while asserting that the Australian troops, part of the US-led force that invaded Afghanistan in 2001, were acting in "accordance with their rules of engagement".
The US-backed Afghan authorities condemned the killings. Provincial governor Assadullah Hamdam noted, "this kind of killing actually brings negative effects on the thoughts of residents in Oruzgan".
On January 4, Australian troops in the Chora district of Oruzgan also killed 12 civilians — eight women, two men and two children.
They must be joking....seriously deluded.
They've done enough with teaching the PNGDF and Mobile Force tactics of burning down villages and shooting dead civilians and generally being a menace.
And now they imagine Fiji wants to sign up to that too.
Australia-Fiji relations: Bishop's game-changer
Lowy Institute
Monday, 17 February 2014
"The decision on military cooperation has mutual benefits. It gives the influential (and ruling) Fiji military what it most craves: the opportunity to engage with a first-class military. This will help it upgrade the skills which have suffered since the 2006 coup so it can continue meeting the expectations of UN peacekeeping operations"
C4.5 please delete person spamming your site with Aust military cit-paste items. The person is clearly a nutcase. he is impeding and blocking genuine discussions. perhaps it's a deliberate strategy to undermine discussions.
If the reports that Aust Special Forces were killing children and unarmed civillians in a village then this borders on Acts of War that contravenes the Geneva Convention.
To annihilate a whole village in order to arrest a 'suspected insurgent' is uncalled for and is a cowardly act.
No wonder Muslims are moving in droves to join the ISIS after evaluating these points to consider plus after reading other media articles related to this I can predict here that in 5-6yrs time Australia will be an unsafe place to be.
Those Australians who have left to join ISIS will be returning in 5-6 yrs time,maybe more or less and they will in turn train other Muslims in Aust before they start a civil war.
Aust is a doomed Country in 10yrs time,it will be war torn; Islamic Terrorists against everyone else in Aust.
Aust Govt already knows that it is a possibility and has now engaged in Military Training with Samoa, Tonga and PNG and are also very keen to rope in Fiji Soldiers to assist them.
They have vetoed against the UN Security Council Resolution to deploy Fiji Soldiers in the UN so this will be interesting,I predict an incease in Aust Aid coming our way in the near future which I will term ' vakamalumu waka ni kau' before their real intentions are placed on the table.
Two Strongmen for FFP..gone with the wind, very soon the rest will follow..!! moce Sundip and Vaniqi!!
4.06pm
Tui Viti
Sa yawa!!
Fiji has always been a paradise with beautiful friendly people - both itaukei, the indo-Fijians and the rest of the people. ALWAYS, even before you were born!!
It has nothing to do with FRANK AS HE WAS THE ONE THAT TARNISHED FIJI'S REPUTATION INTERNATIONALLY...HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN??? He and his thugs have nothing to do with our current rating.
Please do grow up!! Stop lying!!
@ 6.50pm
So lame for you to really believe that Australia, the world's 6th largest country by area mass, will be doomed in 10 years time! Compare Australia to Fiji for a sec will you and after you've learnt a bit about Australia, take a serious look at where Fiji First is going to lead our country in 10 years time especially with self-serving tyrannical and treasonous leaders directing the ship. With these 2 desperate unintelligent wannabe despots leading Fiji today, we really do wonder?
And one more thing, what's your beef concerning Australia? Sa rauta mada with all the postings on PNG and Afghan nonsense. We are not interested!
"Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy comprising six states and several territories. The population of 23.6 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated in the eastern states and on the coast.
Australia is a developed country and one of the wealthiest in the world, with the world's 12th-largest economy. In 2012 Australia had the world's fifth-highest per capita income. Australia's military expenditure is the world's 13th-largest. With the second-highest human development index globally, Australia ranks highly in many international comparisons of national performance, such as quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, and the protection of civil liberties and political rights. Australia is a member of the United Nations, G20, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Trade Organization, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and the Pacific Islands Forum."
