The tension between Fiji's government and military forces, which had been simmering for more than two years, appeared to escalate in late December 2005. Tension between the government and the military had been simmering throughout the year, with Commodore Bainimarama and other military officers making strongly worded public statements opposing certain government policies, including the early release from prison of persons implicated in the Fiji coup of 2000, and the government's promotion of controversial legislation to establish a Commission with the power to grant amnesty to perpetrators of the coup.
Military chief challenges government to dismiss him
Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, publicly challenged Home Affairs Minister Josefa Vosanibola and his chief executive Lesi Korovavala on 22 December to visit the Queen Elizabeth Barracks and dismiss him.
The commander declared that he would ignore any written dismissal; the minister and the chief executive would have to confront him in person. If the minister refused to follow his advice, he could run the military on his own, he said. Bainimarama also stated his intention to commandeer Korovavala's office, and claimed to have ordered Army engineers to secure it. "I do not care where he will go to. All I know is that I will now be stationed in that office," the Commander declared. The commander also suggested that the government should consider dismissing Vosanibola, and that if the minister failed to take his advice, removing him from office would be his next step.
Emergency meetings and mediation On 28 December, Deputy Police Commissioner Moses Driver and Assistant Police Commissioner (Crime) Kevueli Bulamainaivalu said that Commissioner Andrew Hughes was monitoring the threats made against Korovavala. Anare Jale, meanwhile, told Fiji Village that the police would be asked to intervene if Commodore Bainimarama tried to remove Korovavala from office. That afternoon, Home Affairs Minister Vosanibola told Fiji Village that he had briefed Vice-President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi and Attorney-General Qoriniasi Bale in the morning. The threats were being taken seriously, he said, and "appropriate action" would follow.
Joji Kotobalavu, the chief executive officer in the Prime Minister's Department, who chaired an emergency meeting of officials on the 28th, claimed that Vice-President Madraiwiwi had summoned Bainimarama during the afternoon, but military spokesman Captain Neumi Leweni denied this. Also present at the meeting were Anare Jale, Solicitor-General Nainendra Nand, and the Acting CEO of Home Affairs, Saverio Baleikanacea. Leweni claimed that in seizing the office of the Home Affairs CEO, Bainimarama was merely appropriating an office that had originally been allocated to the military, but which had not hitherto been occupied by them. The whole of the second floor of government buildings was supposed to be allocated to the Army, Leweni said. The military was not concerned about the emergency meeting, Leweni said, as it would deal directly with the persons involved.
Vosanibola was quoted on 29 December by the Fiji Times and Fiji Live that there was no cause for alarm, and that everything was under control. He had taken personal charge of the matter, he said. The commissioning of Judge Advocate Leung for the court martial retrial would be processed "soon", he promised. Fiji Live also reported that Vice-President Madraiwiwi would be meeting Commodore Bainimarama in the first week of January 2006 in an effort to defuse the tension.
In a further development, Bainimarama declared on the last day 2005 that he would no longer recognize Josefa Vosanibola as the minister in charge of the military forces. "The Military now is on its own and is not answerable to anyone", the commander said. In convening the court martial retrial, the military would now act unilaterally, he said. He repeated his challenge to the government to dismiss him.
The commander went on to say that much of the Qarase government's legislation was "racist", and that the government was tailoring its legislation to suit only a very few people, not the country as a whole. "I am the one who is standing for democracy and the rule of law because the Government and its officials only want the laws to be made to suit them", he said.
Captain Leweni criticized Vosanibola on 3 January 2006 for involving the Office of the President in the dispute. "The RFMF will now ask the minister why they are going back to the very office they have disobeyed by not processing the appointment of the judge advocate made by the President", Leweni said.
No more coups Bainimarama assured his senior officers, however, that he was not contemplating a coup, according to a statement from military spokesman Captain Neumi Leweni quoted that day in the Fiji Sun. Rumours of a coup plot had been fabricated by certain government officials overreacting to the commander's comments, in an attempt to discredit the commander and the military, which did not want a coup, Leweni said.
Calls for government to resign In a fresh attack on 3 January 2006, Bainimarama called on the government to resign. The government had no intention, he said, of closing the events of 2000, and was continuing to promote racist legislation. "They have let people out of jail on one excuse or the other. How can they (the Government) sleep at night – do they have a clear conscience?" He went on to call for its resignation. "This government is incompetent," the Fiji Times quoted him as saying. "It's better that they resign so that better people can do the things that is supposed to bring us good."
Bainimarama's criticism of government decisions was not limited to legal issues. On 6 January, he condemned the earmarking of F$90,000 for the planned visit of American evangelist Benny Hinn, saying the money should have been given to the poor.