@ 4.42pm
Australia will never suck up to Fiji - just get that! Australia would more likely be very concerned with the new foreign relations Fiji First is cosying itself up to.
Australia is our big brother in the Pacific Island Nations taking care of our welfare so to speak.
Your thinking is kind of warped - overnight you're thinking Fiji is kingpin and doesnt need to be buddies with NZ and Australia...LIUMURI FIJI FIRST!!! And that Fiji is bigtime nation now or something... our military are being looked upon as heroes with the UN Peacekeeping!!
Hahahahaha now that's absolutely crazy!
@ 3.36pm
SHAME ON FIJI SOLDIERS!!
"WE DONT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS" SAYS PHILIPPINES MILITARY CHIEF OF STAFF
In Manila, Philippines, military chief of staff Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang said the 40 Filipino peacekeepers who escaped had not accepted a rebel demand that they give up their firearms and surrender because that would have put the troops in grave danger.
Catapang said the rebel demands for the Fijians' release showed their true nature.
"We don't negotiate with terrorists," he said. "We have machine guns and crew-served weapons so if we give them our weapons, this will help create an international problem."
TUI VITI - Just shows in his statement, this Filipino Chief of Staff commands a rich inheritance of army intelligence and he speaks with certainty! Whereas the action our soldiers chose to take upon the foolish command that came from Fiji's HQ to surrender all arms etc was based upon pure UNDECISIVENESS AND COWARDICE !!!
And then of course, FF had no option but to seek the assistance of the world's most powerful terrorist supporters who are known to financially fund the release of western hostages!!
And we feel, it hasnt just stopped there with Qatar.......but of course that's another story!!
@ 5.33pm
You said it. If its hard to see what this idiot is doing to Coup 4.5, then we are all dumb!
Shoot him down!
2000 coup conspirator Simione Kaitani, dole bludging in Australia, has surfaced on Rajen Chaudhry's facebook. Like Rajen, Kaitanai is spewing anti-muslim venom.
Fiji has already returned to democracy, so why is Kaitani still in Australia, at Australian tax-payers' expense?
Is Australia providing a racist like Kaitani a safe haven to engage in anti-Bainimarama Govt activities to destabilise the country, as he did in 2000?
Is Australia a safe-haven to engage in anti-muslim propaganda by the discredited 2000 coup conspirator.
Why is Kaitani being allowed in AUSTRALIA on false claims of political refugee status, while the real refugees are not allowed in?
Whys is Australia allowing itself to be used by opportunists like kaitanai, who bludge off taxpayers, without making any positive contribution to Australia?
There are other 2000 coup seditionists hiding in Australia and plotting against the elected Bainimarama Government from there.
This situation brings Julia Bishop's credibility into question. Is she sleeping on the job, or is she playing a double game with the Bainimarama Government?
Is the Abbot Government genuine about restoring ties with the elected government or not?
Is the Fiji immigration minister sleeping in the job? Why not expressed concern with the Australian High commission about anti-muslim and racist activities to create communal discord?
Now you know why the UN, and the US and its allies looked the other way during our elections. They needed to be able to declare Fiji "democratic" in order to allow the RFMF an expanded role in their PKOs. "The RFMF is the main obstacle to political progress in Fiji anyway, so let's go ahead and use it as cannon fodder", goes their reasoning.
Tui Viti giving us strategic foreign policy advice again, eh?
Fyi, Tui Viti, the Coalition Forces are fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, not ISIS.
If Oz is doomed in 10 years' time, then Fiji s doomed in 10 DAY's time, since we've already got Muslim taliban running our country.
Fyi, again, Oz couldn't have vetoed a UNSCR as you claim, because Oz doesn't have veto power. To state that it does shows appalling ignorance.
It's obvious now that the RFMF is trying to salvage what little is left of its reputation domestically by trying to forcefeed us an alternate version of reality for what happened in the Golan Heights. As if that weren't enough, it's simultaneously embarked on a negative PR campaign against the Australian military in order to try to make itself look more professional by comparison. The RFMF will fail, though, because we already know full well its true character, or lack thereof.
"After the Golan Heights incident, Fiji has had new missions offered to the RFMF." This is true, but not because anyone was impressed by the RFMF's skills in surrendering. The real reasons are two-fold: the other nations providing peacekeeping troops have backed out, and Fiji's recent election now provides the political cover the UN and the Coalition Forces needed in order to allow the RFMF new missions.
"Senior RFMF officers have been appointed to head UN field missions." Obviously, when your peacekeeping troops are Fijian, you will appoint a Fijian to lead them.
"The discipline of the Fijian soldiers in following General Singha's commands to submit to Al Nusra and the discipline of the RFMF command in Suva not to interfere with that decision or challenge it after the troops were taken into custody by Al Nusra is what battlefield commanders want." ROFLMAO. Let's re-state that. The "discipline" of the RFMF in surrendering its position, weapons, and personnel to Al Nusra terrorists without firing a shot. And the "discipline" of the RFMF command (who, exactly?) not to challenge an ignominious order that wasn't Singha's to give. The ultimate order had to come from Suva, but "the Command" is too embarrassed by the incident to say who gave it. It would rather pin it on Singha.
"Troops must follow orders in the field even if it appears at the tactical level that you are putting yourself at risk in following those orders." Of course, but they must be LAWFUL orders. That is what the RFMF always forgets to note, for obvious reasons. The notion that the UN Commander could order peacekeeping contingents to surrender in the field was not included in the UNDOF Terms of Reference
"Those orders are given by the Command because there are strategic reasons for giving them." The "strategic reasons" in this case were that "the Command" in Suva had an election to win/steal and couldn't risk having that jeopardised by the massacre of the RFMF in the Golan Heights.
"The RFMF were ordered by their Commander to surrender to Al Nusra, and they did so without reservation and unflinchingly." Sounds positively heroic, doesn't it? It reminds me of the RFMF citation for Bainimarama that The Heckler once shared with us:
"Commodore Bainimarama heroically abandoned his command and made an extraordinarily rapid retrograde movement through a cassava patch below the camp until he reached safety, never once paying heed to the steaming shit trickling down his leg. His conspicuous cowardice was in the highest traditions of the New RFMF and merits his immediate promotion to Rear Admiral."
The once-proud RFMF reputation has been heavily tarnished by the actions of Rabuka and, especially, Bainimarama. The RFMF is now regarded internationally as a collection of bullies and brigands who look like strong soldiers but whose only real skills are choir recitals and intimidating the unarmed and passive citizenry of Suva. The RFMF's surrender in the Golan Heights only confirmed the misgivings of foreign governments regarding its readiness. Together with its unprofessionalism at home, its disgraceful surrender in the Golan Heights has now given the RFMF the reputation as the rotten apples at the bottom of the barrel. Far from being "an endorsement of the discipline and professionalism" of the troops, the UN's resort to the RFMF simply shows that since the other governments contributing peacekeepers have now pulled out, the UN has little choice but to scrape the bottom of the barrel.
C4.5 has been hijacked by a military nutcase!
Why shouldn't Fijians be happy? Our long national constipation is over!
In 2000, it was Frank Bainimarama having a shit hæmorrhage as he ran pellmell through the cassava. Now, by the end of 2014, it was all of Fiji spewing shit through the Vili Rakoro!
And it won't stop there. Buy your SODELPA-brand toilet paper now, boys, because we're going to keep shitting until we run out of Fiji First traitors.
And what a relief that will be!
Oh my God, don't you rodents hate the fact that Fijians have been found to be the happiest people in the world. How dare they! They are meant to be under the boot of the oppressor Bainimarama and pining for Ro Teimumu, who according to your warped view of the world, would be prime minister if she wasn't robbed of victory at the election. Yet instead of feeling downtrodden, Fijians are having a better time than anyone else on the planet. What does the Gallup Poll tell us? That you are the only unhappy people in Fiji. Rejected, irrelevant and reduced to spewing venom in the far reaches of cyberspace while everyone else happily gets on with their lives. Kinda says it all, doesn't it? It's over so wake up to yourselves, losers.