Arms shipment to police The Fiji Sun reported on 8 January 2006 that the military was monitoring a shipment of arms sent to the Fiji police force the previous week. Police spokesman Samuela Matakibau, Assistant Commissioner of Police Operation, confirmed the previous evening that a shipment had been received, insisting that the arms were merely replacements for old ones.
Military spokesman Captain Neumi Leweni strongly criticized the shipment, and called on the government to reveal its motives for supplying the weapons to the police force. The arms had actually been purchased for Fijian soldiers serving in Iraq, Leweni claimed, before being diverted to the police, and the military wanted an explanation.
The concern of the military was supported by Fiji Labour Party (FLP) parliamentarian Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi, and by Ema Druavesi, General Secretary of the Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei (SVT). Vayeshnoi called for an investigation into what he said was a misuse of funds, involving the diversion of arms bought for the military to the police. Druavesi blamed Home Affairs Minister Josefa Vosanibola for the diversion of the shipment, and questioned the government's motives in arming the police. "Is the government relying on the police to be used in a confrontational between the two security forces? Blood of Fijians is going to flow if there is a confrontation," she declared. She called on the police to return the weapons to the military.
Lieutenant Saula Tuikoro, a former Fiji Intelligence Service agent, told the Fiji Sun on 8 January that the diversion of the shipment was a sinister move on the part of the government to counter the Army. The weapons were more modern and of superior quality to those possessed by the military, Tuikoro said. He saw this as a threat to national security. "(The) government is now equipping the police to take on the army," he claimed.
Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes defended the shipment on 9 January. The Fiji Village news service reported him as saying that the weapons had been purchased from the police budget and were low-power weapons, unsuitable for military use. They would be used only in life-threatening emergencies by officers from the Police Tactical Response Unit, a new mobile police team based in Nasinu, Hughes said.
The issue flared up again in March. On the 15th, Fiji Live quoted Leweni as accusing the police of purchasing F$1.5 million worth of weapons from South Korea. The shipment allegedly included 123 pistols, 30 submachine guns, and assorted warfare equipment. He also charged Commissioner Hughes with complicity in the deal, which he said had been masterminded by the Australian Defence Review Team as part of a package to reduce the size of the military and transfer most of its duties to the police. Hughes was deliberately arming Fijians against Fijians, he said. Commodore Bainimarama went further: the shipment had been intended for the military, he claimed, and had been diverted to the police by the government.
Hughes expressed surprise at the strong language, and said that the military was mistaken. The arms had been purchased as per the government's budget allocation to the police, he claimed, for the purpose of countering "armed criminals" such as terrorists. He was also disappointed that the military had spoken to the media rather than to him directly, he said.
Hughes and Bainimarama met on the 16th and agreed afterwards that the disagreement had been due to a misunderstanding. Hughes accepted some responsibility for having failed to explain the details of the shipment and its purpose sooner. This had been unintentional, he insisted.
Threat to remove government In another apparent escalation of the dispute, the military released a statement on 9 January 2006, to be published in newspapers the following day, threatening to take control of the country if the government failed to "continue the good fight". It was the military that had entrusted the present government with restoring order and rebuilding the nation in 2000, the statement said, but instead it was continuously promoting "racist" policies and programmes to justify its existence to the indigenous community.
The statement came in response to comments made by Acting Foreign Minister Pita Nacuva in a newspaper interview, claiming that the attitude of the military was merely sour grapes. "It is obvious from Nacuva's comments that the Government makes light of the sour relationship between the Government and the army in past years. The Government would be very naïve to underestimate the intention of the military in this instance," the statement tersely said.
Commodore Bainimarama, for his part, declared that if the government's "racist" policies continued, the military would not hesitate take control of the country. "To the government the military says this is no petty issue. You have the choice to make it right for the nation," the Fiji Live news service quoted him as saying. The death of soldiers in 2000 had yet to be avenged, he said, and the policies of the government prevented the "dark days of 2000" from being erased. He said that political decisions smacked of "a bulling government, lacking in character."
On 11 January, Bainimarama denied a report that he had met secretly with Vice-President Madraiwiwi. He told the Fiji Live news service that the report, published earlier in the Fiji Sun, was not correct, and that he was still waiting for a meeting to be scheduled. On the afternoon of the 12th, however, he told the Fiji Village news service that the meeting had in fact taken place, but said he was not in a position to reveal what had been discussed.
Reactions to the crisis
See main article: Reaction to the 2005–06 Fijian political crisis.
Both before and after the crisis was resolved on 16 January with a truce brokered by Acting President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, the crisis generated a great deal of comment, both locally and internationally.