Analyst finds weakened stance on Fiji troop deployment with UN
Posted at 07:55 on 16 July, 2012 UTC
A New Zealand-based thinktank says New Zealand and Australia have quietly weakened their stance on Fijian troops’ deployment as United Nations peacekeepers.
The firm 36th Parallel Assessments says UN figures show the number of Fiji troops deployed to UN missions has increased by 144 per cent since 2006, with Fiji now making up three quarters of the UN’s contingent in Iraq.
An analyst with the firm, Selwyn Manning, says New Zealand’s staunch view against troop contributions by the military-led regime immediately after the coup has since held no sway with a pragmatic UN.
“
“Certainly in the last four years there’s been what we would say, as a observer, a policy-fade situation going on where the government itself is not really making any comment relating to Fiji’s contributions.”
Selwyn Manning says the rapid increase in Fijian peacekeeper numbers over the past two years runs parallel with a thaw in relations between the United States and Fiji.
News Content © Radio New Zealand International
PO Box 123, Wellington, New Zealand
@Anonymous 7:10 AM
If more people now in Fiji are beating up their wives more than ever before - THEN ITS NOT A HAPPY PLACE
If more young people are committing suicide now in Fiji more than ever before - THEN ITS NOT A HAPPY PLACE
If more children are now being sexually assaulted IN FIJI more than ever before - THEN ITS NOT A HAPPY PLACE.
If there has been an increase in poverty from 35% to 60% in the last 8 years in Fiji - THEN ITS NOT A HAPPY PLACE
DEFINITELY BAINIMARAMA HAS BEEN BAD NEWS FOR FIJI.
According to Fiji Doctors, last year (2014) alone more than 400 babies died of malnutrition in Fiji.
ALL THE THINGS I'VE MENTIONED ABOVE ARE ALL THERE IN FIJI'S BUREAU OF STATISTICS.
THEY ARE ALL TRUE.
I don't know what the suicide rates are in other countries.
I don't know what the rates of CHILD MOLESTATION are in other countries.
What I do know is that things are WORSE NOW UNDER BAINIMARAMA more than under any other government in Fiji.
The Gallup Poll says what it says. May be the rest of the world are more farked up than Fiji. I doubt it.
OR MAY BE THE PEOPLE IN GALLUP POLL ARE JUST A BUNCH OF IRRESPONSIBLE FUCKWITS, unable to see the woods for the trees.
IF AN INCREASING RATE OF SUICIDE IS A SIGN OF HAPPINESS then God help us ALL.
The old military officers who have left the RFMF in a grumble post 2006 and have been part of the propoganda coming out of Canberra designed to denigrade the RFMF as part of the broader strategy of developing that narrative of an unstable SID which needs Canberra are finding that their worst intentions have failed to materialise.
When they were here the RFMF lost its missions because of their treachery and backstabbing which undermined the stability of the RFMF and weakened its command and control mechanisms to the extent that there were mutinies and killings.
Some of those incompetent officers have blood on their hands such as one who was in charge of the Military Police on 2nd November 2014 and because of his dereliction of duty failed to secure the camp which led to the Meridians running riot and causing that carnage.
And they just cannot accept that the RFMF is able to move on without them and prosper with new missions and new responsibilities.
That Fiji is now stabalising and moving forward is very difficult for them to accept, so they play into Canberra's geostrategic narrative for the region and are putty in the hand of Canberra propogandists spreading those black stories about the RFMF which pale into insignificance when stood up against the obvious atrocities Canberra's own have and been and are committing.
That incompetent officer was at the swimming pool on 2nd November 2014 when the mutiny happened.
It was his job to keep the camp secured at all times and it was also his job to work with Military Intelligence in that regard.
He is now one of the most ardent critics of the RFMF.
When he was here his only notable achievement was losing control of the camp to the Meridians on 2nd November 2000.
Losing control of the camp to the Meridians was the height of incompetence and unprofessionalism
It led to all those deaths.
The Meridians were supposed to be in the custody of men who were under his command and their movements in and around the Camp were his responsibility.
Instead they allowed the Meridians to attend a workshop and allowed others to go and clean weapons near the Armoury unsupervised.
And the officer in charge did not know because he had no proper Reports (even sit reps) on their movements.
His incompetence led to the loss of the camp and the ensuing carnage.
@Anonymous 8:02 & 8:08
I am not Army or ex-army but this is just my observation :
I don't think that an Army (PEACEKEEPING FORCE) that surrenders to Terrorists is a good strategy.
AND YET WE NOW KNOW THAT THIS WAS WAS THE COMMAND GIVEN BY THEIR BOSSES IN FIJI.
Surrendering was also the STRATEGY TAKEN BY THE MAN IN COMMAND OF THE TROOPS ON THE GROUND ie Rabuka.
Being a man that believes that there is a God, I believe that THE FIJIAN ARMY CAPTURED BY al Noushra were only released by the Grace of God. The same God that Bainimarama disrespects.
There is increasing use of Fijian soldiers - NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE EFFECTIVE against terrorists BUT THEY ARE THERE ONLY because more and more countries are refusing to work under UN conditions.
And the UN need numbers.
Fijians need the money, so they join the army and become cannon fodder.
I think Fijians SHOULD THINK MORE ABOUT GETTING A GOOD EDUCATION rather than dropping out of school and join a farked up army.
@Kua ni Rere
Because you don't have a military background you will not know that there is a system in the Military which is called the "Chain of Command".
It is why there are ranks in the Military. Those ranks show the chain of command. You have a superior rank to you and then the one above you has a superior rank to him all the way to the top of the Military organisation.
What that means is that a plan is formulated from the top and then they prepare Orders at the top and then its disseminated downwards through that Chain of command and is implemented accordingly.
In the case of the Golan the Chain of Command is that of the UNDOF, not the Fiji Army. That is why the Commander of UNDOF is appointed, as it is his job to COMMAND UNDOF. He has the final say in the field and all troop contributing countries who sign upto UNDOF sign upto that.
What that means is that it is HIS ORDER which is followed in the field. And that is what the Fijian soldiers did. They followed his orders which came down the Chain of Command.
The RFMF leadership here in Fiji cannot interfere with that Command structure and should not interfere with it because it will compromise the Military effectiveness of the UNDOF mission. That is why the RFMF Command did not interfere with that decision or challenge it.
Instead what the RFMF did was press other channels to find alternative ways to getting the 44 released.
The Command of UNDOF had their strategic reasons for ordering that surrender. That information was not within the knowledge of the RFMF or any external parties at that time which is why you do not second guess your Commander. You trust him to be giving the correct Orders based on solid information.
The information he had was solid and from the Liason Officers within the al Nusra group. All those groups have a contact person who is usually an Intelligence Officer in their group who has communication with the UN mission. That is the way things work.
But what the Filipino's did in disobeying the command and initiating contact effectively put in to disarray all the Intelligence networks that were in place and which had been built up carefully over the months with those groups. That is why Gen Singha was upset because it completely derailed his line of contact with al Nusra and comprised the lives of the Fijian boys.
It effectively escalated the situation instead of deescalating it.
Those same lines of contacts had led to the release of 3 Filipino's captured in 2013 in the Golan so it wasn't a new type of scenario.
@Kua Ni Rere 7:58 AM
Your logic is flawed.
You overlook that the average Fijian is selfish and could not care whatsoever about others. Their sole interest in life is themselves, their church and eating the next meal.
The fact that someone has committed suicide, raped someone, been raped or died of malnutrition is only of concern to those it has affected directly.
You also need to look at the situation with your blinkers removed and compare rate of change here with change elsewhere.
As so often you talk rubbish, not based on logic but a simple desire to blame someone you despise.
Grow up.
@Anonymous 8:44
When you use the word "Fijian" you mean Fijian + Indians etc or only a certain race.
I don't think ALL people in Fiji are selfish.
THAT WOULD BE ILLOGICAL.
And the statistics I quoted ALL RACES in Fiji.
I say YOU ARE ILLOGICAL.
TYPICAL FFP DICKHEAD!
Suicide stats shocking
Phoebe Amato-Pace
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
THE growing trend of suicide cases must be addressed, says Commissioner of Police, Brigadier General Ioane Naivalurua.
Shocking statistics have been released confirming that suicide and attempted suicide cases are still a significant issue facing the police force.
The period between January and August of 2013 saw 80 cases of suicide and 83 cases of attempted suicide.
While this is slightly lower than the same period last year, which witnessed 81 successful and 91 attempted suicides, it is still a cause for concern.
In particular, the age, 16 years and below has seen a rise in cases, with seven cases of suicide and 14 cases of attempted suicide in 2013 in comparison to last year's statistics of six and eight cases respectively.
There has been a significant role reversal with regard to male and female suicide statistics.
In the period from January to August 2012 there were 51 female cases and 30 male cases. In 2013, however, there has been 18 female cases and a shocking 62 male cases.
On the other hand, attempted suicide continues to see higher statistics for females, with 48 cases this year in comparison to 35 male cases.
The region that has seen the largest number of both suicide and attempted suicide continues to be the Western Division.
It is understandable why this issue has become a cause for concern and drastic measures will be needed to prevent further escalation of the problem.
@Kua Ni Rere 9:48 AM
Boy, do you ever read what you write?
@Anonymous 8:43
I think you have your wires are crossed, from what I read, Rabuka contacted Delainabua and they told him to surrender.
Tikoitoga himself said "Sometimes you have to BE A PUSSY."
What????
ESPECIALLY WHEN a terrorist points the gun at you.
So Fijian soldiers are taught to be PUSSIES in front of terrorists.
I AM AMAZED THESE SOLDIERS LIVES WERE SPARED especially after Ive heard what al noushra does to its own people.
I AM ALSO AMAZED THAT THEY TEACH YOU TO SURRENDER TO TERRORISTS.
HOW FARKED UP IS THAT?
SO IF YOUR "Chain of Command" says " SURRENDER TO TERRORISTS", then you just surrender?????
I definitely don't want arseholes like that looking after my country.
Kua ni Rere is from Navosa and is a drug addict.His mind is warped as a result of abuse of Marijuana. I feel sorry for his wife.
Kua ni Rere is from Navosa and is a drug addict.His mind is warped as a result of abuse of Marijuana. I feel sorry for his wife.
I'm surprised anyone print Naivalurua's statement about increasing suicides. After all, this regime doesn't normally allow negative news to come to light. It doesn't want anyone to be unhappy.
In last year's WIN/Gallup Happiness Poll, Fiji wasn't even in the top ten countries surveyed. That's because Fijians were left out of the poll.
This year, North Koreans were left out of the poll. Had North Koreans been included, then I'm certain North Korea would have supplanted Fiji as the happiest place on earth ...
... and mostly for the same reasons.
It's fun to watch the cut-and-paste apologist for the RFMF's surrender now squirm in response to Kua Ni Rere and the poster at 11:31 PM.
He still won't tell us who in "the Command" made the decision for the RFMF to surrender. Sure, we all know Lt. Gen. Singha gave the order within the UNDOF, but when the call came in to Suva, who in the highest authority said, okay, let's agree to surrender? After all, especially for an order that isn't even included in the troops' Terms of Reference, the Fijian troop's chain of command doesn't end at UNDOF headquarters but runs all the way to Suva.
Since this was such a great act of "professionalism and discipline", according to the RFMF apologist, then he shouldn't be bashful in telling us who specifically in the RFMF upheld Singha's order.
@Kua ni Rere
You are surprised that al Nusra let the 44 go because you do not understand the tactical and strategic reasons for why al Nusra undertook that action in the first place.
They wanted those two positions cleared because they wanted to undertake operations close to those positions and did not want the "collateral damage" on the UN to blow back on them as propoganda.
They succeeded in clearing the Fijian position but then it went wrong when the Filipino's refused to clear their positions and instead initiated that confrontation.
Al Nusra did not plan to end up in a battle with the UNDOF and have a propaganda headache in the international media and be portrayed as kidnapping UN Observers.
That is the last thing they want because it adds no value to their organisation and is more likely then not to lose them potential recruits who come to them because they are fighting a war against oppression and not oppressors themselves. That's the al Nusra party line.
The media then went to town in the two weeks that the 44 were being held whilst the al Nusra regional command frantically looked for a solution to the mess that had been created because of the unplanned for confrontation with the Filipino's which led to the escalation of the situation and the creation of a new front for them.
For them the outcome of the release of the 44 has been a good outcome. Beheading UNDOF Observers was the last thing they wanted to do, they never even planned for it in their planning.
Al Nusra are not a bunch of idiot fanatics which the western media like to portray.
They are a quality military organisation. They wouldn't have managed to last so long in that Operational theatre were they a bunch of idiots.
@11.11am
That decision to surrender is not the decision of the RFMF.
That is the decision of the Commander of UNDOF based on the information he has and his assessment of the situation.
Second guessing the Commander of UNDOF from Suva is what you are suggesting should have happened. That sort of thing only happens in an undisciplined force where the Chain of Command is so porous any third party external element can subvert lawful commands. You sound like one of those desk officers who eroded the Force capabilities of the RFMF in the last decade with their incompetence and caused the loss of UN missions such as UNIFIL.
Now that the RFMF is regaining that competence, youse can't accept it.
The undisciplined officers who like to second guess commands either engaged in mutinies or attempted mutinies and have all left the military under dubious circumstances. The only thing they achieved in their time with the RFMF was to erode force moral, erode force structures, undermine operational capabilities and politicise the RFMF.
Net result they all sat at their desks in Suva politicking to get up the ladder whilst the RFMF lost its UNIFIL missions.
Starting in 2002 the RFMF lost UNIFIL and then it just eroded and eroded.
Cleaning the RFMF up of these incompetent treacherous officers was the best thing Bainimarama did and the results are now showing as the RFMF starts to regain what it has lost over the years as its officers became potbellied pen pushers instead of competent field men.
So, the RFMF not only performs propaganda on behalf of the regime, but it now also propagandises on behalf of Al Nusra. It can even tell us authoritatively now what was the strategic intent of Al Nusra's commander!
Al Nusra is a "quality military organisation"? I guess when you're ill-disciplined choir boys from the RFMF, almost any ragtag organisation looks like a quality military organisation.
A "bunch of idiots" can last in that operational theatre. The RFMF has conclusively proven that. They merely need to be ready to surrender on demand, like the RFMF.
So now it's the Filipinos who initiated the confrontation? I would have thought it was Al Nusra who initiated it by attacking the Filipino position. This phony "explanation" sounds a lot like the same one Josef Goebbels gave for the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland.
Characterising the RFMF as an undisciplined, rogue, thuggish, unprofessional armed militia is the geopolitical narrative that Canberra plays within its Arc of Instability i.e the South Pacific
It suits Canberra's geopolitical agenda because it keeps these States weak and so makes them dependant on Canberra.
That is why the RFMF is the target of this vilification campaign of Canberra through the ex Military Officers of the RFMF
If Canberra succeeds in portraying the RFMF as unreliable, thuggish and unprofessional then that weakens the Fijian State and Fijian sovereignty because it simply means that all plans for expanding the economy and growth and socio economic development are hung on that peg of instability which plays right into that Arc of Instability narrative.
These ex RFMF officers who have sold out to Canberra are merely playing to that tune.
When they were in charge here and playing that tune the only thing Fiji was known for was instability and bloodshed and an over bloated military which did nothing because it had no missions because those officers through their incompetence caused the loss of those missions.
@11.42am
The Filipino's have withdrawn from the Golan, they say its now too dangerous for them.
Obviously their profile is now a lot larger then it was prior to that confrontation which they escalated by disobeying lawful commands.
Incidentally one of their Filipino Units has to be rescued by an Irish Unit as well and that also put the Irish Unit at risk and then forced the Israeli's to come in and rescue the both of them.
So not only did the Filipino's escalate the situation but they placed other troops at risk.
Fighting is one thing, but doing so after having disobeyed lawful commands and then forcing other Units to come to your recuse and placing then at risk because of your disobeying orders is another thing altogether.
If you go around disobeying orders and then creating situations that put other Units at risk you find out pretty soon that other Units do not wish to work with you because they don't trust you anymore to play to the team plan.
So it becomes risky for you as the Filipino's seem to have now realised.
I can't speak for the officers who left the RFMF, but I'd assume that a major reason for their departure was their unwillingness to join in acts of treason against Fiji. You call them treacherous because they refused to follow Bainimarama. But it was Bainimarama leading the treason and issuing unlawful orders.
Loyalty to Bainimarama meant treachery to Fiji. Their treachery to Bainimarama was out of loyalty to Fiji.
You still refuse to divulge who in Suva decided to uphold Singha's order, which also may have been unlawful.
Perhaps that's because you're a traitor, too.
Both Vili Rakoro and Kua Ni Rere disapperaed from their own debate challenging each other regarding showing proof where Indians were treated badly by previous govt being racist?
When Jan 1st blogger annon. @ 10.34pm, 11.03pm and 11.13pm showed evidence of these, both the ulukau's disappeared from further comments unable to defend their own arguaments against each other.
Everybody was out looking for the RFMF soldiers being held hostage by Al Nusra. By surrendering to the terrorists, the RFMF endangered the Filipinos and everyone else in UNDOF. The weapons the RFMF meekly surrendered to Al Nusra were never returned. They're still being used by Al Nusra and perhaps others to wage terror.
The scramble which happened on the Golan involved the IDF, the Syrian National Army, the Qatari's and the UNDOF QRF team all to rescue the Filipino's who had disobeyed orders
The Irish Rangers were put at risk and had to then be rescued by the IDF.
The Filipino's ran out of ammunition on the Saturday afternoon and their Commanders in Manila had no assets on the Golan to mount a rescue despite having subverted General Singha's commands
And in the end Gen Singha had to liase with the Israeli's and the Syrian National Army and the Qatari's to rescue the very Filipino's who had disobeyed his commands.
The Syrian National Army has to fire its howitzers at the Al Nusra men who were moving to attack the main gate with a recoiless rifle and then they had to fire mortars at the support al Nusra groups who were converging on the camp.
Had that heavy fire support not come in the Filipino's would have been overrun and massacred.
Gen Singha had to tap all the contacts with the groups on the ground to organise the safe passage of the Filipino's.
And for what ?
All it achieved was the emasculation of the networks that the UNDOF has so carefully built up with the groups in that area and brought UNDOF to collapse.
The Filipino withdrawal from the Golan Heights is directly attributable to their understandable loss of confidence in the UNDOF leadership and in the reliability, courage, and judgment of their Fijian counterparts.
The Filipino command in Manila subverted Gen Singha's orders and then weren't in a position to do anything else after that because they had no assets in the Middle East or the Golan to do anything
In the end they had to rely on Gen Singha to coordinate the operations for the rescue of the surrounded Filipino's.
Had the Israeli's and the Syrians and the Qatari's not been there it would have been a massacre of the Filipino's as al Nusra were massing for a full on attack on that position on the Sunday.
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